Nobody has seen my business: the question to ask.
If nobody has seen my business sounds like your honest answer, you are not alone. Most lines on your list, from domain to logo, never reached anyone outside your home. So this lesson asks who saw the work, not who heard about it.
Put your list back on the table.
First, take out the page from the last chapter, with the date and the boxed number. Use the handwritten version, because the tidier one you remember is not the same. Then read down the list instead of looking at the box. Each line is an act, like buying a domain or pricing a supplier. Also, each act cost you an evening you will not get back.
So far, this page only measures effort. It cannot yet show you whether nobody has seen my business is true for you.
Why nobody has seen my business matters most.
However, telling people is not the same as showing them. You have told friends at dinners, in the car and on the phone for years. But telling costs nothing, and people who love you were always going to encourage you. Instead, ask who saw the thing itself and could say no to it. As a result, working on business in secret shows up as a blank line.
One detail that might be the only detail.
So go down each line and ask who saw it, outside the people you live with. For most lists, the honest answer is nobody, and the text says it for you. That is not a small missing detail about your project. In fact, research from 1996 suggests the line between founders and folder holders runs through it. In short, keeping business idea secret may be what separates you, and nobody has seen my business is the sentence to face.
Check whether nobody has seen my business tonight.
Write "who saw it" beside every line on your chapter 2 page, in pen.
Circle each line where the honest answer is nobody outside your household.
From the book.
Not who did you tell. Telling costs you nothing, and you've been doing it for years, at dinners and in the car and on the phone to somebody who loves you and was always going to be encouraging. I mean who saw the thing itself. Who was in a position to look at what you actually made, and respond to it, and say no to it?
I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start, chapter 3: What counts as started
Questions about nobody has seen my business.
What does it mean if nobody has seen my business?
It means your effort happened where no one outside your home could respond. The text suggests this might be the only detail that really matters.
Does telling friends about my idea count as being seen?
No, because telling costs nothing and loved ones were always going to be encouraging. What counts is who saw the actual thing and could say no.
What research does this chapter rely on?
It points to a piece of research from 1996, on a smaller sample than you might like.
Read the whole chapter.
This lesson covers one section of chapter 3, “What counts as started”. The book goes further, with the full evidence, the stories and every exercise.
Lessons in this chapter.
- 01 Nobody has seen my business: the question to ask.
- 02 Who has seen my business idea: fill in one column.
- 03 Correlation vs causation in startups: what survives.
- 04 Nascent entrepreneurs study: what 71 people did.
- 05 First online sale story: eleven minutes, fifteen dollars.
- 06 Stealth mode startup: why it is not hiding.
- 07 Visible vs answerable: six ways your count breaks.