starting your own venture

12 questions you need to ask yourself before starting your own business

While contemplating whether or not to start your own business, ask yourself these questions.

A lot of people with great ideas venture into the world of entrepreneurship with the motive of making profits. However, setting up your own business isn’t an easy task as you need to look after a lot of things which might seem very new to you.

While contemplating whether or not to start your own business, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Why should I introduce this product into a market?

If you cannot answer this question successfully, it clearly means that your product is either not new or not enough to suffice the current problems of society. If you can answer this question without hesitating, go ahead and answer the rest as well.

2. How will my product/service help the society or any other stakeholders?

This is a crucial question which needs to be answered because the whole point of entrepreneurship is that you spot a problem and create a new solution. You need to make sure that your product/service affects your stakeholders for the better.

Related Post: 8 attributes of successful entrepreneurs

3. What is the end goal of your business?

If you don’t have a mission and vision for your business, the whole thing could result in a failure. You need to have a goal besides profits which you want to achieve through the business you are setting up.

4. Which groups you need to target as your audience?

You can’t go around assuming that all people are your customers. You need to identify a proper target group for your product and focus on them more than other groups. You could also have secondary and tertiary target groups.

5. When are you likely to break even?

Break-even is a point where the total revenue earned is equal to the total cost incurred. This question is crucial because most businesses take about 6 quarters to break even. Also, this is the first question your potential investors will ask you because no one likes investing in a business which isn’t profitable.

6 What is your product’s USP?

USP is a unique selling proposition and it distinguishes your product from other competing products already available in the market. If you can clearly point out what is unique in your product and why it will work with your target group, go ahead with your idea.

7. What convinces you that customers are ready for your product?

Your product might be solving a problem and unique, but customers still might not want to buy it. In that case, you need to speak to some members of your target group and do basic research to see if introducing your idea into the market makes sense.

8. Who are your competitors?

As a businessman, you should be aware of your competition in the market and learn from their strong points. Based on the present competition, you can mould your product or service to make it look more appealing to your target audience.

9. How and what will you price your product?

Pricing is a very sensitive and important part of a business. You need to identify which strategy you would use for maximum market share. You could opt for sales maximisation or profit maximisation depending upon the nature of your product.

10. What channels of sales and distribution would you employ?

You also need to figure out the medium of sales and distribution you would want to employ for your product. It could be an e-commerce based product/service or sold through personal selling. You also need to figure out where your product would be available.

Related Post: 12 powerful lessons for new entrepreneurs

11. How much capital would you need to set up the business initially?

You need to be sure about how much capital you would require to set up your business in terms of rent, labour, raw material etc. Calculate the cost of fixed and variable inputs for a better understanding.

12. What are the risks you might be facing?

Every business has its own risks. You need to figure out the risks of your own business and try and minimise them.

4 essential considerations one needs to think of before setting up a venture

For aspiring entrepreneurs, it is essential to weigh certain pros and cons before venturing into a particular market.

A lot of entrepreneurs are trapped in 9-5 jobs and need a change of job for professional satisfaction. Some may have the required expertise but lack in experience. For such aspiring entrepreneurs, it is essential to weigh certain pros and cons before venturing into a particular market.

Here are four points to consider before you decide to start your own venture:

1. Learn to distinguish between what you can do and what you think you can

This is a very important consideration that entrepreneurs need to take into account before starting off. One shouldn’t be too optimistic about the different work domains an entrepreneur has to work upon.

For instance, an entrepreneur might be very good at marketing but social media might not be his forte. For stuff, one is not very proficient at; an entrepreneur should consider delegating for maximum results. When you have a fair idea of what your business should be like, you need to also make a list of the domains that you or your company needs to work upon- marketing, sales, social media, content etc. The tasks you know you’ll be good at should be done by you where as the others should be given out to people better in a particular domain.

2. Be confident about your idea and skills

An entrepreneur needs to be confident and have belief in his idea because he wouldn’t be able to convince customers or VCs regarding the venture otherwise. Also, if you as an entrepreneur believe that you’re good with marketing and pitching, you should be absolutely confident about the same.

Self-confidence is the key to succeeding in the business line. Without self-confidence, it is very easy to become a prey to criticisms and feel disheartened.

While you believe in yourself, you are able to inspire others around as well which leads to high levels of motivation within an organisation.

3. Research as much as you can

Researching about your own venture not only makes you aware but also gives you the power to take decisions more accurately. This step is crucial for any new venture because without required information, a business is doomed to failure. An entrepreneur needs to research about the market he wants to venture into and the target audience as well. This will help him reach out to his target better and maximise sales in the long run.

An entrepreneur also needs to be very sure about the start-up costs he is bound to incur from the venture he is willing to set up and have a fair idea of the capital he is going to require.

For instance, if a guy wants to open a shop, he should be aware of the rent of a shop in a particular locality and also the costs he would have to invest in the inventory. This will help him get a clear perspective and deal with stuff better.

4. Enjoy the whole process of starting a venture

Instead of worrying about the profits you’ll be making and the sales, you should enjoy what you’re doing because you chose to do it. All the time you decide to dedicate to your business, should be fruitful and worth it. Some days will definitely be more hectic than others, but on those days you should remember the sole reason why you started a venture. Also, be honest and dedicated because you as an individual are expected to spend a lot of time and effort on it.

If these considerations are met and you want to go ahead with your venture, we wish you all the best!

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10 Great ways to generate business ideas

You know it’s time to venture out on your own, but what to do? Find the business of your dreams with these ideas.

Great business ideas are all around you. Just open yourself to the possibilities, and you’re bound to find a winner. To start your search for that drop-dead idea that’s going to set the world on fire, start with the following sources. These can be the first steps in your search for the business of your dreams.

1. Start with family

Tapping family for great business ideas may not seem like an obvious first step. Sure, you’ll hit them up for cash once you’ve developed your idea, but what can your aging father or cousin contribute this early in the process? Plenty. Donald Trump certainly wasn’t bashful about learning the real estate business from his dad, Fred, who ran a thriving real estate development company, says Ries. Trump had the good sense to get some priceless training before going off to become one of the country’s foremost builders and real estate developers. “If his father hadn’t provided the foundation and training [he needed] to create a profitable business, Trump wouldn’t be where he is today,” Ries explains. “Unfortunately, many people insist on [creating a business] themselves without any help from their family. That’s foolish.”

2. Get a little help from your friends

Ries says you are severely limiting yourself if you rely solely on your own ideas–especially when your creative juices run dry. This is reason enough to listen to ideas others may have. If you have 15 or 20 friends, chances are a couple of them have some incredible business ideas.

If it weren’t for Steve Jobs’ good friend Steve Wozniak, there would be no Apple Computer today, Ries points out. “Jobs didn’t know anything about computers,” he says. “Wozniak, on the other hand, was the computer genius who developed the first Apple.” Jobs had an eye for great business ideas and saw the marketing potential for developing a new type of computer. The important lesson is to keep your antenna up at all times so you can retrieve good ideas when you stumble across them. Ries insists you can make more money recognizing someone else’s idea than creating one yourself.

3. Look at all the things that bug you

It may not sound profound, but this is fertile ground for great business ideas. How upset Kemmons Wilson was in the 1950s when a motel owner wanted to charge him an additional price for each of his five children. He was so ticked off, he launched Memphis, Tennessee-based Holiday Inn, today one of the world’s largest hotel chains.

If King C. Gillette hadn’t been fed up with the tedious process of sharpening his straight-edge razor, he wouldn’t have founded the massive disposable razor industry. When he took his idea for a portable razor with a blade that could be used several times to a research university for assistance, engineers questioned his sanity. Gillette followed his instincts and the rest is history.

4. Tap your interests

Thousands of clever people have taken up hobbies and turned them into a successful business. Tim and Nina Zagat, who launched the Zagat Surveys, a publishing empire that sells restaurant guides for many major U.S. and European cities, are great examples. In the early 1970s, the Zagats were high-priced corporate attorneys whose passion was dining out. For fun, they created a newsletter in which they asked their friends to rank popular restaurants in several categories. Each year, the newsletter encompassed more restaurants. Eventually it became such an expensive and time-consuming undertaking that the couple began charging money for it to allay their expenses. That was the meager beginning of the famed Zagat Survey, which is sold in bookstores worldwide.

When you’re doing something you love, it’s never considered work.

5. Travel

Traveling opens your eyes to a plethora of potential business ideas. Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals’ discovery of Domino’s Pizza on a trip to the United States from his native Spain. Pujals was so impressed with the fast-food operation, he went back to Spain and launched his own version, called TelePizza, in 1986. His company now registers $260 million in sales, and employs 13,000 people in eight countries.

6. Keep your eyes open

When you see something that piques your interest, ask yourself, What is it about this situation that’s special? The process of zeroing in on the idea often spawns important niche markets. “Blockbuster Video’s niche is renting videos, and Bulbs Unlimited’s niche is selling light bulbs”.

7. Examine old mousetraps-then build a better one

If a product doesn’t meet your own high standards, create a better one. That’s what put Ben & Jerry’s on the map. Ice cream fanatics Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield felt popular ice creams weren’t rich and tasty enough for their cultivated palates, so they created their own super-premium line of ice cream, which is a bestseller nationwide. Just think: If these ice cream gurus weren’t such picky eaters, there would be no Cherry Garcia, Chubby Hubby or Phish Food to enjoy.

8. Take it to the streets

There’s no better place to lock into up-and-coming trends than city streets. Street culture spawned punk, hip-hop, grunge and a number of other fads that rapidly evolved into multimillion-dollar businesses. Great ideas can often be found by just browsing happening inner-city neighborhoods in virtually any big city.

9. Sleep on it

Many people ignore their dreams, and some don’t remember them at all. But sometimes it pays to listen to those inner messages, no matter how strange or unintelligible they are. You never know, you might just find the germ of a great idea. The tough part is crawling out of bed in the dead of night to jot down those great ideas before they’re forgotten.

10. Check out the Net

Finally, Web surfing is a fun way to log on to potential business ideas. “Virtually every search engine has a ‘What’s New’ or ‘What’s Hot’ section, where it lists new trends, news tidbits and hot new Web sites. “Make it a point to check out various sites daily. It may trigger an idea or concept you never thought of.”

This article was originally published in Entrepreneur.com

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