How does your product or service meet a need?: boost your entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is more than just launching a product or service into the market; it’s primarily about identifying and addressing existing needs in your community in an innovative way and, in the background, scaling entrepreneurship into a company. In this blog, we’ll explore how you can identify these needs, offering effective solutions that enhance your life.
Elements of the Agile Business Map:
- Customer Segments
- Identifying the Market Problem
- Product or Service
- Differentiating Factor
- Sales Concept / Unique Value Proposition
- Distribution Channels
- Marketing and Sales Plan
- Team
- Competition
- Financials
- Executive Summary
Element #3: Product or service
In my experience speaking with entrepreneurs, their first businesses arise in the following ways:
- Selling a skill you know how to do, whether it’s a service or product.
- Through a business opportunity with a specific brand distribution.
- With commercial alliances using only social networks.
- As a family legacy.
- By acquiring a franchise.
In all cases, these projects are ready to meet the needs of a community, the best way to know if this opportunity you have is “sellable” is to say it meets a need and by looking at your competition; if there’s competition, there’s a market, it’s a quick and effective way to check if you have a business on your hands. And what if my business idea is new and there are no competitors? Does that mean there’s no need?
In the venture of starting a business with a novel product and no direct competitors, you’re in an exciting but challenging territory. The absence of competition may seem like a favorable scenario, but it also raises questions about the viability and potential success of the business you have in mind.
Even if there are no direct competitors, conducting thorough market research is essential. This involves thoroughly understanding your target audience, identifying their needs and desires, and evaluating how your unique product could effectively meet them. Analyze market trends, and conduct surveys, interviews, and focus groups to gather valuable information. Starting a new business when there’s no competition may mean more investment in introducing the new product to the market. “Once, in a meeting with entrepreneurs, they made a joke. If there are no flies in Switzerland, you can’t sell fly swatters; either we bring flies to reproduce or we change our line of business.”
Before fully launching, validate your product concept. Is there real demand for what you offer? You can conduct pilot tests, offer beta versions, or pre-launch sales to assess market response. See how potential customers react to your proposal and adjust accordingly.
If your product is novel, one recommendation to consider is the possibility of protecting your intellectual property through patents, trademarks, or other legal mechanisms. This will help prevent others from copying your idea and maintain a competitive advantage in the long term.
Once you’re clear on moving forward with the idea, you should start designing your customer’s purchasing journey…
We’ll start by imagining how a need arises in people, to make this exercise easier, imagine yourself: Imagine waking up with a problem that deeply affects you: maybe it’s the lack of time to do household chores, the need to learn a new language to expand your job opportunities, or the search for a more efficient way to track your expenses. These needs cause discomfort, and stress, and sometimes limit your potential.
Now let’s move on to the second part where you decide to take action and seek help. How do you evaluate your best option? Let’s say you start an active search for solutions on the internet. You compare products, services, and options available in the market, evaluating aspects such as quality, price, convenience, and brand reputation.
Your role in meeting your needs
In your role as an entrepreneur, you must be attentive to emerging needs and be able to anticipate market demands. This involves a deep understanding of what you need and the ability to adapt products or services to effectively meet those needs. It’s not just about offering a product but a comprehensive solution addressing your pain points.
How to use AI to constantly improve?
Artificial intelligence (AI) offers powerful tools to understand your needs and continuously improve the solutions offered. Through data analysis and machine learning, you can obtain valuable insights into consumer behavior, identify patterns and trends, and adjust your strategies accordingly.
Listening to their feedback to constantly improve, feedback is invaluable for the growth of any business. Entrepreneurs must be willing to actively listen, understand concerns and suggestions, and use that information to improve their products or services. This increases your satisfaction, strengthens brand loyalty, and encourages word-of-mouth recommendations.
To further enhance the value offered, consider creating additional inputs, complementary services, or memberships that expand the offer and meet additional needs. This may include online tutorials, personalized consulting, access to an exclusive community, or discounts on future purchases. These additions not only add perceived value but also generate new sources of income for the business.
It may interest you: The history of currency: a journey through time.
Your effective entrepreneurship is about identifying and addressing needs innovatively and efficiently. By deeply understanding what you need, using tools like artificial intelligence to continuously improve, and actively listening to your feedback, you can offer solutions that not only meet your existing needs but also have a positive and lasting impact on your life.
In the next blog, we’ll talk about how to stand out from the competition, so keep moving forward and grow your entrepreneurship.
