by Angela Taffs | Feb 20, 2015 | Starting a Business
Are you employed? Are you truly happy in your job? Be honest now.
Over the last few weeks I have been amazed by how many women I have met who are desperately unhappy with the job they are in but are too restricted by having to pay the bills etc to be able to walk away. They have fabulous business ideas and the talent to make a business work but are just too afraid to take the ultimate step.
Are you like that? How many others out there are like that?
We can all read the self help books telling us to step out of our comfort zone and jump into the unknown where great riches await us. But how many of us really have the belief to take that jump?
There are so many people, both male and female, who feel trapped. They need the immediate ‘security’ blanket of a regular income no matter how unhappy it makes them and with the inherent risk in today’s world that they ‘security’ blanket may be whipped away at any moment and replaced with redundancy.
It takes a truly brave person to leave a 9 to 5 employed job to jump into the unknown, but at the same time, the people I know who have taken that jump are infinitely happier long term than those who have not.
So how about you? Are you brave enough to take the jump?
It is a scary decision. I know because I have been there and done it. I have had success and I have also had failures (or learning curves as I prefer to call them) which resulted in me having to re-enter the world of employment for a while.
If you are waiting for the right time to quit your job and start your own business, I doubt that time will ever come. If you really feel the risk is too big to take, how about testing out your new business in the evenings and at weekends whilst remaining in your employed role? This can be the lesser of two evils and can give you valuable research opportunities as to whether your business will work or not.
The worse thing you can do is to stay in a job you hate, with unfulfilled ambitions and dreams. Life really is too short.
If you would like a chat about your new business idea, get in touch now.
by Angela Taffs | Jan 10, 2015 | Personal and Lifestyle, Starting a Business
Finding your passion
Why finding your passion is so important in business
So today I met a lady who I have been advising on her business.
Whilst I would never tell anybody that their business is doomed to failure, I will also never sugarcoat a situation for someone where I do not see a successful future.
We sat down and went through some cold hard facts. The lack of clients and sales was one but the more pressing concern for me was that when she discussed her business with me, there was something lacking in her voice. She had no passion.
I truly believe that to succeed in anything, whether business or life itself, in order to give yourself the best chance of success, you need to be passionate about what you are doing. If the thought of getting out of bed and going through the motions of what you need to do fills you with dread, you are never going to fulfil your potential.
So we stopped talking about business. I went off tangent and asked her to tell me what she enjoyed doing in day-to-day life. What were her hobbies? What did she look forward to? What did she get excited about? What did she enjoy in her childhood?
The difference in her face and speech was incredible. When talking about what she enjoyed her face lit up and her body became more animated. She became alive.
After a while and with some thought, we found a way of bringing her passion into her business. We could adapt what her business was currently offering and go in a slightly different direction without losing the main ethos of what her business was about.
We brought hope and excitement back into her business and I am sure that with some more planning and dedicated work she will now start to see her clients increase and her income get to where she wants it.
It is not guaranteed that this will work with everyone and with every type of business but sometimes sitting down and going back to basics can be so worthwhile. And the basics of a small business are you – the business owner. Ultimately you are the business.
So if you feel stuck in a rut and would like some help to bring the passion back into what you are doing, give me a call. I don’t make any guarantees but I strongly suspect that some new ideas for your future may come to light.
You may just discover that finding your passion for what you do isn’t that hard after all.
by Angela Taffs | Jan 2, 2015 | Starting a Business
All about Market Research
So many people start up a business without doing any market research. They then wonder why their product or service does not get the sales they were expecting and ultimately, why their business is failing. Read on to find out why market research is important for your business and why by doing it you will have a better chance of success.
Why market research is important if you want your small business to be successful
Unfortunately, many small business owners disregard the importance of market research. It is all too common for small business owners to ignore market research altogether and to base their business idea on their own assumptions. All too often, this results in the business failing which could have been avoided by doing some basic research.
The Danger of Assumptions
Many small business owners assume that they understand what their customers want and what motivates them to buy. But relying on assumptions is a dangerous game. I have met all too many business owners who think that by creating a similar product at a lower price point, buyers will flock to them. This is not always the case and has proven to be a downfall for far too many.
You need to find out how to connect with your target market and understand their needs and buying habits. You need to understand why your target market buy what they do (and rarely is it price!), why they choose one supplier over another and what would motivate them to move to a new supplier should one enter the market (you!)
Go out there and get cold, hard facts and figures, not just base your business on loose guesses. This will then give you a competitive advantage when entering the market. The more you can find out about how much demand there will be for your product or service, who is likely to buy it, what they will pay and what your competitors are doing the better chance you have of creating something successful.
Market research will help you:
- Test the viability of your business idea
- Who your ideal customers are (your target market)
- Will these customers buy from you and how much will they pay
- What the market trends are in your industry
- Find out who your prospective customers buy from already (your competitors)
- What your competitors are doing well, doing badly and what they are charging (competitor analysis)
You need to plan your market research carefully to get the answers you need and you also need to allow time to carry it out.
And if you don’t get the answers you were hoping for, this does not necessarily mean that your business idea will fail. It just means that you may need to adapt your product or service to suit the needs of your target market. I started up my business consultancy but a lot of the women I met who needed my help couldn’t afford my hourly rate. That is when I decided to start up my on-line advice which was more affordable for them and gave them access to a lot of the advice they needed.
On the other hand, please do not bury your head in the sand and ignore the results of market research if you don’t hear what you want to. Too many small business owners get personally attached to their idea and refuse to listen to the evidence in front of them.
Now you know why market research is important, it is essential to remain objective when carrying out the research and to use the results to plan the most effective way to give your business the best chance of success.
by Angela Taffs | Dec 30, 2014 | Starting a Business
Are you thinking of starting a business?
If so, there are a few considerations to bear in mind before ploughing ahead in order to give your business idea the best chance of success.
Create a business plan.
It is very easy during the initial enthusiasm of thinking of starting a business to jump in with your new idea and overlook the finer details that can help indicate the likelihood of success. Many think that business plans only need to be written when trying to raise finance, but the actual writing out of a business plan can help you define your business idea, assess it’s viability, define your goals and plan how you are going to achieve them. It will help you think about your competition and what you are going to do to stand out amongst them. It will help identify where you product or service will be placed in the market and what people are likely to pay for it. Most importantly it will help you plan your cash flow and how you are going to survive in the early days until you get it fully off the ground.
Beware of going ‘all in.’
There are many people who have used their credit cards to the max or re-mortgaged their homes to fund their business idea. For the rare few, this gamble paid off. But for many more, this led to tears and financial ruin. Think carefully before putting everything on the line for starting your business. Starting a business is stressful enough as it is without the additional worry each month that you may be on the verge of losing your home. Do your research, write your business plan and consider carefully how your business will be funded.
Test the waters before giving up the day job
To minimize the risk of failure, try testing your business idea out on a small scale before you throw in the towel on your day job. There are numerous small business owners who remained in their day job whilst building their own business slowly in the evenings and at weekends. Yes, it will take you longer, but the risks are far lower and you will still be able to earn a salary to pay the household bills each month. A word of warning though, do check there are no restrictions in your employment contract restricting you from carrying out work elsewhere.
Save for a rainy day.
Even the most successful of start-up businesses can be caught in an unexpected market downturn. And there is always the unexpected scenario or emergency that no one could have predicted. From the moment of thinking of starting a business, make sure you build up a financial buffer and continue when your sales are good so that you have something in reserve in case the lean times hit. If the unexpected does happen, you will still be responsible for the business bills. Having a cash buffer will take the pressure off if the bad times hit and could mean the difference between your business surviving or failing long term.
Protect yourself.
Too often I hear ‘it will never happen to me’ but every business is vulnerable to potential risks. It is so important to have a backup or disaster recovery plan in place and to protect yourself and your business from potential risks. Take some time to think about worst case scenarios and how you’d handle them. What if a fire or flood destroyed your office? What would happen if a customer or employee sued your business? What would happen if you were ill or injured and couldn’t work? Make sure you have insurance protection in place and put procedures in place to ensure your business could continue to run in the worst case scenario.
Start with the end in mind.
Start with the end in mind. Many start up business owners think it crazy to be thinking about selling their business before it is fully up and running, but by planning what will ultimately happen with the business in the future, will help you plan and set goals to achieve along the way. Without an end plan in place, a business can drift along and go off track and not be as successful as it could be with a clear exit plan in place. Remember, one day you will either want to hand over the reins or sell on and have a nice lump sum in place for your retirement.
Seek professional advice.
If you’re serious about starting your own business and making it a success, find yourself a mentor or advisor to give you expert advice. An experienced business advisor can be there to help you develop your business plan and launch your new career. They can be an invaluable sounding board and their experience and independent perspective can help you steer clear of the numerous start up mistakes so many make.
So if you are thinking of starting a business follow the steps above to help you make it a success.
by Angela Taffs | Dec 29, 2014 | Sales and Marketing, Starting a Business
How do you know if your business offering is really good enough?
One of the worst situations I have to deal with when working with businesses is that of visiting a client who truly believes their product or service is far superior to the reality.
This is an incredibly difficult situation to deal with as I would never want to crush someone’s dream and self confidence, but at the same time it would not be fair of me to continue to lead them into a world of self delusion.
So how can you be sure your own product or service is really good enough?
First and foremost, if you are already trading, your sales and repeat business along with client testimonials should give you an indication of how good you are.
If you are starting up though, this will be more difficult to determine.
Market research is critical. And please oh please, do not rely on friends and family when undertaking any research. In my experience, friends and family will tell you want to hear for fear of hurting you and will rarely give you an unbiased opinion.
You need to do some test marketing and get feedback from real customers, and making sure these customers are from your future target market base. There is no point at all in asking a group of teenagers to try out a product aimed at the over 50’s market.
When asking for honest feedback, you need to be quite thick skinned as it may feel like a personal attack if any criticism is forthcoming. However, I truly believe far more can be learned from critical feedback, or critique, rather than purely positive feedback. Yes, praise is needed and we should celebrate our successes but if we do not hear what is wrong with our product or service, then how can we ever improve and stay ahead of the competition.
As the saying goes:
Praise makes you feel good but critique makes you better
If you do not feel strong enough to take the hit at this early stage, then get someone else to gain the feedback for you and create an overall report. This can be someone you know who is wholly unbiased (once again not friends and family please) or you can engage with a professional company to do this for you (at a charge of course).
It is far better to get honest feedback in the early days than to find out later down the line why repeat sales are not forthcoming and perhaps a poor reputation has already been gained.
It can be quite a painful process to go through, and yes, I have been through it myself, but it can also be one of the most worthwhile.
And remember, many of the best products out there came from hundreds of knock backs and years of rejection so you are not alone. Just think of:
- James Dyson (Dyson vacuums)
- Colonel Sanders (Kentucky fried chicken) and
- Thomas Eddison (the lightbulb)
All the above went through countless rejections and criticisms but who all did not give up and used any criticism in a constrictive manner to help them improve their products and become market leaders.
What’s the best critique you have had for your business and how did it help you? Leave your comments below.
