DREAM BIG
You must first of all dream and imagine WHAT you want to be? Dreaming in
this context does not requires you to lay your beddings and bury yourself under
the duvet snoring, dreams here refers to visualization and conceptions born out
of the desires to achieve an objective. Secondly, WHERE do you want to be?
Where you wish to find yourself within a particular time frame is pivotal to
setting your agenda. HOW you wish your life would be? WHEN do you want to make
your DREAM a reality, do you have any time frame?
COME UP WITH AN IDEA.
You will need an idea for a business before
you do anything else. This should be something you are passionate about, since
your new business will consume a great deal of your time and money. Come
up with business ideas by identifying things people need which no one else
currently provides or things that are trending as a matter of change in taste,
fashion, policies of government, or things that isn’t provided in your area, or
which you can provide better than anyone else.
CONSIDER IF IT IS PLAUSIBLE.
Before going too far, think about how plausible your idea is. Is it
something that people would actually pay for? Will it turn enough of a profit
to be viable? You will also need to be sure that it is possible to implement.
BE SURE IT’S UNIQUE.
Whatever your idea is, be sure it’s as unique as possible. This will
help you eliminate or significantly combat competition, which will make your
business more successful. By simply adding a flavor to currently existing
product can do the magic.
DETERMINE YOUR COST OF OPERATION.
You will need a solid business plan to
present to any investors and the best place to start would be with determining
your basic cost of operations. This will outline and help you determine how
much money is needed to produce the product or offer the service you intend to
offer or produce. Knowing your
cost of operations will be vital to determining if your business will be
profitable, since you will need to make more than this capital plus operating
expenses in order to remain in business.
DETERMINE YOUR POTENTIAL MARKET.
Be realistic. How many people will realistically use your business?
How much will they pay to use your services? If either number is too small in
comparison to how much it will cost you to stay in business, then you should
reconsider or change your plans.
DETERMINE OBSTACLES.
You will need to plan ahead for all of
the problems which can get in the way of running a business, evaluate
your competition, if their market share or product offering is too strong and
stable, and then you will have a very hard time breaking into the market. No
one will want to buy an equally priced or more expensive version of a perfectly
good product or service which already exists. You will also need to explore the
associated regulations and laws, especially regarding taxes. Make sure there are no prohibitive costs, such
as equipment which is too expensive to make the business profitable.
WRITE UP A BUDGET.
Once you have a general idea of how much money you have to work with, write
up a budget for marketing which indicates how much money you have available to
spend on advertising. If your business wouldn’t warrant your customers to see
you physically before they get the product or services, then you can explore
the power of e-commerce, online marketing, referral marketing and the likes as
they presently offers the cheapest cost of advertising.
CREATE IDEAS FITTING YOUR BUDGET.
Once you know how much money you have, research the costs of
different types of marketing and come up with ideas which fit those methods and
are effective for the price range. If you have a lot of money to spend on
marketing, for example, you can consider shooting a commercial. If you have
almost none, you’ll want to think about ways to use social media effectively,
which is very effective for requiring little money.
PLAN TIMING AND LOCATION OF MARKETING.
Once you know what kind of marketing
you intend to do, think about the most effective places to advertise and what
time of day, month or year are going to work best to reach your target market. You will want to be sure that you are using
marketing which is appropriate to the type of people you expect to be
interested in your product or services. So consider usability and physical
location as well. If your services are seasonal you will want to consider what
the best time of year would be to advertise. Also, television advertisements
will need to be timed so that the right demographics will be watching when they
air.
TALK TO A BANK OR ANY OTHER SMALL BUSINESS
FUNDING INSTITUTIONS.
Talk with a bank with which you already have a positive relationship. Ask
about what kind of business start-up loans they offer and how they can benefit
your business. By using a bank you already know, the bank will have easy access
to your financial records and will be more confident in investing with you.
DETERMINE WHERE YOUR OFFICE WILL BE SITUATED.
You will need a space from which to run your business. This can be a home
office if you require little space and will not have employees, or it can
require an entire workshop or warehouse. It depends on what you will be doing
and how big you intend your business to be. Some people’s car actually serves
the purpose of office, mobility and pleasure. Nowadays, there are VIRTUAL
offices scattered all over the place, you will only need to pay-as-you use or
pay for number of calls/correspondence and business meetings you held therein,
An example is a firm that provide virtual office is WORKPLACE PLUS LTD located
at NNPC Mulliner Tower Ikoyi Lagos,Nigeria.
PURCHASE EQUIPMENT.
Purchase all of the things you need to
start work. This can mean mechanical equipment, computers, telephone, or craft
supplies. It all depends on what you are doing. Try to purchase from firms that
will offer discounts for starters
MAKE USE OF MARKETING AND PR.
You will want to reach out to
potential customers in ways that make them want to use your business. This is
especially important when you are first starting, before you have an
established, regular customer base. Advertise in a way that catches
customers attention at a minimum and hopefully goes beyond to capture their
imagination. Be creative and appeal to the right
