I see and hear the horror stories on Facebook, on LinkedIn, at conferences. Folks who spend months or sometimes years on a big, bold business idea … only to see it die at launch with no sales.

You don’t have to risk months of time and thousands of dollars to try out your business idea — you just need to keep three points of focus firmly in mind when you’re putting your project together.

In this 21-minute episode, I talk about:

• The keys to a “minimum viable product” that isn’t junk
• Why great marketing or copywriting skills can only take you so far (and what gets you all the way)
• Where to put most of your work in the early stages of a project
• The people you should listen to … and the people you should ignore
• When to add in more complex elements like automation or a custom website

Listen to Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing below ...

The Show Notes

• If you’re ready to see for yourself why more than 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress — the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins — swing by StudioPress.com for all the details.
• Here’s a quick podcast episode from Brian Clark outlining the Minimum Viable Product process
• And here’s a podcast interview with Tony Clark and Brian Clark (no relation) with more thoughts on building a digital business with an MVP
• My Copyblogger post on 5 areas of focus for your first digital product (you can think of this as your “minimum viable marketing”
• And here’s a post I wrote on constructing a solid offer for your business
• Feel free to say hi or ask a question over on LinkedIn @soniasimone — or I always enjoy hearing from you right here in the comments