5 Tips to setting up a successful business

In the these times of global economic meltdown and job losses it is only natural that you begin to look at alternative options to make money and save it for a rainy day.

But before you jump into a business headlong you need to understand a few things first. You need to do an honest SWOT test – Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Weaknesses. Though this a very basic test - this would go a long way in helping you understand all those core issues about your business model, and help you make the right decision about your ability to perform.

Once you have identified your product or service that you think you can excel at in delivering, please consider the following five points.

1: Who is your customer?

2: Why should s/he buy it from you?

3: Tell your customers about your product / service.

4: Generate leads, ask and close the sale

5: Find the right software to automate it

Let us see in detail how each of these questions is going to help you in your endeavor to be a successful entrepreneur.

1: Who is your customer?

The first thing you need to do is define your customer.
Is this customer female /male? Or are you serving them both?
What is the age?
Where is s/he?
Why s/he should buy it from you?

Let us presume that you are planning to sell them a toothbrush. Now ask yourself these questions. Your answers will tell you what you ought to be doing to sell this revolutionary design toothbrush. Try to find a small group for a test launch. This test launch should be able to help you review your enterprise.

For e.g.: Your neighborhood may have a population of about 10,000. They are all potential movie goers. Most of them may be potential buyers of your latest CD /DVD player. Your competition is the local cable TV distributor.

In an other hypothetical example, not all of them that visit the corner store to buy a soft drink in the winter but some of them would like to have a cool drink during the summer. Hope these examples would help you understand.

2: Why should s/he buy it from you?

Now that you have carefully identified and chosen a target group in a given geographical area, you must identify what their needs and aspirations are. To do that you need to design surveys. To elicit responses to your survey you must visit clubs, societies, various groups and forums where they meet. You should request permission to conduct your surveys. There may be instances where you must consider enrolling yourself in those organizations. You may have to even employ the services of a professional to do your market research for you. Then you can refine your product or service to offer this group. This is one way of creating a market even before you launch your service or product. This way you have a market open, ripe and ready to be serviced by you.

3: Tell your customers about your product / service.

Now that you have identified your target group and understood what it needs and aspires for, you are ready to begin promotional activities. It is that much easier for you to create and launch a promotional campaign to maximize the visibility of your product or service. This would entail that it would generate maximum interest. This process ensures that you avoid certain pitfalls of the traditional marketing strategies. I am sure that if you were to sell school stationary, it only makes sense to generate interest in the school going children and their parents and the school authorities like the teaching faculty, the administration. It serves no purpose in advertising in journals of serious scientific study in the areas of advanced rocketry.

You need to constantly be in touch with your market to capture their attention always and adopt yourself to the changing market trends. This would happen only when you maintain an open communication channel with your market.

4: Generate leads, ask and close the sale

Now you need to make a difference with your offer to service and the product. Excellent service helps set your business apart from your competitors. Make the most of your USP (unique selling preposition). Reinforce it. Again and again. AT every opportunity exploit your USP.

You will be most successful:

When your product is of the highest quality and backed up with the best of service, it ensures success.

Create the right ambiance for your product and or service and present it then. It deserves it.

Build a promotional campaign around your products USP and generate leads.

Follow up the leads, ask for a sale and close the sale.

Remember closing the sale is realizing payment for your product or service

5: AUTOMATE EVERYTHING

Try to find a software that helps you automate your sales process. There is plenty of excellent software in the open source domain that would not cost you a dime. This would help you concentrate on the other aspects of your business and thus help you succeed in your initiative.