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…
- 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.
- Create a professional looking website as outlined in “Online Business” section.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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…?
- 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?)
