Follow in the Footsteps of the Entrepreneurs
- Written by NewsCo
When it comes to business, you cannot go far wrong than follow in the footsteps of entrepreneur Phillip Kingston. As an entrepreneur, you will be looking for that next business opportunity where there is a gap in the market and room for growth. You will look for ways to be competitive on a global scale. Your success will ultimately be measured by the longevity of the company that you have founded, its financial results, and how many staff it continues to employ. This article will explore what an entrepreneur should know when setting up a business.
Market Opportunities
The number one thing when setting up a business is to know your markets. Whether your startup is based in Australia, America, Amsterdam, or anywhere else, you need to know who it is that is likely to buy your product and what competition exists out there in terms of companies selling the same type of product as yours. To discover this, it is necessary to conduct thorough market research. Online, this will include keyword searches to look for similar products and services to find the websites of others in your area who will be your rivals. This will also lead you to the feedback left by customers and just what it is they are looking for in a product or service. Perhaps you can address the negative feedback early on by making your product or service better than theirs.
Testing the Waters
Sometimes it is necessary to test the waters, so to speak. This means starting small, without investing too much in a venture, to see how things go first. You could, for instance, build an online store first to see what demand there is. That is before investing in a physical shop. Every business has to start somewhere and it is a way of gaining an understanding of your customers and your suppliers and how the industry works. For example, if you are based in Australia, setting up an online store could be a budget friendly way to determine whether or not there is an appetite for your products or services.
You should develop good habits by trying everything in a small way first and then looking to scale it up. It is all about building a reputation and a brand. You do not need others to have tested everything for you when you can find out in a small way for yourself. Tried and tested businesses are ultimately the successful ones because they are better prepared. Adopt good practices that you can bring to all your business ventures.
Digital Marketing
In a modern world, it is important to have an understanding of digital technology. Your interaction with social media is how you will promote and communicate with your customers. Building a website will give your customers somewhere to find you and to follow you from. The visibility of this website is important. There are tricks that you should know to increase your visibility. For instance, you can look into how SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and PPC (Pay Per Click) can help you to appear further up search lists, so you can be found first by potential customers looking to use your type of product or service. You have to work harder to be noticed online because nobody is just going to pass your shop by accident and call in, they have to deliberately seek you out.
With online stores, you should not rely solely on people finding your products through search words, you will need to promote products individually in other ways, such as featuring them on a home page and sending targetted emails. A good approach is to think about what additional value an interactive video can add over just a block of text and a still picture promoting a product. Interactive videos can be engaging and allow viewers to click on various parts of a video to discover what they want to know about a product. We have to consider that all customers are individuals, and so they may find different uses for the same product that we had not even thought about. They will have different questions about a product. So, let them explore the products themselves through an interactive video.
Finances
Someone within your business must have a grip on finances. It is a good idea to make forecasts and projections as to what you will need to make to break even, and to identify future stumbling blocks to cash flow. These might be seasonal and so can be covered, for instance, by a bank loan. Potential investors will also want to know how much money you plan to make to assess how good an investment your venture is. It is expensive developing a brand, so you should allow plenty of money for advertising your business and your products. It is not a one-off expense, either, to keep your business in the minds of your customers or clients, you will always need to continue with it to a degree. Once you have built up a good customer base you will be able to reduce your advertising bill to stay as you are, but not if you want to find new customers to grow your business.
In conclusion, to follow in the footsteps of an entrepreneur, you will need to thoroughly understand the markets for your product or service, be prepared to start small to test the waters, have an understanding of digital marketing to make your business visible, and know how to work out projections of your future profits to encourage investors.
