Many people, when they think about starting a business, instinctively begin with a series of preparatory steps.
They endlessly add features to their product, continuously publish content on their social media accounts, and repeatedly tweak and refine their portfolio.
Even if they go a long time without any income, they just tell themselves they need to keep accumulating. All these things they do have value, and they do give a feeling of moving forward. There's also a hidden benefit: as long as we keep doing these things, we don't have to face customers.
Polishing the product, writing articles, and researching the market—this puts the outcome in our own hands. We can clearly see the results of our work, satisfying our need for certainty and control.
But engaging with customers is completely different.
They might not reply to your messages or emails, they might not recognize your abilities, or they might even tell you directly that they don't need the product you've spent so long preparing.
So we instinctively choose tasks that prove our effort while avoiding the risk of rejection.
Many people are just pretending to be busy; they haven't actually started doing business.
I was exactly like that.
I wrote a WeChat public account for a year, publishing many articles discussing business, the internet, and AI. I accumulated over 50 readers, but I never completed a single transaction through it.
In the past, I always felt I had too few readers and needed more accumulation. If I just kept writing, making my articles better, increasing my readership and followers, my commercialization would eventually happen naturally.
But when exactly would this "eventually" be? I had no idea. Even worse, I didn't even know what I should be selling.
As someone writing about business, I had criticized platform companies' business models, analyzed why big AI model companies' products failed, and discussed team management, user growth, and corporate recruiting.
People read, liked, shared, and followed these articles, which meant the articles were indeed seen.
But reading data doesn't tell me what problems my readers are going through, nor does it prove whether they are willing to pay to solve those problems.
I could write an article discussing why companies shouldn't just suppress employee salaries, but I wouldn't know which of my readers are hiring, which are in charge of compensation design, or which are struggling to find the right talent.
They might agree with my point, hit like, and then go back to their own work.
Articles got me some audience, but they didn't let me see my customers.
We easily work for imaginary customers.
Recently, I watched an episode of Y Combinator's Startup School titled "How to Get Your First Ten Customers."
It introduced many customer acquisition methods: go to forums and find people who are complaining, ask acquaintances to refer potential customers, visit customers in person, or offer a small piece of free help first.
These methods may not seem sophisticated, but they share one common point: entrepreneurs must stop guessing and imagining and start contacting real people.
Going to forums to read complaints is to find real problems; visiting in person is to see the actual environment your customers work in; offering free help can reduce the uncertainty of a first collaboration.
What these methods truly solve isn't just finding where customers are—they force entrepreneurs to confirm: Is what you think users need really what they need?
We often assume users have certain pain points, infer what features they need, and then imagine what they'd be willing to pay for. Then we start building the product, writing proposals, building websites, and running accounts.
But when you face a real customer, they often give a more straightforward response: "That's not the problem I most want to solve right now."
Start your business from a real problem.
The first deal usually doesn't start with a perfect product; it often happens with a specific person.
He might be encountering a certain difficulty, has already wasted a lot of time, money, or energy on it, tried some methods without success. When he is willing to tell you his specific situation, you have a chance to understand the real need.
From him, you will discover the actual gap between his need and the solution you imagined. As you gradually align with him, you will also come to know what value your abilities can truly create.
If different people repeatedly raise similar problems, those problems might develop into a stable service or even a product.
So, the signal that a business has begun is when someone is willing to give you their real problem.
Find the first real problem.
Therefore, I've decided to stop pointless guessing and first see what problems are troubling my readers.
Send me your real problem.
I will help you clarify your current situation, where you're truly stuck, and the key issues you need to judge next. You will at least know what you are facing right now and what you should prioritize next.
For me, this is an opportunity to truly engage with my readers' needs. I don't know if this attempt will lead to my first deal. But at least, I'm not going to keep hiding behind content, traffic, and preparations.
If you're unclear about a problem in business, product, career, or AI applications, you can email me and let me help you.