Archive for January 14th, 2010
Create A Business Opportunity From A Problem
January 14th, 2010 | 
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Turn a Problem into a Business Opportunity by creative thinking. People pay money to create a problem and then somebody else turns that problem into a business opportunity. How do we do this? First step is to examine and define in great detail what exactly the problem is? Then look at innovative ways to turn the problem into a business opportunity. Problem – We are eating a lot more then we should. Opportunity – exercise classes, weight loss diets, larger size clothes & diet drinks / foods. Think of traffic, then think of bottlenecks! Problem – a lot of people stuck in traffic. Opportunity – Billboard advertising & more demand for entertainment on the move! Problem – In this day of high speed life, people don’t have time to sit down and eat. Opportunity – Create a fast food franchise that serves hot food within minutes for customers to take away and eat on the move. Problem – people are drinking more. Opportunity – diet drinks, drink dispensers, low calorie alcoholic drinks, vitamins, more fun drinks & definitely more counselling! In our previous business, we had a problem when we were manufacturing specialised, shock absorbing pallets. We always many pieces of a certain size of wood left. I sent our salesman round local businesses to see if he could find a use for it. In the end we ended up making “button-ups” which had a 100% profit margin after expenses for pieces of wood which we used to throw away! Problem – Higher number of asylum seekers & refugees. Opportunity – low cost housing, lower paid labour force and increased demand for economy products! Problem – More spam! Opportunity – more demand for new software, better firewalls & more experts needed! What problems have you faced recently? Can you nail it down and turn it into an opportunity? Here are the steps we should take to turn a problem into a business opportunity: 1) Identify the problem 2) Do overall market research 3) Get a team in to collectively debate the problem 5) Sleep on it 6) Do some more market research 6) Apply creative thinking and problem solving strategies to identify a business opportunity Many questions can be answered by market research. What is the current state? Where is the market going? Who are the main players? How do consumers feel about the current solutions to their problems? How can we meet their needs better? We can turn every challenge into a business opportunity. Every business process can be improved. Every problem is a business opportunity. Every time you have a bright idea, make sure that you write it down in an ideas notebook. Can you solve last weeks problems in a way which people will pay money?
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Posted in About Internet | 
Tags: business franchises, business opportunity, opportunity | 
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Integrating A Website With Your Business
It has been one of my continual themes when talking with clients about their websites that their site needs to serve their business. When I work with a client, I look at their website as an extension of their business model. I take a look at their overall business and evaluate: * How do they make their money? * Who is their public or target audience? * How can their public be promoted to? * How can the web be used to help automate their business? I’ll listen to what they want to achieve with their website and then recommend options to help that website achieve the points above: making money, automate and promote to their target audience. Anybody looking to put up a website for business purposes needs to look at this. Too many business sites are very poorly thought out and underutilized. A good website is a lot more than good design. A good design and some content means only that a website is acting as a glorified brochure. Its better than nothing and any business today which does not at least have that really needs to get on the ball. However, beyond design, you can look at how the site will achieve the points above. Now, a business which is all web-based is very straight-forward in this department. A web-based business is going to want to collect payments from customers via the web, so we’re going to want a secure payment system on that website. We also want that website to be well-designed so that it does not confuse people and attracts the customers’ eyes to those things which make the business money. We’re also going to want to discuss how the web can be used to promote. A business which is not web-based would want to consider what they can provide on the web to extend their business. Traditional brick-and-mortar businesses may have a storefront or may need to deal with clients in person, but what can they do on the web to extend their reach? Promotion is paramount to success in business and on the web. A website can perform any of many promotional tasks such as: * Collecting sales leads by asking visitors to fill out a form. Perhaps give them some free, valuable content in exchange for their information. * Collecting email addresses for use on a mailing list * Auto-responders sending targeted emails automatically based on customer’s indicated interests on a form * Providing metrics on customer interest using landing pages and keyword advertising * Running polls and surveys to find out what your potential customers want * Running free articles which educate your customers on the subject matter of your business and get them interested. A website is a footprint on the internet which is viewable worldwide. Depending on the nature of your business, visitors located well away from you may not be that useful in terms of potential clientele. However, there is no reason why you cannot still gather information from them to use with your local clientele. After all, if they arrived to your website, they were interested enough to come. They are a public for you regardless of their location. Perhaps you can even find a way to change your business model to include these people which are not located locally to your business. In terms of automation, keep something in mind. A web server is simply a computer. Computers are great at doing repetitive tasks that humans either hate or would find a huge waste of time. For this reason, it is always a good idea to look over those business functions which are repetitive and see if your website can serve to make your life easier. For example: * Sending your email newsletters could easily be done using your web server. Click a button and email your entire mailing list. Easy. * Auto-responders can take care of automatically emailing your customers relevant information at regular intervals. * Automatically compile sales statistics and email them to you each morning (if you do web sales) * Export sales transactions directly into your accounting software to avoid typing them all in manually. There are a number of ways a web server can be used to serve a very real business function and actually do some of the work for you. A lot of this comes under the heading of programming. Design is design, however making the site actually DO something means it has to be programmed. So, if you are skilled in this area, you can do it yourself. Or perhaps you can hire it out to somebody. Before any of that, though, look over your entire business and the website you have and see how it can be utilized to make your business easier to manage or actually drive in business. Unless your website is personal in nature, then it is through the lens of business that your site needs to be evaluated.
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Posted in About Internet |
Tags: Business, design, development, ecommerce, Internet, multimedia, video, website |
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Find Success In Your Homebased Business
As with any business, a homebased business needs to be nurtured in order for it to be successful. It is not going to take care of itself, and it is not enough just to submit it to search engines to allow potential customers to find it, and hope it is going to do the trick.No matter what you may have been told, the truth is that you need to do some work before any business will make you any money.Yes, you have probably heard about residual income in network marketing, but that income is based upon hours, months, and possibly years of very hard work advertising,learning, promoting, and training in a continuous cycle until you have reached the level in the organization where you can sit back, just relax and let the business work for you. How does all of that tie in to the keys of success for a home business? You just have to work hard in order to be successful. A typical mistake that many people make with a homebased business is that they fail to see it as a real business.Their business comes second in line after doing all of the other things they want to do. Even though you are not working in an office, you have a business that needs your undivided attention, you need to devote time to doing just that, and nothing else. That means if your best friend calls and wants you to go shopping, you have to make sure she understands that you still have a job, even though you are working at home. Are you neglecting friends and family? No, but you have to set aside certain hours to work on your business just as you would if you were going to work each day. You donґt need to work 8-5 every day, but you do need to put in the amount of hours necessary in order to do the things that are required, so your business grows and you can reach your goals. You must also put aside time for your business promotion. You can do this by email, website promotion, passing out business cards in your local area, making up fliers to send out, or any number of other ways. It is important to have an organized method networking, in order to make your business successful. In summary, the key points are (1) You must treat your business as if you were going to work each day; (2) Have an organized criteria for what you need to do daily; and (3) Build your business with the knowledge that you will always have to be involved in order to maintain success.