Own business!
Everybody has a dream of starting a business, but how many of you start, thinking we need a lot more cash and the things which add on to the business. Are you interested to start a business, but you’re too doubtful about which you’ll exactly be good? Come over, I’m going to teach you a few things which are the pre-requisites of starting a business.
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Getting Started with Business:
So, a business has to co-ordinate various factors related to business to achieve their required objectives. All the factors are equally crucial and help in making the business successful.
Firstly, to get started with a business, everybody says you need money or you need investment and a partner and a lot more things. But what I would exactly suggest is, to get started with the business, all you need is a clear vision and a mission statement.
So what is a vision and mission statement? A vision is something that gives you an idea about what you’re expecting from your business. It defines what is the company’s desired future position that they want to get at. So this is a completely personal opinion.
Some people take vision as money whereas some take vision as a brand name, while some people also take mission as achieving something for society. So vision differs.
Whereas, when you what’s a mission status, that is something that the business is going to achieve. A mission of a business is a formal summary of the aims and ambitions that they tend to achieve. Even it is gonna be global recognition or perfect service to the clients or something of that sort. The mission statement covers all the aspects of a business like why it exists, what’s its goal and how to achieve that goal, what are their target customers, how to achieve them, and so on. What business is achieving is a mission statement.
So, firstly to get started with a business, you need to know what your business is about. Now that you know what you’re looking for or what the business is looking for, you should know what your business is about. Getting to know about your business will help you a lot to understand and achieve what you need or want.
Business Canvas Model:
So to get that right, you must get a Business Canvas Model. So now if you’re gonna think of what is a Business Canvas Model and you’re gonna draft it. The business Canvas Model is something that knows the inside out of the market, the inside out of the company itself, and the inside out of the consumer. It is kind of a template or a visual chart with the firm’s or it’s product’s value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances. So all of these come to a point concerning the business model.
If you want to learn in-depth about the business model, stay tuned until my next article which will be focusing only on the business model.
When you draft a Business Canvas Model, vision statement, and a mission statement, you’re just considered to make the skeleton of your company. Whenever you consider the skeleton of a company, you will be knowing about, when you have all the products, you will know about whom should buy your product, so those are your target market. So you need to know who is a target market. So for that, you need to do another research, wherein you take an elaborate study about what the current market is. For example, if you’re gonna sell groceries, your current market would be the people whom you would meet every day, everybody who is in your neighborhood, who is your society, who are your friends, who are your colleagues and everybody.
Whereas, if you’re gonna sell a product which is a kind of processer or analyzer, so for that, the target market would mostly be the software industries or the corporate who are using it.
Depending upon what kind of products you use, the complete target market gets shifted. So you need to get a clear idea of what your target market is.
So now when you know what the target market is, you need to know about what are all solving the current problem which is in the market.
Like take, if you’re gonna solve a problem about a person of a middle-class family not getting some expensive medical equipment. Now the problem which you’re facing here is affordability.
So you need to again track a study about how are these people exactly getting what they are wanting for. If there is a necessity, you’ll find a few ways to get that, so, human psychology or human behavior works.
So now even though the person cannot afford it in a very easiest way, how is he achieving it? That is the first part.
So secondly when you know this, you’re gonna define a market gap.
This market gap is nothing but, what is preventing the customer from not being able to achieve something which he wants, this is a market gap.
When you have a clear idea about what your company is, you know what your company is offering, you know the motives of your company, you also know your market, you know who are all selling the products, who are your competitors. You need to have a very detailed study about your competitors and then, once you get the competitors, you know what are their prices and what is the exact gap or what is the problems respected to the consumer’s end.
Managing the SWOT Analysis:
Now that you know all of this, you need to do a SWOT analysis. So, SWOT analysis is the afore way process that gives you a total understanding of the company. So now what kind of SWOT analysis you should do.
Firstly, you need to do a self SWOT for your own company, analyze your methodology concerning the six hat thinking principles. So, if you want to know a lot about six hat thinking principles, six thinking hats is a book which was curated by Edward de Bono. If you want to know a lot more about it, again stay tuned to my next article, which will again be focusing on Six hat techniques. So these six hat techniques would give you total information from the critics, from the benefits, and the normal public’s point of view.
Giving you all the emotional, classical, and every other prospective to your particular product with which you can clearly define what will be the outcomes when it’s launched.
So now you know all of these, you know the market gap, you know what will the SWOT of your product, you need to do the SWOT of your competitor.
Analyze from every person’s shoes as to how their products are functioning and now when you have the complete weakness of all of your competitors in the market and you’ve your own product’s weakness also, you need to curate your product in such a way that it overcomes all the weaknesses of your competitors. Even if all the weaknesses are not been able to overcome, please actually make sure that the major weaknesses are being overcome. By this way, when all the major weaknesses are being overcome, what will the result in this, the result will be a product that will solve the problem the current target population is facing.
Now you would’ve gotten a clear idea about what are all the things that are required to start a business. So now the main detailings are, to get started with a business, what you exactly need is data and not cash. You get information, not investments and what you would majorly need is demand in a market, especially a problem statement and not exactly clients.
You cannot start a business after you get clients. One needs to get started on with the business and then search for clients, that’s how it works and that’s how the principle goes on too.
So now when you’ve all of these, how do you get started with it? How do you need to fuel up? So you need to ask yourself again a series of questions of what, why how which, who, and when? So these are all the questions which are popping out.
Get your questionnaire and answers to all these questions and once you get all of these answers, you are ready to get started with a business.
•Under WHAT- list down a series of 10 questions.
1-What is your business exactly about? (Know about what is there in your business and what it precisely seems to the customers)
2-What do you expect from your business? (Know about what you anticipate from your business and it can be a list of the things which you’re awaiting from your business)
3-What do you expect from your customers? (Know about what we want from customers, it can be their loyalty towards our products or whether they fulfill the expected buying capacity of the product and so on)
4-What percentage of sales do you expect to achieve in a particular period? (This can be treated as a goal of a business that what is the percentage of sales of products that you are expecting, like in a month, a week, or a year)
5-What are threats to your business? (In this, you’ve to know about what are the forms in which threats can occur to our business)
6-What are possible threats to your products and services? (There can be many possible threats like financial issues, laws, and regulations, liability losses, etc)
7-What type of products and services your competitors provide? (This will help you to compare your product with the competitors and make changes to make our product better and more attractive to the customers)
8-What is the profit margin you need to obtain in a year? (Each business has some margin which they aspire to obtain within a year)
9-What are how you can make your product available to every group of customers? (Here you’ve to know about the different ways of advertising so that our product reaches to every possible customer)
10-What are how you can maintain the already their customers and bring new customers? (Keeping and maintaining the customers is difficult. So to keep them, you’ve to think about ways and techniques which will keep them interested in our product)
Under WHO- list down series of 10 questions
1- Who are your consumers? (Know about who are your customers along with the exact group which will use your product)
2-Who are your competitors? (Knowing about competitors will help you a lot to cut out the possible threats which can occur due to them)
3-Who are your potential customers? (Potential customers are those who will buy and use our product. And knowing about them will help you to increase the sales)
4-Who are tended to oppose your product? (There may be some parties or individuals who can oppose your product and know about them will help you tackle it)
5-Who would generally stand for you or your product? (Some loyal customers are those who will take a stand for our products)
6-Who would be the supporters of your company? (They are people who work in the company, help the company with its accounting, customer handling, and so on)
7-Who would be the critics against your product? (The criticism can be positive or negative and we have to listen and try to improve after hearing them out)
8-Who can be your potential investors? (They are very important as they put their money in the company. And they can help you out when you’re in a need of financial support)
9-Who is your target audience? (Knowing about the target audience will help you to make the correct type of product so the sales can be increased)
10-Who are going to stick with your products and services? (Keeping the loyal customers and making them bring more loyal customers is all this is about)
Under HOW- list down a series of 10 questions.
1-How do I determine whether I’m capable of starting a business? (Starting a business requires to know the potential of the one who wants to start it)
2-How do I determine my startup costs and other expenses? (It is wise to find out what startup costs you will incur before starting the business)
3-How do I attract more customers? (It can be done through proper advertising and marketing of the product)
4-How do I maintain the already there customers? (This can be done through personally talking with them. Or rewarding them for the continuous usage of the product, appreciating them for their loyalty, etc)
5-How can I obtain cash to maintain and grow my business? (Develop a positive business relationship with your bank. Seek your banker’s advice even at times where you are not seeking funds and so on)
6-How can I better market my business? (To market your business, you must define your customer. To maintain consistent sales growth, you must become knowledgeable about your market and customers)
7-How can I improve my customer service in the business? (It can be done through developing a strategy that puts the customer first. This will help them to feel special and thus they will continue with your products)
8-How my product can be different from the competitors? (All you’ve to do is know about the competitor’s product and then develop your product or change it if required)
9-How much power does my customer have? (Customers can either build or break your business. To know about the amount of power your customer holds and lessen or improve it through different ways if required)
10-How do I maintain a good relationship with my supplier? (Maintaining it will help you build a good relationship. And it will help you to rely on your suppliers if required)
•Under WHY- list down series of 10 questions.
1-Why do I need to know about my financial statements? (This will help you to know that if my business is in a good position or a bad position)
2-Why is it important to do a monthly cash flow analysis? (The analysis of monthly cash flow can indicate whether your business will collect sufficient cash to pay operating expenses)
3-Why is competition important? (Competition has a significant impact on customer’s buying decisions in your market. As they convince customers to buy their products or services instead of yours and this helps you to improve yourself and your products)
4-Why is a business plan important? (A business plan is important because it summarizes both your vision for the company and your techniques you are gonna use for the company’s operating success)
5-Why is it important to maintain a good relationship with the customers? (A good relationship with them helps your business to reach out to more people)
6-Why is marketing important? (Proper marketing and advertising of products will help you out to boost your sales. And also it helps to increase the reach of your products to the customers)
7-Why your cash flow should be positive? (As the resources are limited, positive cash flow will help you to maintain the financial support)
8-Why I need to have a target market? (Your products might be used by every category of people. But always there is a special category which uses your products more than the others. And knowing about them will help you increase sales)
9-Why my product should be different from others? (Different stands out. Thus, making a product different than others will help you build more customers and increase your sales)
10-Why do I need to know about my business? (Knowing about your business will help you out to know what products or services you can offer)
•Under WHICH- list down a series of 10 questions.
1-Which type of product you can offer? (This will help you to build a target audience. And sell the product which they want and thus this will result in improvement of sales)
2-Which is the best way to promote my product? (Know about the trend about the promotion of the product in the market. And apply it to promote your product in the best possible way)
3-Which type of competition you have? (The competition can either be healthy or unhealthy which depends upon the type of competitors you’ve)
4-Which kind of a person makes a successful entrepreneur? (Compare your skills to any successful entrepreneur. And know that if you’re capable of starting a business on your own or do you need a partner)
The 5-Which business idea is the best? (Analyze and interpret each idea and go with the one which you find most suitable and helpful for your business)
6-Which type of employees I’ll need? (This depends upon the type of business you’re going to go with)
7-Which goals you need to make? (Every business has it’s own goals according to its nature. And the type of nature decides about the goals you need to make)
8 -Which thing makes your business unique? (This answer to this question will help you out to stand out and attract more customers)
9-Which type of distribution model I should go with? (This depends upon yourself. The type of mode through which your product will reach to your customers is the decision you’ve to make)
10-Which is the best way to fund my business? (This decision is also yours to make by keeping a check on all the ways and it’s consequences. You can go with the one you think is best)
Now, these 10 questions are gonna fuel up how you can start with your business.
