Posts Tagged ‘ Knowledge ’

One of my biggest fascinations lately has been the role of creativity in business.

I’m not talking about creative accounting.  That can cause serious legal and ethical problems.  You just don’t want to go there.

Everyone in business has creativity.  The evidence is that the best jobs people will have 10 years from now haven’t been invented yet.  Business is about creating something.

An example will show what I mean.  My mom is a veterinary surgeon.  She claims she isn’t really creative.  But then I asked about how she solves some problems with the animals she works on.  It turns out she does have to be creative to solve some of the problems she runs across.

Another reader question asked about how to do market research.

There are several main purposes for market research.  Market research can help you, (in no particular order):

• see the size of your potential market,
• anticipate the needs of your market,
• develop an advertising strategy,
• know what price your product can bring in the market, and
• know where to reach your market (online sales, stick and brick, affiliate marketing, etc.).

A complete market analysis will address five main questions.  First, and perhaps most important, how do your customers hurt?  Their pain will drive your marketing strategy.

It doesn’t matter if you start a dry cleaning business, a pizza franchise, or a construction business, you need to understand what strategy will make you successful.  But you also need to know how to implement your strategy.  Your team needs to know how and why and why it works.  Any ambiguity will undermine your success.

So what do you do to identify a crystal clear strategy that drives your entire business plan?  Well, it starts with asking the right questions.  For example: What business is McDonald’s in?

So you are thinking about starting a business.  Congratulations!  Now what?

Where do you start?  How do you know what kind of business to create?

Rule #1 is, don’t go do something you don’t know anything about! That seems obvious, but people break this rule all the time.  The internet is full of people who will sell you their system that is “guaranteed” to make you money.  Buying their system is only guaranteed only to make THEM money.  Admittedly, some of those people have a pretty good product to offer, but if you buy some system, be SURE you will use it.