Customers are obviously the only reason your business exists, or will exist, or will continue to exist. I mentioned before in What’s In It for Them to consider things from your customer’s perspective. This is just as critical to consider before starting your business as it is during your business growth.

Don’t start without customers

In preparation for this article, I’ve been trying to think of a single reason it’s “ok” to start a business without a real-life customer ready in waiting for your product or service. So far I can’t think of anything!

We spoke to three possible clients this week which we highly recommended to not use our services because they were light on initial customers. It’s that important to us that we think it’s a critical success factor for our startup clients, and we only like to help startups that we think are going to be successful.

If your business is B2B, B2C, retail, wholesale, online, offline, for profit or nonprofit, even volunteer, you shouldn’t begin without a customer.

Don’t raise money without customers

You should always have the “Customers” slide when you’re pitching to a VC. Not having one is suicide. You’re basically saying you don’t know your business well enough or haven’t been able to convince those critical early adopters to drink your kool-aid. This is a red flag for investors.

Don’t hire employees without customers

You have a certain perspective about how your product or service should be constructed to satisfy your customer’s needs – and it’s not perfect. Your advisors, employees, and partners will have their own perceptions of this reality – and you need all the help you can get to hone in on what’s really important to your customers. Don’t assume your perspective is perfect, let other people interact with your initial customers or prospects and refine your assumptions and conclusions.

Don’t build it – they won’t come

Again, unless you’re Steve Jobs, you’re probably not going to build the perfect mouse trap the first time. Find ways to approximate your offering and bounce it off of your customers or prospective customers. If you think the only way to proceed is to build first, market and sell second, you had better plan on spending five times as much money & time selling this after it’s built than you are planning on right now. No one will buy in the first three months - not enough to move the needle anyway. That’s why you need time to build momentum in the customer’s mind and to help them invest themselves in its success. Embrace their feedback – remember that at the end of the day solving their problem is the only reason you’re in business!

About Chris Harris

For 13 years Chris Harris has been successfully developing technology solutions and creating winning business strategies for both start-up and brand-name companies.  Chris co-founded Inventure Global, a San Diego headquartered IT consulting firm with offices and programmers in India offering sophisticated IT and technology planning, design, and implementation services for new and growing businesses looking for experienced talent and intelligent support. Inventure Global also maintains the New Venture Outsourcing Blog.