|
|
Start your small business' day with free resources from CreditSunrise
|
Starting a small business
by Brad Ross
Each small business is as unique as the entrepreneur running the business, and there is no one standard formulae for starting your own business. However, there are key success factors to help guide your business and ensure you are on a solid foundation before you open the doors.
Abilities
The first is to assess your own personal capabilities, resources and characteristics. Why are you going into business for yourself? What are your strengths? What areas need improvement? What resources are available to you? Take a personal inventory.
Research
This is the most important step, and should take the most time. It is important to fully understand the market for your product or service. Market research involves learning about the industry, traits and buying habits of potential customers, any government guidelines, and the strengths and weaknesses of your competition. While conducting market research you
will get a good sense of whether you can implement your business idea and be successful. You may want to draw a path of where the industry has been and the possible future paths.
Marketing Plan “the 6 P’s”
Product: What are you selling? Be very specific and detailed on this question, it will help keep your focus throughout this process. What are the important features and benefits that will encourage a person to buy your product or service? A good product will satisfy
either a real or perceived need of your customer.
Price:
How will you price your product so it is low enough for a customer to purchase yet high enough to cover all fixed and variable expenses of your business and make a profit. Price should reflect the image of your product, for example, is your product a premium product, discount type product, or somewhere in between. A good rule of
thumb is charge what the market will bear. You should know that from the research that you have done.
Promotion:
How will customers find out about your product or service? What form of advertising will you use? Who will you be promoting your product to? What message and image do you want to promote through the various forms of advertising? How much can you afford to spend? Some lower cost forms of promotion are; flyers, radio, internet, word of mouth. Some more expensive tools are television, sampling, and tradeshows.
Path of Distribution:
How will you deliver your product to your customer? Do your customers visit you or do you have salespeople visit your customers? Will you sell direct or through a distributor, or retail store? Do you rely on a supplier to provide raw materials to you? If so, what suppliers are available, and what is
the quality and price of their goods? Does your supplier fit your goal? Did you compare suppliers to get the best deal?
People:
Who is involved in your business? Do you have employees? How much do they cost? How many can you afford? How much do you cost? Do you work well with the people you work with? How do you keep everyone
happy?
Process: What are the steps, from beginning to end, of the entire cycle. The best way to do this is a “flow chart”. List the major factors along top, and then break them down into more detail underneath. As well as just clarifying what it is you actually do, this will also help you find inefficiencies in your process.
Other entrepreneur services
Create a working document for your business
An assessment of your existing plan
An assessment of your financial plan
View details you should include in your business plan
View completed business plans we have completed for other companies
Understand your financial strength instantly