Business start-up needs: A 4 step process

Business start-up needs.

The value of a good product idea is proportionate to the size of the problem it solves. When you can communicate the problem to investors/advisers, and they nod their heads in agreement signaling they understand, then you’ve got an interesting business idea.

How do you put yourself or your product in front of your prospective clients?  Who is your ideal client?  A few years ago I met with a fellow coach who has her market very well defined, she asked me that question so she could refer people if obviously they weren’t in her market.  Your ideal client actually defines your niche.  At the time it really caught me off guard cause I was resisting choosing a niche because I felt like it would limit me. I now see how narrowly defining my target market makes marketing to them so much easier.  Once you decide who will buy your product or service you have to plan how to make them aware of how it will solve a problem for them.

I will clearly tell you up front if your looking at the second I’m not the coach for you. That is not my niche.  I want clients who are willing to work hard and are in it for the duration.  Now the duration may be short lived cause not everyone is cut out for being their own boss.  It comes with a great deal of issues.  None you can’t handle but at some point you might choose you don’t want too anymore.   So I work with clients helping them define what success will look like.  And when to cut and run. When you put a house on the market you don’t tell the agent what your bottom dollar is but you should know it.  So you can make an informed decision about when to accept an offer that might be less than what you want but in reality meets your definition of success.  Selling the house without a loss.
 Thinking you’re going to sell the business to Google is a kin to believing winning the Powerball lottery is a full-time career move these are not models of revenue.  At least not viable ones. Do these things happen? Sure. Doesn’t mean you bet the bank on it.  Planning your revenue model out means you have and idea, it should be simple – someone is willing to pay for what you offer. 
It might go with out saying but it won’t. Your model must be a profit model.  You can sell dollar bills for 99 cents and generate tons of revenue, but certainly guarantee the company will go bankrupt.  You have to have something that you can generate more than your spending.  Seems like a simple concept but often the extra expenses of running the business are not always calculated in, especially when your talking about a service. You may charge a set fee for your hourly rate but you might have to prepare 2 hours for every billable hour, that would mean you need to be able to divide your hourly rate by 3 and be able to see a profit.