Launching your product or service and becoming your own boss is an exciting step, one of which, a lot people would love to take. However, the road to building a successful business is a windy one, with many twists and turns.
If you are thinking of taking the next step in your entrepreneurial journey, it is essential that you have a full understanding of the market you are about to enter.
Know your audience
Before you start developing your ideas, you need to have a clear idea of who your target audience will be and more importantly, why they need your product or service.
You need to consider a range of demographics in order to get a good picture. Consider things such as ages, gender, education, income and location. The more you are able to narrow down your target audience, the better.
Once you know who you are targeting, you can determine the potential reach and how to communicate with them.
Know your competitors
On top of understanding who your target audience is, you’ll need to analyse who your potential competition will be. Understanding the layout of your market and the major competitors should form a major part of your market analysis.
By analysing your competition, who holds market share and how saturated the marketplace is, you’ll be able to determine the viability of your product or service. If the market is devoid of a major presence, then going public is a great idea. However, if the marketplace has several major players and you don’t have a point of difference, it may be a good idea to reevaluate.
Pairing your customer and competitor research together will give you a good picture of the marketplace. Once you know this, you will be able to design an effective plan or go back to the drawing board.
What makes you different?
During your research, you will undoubtedly discover a number of competitors or similar products targeting your ideal customers.
This is invaluable research to determine your point of difference to set you apart from your rivals.
Are you the most cost-effective? Are you the highest quality? What added benefits do you offer the customer? In order for your idea to be successful, you will need to play on your unique selling point. Show the customer why your idea or business is better than the rest.
Are you financially viable?
Another key element that will factor into the validity of your business idea, is the financial components of going public.
Ask yourself, what are the expected costs of launching your business? Where will the capital come from? What are the ongoing costs? What is the earning potential of your business? These are all very important questions that need to be answered before launching.
In order to be successful and viable for years to come, you will need to have a clear understanding of the costs associated with your business.
At first, this may seem like a bit of work but it is critical you do a full analysis before you launch your business. Launching without understanding the full picture is setting you up for failure.
Launching a new business is an exciting time but it doesn’t come without risk. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses fail in the first few years and this is often down to poor planning, poor cash flow and failing to understand or keep up with their market. To save yourself the heartache of having your business fail, make sure you are adequately prepared with all the relevant information.
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