Business: 8 steps to undertake

Are you starting your venture or do you feel like doing it?

If so, surely you will have many doubts and fears.

It may be that you are convinced of having a revolutionary idea, but there will not be a lack of family and friends who do not understand you and who think you are crazy for not having a job in a company.

My function in this blog, will be to help you and guide you in the steps to undertake.

Do not let anyone turn off your light

When I talk about not letting anyone turn off your light, I mean not letting anyone turn off your inner flame, your passion for the project.

Which does not mean to stop listening to the opinions on the product that you are offering, since these opinions will serve you to improve it or to look for a better sales strategy.

Although sometimes you think they criticize your wonderful idea, just out of envy, always keep humility and listen to everything that can help you in your business.

The people around you will see you more professional when accepting new ideas and will not try to convince you to abandon your project.

Do not panic just for criticism of your product or service, remember that not everyone will like it, the important thing is to define who will be your target audience and try to enchant them.

Passion is the first ingredient for success.

Define your target audience

Determine as clearly as possible who will be the consumers of your product or service, be as specific as possible (age, sex, average income, geographical area, preferences).

Be realistic and study why this chosen audience will like your product or service, what need to cover, how your product or service will connect with them.

Determine your competitive advantage

Why your product will be unique? What sets it apart from others that the competition can offer? Why will they choose you and not your competitor?

Maybe it’s one of the most important points. That does not mean that your idea should be novel and unique. It is possible that it is an existing product or service and you find a new way to offer it, this is also an advantage.

If we talk about a technological product, the licenses you obtain for exploitation can be advantages.

It is possible that at the beginning you do not have clear what is your advantage, but it is important that you take the time to define it, or take the time to create it.

In this example, a traditional product was transformed into something new, innovating in the packaging.

Entry and exit barriers

I know that with this I start to dabble in terms that may sound technical, but basically I talk about analyzing the market you enter and see how easy it is for you or your competitors to enter.

Entry barriers: what is needed to enter the market (knowledge, high investment, technology, licenses, etc.). A market with high income barriers is the one that makes income expensive, but at the same time ensures a limited number of competitors

At the other extreme are the markets with low barriers to entry, such as, at this time, all those related to the Internet. Anyone can set up a business on the Internet, but there will also be many competitors, so it will be essential to have a differentiator.

Barriers of exit: it means that so fast you can leave the business, in case of changing the conditions or your expectations. You could sell the business, its machinery, its client portfolio, etc. If this is not the case, would you lose your investment?

Analysis of the competition

Also known as SWOT analysis (Strengths, Opportunities, Weaknesses, Threats)

This is a tool to analyze you and in relation to your competition.

In this table you will analyze your Strengths, versus the threats of the market, and how you will take advantage of market opportunities to create strategies that counteract your weaknesses.

The only analysis and filling of this table will give you more idea of ​​your current situation and what strategies you should develop.

Sources of income

Although it seems obvious that we must know how they generate income, I write it down.

I know you are an entrepreneur and you want to make money and that this is the first thing you thought, but it is not that simple.

The sources of income should be thought and analyzed when determining if your business will be profitable. It may be a great idea, but if it does not generate income, it does not work.

There may be major sources of income (such as the sale of your product / service) and secondary or accessory income sources (advertising, etc.)

At this point you should also analyze what your costs will be (fixed and variable costs), since the price you determine for your product or service must cover the costs.

Customer acquisition

And we get to the action part, it may be one of the most difficult, but if you defined step 2 correctly, it should be easier for you.

At this point you will have to determine the channels of recruitment and sales, being specific (face-to-face or virtual, if face-to-face, where? When? How?), If it is virtual, in what form, a web, social networks, marketing Affiliates? etc.

Basically it is to know where your clients are, to go to look for them or to obtain that they find you.

Here we must also define the marketing strategy and the costs allocated for this task. It would be important to be able to calculate how much it costs us to attract a client, not only for the evaluation of costs, but to take it into account in after-sales service.

We must also define the strategy to clearly communicate our competitive advantage.

Customer loyalty

Once our prospects became customers, it does not end there.

On the contrary, the arduous task of satisfying the expectations of our client begins to get us to recommend and come back.

This task not only involves post-sale tasks, which must be defined (telephone, face-to-face, social networks, etc.), but also the customer intelligence tasks that we must do to improve our product or be alert to new needs that may arise in our target market.