Entrepreneurship Is a Team Sport, Says Startup Advocate Rick Spence
It's outright dangerous to enter into business without first knowing whether your idea will work.
Before you resign your job, borrow money, or spend months developing a product, you need to find out what customers want and what running that business will require.
On The Unsure Entrepreneur Podcast, host Roger Pierce asks business small business advocate Rick Spence what someone should do when they’re considering entrepreneurship but haven’t decided. Spence’s answer puts research, conversations, and preparation ahead of commitment.
Spence has spent 35 years working with entrepreneurs. He served as editor and publisher of PROFIT Magazine, authored a book, wrote about entrepreneurship for the National Post and Postmedia, and now hosts the Startup Canada Podcast. His experience gives a view of what founders learn after they start.
Find out whether people want your offer
Wanting to work for yourself doesn’t establish demand. If you’re unsure whether anyone will buy, Spence says you have more work to do.
“You have to really understand your chances of success. If you're unsure, and the reason is because you don't really know if there's a market for your product, then you haven't researched the market enough. You haven't talked to enough of these people, these experts in the marketplace.”
That means speaking with customers, suppliers, and people who work in your industry. What do customers buy now? What frustrates them? What would make them consider your offer? Your answers should come from
conversations, rather than assumptions.
Before you invest in your idea, speak with the people you expect to buy it.
Ask for help before you start
You don’t need to answer every question yourself — and different entrepreneurs know different things.
Spence recommends finding mentors and building a group of advisors even before launching. You might need someone who understands finances, someone who knows your industry, and someone who has hired employees.
An advisory board doesn’t require meetings or paperwork. It can begin with people who agree to answer your questions.
“An advisory board doesn't ever have to meet. They could just be a group of people who advise you on occasion, or answer the phone when you call, because you will have questions.”
“I say entrepreneurship is a team sport,” he says. The more people around you to offer support and advice, the better your chances of success.
Pierce reinforces that point: “You know, you're not alone. You don't have to be alone.”
Spence suggests asking someone whether you can pick their brain. If the conversation helps, ask whether you can call again. You’re establishing a relationship, rather than expecting someone to solve your business in one sitting.
Before you commit, put these three actions on your list:
Talk to customers before developing your offer.
Find advisors who know the business.
Test demand while you still have a paying job.
These steps give you evidence and support for your decision.
Expect to do a lot of selling
You might enjoy delivering your service more than asking someone to buy it. But selling also enters conversations with advisors, employees, and anyone else whose support you need.
Spence explains what that requires: “The key to selling is not being able to persuade people, but to understand people and to understand what motivates them and how you can best get them on side.”
Pierce puts it in three words: “Nothing sells itself.”
Understanding your customer helps you explain why your offer matters. Keeping promises helps you earn trust. Spence points to meeting deadlines, managing budgets, and telling clients about problems as behaviours that support that trust.
Your work includes selling the offer and keeping the promises that follow.
Learn from how customers behave
In the interview, Spence recalls Canadian retailer Donald Cooper’s successful women's fashion store, called Alive & Well. The store offered refreshments, parking near the entrance, and a play area where children could occupy themselves while their mothers shopped. Spence says the business flourished because it paid attention to customers’ needs.
You can apply that thinking to your offer by examining what makes buying or using it difficult.
He also stresses humility: “If you're humble enough to ask for that help in advance, it's going to speed your development and ensure a much better fit with the intended market.”
Give yourself room to test
Spence recommends testing an idea while maintaining your income from a job. That way you can find out what works and what doesn't without putting revenue pressure on your new business.
“One of the ways to do that, by the way, is and probably no one needs to be told this: is you could try starting your business part time, put together a convincing pitch, use platforms like eBay or Amazon or Marketplace or even TikTok, get your idea out there, get some reaction from people.”
Entrepreneurship is a long journey, so take your time. You don’t have to make every commitment at once.
Click here to listen to this episode of The Unsure Entrepreneur Podcast.
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