Identifying and Solving a Problem in Business

One critical element that every business needs is a product or service that customers actually want. Not only do they need to want it, they also need to be willing and able to pay for it.

The truth is that every entrepreneur thinks that their idea is brilliant, and this confidence is essential. However, it is important that others agree with you, and that they would purchase the solution you’re offering if it existed (and at the price point you can offer it to them).

Nir Eyal, the author of ‘Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products’ talked about two important questions that every entrepreneur should ask themselves:

• Is what I’m working on materially improving people’s lives?
• Am I the user?

In the wellness industry, it has been shown time and time again that if your product or service fits into one of the categories explored in Your Future In The Wellness Industry, then it is bound to materially improve its users’ lives. We ask the second question, “Am I the user?”, to intrinsically understand what matters. Sometimes you might have a great idea, but not be the end-user yourself, in which case a founder often seeks out a co-founder who may represent the target audience.

A great example is Callaly, a modern female wellness brand that has pioneered a new menstruation product called the ‘Tampliner’. Although Founder Thang Vo-Ta was passionate about solving a problem for women globally, he realised that he was not the target user, and so he partnered with Product Developer Eva Radziwon to provide the critical insight that was necessary from a user’s perspective.

Of course, just like in Becoming An Expert Or Practitioner In Wellness, you’re going to want to consider and deeply understand the pain points, frustrations, and fears of your consumer, and how your product or service might resolve or appease these.

In the previous step, we explored some examples of product or service-based wellness brands. Now let’s look at some examples of successful wellness brands and how they solve a specific problem:

Allplants: People want to eat less meat and embrace a plant-based lifestyle, without compromising on flavour. They are also time poor. Allplants solves all of these problems by providing ready-made frozen plant-based meals that are highly nutritious but also taste incredible.

Gloveworx: People are increasingly focused on fitness and mindset well-being and how these two areas overlap. Boxing has traditionally been an intimidating sport with a stigma of being about ‘blood, sweat and violence’. Gloveworx, a chain of US-based boxing studios, was created to break down this stigma by making boxing accessible, fun, and rooted in adaptability (a skill people need to function in a fast-paced society).

Varley: Lifestyles are rapidly changing with traditional work hours evolving, and work/play balances shifting. There has been an increase of people working from home while juggling trying to find time to exercise, tend to their family responsibilities and more, and as a result, the type of clothing some wear to work is changing. People want more functional clothing that is supportive, but also stylish and professional. Varley is an athleisure brand that combines the benefits of athletic apparel with functional, fashion-led clothing that can be worn in a multitude of settings.

Modern Fertility: Women are waiting longer to have children which is leading to a greater number of challenges encountered when trying to conceive. Modern Fertility identified that personalised fertility insights could be prohibitively expensive, and went about solving this by providing women with simple, at-home fertility hormone tests at a fraction of the cost. It guides women through the important considerations relating to fertility, so that they can manage their future options as and when they need to.

Can you see how these businesses have solved real problems for real people and in some cases, in ways that have never been done before? Some leverage technology, whilst others leverage modern-day logistics or a certain style of delivery.

Importantly, each has identified not only a problem that their users have, but a solution that their users are willing to pay for.

What do you think?

What kind of problems, frustrations, or fears have you encountered in your own pursuit of personal or collective wellbeing that could potentially be the basis for a new product or service idea?