Posts Tagged ‘Business idea’
Your Unique Business Idea
It is not enough to know who you serve. It is also important to know how you serve your target market and why your product offers an opportunity unlike any other.
Today we will look at the question of why. Tomorrow we will get into the more challenging question of how your product is unique.
What Do Your Clients Want?
To build a profitable business, you must offer your potential clients what they want to buy, not what you want to sell or think they should want to buy. You must be able to look at your service from your client’s perspective, their urgent needs and compelling desires.
Definitions
Your client’s urgent needs are the things they would like to move away from, and their compelling desires are the things that they would like to move toward.
Uncover Your Client’s Inner Lizard
What are your client’s urgent needs and desires? This is not a simple question. To answer it effectively you will want to spend some time thinking deeply about your clients. I like the way life coach Martha Beck explains it in her book, Steering by Starlight: Find Your Right Life, No Matter What!
In her book Beck talks about the “reptilian brain” and describes its purpose as “to continuously broadcast survival fears”. Beck categorizes these fears as fear of either a lack or attack. The exact form these fears take may be unique to your target market but the substance is universal. Either we lack everything we need: money, love, security or we fear something bad is about to happen, radiation poisoning, plaque build-up, growing old without money or support.
If you know your clients well, you should be able to answer these questions from the perspective of their inner lizard.
If you have difficulty taping into the deep emotional need, try doing the Five Whys Exercise.
If you have difficulty, try watching television commercials with an eye toward the underlying fear. Is it lack or attack? Which fears resonate with you?
Image by Flickr user Bodker, licensed under CC 2.0
3 Ways to Make Money While Testing Your Business Startup Idea
“Ready, Fire, Aim” is often championed as the technique of successful entrepreneurs. It is also a technique employed by the leaders of the many businesses that fail each year. Market testing may be time consuming but you can gain valuable information about your market, your product’s value and your own readiness to lead your business to profitability when you take the time to test your business idea.
Here are three ways you can test your market and make money while you do it,
When you think you have a good idea, try testing the market by submitting articles to one or all of these sites. Seek to maximize your exposure and collect data. Particularly data on who is reading your submissions, questions they are asking, any comments they share on-line and how your competition is responding.
Write About Your Industry
You can establish yourself as the go-to expert or create product demand by writing and publishing articles about your industry. Here are two sites that publish articles and pay the authors for their work. The third offers expert advice.
AC’s platform enables anyone to participate in the new content economy by publishing content on any topic, in any format (text, video, audio and images), and connects that content to consumers, partners and advertisers. Using key words associated to your small business idea (try Yahoo’s Buzz) you can publish and test the market simultaneously.
The benefits are multiple. Not only will you be gathering data about your market but you will get paid. Associated Content offers upfront payments ranging from $2 to $15 for certain types of content. In addition the content you publish can earn you money via performance payments, which currently pays a baseline rate of $1.50 for every one thousand page views it receives.
This site publishes web content from freelance writers. Once you’ve developed a portfolio, you can submit it to this site and, if accepted, begin receiving assignments based on key word research. You continue to grow your reputation expand your expertise and continue to gather market research all while getting paid. What’s not to love?
A great business opportunity but, a word of caution: make your move strategically. This site is seeking quality writing from experienced writers. All submissions are reviewed. There is a knack to writing SEO rich copy so take some time to learn the trade before offering your services to Demand Studio.
So you say you are not a writer? Then consider sharing your expertise at Liveperson.com an online destination where people from your niche market can seek out live experts in a broad range of categories- including yours. Topics addressed by various experts at Liveperson.com include, spirituality, business, professional counseling, computers, and personal development.
You are an expert at topics and issues important to your market niece? As such, you can register with Liveperson.com as an expert. When you do you, you will be listed according to your professional expertise and will be available for hire by any LivePerson.com client. You receive all the tools necessary to communicate with clients and colleagues. A quick survey revealed prices for expert advice ranging from $4.40 per minute for an expert in India tax law to $18.90 per minute for a psychic reader and healer.
In what other creative ways can a new business idea be tested? I am interested in your creative ideas. Let me know what you are thinking.