Economics of your startup

December 5, 2011 Leave a comment

Usually entrepreneurs describe their products & services as they see them. It’s important to describe them from your customers’ point of view. Look the difference between features and benefits of your product/service, and think about them. You need to build features into your product so that you can sell the benefits. You also need to think hard and strategize on what after-sale services you will be giving? Some examples can be delivery, guarantee/warranty, service contracts, support, follow-up, and refund policy.

Customers

Identify your targeted customers, their characteristics, and their demographics. The description will be completely different depending on whether you plan to sell directly to customers/end users or to other businesses. If you are planning to sell a consumer product, but want to do it through a channel of distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, you must carefully analyze both the end consumer and the middleman businesses to which you will sell.

Competition

You need to think and carefully answer the following questions for your startups. What products and companies will compete with you? Will they compete with you across the board, or just for certain products, certain customers, or in certain locations? Will you have important indirect competitors? How will your products or services compare with the competition?

You need to honestly think about your product/service weaknesses. Sometimes it is hard to analyze our own weaknesses. Better yet, get some disinterested strangers to assess you. This can be a real eye-opener. And remember that you cannot be all things to all people. In fact, trying to be causes many business failures because efforts become scattered and diluted. You want an honest assessment of your startup’s strong and weak points.

Niche & Strategy

Now that you have systematically analyzed your industry, your product, your customers, and the competition, you should have a clear picture of where your company fits into the world. Consistent with your niche, you can outline a strategy for your startup.

Pricing

Develop your method of setting prices for your product/service. Does your pricing strategy fit with what was revealed in your competitive analysis? For most startups, having the lowest price is not a good policy. It robs you of needed profit margin; customers may not care as much about price as you think; and large competitors can under price you anyway. Usually you will do better to have average prices and compete on quality and service.

Sales Forecast

After you have laid down comprehensive information and plan for your startup in detail, it’s time to attach some numbers to your idea and prepare your sales forecast.  You may want to do two forecasts: 1) a “best guess”, which is what you really expect, and 2) a “worst case” low estimate that you are confident you can reach no matter what happens.

Do keep visiting our Blog for a specific post on Sales Forecast and a Free spreadsheet.

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Marketing Plan for your startup

December 5, 2011 3 Comments

Even when you have brilliant product and/or service, your startup cannot succeed without effective marketing. And this begins with systematic research and careful planning. It is very dangerous to assume that you already know about your intended market. You need to do market research to make sure you’re on track. Use the market planning process as your opportunity to uncover data and to question your marketing efforts. Your time & efforts will be well spent.

There are two kinds of market research: primary and secondary. Secondary research means using published information such as industry profiles, trade journals, newspapers, magazines, census data, and demographic profiles. This type of information is available in  libraries, industry associations, chambers of commerce, from vendors who sell to your industry, and from government agencies. There are more online sources than you could possibly use. Trade associations and trade publications often have excellent industry-specific data.

Primary research means gathering your own data. For example, you could do your own young crowd count at a proposed café, use the yellow pages to identify competitors, and do surveys or focus-group interviews to learn about consumer preferences. Professional market research can be very costly, but there are many books that show small business owners how to do effective research themselves. In your marketing plan, be as specific as possible; give statistics, numbers, and sources. The marketing plan will be the basis, later on, of the all-important sales projection.

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Product Strategy

October 28, 2010 1 Comment

A successful product must connect with the personal values of targeted customers. A product experience includes the expression of the product and the interaction with the product. The three main ingredient of any product are, 

  1.  Usefulness of the product that enhance or ease some activity or process
  2.  The product is easy to use and remains consistent in use throughout its expected life
  3.  Desirability of the product.  

Read the full article here

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Common cold & potential remedies for Startups

October 28, 2010 Leave a comment

Many startup ideas fail to ever be launched and many, many fail within the first year or two. In most cases, the failure has nothing to do with the business idea, but how the business is managed. The business of entrepreneurship is business first, then operations (what your business actually does). The Top Ten startup mistakes that lead to ultimate failure are:

Insufficient Startup Idea Development: Most startups do not fail because the business idea is bad. The problem is that many first-time entrepreneurs fail to actually plan the business before sinking cash into the startup. No matter how great a business idea is, it can’t succeed without detailed planning. Take the time to work through every angle of your business idea. Not only will you have a better grasp of how far your business can go, you will also reduce your risk and prepare yourself to make the best decisions as you go.

Read the full article at: http://www.stratessence.com/blog/business-in-a-backpack-common-cold-potential-remedies/

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Pricing Strategy for your Startup

October 27, 2010 2 Comments

Pricing your products/services is not only a key to your sales success but also for the health of your Startup.  Both high and low prices than optimum will hurt your business. High prices in the beginning may throw you out of the game, and low prices will cost you more. So you must charge enough to make a profit while being in the game. A well thought-out pricing strategy takes some effort but is worth the time spent.

Read the full article at: http://www.stratessence.com/blog/pricing-strategy-for-your-startup/

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