The Chronicle’s Business blog

Have you ever had an idea so brilliant you knew it would work? That your clients would fall all over themselves to buy it? And then it failed miserably? Yeah. Me, too. Because I forgot or ignored the 1st Rule of Entrepreneurship. I’ll remind you what that is in a minute. Copywriter John Carlton says our first inclination, after making an initial idea successful is to complicate it. Failure follows. Catastrophe kicks in when we abandon the simplicity that made us successful. We just need to get back to the simple stuff that worked so well to begin with. That’s so basic I almost hesitate to say it. The 1st Rule is: Find a hungry crowd, and sell them what they crave. The secret, of course, is knowing what they lust after. We should already know that. They are our clients and it’s our market. Here’s how one entrepreneur did it. His name is Rick Warren, the bestselling author of “The Purpose-Driven Life” and pastor of Saddleback Church in California. When Rick and his team started the church they drew a picture of the families they wanted to attract: Unchurched young couples with children, a mortgage and a love of their community. It was simple. Can you picture the clients you want to attract and what they crave? For a complimentary digital copy of “Uncover Your Inner Sales Genius,” email JerryBellune@yahoo.com

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