Posts Tagged ‘Business’
I need to make money and fast. What are some good business ideas? Something not too hard.
A franchise fee is the amount of money a person, organization or company pays to the franchise holder to support the knowledge of the system. Find out how franchise fees provide opportunities to buy into this system withhelp from a management teacher in this free video on business management and franchises. Expert: Mark Clifton Bio: Mark Clifton has a degree in marketing management from Oxford Brookes University, and has successfully completed the CELTA teacher training program of Cambridge University. Filmmaker: Paul Volniansky
National airlines buck the trend as business opportunities fill seats
Libya: The economic downturn has done little to dent the joint achievements of Libya’s national airlines which have both expanded their fleets and added to their routes in a bid to accommodate a rising influx of visitors, according to the Chairman and Managing Director of Libyan African Aviation Holding Company (LAAHCO), Sabri Saad Shadi.
Read more on Zawya
It’s still possible to expand your business in this economic climate
While many businesses are still struggling, if you’re in a relatively strong position, this may actually be a good time to think about growing your business.
Read more on Salem Statesman Journal
South Gloster businesses, residents say the area has many opportunities for development
TUPELO – Jerome Sheffield, like many business owners on South Gloster Street, looks forward to the eventual five-laning of a big portion of the road, as well as when Highway 6 connects to it.
Read more on Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
Business calendar
P.T. Barnum Speaks on Moneymaking and Success in Business. Character actor Jake Esau portrays showman/businessman P.T. Barnum. Presented by the St. Paul Public Library, the Ramsey County Library System and the Dakota County Library System. For information, contact Therese Scherbel at 651-266-7048 or therese.scherbel@ci.stpaul.mn.us. 7 p.m., Riverview Library, St. Paul …
Read more on Pioneer Press
HVCB going Down Under to rustle up new business
The Hawai’i Visitors and Convention Bureau is leading a 14-member sales team to Australia next week to help generate new business opportunities for the state’s meetings industry. The focus of the sales team’s efforts is the 18th annual Asia-Pacific Incentive and Meetings Expo, which is Monday to Wednesday in Melbourne.
Read more on Honolulu Advertiser
The idea of starting a business is alluring to so many people. There is the vision of wealth, providing opportunities and security. Also there is pride and purpose- knowing what you’re doing is for you and your family. And of course, one of the most appealing reasons is the freedom of being able to work from home and choose your own hours.
These visions are wonderful and, in many cases, attainable. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, there are over 17.6 million businesses with one or more owners but no paid employees.
So why are so many aspiring entrepreneurs left on the sidelines?
It turns out, there are three reasons. One, as you can imagine, is good old fashioned fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of failure. Believe it or not, fear of success. The second reason is a lack of knowledge. “Where do I start?” “I don’t have enough resources.” “I don’t know anything about marketing.” And the third reason, which I will be discussing in this article, is about the business idea, itself.
Business Idea Paralysis
What is business idea paralysis? Quite simply, it’s a condition that prevents people from starting a business because they get held back in the idea generation stage. Basically, they are stuck in neutral. Below are the two most common reasons why:
The Pet Rock Syndrome
In 1975 a gentleman named Gary Dahl created a product called the pet rock. Many of you have probably heard of it. In case you haven’t, it was nothing more than a rock set in a box on some straw. Within 6 months, Dahl had sold over 5 million of these pet rocks for $3.95 each. It cost him less than 30 cents to produce the rock. So, when you do some basic number crunching, he made over 15 million dollars in just 6 months – selling rocks.
What does this have to do with anything? Well, quite a bit actually. Imagine how much your life would change if you could sell something as simple as a rock and become a multi-millionaire in just 6 months. Pretty tantalizing isn’t it? Unfortunately, it has tantalized people so much that they never end up starting a business. They only end up chasing their own “pet rock” gimmicks that never catch on.
The reason is simple. Some people just haven’t been blessed by the idea gods. The gods have failed to spring upon them the multi-million dollar idea that they believe they need. No matter how hard they try to come up with the next pet rock, they can’t. If you don’t believe me, take a look at how many get-rich-quick schemes are being sold today. If people can’t think of the next great idea, then they will buy the idea from someone else. Well, guess what? It doesn’t work. Mr. Dahl was an aberration. He hit the winning lottery ticket. Chances are you won’t.
After you have wiped the pet rock syndrome from your head, beware of the next, equally as paralyzing syndrome that can keep you from getting to business with real, tangible ideas.
Peace, Love and Happiness Syndrome
On the other end of the spectrum we have the peace, love and happiness camp. This group is a little more realistic in their pursuit of a business idea. Their problem, however, is that they love too many business ideas. In fact, they love them so much that they can’t decide on the best one. They become paralyzed by trying to figure out which idea is best, and ultimately, never try any of them.
These types of people, I have found, are extremely visionary. They love to explore all of the different business angles and long term visions. The problem is they don’t take action because their heads are filled with amazing ideas and forecasts for success.
If you fall into this camp, I have bit of advice. Stop it! You need to choose an idea and then let your mind run wild within the boundaries of that idea.
How Do You Find the Right Business Idea?
There are two schools of thought on how to come up with the right business idea. I’ll discuss them below:
The Traditional Approach
The traditional theory for finding the right business idea states that you should find a need and fill it. In other words, you need to pay attention to your surroundings and look to see where there might be an opportunity to offer a new product or service that people may need. Once you do, that’s what you will build your business around.
There is no question that this method of generating business ideas work. It has led to many great inventions and innovations over the years. It is for this reason that pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars. They develop new drugs to satisfy a need, such as a heart condition. You can also see the traditional approach at play with today’s green technologies. New, “green” businesses are trying to fill the need for clean, renewable energy.
There is one problem with this method, however. It can be quite expensive and time consuming. First, you have to develop the product or service. This includes spending a lot of time and money on market research and sampling. Second, you have to spend a lot of money on marketing to not only introduce the product or service, but to also convince people that they really do need it.
If you’re a typical entrepreneur with limited funds and expertise, this may not be the best method of generating business ideas.
The Give Them What They Want Approach
There is a second school of thought about coming up with a business idea that in many ways is far less risky and is much less expensive. This theory is based on the idea that you should come up with an idea that already exists. Or, simply put, offer people a product or service that they are already buying.
Wait a minute, you may say, but doesn’t that mean there is more competition? Isn’t the market already saturated? Um, I would reply, tell that to Netflix.
In 1997 the originator of Netflix reportedly hit upon the idea for movie rental-by-mail when he was forced to pay $40 in fines after returning an overdue videotape of the film Apollo 13. Renting movies was not a new business “need” that needed to be satisfied. In fact, Blockbuster had been renting movies for over 10 years, and in 1998 had served nearly 60 million people who rented more than 970 million movies and video games. Netflix took a proven market (movie rentals) and simply enhanced the service by offering movie rentals by mail, with no late fees. The result: today, Netflix has over 10 million monthly subscribers while generating an annual revenue of over 1 billion dollars. Blockbuster, on the other hand, is struggling to stay afloat.
The point is that if you know what people are buying, a good business idea is nothing more than simply enhancing the product or service and/or marketing message. It’s a lot less risky and more often than not, a lot less expensive.
what are the business opportunities that would or will open up when we adopt e-commerce in our business?
One of the biggest struggles I had in starting my business was actually coming up with the idea. I wanted something that was scalable as well as needed in our society. I combed through hundreds of ideas before settling on my current venture. Through this discovery period, I uncovered what I believe are the five most important concepts in determining what makes the perfect business idea.
So, what is a perfect idea? Each individual entrepreneur has their concept of the perfect business. While Google is a great business for the founders of that company – it may not be a great business for others that are non-tech savvy or who do not want to run such a large organization.
Therefore, each perfect business is defined by the business owners. Keeping this in mind, let’s start on my five concepts of finding the perfect business:
Number One – Understanding your customer: This might seem strange to start here as how do you know your customers before you have a business idea in place. The answer is simple – your customers make the business, therefore without customers there is no business. If you have a business idea don’t try to develop the idea around what YOU think potential customers will like or need, but find out what your customers actually desire. Too often business owners get an idea in their head and jump right in with both feet. However, they soon find out that their target market does not want what they are offering. Spending both time and money on a project just to see it languish is not the perfect business idea.
Moreover, let’s say you don’t already have an idea – getting out and understand consumers (those who will eventually become your customers) may lead you to the perfect idea. Knowing what potential consumers need and building products to meets those needs will get customers beating a path to your door – that is a perfect business idea.
Number Two – Passion: Passion here does not mean being fanatical about your product or service. But, it does mean having some interest in what you do. More times than not, you will be spending 15 to 18 hours a day working on your business in the beginning – usually for the first 12 to 18 months (more like 2 years in this economy). You have to constantly be thinking about ways to improve and grow your business as well as be out talking about it to everyone, everywhere. If you end up starting a venture that you don’t have passion for, something that does not make you jump out of bed each morning, it will be very hard to put in the hours and energy to make it successful – thus not a perfect business idea.
Number Three – Understand Your Competition: Every business has competition – either direct or indirect. Think about movie theaters. They have direct competition from video rental stores or at home television. They also have indirect competition from any other activity that consumers spend their disposable income on like bowling, paint ball, golf, etc. Anything that people do in their spare time.
Further, some competitors are ruthless. Meaning that if you promote and offer a product that is similar to theirs but at a lower price, these competitors will just lower their price to match or beat you. If they are already established businesses – they may be able to undercut your price enough to drive you out of business.
If you don’t know your competition – what they are willing to do to keep you out of their market – you may be spending more of your time in a pricing war then growing your business – not the perfect business idea.
Number Four – Cash Flow: Lots of entrepreneurs enter the business world with great ideas but very poor understanding of the capital it will take to get their venture off the ground. Most will prototype their product or service and understand what it takes to make the product or provide the service but they don’t understand the capital it takes to manage the rest of the organization – including marketing (very expensive but extremely necessary), employees (more than just salaries or wages), insurance or supplies and all the little miscellaneous expenses that add up very quickly like phone, internet, computer services, etc. Knowing your total cash flow will help ensure that all of your costs (variable and fixed) can be covered by the business – the perfect business idea. I have seen way too many businesses with great products fail because they could not cover simple expenses like rent or utilities.
Number Five – You: Know who you are. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Know that you are ready, willing and able to do what it takes to make your venture a success. I have worked with many business owners in the past that think all they have to do is hang out their shingle and they have it made. Thus, when it comes down to actually running the business day-to-day – they are unwilling to invest the time, energy or money necessary for success. Thus, know how hard you are willing to work.
Moreover, know your personal financial situation and what you need the business to generate to cover your lifestyle. If you think your business will pay you a great salary from day one – it will not. And, if you need it to, it is not the perfect business idea for you. Take away outside distractions like your personal financial situation – get those in order – thus, when your business concept does materialize – you will be able to solely focus on its conception and growth. In the end providing you the financial security you are seeking – it will be the perfect business idea.
Regardless of the level of your desire for your business – a lifestyle mom and pop operation or a multi-national conglomerate – if you develop a business idea with these five concepts in mind – your idea will be the perfect business idea for you.
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