Is starting a business the right time
Is starting a business the right time for you?
By Simon Misiewicz of www.optimise-gb.com -24th November 2011
Is now a good time to start a business? When is a good or bad time to start a business? Could you make a success of your chosen business or career given your expertise, ambition and motivation? This article aims to be thought provoking, why? If we can provide challenging questions then we hope that you will take time to evaluate the many options and choose the right one for you.
I would like you to consider four key themes
You
This is the best place to start. Your business will largely depend on you so if “you” are not ready, can the business get started? Are you motivated to get out of bed early in the morning, put in a full day’s work and finish the day by checking what you have achieved?
Do you have the capabilities / competences to deliver the right product at the right time at the right price?
Do you have the right support financially, emotionally and the resources to succeed? Having finances to support your business is key, do not underestimate costs to avoid being one of the 85% of businesses that fail in the first year.
Having clear goals that you believe will happen and you demonstrate everyday your commitment, is a necessity to help you succeed. Ensure that business ideas are written down and put them where you can see them every day.
Product life cycle
Products like everything else have a life cycle. What you would do without a mobile phone, never mind a smart phone? That said the age of tapes and VCRs are coming to an end with the emergence of DVDs, blue-ray, MP3 etc.
If you were launching a product into a new market such as building a web site in the 1990s, there was very little competition and success could be had with a good product. In the 2000s there are many more web developers and being the number one choice is harder.
You should therefore be aware where your business service / product is, in regards to the life cycle. It would be very risky to enter a declining market such as making VCRs when there is less demand.
Your competition
Are you better than the competition? Following on from the product life cycle you ought to be aware of the competition. You should be able to identify their strengths and weaknesses so that you can quickly copy and improve upon them. This gives you a clear idea of why customers will buy from you or the competition.
Make sure that you understand how they are addressing customer needs and indeed how they are communicating with customers to build innovative products / services.
You should be able to use social media to understand what customers think of your competition. Why not ask their customers how the competition’s products and services can be improved. What have you got to lose?
State of the economy
What is the state of the economy? If market confidence is low do you think people buy more or less of non-essential goods? This should help you determine if people have spare money to spend on more expensive goods and services compared to economy priced goods.
The same applies to the unemployment rate. If there are less people working then there will be less money being spent.
If unemployment is low and market confidence is high then more luxury items may be purchased.
You should then consider what products you are selling, essential / non-essential and review market / unemployment conditions and decide whether it is a good time to sell your products / services or wait.
A flip side to this is when market confidence is low and there is less money. Products / services that help people and businesses reduce their costs may be very popular to help them improve cash flow.
Use our free ideas generation and evaluation tool to help you decide.
.
If you have any additional questions or would like additional support then please contact us
I wish you the very best of luck
Simon
