When a business idea strikes, there is a myriad of things that need to be kept in mind in order to make it a success. Just the mere idea is not something that is sufficient. The initial spark of an idea is just the beginning. From there, it is a whole journey of possibilities, both actual and unreal that needs to be dealt with in order to make it a successful venture.
More often than not, new business owners rely on a solid idea and consider it to be the backbone of a successful business. But, that alone cannot turn a business into a profitable and scalable one.
Here are 2 crucial queries that strike every new entrepreneur’s mind while just starting a business and some ways in which these can be tackled:
Here’s my personal anecdote for this. There’s a big difference between experience and expertise. Experience is about duration spent on learning a certain field and it does not equate to capability. I know so many people who have 20+ years of experience in their specific domains but have not managed to translate that into tangible success stories.
On the other hand, Expertise is dictated by sheer capability. When you are an expert in something you are able to produce a result and it’s a function of the knowledge or skill you have in that domain. But there needs to be a fundamental knowledge of your domain in order to convert expertise into the experience. You cannot just depend on the expertise and be lazy!
So, in my opinion, for you to start a business and succeed in it, it is important to have Expertise in the field and not necessarily Experience.
There are some clear steps you need to keep in mind, explore and jot down before you get down to starting a business. Because before everything, there is an idea. But is that idea good enough?
Here are some of the steps to follow:
- Is your idea of addressing a significant need or a problem? Identify, is there a customer for your product or service, and is the customer willing to pay for that particular product or service?
- Do you have the need or capability to provide value to address the need or solve the problem? Just passion won’t validate your idea enough.
- Customer Feedback Survey: Amongst probable customers if your product or service will add value to their needs? Reach out to customers, get their opinions through samples. Get a clear indication.
- Build a business model. How are you going to gain customers and provide your goods and services to them? How exactly will the business work? Build a blueprint.
- Make a checklist of the conditions needed to build a business model. It needs to be scalable & profitable.
- Build a pilot project and test if this idea can translate into an actual business. Target a minimum number of customers and achieve a target within a significant time frame. Once you have that report, get the right insights, and get that proof of concept, you are good to go!
When it comes to new businesses, entrepreneurs often need mentoring and sometimes even professional business coaching in order to understand the inner workings of their business venture better. A business coach helps in providing marketing tips, strategies to handle and build a team, among other things. Karan Hasija is one of Asia’s leading professional business coaches who is known for his entrepreneurial strategies.
