McDonalds , Uber and Facebook itself are big companies today, but they all started with a business idea, therefore, no one can deny that a business idea is the starting point for all entrepreneurs.
If you want to start a business and you already have a business idea, you are probably wondering what the next step is , so in this article we will give you some tips to move to the next stage of your company's life.
Before your venture takes shape, the first thing to do is polish the business idea , as it will help you plan the activities you need to carry out before opening the doors of your establishment.
Imagine a tower, if the base is not solid, as it is built, the project may feel unstable. This can also happen for companies. If the business idea is good, this will be seen in all phases of the development of the company. Of course, for growth it is important to see what actions and strategies are carried out, but for that the business idea is to provide clarity towards where that growth will be or what that growth looks like.
The human being by nature tends to anticipate. So if you are already seeing business, you are checking if you are in the bureau to request a business loan , how to register your brand, etc. Stop. The ideal is to check that your idea has enough elements so that from there you have a business plan.
Define your products or services
This may seem a bit obvious, because there is no business if you do not know what you are going to sell , but the important thing here is that in this first you define what this product will include. To be a little clearer, you can start answering these types of questions:
What product or service will you offer?
What are the characteristics of these products or services?
What benefits will your products or services bring to your potential customers?
What types of additional services will that product or service offer?
These are general questions, but it is better that as you answer, it is best to generate more specific questions. To make things clearer, we are going to give an example.
Let's say you want to start a restaurant. In this sense, you should not only define the type of food that you are going to offer but rather what benefits you are going to offer. For example, it may be food from a specific region of the world to attract certain types of customers.
That is, in this step it is best to define the specifications of the type of service you are going to offer and the justification of why one thing is and another is not.
Define the market niche of your business idea
When entrepreneurs are asked what their market is , many answer "men and women in their 20s to 60s." This is a problem because this answer is ambiguous and therefore not clear. For this step it is necessary that you go far beyond gender, age and socioeconomic level. Ideally, you should also know in which region, what they do, what problems or aspirations they need to solve.
For example, if you have a coffee shop near corporate offices, your market niche will not be the same if your establishment were near a park, because customers will have different reasons for going to your business.
This information will also help you adjust the characteristics of your product. Returning to the example of the cafeteria, if it is in an area near offices, something you should consider is that the service must be fast and if possible you can have food already prepared and packaged ready to sell. As you can see, having the market niche helps you to narrow down the characteristics of your service or product, which will later help you project costs and make other decisions, for example, how to finance your project (through credits or if you should associate, etc.
Define your competition
The next step is to see who is competing with you for that market niche. The important thing will be that you look at their prices, promotions, activity in social networks, business model, etc. The thing is that you see what they are doing well and what are their areas of opportunity to see what your differentiator will be.
Be careful, if you have the small cafeteria it does not mean that Starbucks is your main competition or that if you sell Pizza, you will compete directly with Dominos. Maybe at some point they will share customers, but try to choose competitors that are similar to the size of your business.
Define what resources you will need
If you've already landed the above points, congratulations! You are very close to starting to realize your business idea. Now is the time to define, based on your products and services, the needs of the market niche and you know what your competition is doing. Now, it is time to define the resources you will need if you want your idea to come true. You will need to define at least the following:
Do you need to hire someone to run the business?
What type of intellectual capital will you need for your company? That is, do you need to hire someone with specific knowledge (eg digital marketing, accounting, legal, etc.)
Will you have a point of sale or will you sell online?
What financial resources will you need?
Where will you find those financial resources? Are you going to partner with someone? Is it convenient to think about additional options such as an online loan?
What type of providers will you need?
Finally, you must document the answer to all the questions you have asked yourself, and then compose a business plan and thus have the list of tasks that you must have ready to launch your business.
