The Importance of Having a Vision By Clare Griffiths

A few years ago, I managed a charity project supporting underemployed women into self-employment in some of the most deprived wards of East London.  Our award-winning micro-credit project provided small loans and peer-to-peer business support as well as entrepreneurship training to assist our clients along their journeys into self-employment.

For one training session, we organised for a therapist to come in and talk to our clients about creating clear visions for their businesses.  My colleagues and I had no idea how the session would go.  When the facilitator started asking our clients to close their eyes and follow her soothing instructions to find a quiet place to imagine their visions, we were not sure whether her guidance would be taken seriously.  I am pleased to say, however, that the facilitator was fantastic, the session was very well-received and the comments from our beneficiaries proved we had no reason to have worried.

About six months later, out of the blue, we received an email from one of our clients who had attended our workshop.  In her email, she explained how she had just achieved her business vision exactly how she had imagined it during our training session six months previously.  Throughout my career, I have never forgotten her email – It reminds me about the importance of having a clear vision whether that be for your business or your personal life.

So my message to you is this: whatever stage you are at in the business development process – whether you are starting up an entirely new venture or innovating within an established company, having a detailed vision of your future business is a key starting point for making your ideas become a reality.  Once you have created a vivid picture in your mind’s eye, don’t be afraid to communicate that vision to others: It will help them understand what you want to achieve and will help you realise it.

If you found this blog post interesting, and would like similar guidance, as well as the opportunity to use our handy tool to develop and analyse your own business ideas, you can buy our e-book My StartUp Plan (£5.00) from www.enterprisenation.com/shop/mystartupplan, Amazon and Apple’s iBookstore.

For further information, please contact mystartupplan@gmail.com

Nine Key Questions to Ask Yourself about Your Business Idea By Clare Griffiths

In 2012, the U.K. saw a rise in business insolvencies, whilst at the same time an increase in businesses starting up (sources: Insolvency Services and Companies House). Whilst it is still unclear what will happen this year, data from 2012 suggests that the success rate of new businesses is relatively low. You don’t need to look further than your local high street to see the number of retailers closing, and the short life-spans of some businesses.

In response to this, I intend to highlight nine key questions to ask yourself if 1) you are considering starting a business, or 2) you want to innovate new initiatives within your existing venture.

1. What’s your vision for your business?  How do you imagine your business in the future?  Having a clear image of your future business is a really valuable starting point for you to then work out how you are going to realise that vision.
2. What exactly do you intend to develop?  What specific products/services do you intend to offer?  If you are already in business, what do you intend to develop (e.g. new product/services, processes, revised business models, technology, stakeholder engagement, or communication strategies)?
3. What’s in it for your customers?  Whatever you decide to develop, consider how your business offering or new innovations will benefit your target audience (e.g. customers/end users/members of staff). Once you are clear on the benefits, you will be better able to communicate those benefits to your audience.
4. Who is your development aimed at and who is already doing this?  It is vital you know your market niche and understand who your target customer groups are, as well as your competitors. If you are developing a new initiative within an existing company, consider who will benefit from it. What are your competitors doing? This will help you shape your competitive advantage.
5. How are you going to tell people about your business/initiatives?  This question should prompt you to explore which marketing activities to use. For those innovating within their company, think about how you will inform and engage relevant stakeholders.
6. What’s happening in the world that could affect your business?  However big or small your business is, you will be affected by the world around you – politically, economically, and via changes in social demographics, technology, legislative amendments, and developments in the ecological environment. By keeping an eye on these drivers, your business will be more prepared to respond to potential opportunities and threats.
7. Where and how do you plan to operate, and what could go wrong?  These overarching questions should help you to think about the logistics. Where will you be based? What legal issues do you need to consider? What are the associated risks?
8. Who’s going to help you develop your business?  Whatever the size of your team (it may be just you!), there will be people in your professional and social networks who will be able to support you. Think about who those people are, and how they could potentially help you.
9. What money is going to come in and out of your business?  When you are planning for a new or existing venture, don’t forget to make the necessary financial calculations. What profit do you think you will make?  If you are innovating in an established enterprise, work out the financial implications of your new initiative.

If you want to capture your ideas down on paper, but don’t fancy writing a whole business plan just yet, then I recommend you use the business planning grid below.

Whatever stage you are at in starting up or developing your business, make sure you analyse and plan your ideas carefully. This will potentially save you time and money in the long-run.

If you found this blog post interesting, and would like similar guidance, as well as the opportunity to use our handy tool to analyse your business ideas, you can buy our e-book My StartUp Plan (£5.00) from www.enterprisenation.com/shop/mystartupplan, Amazon and Apple’s iBookstore.

For further information, please contact mystartupplan@gmail.com

Generating Ideas for Your Start-Up, By Clare Griffiths

In this blog post, we are going to share with you some tips on how you can generate ideas, and apply that creative thinking to extend your business offering, for your new start-up.

Before you even start thinking of ideas for new products and services, remember to be well-rested (easier said than done!), and try to be in a positive frame of mind.  You also need to make sure you are open-minded when you are brainstorming.  If you are working in a team, you can often find yourself slipping into the habit of analysing whether those ideas will work or not.  Whilst that is an important stage to go through, for the moment, just concentrate on producing ideas.

So, how do you come up with an idea?  Whilst some of you may be fortunate enough to experience incessant “Eureka!” moments, others may struggle with ideas generation.  Wherever you fall on the “ideas person” scale, there are plenty of techniques you can use to create ideas for expanding your portfolio.  Here are some of my favourites:

– Lotus Blossom: Whilst this may sound like a challenging Yoga position, it is actually a handy technique to generate lots of ideas.  First, write down on a piece of paper, the problem your business is trying to solve.  Then, write down 8 solutions to that problem.  Next, take each of those 8 solutions, and write 8 additional solutions for each of the original 8 solutions.  Before you know it, you have 64 new ideas for possible products and services!  If that sounds confusing, don’t despair – here’s one I made earlier, whilst pretending to be a personal fitness instructor.

– Ansoff Matrix: Although the name of this tool may not seem as exciting as “Lotus Blossom”, it is actually a very useful way to brainstorm ideas for new products and services – and in particular for identifying new sets of customers.  The tool simply consists of 4 quadrants.  Start off by writing your current offering in the top left-hand quadrant.  Then, think of whom else you could offer your products and services to (i.e. to which new markets), and what other products and services you could offer to your existing market or to new markets.  The example below is for a children’s book illustrator.

I didn’t want to bore you with lengthy case studies, so to finish off, I just have two short examples of how Walkers and the AA have developed their portfolios:

1) In 2008, Walkers, as in the crisp company, embraced the concept of “open innovation”, and used their own customers to generate ideas for new crisp flavours, in their “Do Us a Flavour” campaign.  They incentivised their customers by offering the winner £50,000 and 1% of future sales of that crisp flavour.  Whilst you may not have a similar sized marketing budget to Walkers, using your customers is an effective way to come up with ideas.  It is not only great market research, but also helps you understand exactly what your customers want.  (And just in case you were wondering which flavour won the competition – it was Emma Rushin’s Builder’s Breakfast)!

2) More recently, you may be aware that the AA (famous for its car breakdown service) now offers boiler services.  Referring back to the Ansoff matrix, this is a clear example of product development and diversification – as they have developed a completely new service for their existing customers, and will have undoubtedly acquired new customers at the same time.

If you are successful in coming up with some ideas to revamp, change, or even extend your range of products and services, remember that the next important step is to work out whether those ideas are worth pursuing.  In order to analyse your ideas, you will need to weigh up whether the new products and services will be cost-effective whilst producing the impact and income (if any) you aspire to achieve.  In other words, don’t innovate for the sake of it!  Generate a few ideas first of all, and then decide which ones to turn into reality.

If you found this blog post interesting, and would like similar guidance, as well as the opportunity to use our handy tool to analyse your business ideas, then pop along to buy our e-book My StartUp Plan (£5.00) from www.enterprisenation/shop/mystartupplan, Amazon and Apple’s iBookstore.