Almost everyone had a business idea at least once in their life, but few have the persistence and courage to give life to their ideas. Are you on a crossroad and hesitating whether to take the chance of being your own boss, or keep the safer status of an employee?
We’re not here to tell you the pros and cons of each option, but if you’re about to start your own small business, there are a few things you need to sort out first. We brought up seven of them in the form of questions you need to have an answer for before you dive into entrepreneurial waters.
1) What problems does your product or service solve?
The customers don’t care about your profit. They care about their problems and the solution thereof.
Therefore, cannot just start a business for the sake of it. Before you decide to set off on the path of a business owner, you need to determine whether your product or service will be considered useful and needed. That includes a “main message” or a “mission” you wish to transmit to your customers via your product or service.
To draw out a good example, the main motto associated with iPods when they came out was “1000 songs in your pocket”; that means you no longer have to choose the 20 songs that the memory of your mp3 player can take and listen to them over and over. You can fit all your songs into the iPod. Your problem is solved.
Maybe this is a good spot to share the main motto of our Elementary POS app:
“Turn your Android phone or tablet into a simple cash register.”
So, what is the problem we are solving? That you no longer need a heavy, expensive device to run a cash register. All you need is pretty much any Android device created in 2013 or later.
2) What makes your product stand out from among the competition?
Even if someone woke you up in the middle of the night, you need to be able to say this without any hesitation. Whether it’s a better performance, a secret ingredient or an unforgettable scent, be sure to know clearly what makes your product better than the competition.
3) Have you conducted a thorough market research?
It’ll be helpful to know whether there is a hole in the market that your product or service can help cover up. That will help you shape your brand’s philosophy, message and main marketing claims.
You also need to be aware of which will be the main competitors on the field. Take the time to observe how your competitors operate and where their weaker points might be.
Maybe you’ll find out that there’s another store selling a product like yours, but their shop assistant is not the kindest person. If you open your store nearby and manage to make your customers feel welcome, it might be a win condition for you!
4) What’s your business concept?
This might be a challenging step, but it is vital if your business plan is to be functional. You need to plan out how you’re going to approach the first phases of the business and prepare yourself for the most likely obstacles that will come up in your field.
A very important part to your plan is also deciding for a suitable business structure. What will be the motivation factor for your employees to do their best? Will you offer them financial bonuses? And how will you make sure your customers will want to come back? A membership card?
5) How much will it all cost?
Determining your business plan will help you figure out how much capital you’ll need to get properly started. This will enable you to either prepare for it on your own or search for an investor to help you.
6) What are my target groups?
This is a very key part that you may have already covered during your market research, but we would still like to highlight it. Who are your future customers? What will make them want to come back to you? What kind of people are they? When are they most likely to seek out your product?
Knowing all these answers will help you adjust your opening hours, business approach, tone of voice and main tweaks that will make your customers love your store.
7) What’s the ideal location?
Finally, if you’re not about to start an online business, you’ll need to scout out the best location. Knowing where your target group likes to hang out might be a significant hint to where your business might flourish. If you are limited financially, you’ll want to focus on finding the best balance between a profitable spot and the price.
Are you interested in also reading an article about the formalities you need to take care of? We’re already working on it and it’ll be linked somewhere here once it’s live! 🙂
