So you want to be an Entrepreneur?

A common folly in many failed businesses is that the initial choice of business was wrong. Many a broken entrepreneur will acknowledge this in hindsight. This is why you need to honour the choice of what business you want to open. It is the first make or break decision you will take as your own boss.

Avoiding the pain of this first serious error is made a little easier if you field the choice with all the faculties you possess. Carefully measure and weigh the successes, skills and talents which led you to believe you could be a successful entrepreneur.

Get away from the starting block in good form by selecting the best draw for your assets right up front.

There are valuable techniques available to assess what will work for you, in your field of expertise and appeal to the market to which you have easiest access.

Initially you may have considered this new venture from a personal viewpoint and analysed your character in the process. The decision to go into business is not one taken lightly so we can safely assume you are passionate, courageous and focussed. Other information gleaned during this profiling period can be a key indicator as to what style of enterprise could suit you. The maxim is “know yourself to excel”.

Proceed step-by-step in the selection of your chosen business.  You may be able to moonlight initially to test the market and gauge your own response to the business sector you wish to enter. If it is a completely new field you could offer to work gratis for the experience.

We often see stressed high level executives turning their hand to a new small business venture in a totally different arena in a bid to escape the hectic pace of big city life. Many have gone from suits and boardrooms to aprons or overalls and deliver inspiring results!

It can be incredibly invigorating to remain in the field in which you work but as the boss instead of the employee. Choices are boundless.

Comparative analyses are vital in your selection strategy. The most graphically illustrative method to date remains a simple ‘FOR’ and ‘AGAINST’ checklist.

Research is critical. Chat with many assorted business people (as well as their staff whose opinions may have a different and enlightening bias) in the environment you plan to enter, listen and discern. Obey your own heart.

You will discover a practical step-by-step guide to key aspects of managing your own small business when you visit TheSmallBusinessToolbox.com.

How to do Market Research?

A recurring question amongst small business owners is this: Does a small business owner need to know how to do market research?

The short answer is – yes, absolutely! No business can operate successfully without knowing something about the market(s) it is working in.

However, the term “market research” is more often than not associated with terms like “statistically significant” and “sample size”, followed closely by “very expensive”! Those three by themselves, let alone any of the other technical terms usually associated with scientific research, are enough to make any small business owner throw their hands up in despair and run for cover.

So unless you have a qualification in statistics, or enough money to employ a market research company, the likelihood of a small business being able to get directly involved in a formal market research project is remote to say the least.

Yet your small business still needs information on the market it is operating in. So where to from here?

Well, its a sure bet that every small business owner, after running his or her business for a while, intuitively knows quite a lot about the market – prices, suppliers, competing companies, geographical distribution etc etc are factors that a small business owner will deal with on a daily basis.

The trick then is for the small business owner to try to put all this intuitive knowledge into a meaningful framework that will not only help them make good marketing decisions, but will also highlight areas where information is deficient.

The ideal framework for this kind of information can be found at The Small Business Marketing Toolbox. Here the small business owner will find a step by step process for developing a marketing plan unique to their business, utilising their own knowledge and filling in the gaps using methods that involve the business’s brains trust, and not the owners trust fund!

Market research is a key element in running a successful business and it doesn’t need to cost an arm and a leg. On the other hand, market research is not an end in itself – it needs to be used and incorporated in a marketing plan that will give a business direction and a competitive advantage. The good news is that any small business owner, using The Small Business Marketing Toolbox can easily and quickly put together a marketing plan that they can use to achieve their goals.

Your Business needs a Toolbox

Every business needs a toolbox – some literally need a toolbox (if you are a plumber, carpenter etc), but all businesses, especially small businesses and entrepreneurial start ups, need a business toolbox that can supply the business owner with the skills and knowledge to run and grow the business.

A busy small business owner in particular needs to pay attention to areas of the business that may seem of secondary importance right now, but that are vital to the continued health and growth of the business.
Too busy running the business to put together a meaningful and practical marketing plan? Too tied up to take a bit of time to consider growth strategies for your business, or the consequences of continuing on the path you are currently on?

The reality is that by not putting the building blocks of your business in place, you are seriously stacking the cards against your business surviving, or at the very least, prospering. But acquiring the skills and knowledge to run your business efficiently doesn’t have to be a major drag on your time and finances.

At www.thesmallbusinesstoolbox.com you will find a variety of toolboxes that can equip you with the knowledge and skills that will enable you to fine tune your business for optimum performance. You won’t need a degree in business administration to understand the material, and you won’t need a huge staff complement to activate the action plans that you derive from working with any of the toolboxes. What you will get is a structure and knowledge that will guide you in taking your business where you want it to go.

To find out more about a practical, step-by-step programme for your business visit thesmallbusinesstoolbox.com now!

Conducting Market Research

Market research is one of the best ways to find out information, factual or perceptual, from existing or potential customers, about your product or service offering.

However many small business owners don’t employ market research methodologies because they find them too academic and perceive them to have no relevance in their small business.

Essentially any time you ask a potential or existing customer a question you are conducting market research and the only thing you need to do is to structure questions and collate the information in order for it to have more value in your small business.

The best researchers you have are probably sitting not far from you right now! That’s right your staff are the best researchers you’ve got and they’re really cost effective too because you don’t have to pay them any more than you already are.

Why not take a few minutes right now and develop three questions your staff can ask every person they come into contact with in the next week and ask them to note down the answer. That way you can assess the responses and use market research to assist you in making those critical business decisions that are currently weighing on your mind at the moment.

If you can’t think of anything else why not try these three questions:
a) What do you like most about dealing with us?
b) What do you like least about dealing with us?
c) If we could change one thing that would make it easier to do business with us, what would that one thing be?

As with any market research the most important thing is to remember to ask the right people or your responses won’t be valid and, as mentioned above, to collate the responses into some meaningful format so that you can use the responses to assist you in making future business decision.

Getting to know what really matters to existing or potential customers is the key to successful business so once you’ve completed the cycle once go back and hone your questions and then the following week pose three different questions.

It’s lots of fun and you’ll be amazed, your customers will tell you exactly what you need to do to keep them happy, you don’t need to guess!

Marketing Tools

While a plethora of marketing tools are available to small business owners the most important marketing tool any small business owner needs is a marketing plan.

Without a plan you are literally operating blind with no notion of what is effective or non effective in terms of achieving your objectives.

However within the marketing plan the focus on marketing tools is there not just because the actual tools are a collection of activities you can do to get your message across to your target market. They are the only way you can connect with people in order to encourage them to buy your product or service.

Within the marketing plan framework people tend to refer to 11 Marketing Tools. These are; Direct Marketing; Internet, Public Relations, Advertising, Sales Promotion; Sponsorship; Exhibitions/Events; Promotional Items; Personal Selling; Social Responsibility and lastly Internal Marketing.

As you will know some of these have hefty price tags and some of them cost very little to implement. The trick for effectively using any marketing tool is to select the one that enables you to control your message and get it to your primary target market most cost effectively.

Which ones do you employ? Are there other options you should be investigating?

Remember, whichever marketing tool you use you need to ensure your message is worth hearing, is truthful, encourage people to act, and contains the critical contact information necessary for people to connect with you.