Thinking about starting a business…

“Drill holes, drill holes, drill holes!“                                  – Gold Rush’s Tony Beets

At one time or another you have probably had the thought of starting your own business.  If you are like me, those thoughts that were random in my youth now become more prevalent as time marches on.  There are many things that a person needs to think about when entertaining the notion to start their own business; one of them is completing a market feasibility study.  A feasibility study is an evaluation and analysis of the potential of the proposed project which is based on extensive investigation and research to give full comfort to the decisions makers.  In simple terms, two criteria to judge feasibility are cost required and value to be attained.

Has Todd Hoffman ever considered doing a feasibility study?  Our latest TV obsession is the Discovery Channel’s “Gold Rush”.  We make sure we record it so that we are all able to sit down together to watch what is happening to all the different groups of miners.  The show’s premise is that everyone has a dream of striking it rich and finding that pot of gold.  Here is a group of ordinary people that decided to go to Alaska and go for it.  Todd Hoffman leads the original group of miners that seems to move dirt from one mishap to another; he just can’t seem to get it right.  And then there is Tony Beets, a successful gold miner with a massive operation in the Klondike.  Tony believes the key to his massive success is that he has drilled every inch of his property so he knows where the gold is.  Thus Tony’s advice, drill holes, drill holes, drill holes.

Generally, feasibility studies precede operational implementation of a business and are worth every penny and the time involved.  How much better than investing your own and other people’s money and losing it because you failed to research in advance of starting your business venture.  As much as possible, you want to minimize the risk associated with a new business and maximize the chances of success.  Drill holes!