ANOTHER ONE BUSINESS GUIDELINES

Posts Tagged ‘Competition’

Purveyors of conventional wisdom would have you believe that the very first thing you ought to do when setting up a new business is to create a business plan.

It doesn’t matter whether you are selling odds and ends on eBay from your living room or something larger and more complex,

Business plans are excellent and necessary. Far too few of us self-employed and freelance people use them.

They force us to spell out our objectives. We have to assign numbers to our expectations and assign a time-line to our goals. They become our roadmap and keep us on track.

But I suggest that you can’t make a business plan that is worth anything until you’ve done your homework.

And that means knowing what you want to do and how you want to do it. And determining that there is sufficient demand for your product to generate enough income to cover your costs and allow a profit.

In other words, before the business plan comes research.

If a body of knowledge already exists, it makes sense to tap into it and save you some work. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics and other such sources, for example, publish a great deal of demographic information. Some of it is very useful.

But it is also likely that as a creative sole-proprietor, meaningful statistics don’t exist about your specialty.

Many micro-businesses target a very specialized niche. And many owned by creative types exist to sell a product or service that don’t follow well-worn prototypes.

It is particularly difficult for such people to find meaningful published data.

If you fall into these categories, you’ll have to generate your own information.

Don’t limit your research to purely business data. You are building a life as well as a business.

Are the demands and conditions of your proposed business compatible with the life you want to create?

For example, illustrators often work on short deadlines – meaning that sometimes they have to work far into the night to complete a project on deadline. Plus, some clients are demanding and some do not pay on a timely basis. After all of that, can you still “love it” enough?

Or, maybe your business is such that sales fluctuate during the year. How will you make it through the lean months? Can you handle the uncertainty of a fluctuating income?

So, how do you find information?

First, if other people provide services similar to yours, talk to them. You will gain a lot of information quickly. Their answers to your questions will save you a lot of legwork and open your eyes to factors you may not have considered.

Try to talk to at least five or six people so you can get a range of viewpoints.

You can find them through trade associations, schools, word-of-mouth. If the locals are reluctant to share information – perhaps because they see you as direct competition – look for similar people in a different locale.

Second, create the information you need.

Mimic and simplify what large businesses do. Reduce their methods down to a level that is practical and affordable.

For example, perhaps you want to survey potential clients and customers to get feedback.

If you are a creating a micro-business on a shoe-string, it may not be affordable nor practical to commission a focus group. But you may be able to speak to potential targets informally or use direct mail to send a simplesurvey.

Eventually you’ll have to ‘put your toe in the water.’ Try it out in a small way – so you won’t lose much if it doesn’t work – and observe the results. Then experiment and modify as needed. Once it works to your liking you can plunge right in.

This approach, known by the technical term “trial and error,” can be applied to any facet of your business.

After all, even the largest producers test market new products before rolling them out.

Put some parameters around your efforts. Decide, in advance, how much time you want to allow and how much you want to budget.

Then test, test, test.

Use trial and error for every aspect of your business. Experiment with different ways of packaging your services, different rates and prices, different types of marketing, etc.

You’ll soon find that certain approaches work better than others. Eventually your experience and data will suggest viable strategies.

And then you’ll be ready to create your business plan.

There are two strategies you can use to market your small business: (1) Market Research; and (2) Target Marketing.

Let’s focus on market research so you would have a better understanding of this strategy.

Market Research
Having a market research is a great help for small businesses as it provides you information on what your industry is about, as well as what your prospects are looking for that is still not being offered in the market. By knowing this information, you will be able to position yourself in a way that you will be offering exactly what your target clients are looking for. This way, you will be able to customize your marketing tools such as your poster printing or print posters into materials that generate leads every time.

Here are the questions you need to answer when market researching:

1. What kind of goods and services will provide you with the most interest? Would your products and services be better off alone or offered in combinations?
2. What makes you different? What is your advantage over the others? Is it the price? The quality of the product or service? Do you have faster turnaround in delivery and shipping?
3. What should you highlight about your business? What are you an expert on?
4. What’s your history as a business?
5. Can you really compete with the rest of the businesses already in the market?
6. Who is your competition? What’s their edge over you?
7. Who would be most interested in what you have to offer? Who would most likely buy your product or service?
8. What would be your benefits? How can you make your business more interesting and exciting in the eyes of your prospective clients?
9. How do they want to respond to your marketing collaterals? More importantly, what types of marketing materials do they find interesting?

After gathering all the information you needed to answer these questions, you should then be able to determine the following details:

1. What does your prospect look for? What do they need and want? Where would you be able to get more profits?
2. How can you improve on what is already out there? For print posters for example, how can you make yours more interesting and effective generators of clients?
3. How can you compete? How can your competition stop you from gaining success?
4. How can you gain customers? How can you lose them?
5. What should you do so your product offer doesn’t become outdated and outmoded?
6. What are the trends in marketing that can affect your small business?
7. What new ideas can you get from your research? Who can help you implement your ideas?

As a final rule when doing your market research, the information you culled from it would determine the efficiency and effectiveness of your research. When you have high quality and reliable information, you will be able to have a successful business as a result.

When it comes to marketing product, small business owners face some tough challenges. Competition is fierce. Customers are fickle and easily distracted. Amidst all the noise and clutter, how do you make your products or services stand out-especially on a limited budget?

The first thing to do is to throw away your marketing rule book. The world has changed. The tenants that worked so well in the past are fast becoming obsolete. Darwin was right: if you want to survive, you must learn to evolve.

Think about it-just twenty years ago, consumers had far fewer products and services to choose from, and plenty of time to make buying decisions. Today, consumers have a vast array of choices, but much less time to sort through them all.

So, how do you reach those impatient, overloaded customers? How do you get their attention and win them over to your products?

Rule #1: Don’t Play It Safe
In the past, the golden rule was to create safe, ordinary products and promote them through brilliant marketing campaigns.

Now, there are so many “safe” products out there and so much marketing hoopla, it’s hard to get your products noticed. Consumers need a scorecard to tell them all apart!

The fact is, most small companies are unwilling to take risks. They’re afraid that if they develop a product that’s outside the mainstream, someone won’t like it. They are afraid of appearing ridiculous or drawing criticism. Boring, they maintain, is better than drawing negative attention.

Nonsense! If you’re going to be successful, your products must be different. And when they are, it’s a given that some people won’t like them. So what? Forget about fitting in; seek out your competitive edge. In short, don’t be afraid to be remarkable.

What if-instead of creating yet another safe product-you develop one that’s truly, clearly unique? What if you followed your passions and made the product you’ve always dreamed of? Or encouraged your employees to brainstorm wildly, taking note of their ideas?

It’s time to take a walk on the wild side. That’s how you break away from the pack.

Rule #2: You Can’t Sell to Everyone
When asked who is your customer , do you answer “everyone who uses it?” This will not get you very far.

When you try to sell to everyone, you end up with watered-down, run-of-the-mill products. Instead, do what some very successful small businesses do: avoid mass marketing and identify your niche. Rather than focus on the quantity of your potential customers, focus on quality.

Don’t try to sell to everyone; do just the opposite. Instead of appealing to the masses with predictable products, attract your niche customers with remarkable products. To find your niche, ask yourself: who is your most profitable customer? If you could choose your customers, what would they look like? That’s who you should be appealing to.

And no matter what industry you are in, there is one niche that will serve you extremely well. It’s that eagle-eyed group of consumers who like being first. These buyers pounce on new and innovative products, because they enjoy being the first to own them.

It’s a fact that most consumers resist change. Adapting to something new takes work, so most people avoid it. But there are consumers who love new stuff. Some want it just because it’s different, and they want to be different. Others want it because they see the value of the product and recognize that it will give them an edge over everyone else.

The beauty of these early adopters is that they can become your sales force for you. These trendsetters influence the rest of the market. They spread what’s called an “ideavirus.” Once your product gains the acceptance of early adopters, more cautious consumers will jump on the bandwagon.

That’s the beauty of remarkable marketing: win over enough early adopters, and mainstream consumers will follow. “Very good” just isn’t good enough these days. Marketing alone isn’t the answer. The true secret to making your products stand out is creating products that do stand out.