Your first product, price, package, marketing message, or even your original target customer may not be what ultimately works. Customers will tell you a great deal if you pay attention. Sometimes they tell you directly. Other times, they tell you through what they buy, what they ignore, what they ask about, and what brings them back.

For a startup, changing direction isn't necessarily a sign that the original idea failed. It can mean you're learning.

Our advice is simple: start with a clear idea, test it in the real world, listen carefully, and be willing to improve it. Don’t spend all your energy trying to prove that your original idea was right. Spend it discovering what your customers actually value.

A challenge for fellow entrepreneurs:

What is one thing about your business that your customers may already be telling you to change, but you haven't been willing to change yet?

Join the conversation. Share your experience, and tell us what you learned from listening, or not listening, to your customers.

Here’s our challenge to you: If you had to change just one small daily habit for the next 30 days to improve your health and well-being, what would you change? And what’s stopping you from starting today?

Join the conversation. We’d love to hear what wellness means to you and which small change you’re willing to challenge yourself to make.

This has encouraged us to think beyond simply listing ingredients. We must describe flavour, aroma, the brewing experience, and the moments when someone might enjoy each blend. Customer reviews, attractive packaging, educational content and opportunities for in-person sampling can also help build confidence. For any online retailer, the challenge is to replace what customers cannot physically experience with useful information and a strong sense of trust.

Join the conversation: If you sell a product customers cannot touch, taste, smell or try online, how do you help them feel confident enough to make their first purchase? Share your experience? We'd like to hear your thoughts!

Like many other small businesses, our journey has involved innovation, product development, branding, customer relationships and continuous learning. We believe entrepreneurs grow stronger when they share their stories and learn from one another, and that is why we are pleased to join the When Entrepreneurs Engage community.

Here is our challenge to you: Sign up and join this forum. Introduce your business, tell us what inspired you to create it and share one lesson you have learned along the way. Then visit Brew & Scone website at <a href=" removed link " target="_blank" rel="noopener">brewandscone.com, discover our collection and choose a tea blend you would love to try. 

We have learned that focus requires identifying what will provide the greatest value to customers and move the business forward at its current stage. It may mean launching with a smaller product selection, concentrating on one customer group or postponing a promising idea until the business is ready to support it. Choosing what not to pursue—at least for now—can be just as important as deciding what to do next.

Join the conversation: What is the one priority your startup should focus on right now—and what will you temporarily set aside to give it your full attention?

Think about the marketing channels you have tried, such as social media, email, search engines, advertising, networking, events or referrals. Which one produced the most valuable customer response, and how did you measure its success? Sharing both successful and disappointing experiences can help other entrepreneurs invest their time and money more wisely.

Join the conversation: Which marketing strategy has brought your business the best customers, and which popular strategy produced attention but very few results?

What signs helped (or would help), you decide that your business was ready to grow? Consider the factors you would examine, the risks you would assess and any lessons you have learned from expanding too quickly, waiting too long or growing at the right time.

Join the conversation: What is the clearest sign that a business is genuinely ready to grow? What warning sign would tell you to wait?

If you were starting your business today, what is one decision you would change, and what experience led you to that realization? Share the lesson, not to criticize your past self, but to help another entrepreneur make a more informed choice. Your experience could provide exactly the insight someone else needs today.

Join the conversation: What would you do differently, and what advice would you give an entrepreneur facing that decision now?