How Test Your Service Business

Continuation from yesterday…..(How To Test Your New Product or Product Idea)

Once you have completed all of the steps above, you will have a fairly good idea if your product is ready for mass market. If it is, move into full scale business development model. If you are still not sure or if the product is not performing very well, don’t give up.  Keep playing around with your product and sales channels until all options are exhausted.

Service Business:

Service businesses are a little bit different. Depending on the kind of service business you are trying to offer, only a small investment might be necessary. That is unless you are trying to open up a physical location such as a hair salon or perhaps a spa.  Plus, they are much easier to setup.  And if you already have experience in the field, chances are, it is likely that you will already have everything needed to get it going.  Fast.  Just pick a business name, register your business with local authorities and get to work.

If that is the case, sales and marketing become your primary concerns. To get traction fast, follow these steps…

  1. Advertise your business in yellow pages. Plus, find what publications (newspapers and magazines) serve your target market audience in your area and advertise with them. Don’t be cheap. Put together a great introductory offer to attract new customers. Something that blows the competition out of the water. That should get the traffic in the door.
  2. Create a professional looking website as outlined in “Online Business” section.
  3. Tell everyone in your sphere of influence about what you are doing. Offer them and their referrals a once in a lifetime deal to get new business in the door.
  4. When not working or servicing clients, spend the rest of your time on generating new business.

Generally speaking and depending on what kind of a service business you have, it will take some time to build a clientele base. Yet, after completing the steps above you should have a fairly good understanding if your service business has a future. If you are getting traction, keep moving forward. If not, either adjust immediately by trying different approaches and marketing strategies or shut it down.

Food Business:

Another popular category is food related. Whether you would like to open your own restaurant, run a catering company or sell millions of peanut butter infused hot dogs, the idea is the same. Start small, test, adjust and figure out if you have a legitimate business on your hands. That means not trying to open up a restaurant or buying $500,000 worth of catering equipment or renting a large warehouse to set up your hot dog manufacturing facility. Remember, one step at a time.

  1. Find out if people actually like what you are trying to sell. Just because your mother thinks that your secret meat loaf is the best thing since the Regan administration, doesn’t mean that others will pay for it.  Start small and test. See if your friends and family will be willing to buy your “food products”. See if you are getting repeat orders.  See what kind of a feedback you are getting. Are you getting referrals, are people asking for your recipe, do people love your food, etc…?
  2. If you are getting great response in step #1, it is time to expand to local fairs, farmers markets and online. Plus, you can begin to approach local mom and pop restaurants to see if they would be interested in getting daily or weekly deliveries of the food items you are trying to sell.  Repeat business is a must.

The steps above will help you determine if people love your cooking or your food items. If they do, you are free to move to the next stage. If you are unable to get traction it might be time to adjust your recipe until you do or it might be time to shift to your next idea.

To Be Continued Tomorrow...(Why Am I Seeing This On  A Financial Website?)

Z30

How Test Your Service Business Google

How To Develop Business Ideas

business_ideasContinuation from yesterday……Typically, I concentrate on Three Primary categories that I am already involved in.  Although the process would be the same if I was generating NEW business ideas. For instance, here are some ideas from today’s session in all three of my categories.

1. Ideas to improve my existing businesses.  (3-4 daily ideas)

  • I should allow insiders to post valuable information in regards to publicly traded companies on my  InvestWithAlex.com website. That should drive a lot of traffic to the site.
  • I should add a self managed advertising platform for users of our ExpertZoo.com project. (Project is scheduled to be re-launched in January).
  • Start researching a possible short position in FORD Motor Co. (F). Should the US economy and financial markets decline as anticipated, Ford should decline at X multiple to the market.

2. Ideas from media reports, publications or something that I have seen around.  (3-4 ideas)

  • Robotics should become a huge growth industry over the next 10-20 years. Maybe I can create a robotic fan. It would operate in the similar fashion to the robotic vacuum.  It would follow me wherever I would go inside the house, providing me with a constant stream of fresh air.
  • A lot of war veterans are committing suicide.  I can build a recovery center in the Philippines that would help them to get better from the psychological perspective.  While at it, the same facility can help veterans with job retraining.  Maybe I can get the US Military or the US Government to pay for the program.
  • English teaching schools are incredibly popular in China. Yet, not many in China are teaching western world financial literacy and/or how to invest in the stock market. What if I can combine the two into one in order to offer the Chinese people a new way to learn English. Increasing their future wealth and earning capacity in the process.

3. Ideas from my Idea Matrix. (3-4 Ideas) 

Below is my randomly generated idea matrix for today.

Business Cards Smart Phone Kitchen
Cloud Boxing Car
Chemical Engineering Revolution Dog
Candle Beautiful Girl Stapler
Sandwich China Medical Center

Here are the four ideas I got from the matrix in about 5 minutes.

  • Business Cards + Smart Phones: Create a thin digital LCD and memory package that would act as a business card. When someone picks up your card they would be able to immediately learn more about you while initiating various interactions.
  • China + Beautiful Girls: China has a huge demographic problem. There is a lot more men than women. And all of the men desperately want a beautiful girl on their arm. Create a matchmaking service that would supply wealthy Chinese men with beautiful “marriage material” type of girls. A premium and an expensive service. Not a typical dating site.
  • Smart Phones + Dogs: To create a smart phone type of a device for dogs. American culture is obsessed with dogs. A small and inexpensive cell phone type of a device would be attached to a dog’s collar. It would then send you various updates, pictures of your dog, etc… to your PC or to your smart phone.  At the same time you would be able to call the phone and it would answer. You would have the ability to say “Hey buddy” (or whatever else) and your dog would hear your voice.
  • Gourmet Sandwiches + Dogs:  Create a delicious and a nutritious line of sandwiches for dogs. Owners and dogs alike will love it. You can start with one store and then mass market the idea to large retailers if the concept works.

Are these the best 10 ideas I could come up with in 30 minutes?

To Be Continued On Monday…….(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)

Z31

How To Develop Business Ideas  Google