Css Lec Lesson2

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Entrepreneurship?

It is the process of starting a business, a startup company or other organization.


Entrepreneur?
Develops a business plan, acquires the human and other required resources, and is fully responsible for its
success or failure

Important Skills Of A Successful Entrepreneur


1. Excellent planner:
Planning involves strategic thinking and goal setting to achieve objectives by carefully maximizing all the
available resources. A good entrepreneur develops and follows the steps in the plans diligently to realize goals.
A good entrepreneur knows that planning is an effective skill only when combined with action.
2. Possesses people skills
This is a very important skill needed to be successful in any kind of business. People skills refer to effective
and efficient communication and establishing good relationship to the people working in and out of your
business. In day-to-day business transactions, you need to deal with people. A well-developed interpersonal
skill can make a huge difference between success and failure of the business.
3. Sound decision maker
Successful entrepreneurs have the ability to think quickly and to make wise decisions towards a pre-
determined set of objectives. No one can deny that the ability to make wise decisions is an important skill that
an entrepreneur should possess. Sound decisions should be based on given facts and information and lead
towards the pre-determined objectives.

ENVIRONMENT AND MARKET (EM)


Aspiring entrepreneur need to explore the economic, cultural, and social conditions prevailing in an area.
Needs and wants of the people in a certain area that are not met may be considered business opportunities.
Identifying the needs of the community, its resources, available raw materials, skills, and appropriate
technology can help a new entrepreneur seize business opportunities.
To be successful in any kind of business venture, potential entrepreneurs should look closely at the
environment and market. They should always be watchful of existing opportunities and constraints, and to take
calculated risks. The opportunities in the business environment are factors that provide possibilities for a
business to expand and make more profit. Constraints, on the other hand, are factors that limit business
growth, hence reduce the chance of generating profit. One of the best ways to evaluate opportunities and
constraints is to conduct a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) Analysis.
SWOT Analysis is a managerial tool used to assess the environment. It is used to gather important information
which is then used in strategic planning. Strengths and weaknesses are internal in an organization. They relate
to resources owned by an organization that you have control over and also the extent of its marketing.
Opportunities and threats exist in the external environment. Opportunities relate to the market, new
technologies, and the external factors such as government policies, climate, and trends. Threats replace what
the competitors are doing. It also includes legal and other constraints.

Product Development
When we talk of product development, we are referring to a process of making a new product to be sold by a
business or enterprise to its customers. Product development may involve modification of an existing product
or its presentation, or formulation of an entirely new product that satisfies a newly-defined customers needs,
wants and/or a market place.
The term development in this module refers collectively to the entire process of identifying a market
opportunity, creating a product to appeal to the identified market, and testing, modifying, and refining the
product until it becomes ready for production.
Concepts of Developing a Product
Concept development is a critical phase in the development of a product. In this stage, the needs of the target
market are identified, and competitive products are reviewed before the product specifications are defined. The
product concept is selected along with an economic analysis to come up with an outline of how a product is
being developed. Figure 3 shows the stages of concept development of a product.

The process of product development follows the following stages:


1. Identify customer needs: Using survey forms, interviews, researches, focus group discussions, and
observations, an entrepreneur can easily identify customers needs and wants. In this stage, the information
that can be possibly gathered are product specifications (performance, taste, size, color, shape, life span of the
product, etc.). This stage is very important because it would determine the product to be produced or provided.

2. Establish target specifications: Based on customers' needs and reviews of competitive products, you can
now establish target specifications of the prospective new product and/or services. A target specification is
essentially a wish-list.

3. Analyze competitive products: It is imperative to analyze existing competitive products to provide


important information in establishing product or service specifications. Other products may exhibit successful
design attributes that should be emulated or improved upon in the new product or service.

4. Generate product concepts: After having gone through with the previous processes, you may now develop
a number of product
concepts to illustrate the types of products or services that are technically feasible and will best meet the
requirements of the target specifications.

5. Select a product concept: Through the process of evaluation between attributes, a final concept is
selected. After the final selection, additional market research can be applied to obtain feedback from certain
key customers.
6. Refine product specifications: In this stage, product or services specifications are refined on the basis of
input from the foregoing activities. Final specifications are the result of extensive study, expected service life,
projected selling price among others are being considered in this stage.

7. Perform economic analysis: Throughout the process of product development, it is very important to always
review and estimate the economic implications regarding development expenses, manufacturing costs, and
selling price of the product or services to be offered or provided.

8. Plan the remaining development project: In this final stage of concept development, you can prepare a
detailed development plan which includes list of activities, necessary resources and expenses, and
development schedule with milestones for tracking progress.

Finding Value
People buy for a reason. There should be something in your product or service that would give consumers a
good reason to go back and buy more. There must be something that will make you the best option for target
customers; otherwise, they have no reason to buy what you are selling. This implies further, that you offer
something to your customers that will make them value your product or service.
The value you incorporate in your product is called value proposition. Value proposition is a believable
collection of the most persuasive reasons why people should notice you and take the action youre asking for.
It is what gets people moving, what makes people spend for your product or service.

Innovation
Innovation is the introduction of something new in your product or service. This may be a new idea, a new
method, or a new device. If you want to increase your sales and profit, you must innovate. Some of the
possible innovations for your products are change of packaging, improvement of taste, color, size, shape, and
perhaps price. Some of the possible innovations in providing services are application of new and improved
methods, additional featured services, and possibly freebies.

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)


Unique Selling Proposition is the factor or consideration presented by a seller as the reason that one product
or service is different from and better than that of the competition. Before you can begin to sell your product or
service to your target customers, you have to sell yourself in it. This is especially important when your product
or service is similar to your competitors.
USP requires careful analysis of other businesses' ads and marketing messages. If you analyze what they say
or what they sell, not just their product or service characteristics, you can learn a great deal about how
companies distinguish themselves from competitors.
Here's how to discover your USP and how to use it to increase your sales and profit:
Use empathy: Put yourself in the shoes of your customers. Always focus on the needs of the target
customers and forget falling in love with your own product or service. Always remember, you are
making/providing this product not for yourself but for the target customers to eventually increase sales and
earn profit. Essential question such as what could make them come back and ignore competition, should be
asked to oneself. Most possible answers may be focused on quality, availability, convenience, cleanliness, and
reliability of the product or service.
Identify customers desires. It is very important for you to understand and find out what drives and
motivates your customers to buy your product or service. Make some effort to find out, analyse and utilize the
information that motivates the customers in their decision to purchase the product or service.
Discover customers genuine reasons for buying the product. Information is very important in decision
making. A competitive entrepreneur always improve their products or services to provide satisfaction and of
course retention of customers. As your business grows, you should always consider the process of asking your
customers important information and questions that you can use to improve your product or service.

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