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A-Star Sports
Location: UK Wide
Our franchise owners are passionate about the positive impact of sport on every day life, nurturing in young children a fun, positive outlook and a life-long commitment to being active through the enjoyment of the A-Star Sports programme. From fundamental movement and multi-skills through to a ...
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SECRET 1: Get The Right Idea
By Antonia Chitty our Mumpreneur Guru
If you want to start small and still grow a big business it is important to get your idea right in the first place. Ask yourself:
What is NEW – UNIQUE – DIFFERENT - BETTER about your idea?
In these days of business on the internet it is important to identify your niche. What small area of business will you specialise in, ideally one that no-one else is occupying? It may simply be that what you are offering is new to your area or you are offering a solution to a problem for a new group of customers.
To help you understand the differences about your business, do some competition research. Look on the internet, see what local businesses operate in your specialism, trawl files at companies house and in trade directories, and if working on an invention do a patent search. All this will help you be clear about the uniqueness of your proposition and the competition you might face.
The clearer you are about what is NEW – UNIQUE – DIFFERENT – BETTER about your business, the easier it is to:
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Stand out from the competition
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Market your business
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Get good PR
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Do well on search engines for your key terms
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And make sales
Once you have a clear idea in your head, it is time to try it out on other people. Look into non-disclosure agreements if you have something unique as you don’t want word to get out before you are ready to launch. Then work out the best way to find the views of potential customers on your products and prices. Choose from:
One to one interviews – face to face or over the phone. Great for early stages of development or where you want in depth views from one or two people. Prepare a topic guide to make sure you cover everything that you need. Use a recording device so you can listen back and really understand your interviewees comments. Don’t rely on one interview, or even three or four. Once your ideas are more developed you may want to use a focus group or survey too.
Focus groups – ideally six to eight people in a room. Perfect for looking at home people might use your products. Again, prepare topics for discussion. Introduce each topic, ask a few simple questions but let the participants get plenty of time for discussion. You may be surprised what comes up. Again, record what goes on. With lots of people talking you’ll definitely need to listen several times. Aim for three focus groups to make sure you get a range of opinions: one may hate your product and the other two groups might love it.
Surveys – use a printed or online survey to reach large numbers of people. Aim for 100. Test your survey out on one or two people first to eliminate errors. Can help you focus down your price range, get views on branding etc. Online surveys are easiest to analyse, but don’t forget that this may leave out a sub-group of customers.
When you have a solid base of research feed this into the start of a plan for your business. It will all help when you start to promote it to the media, contact retailers or market to customers.
For more help:
She’s Ingenious – for women with products and inventions www.shesingenious.org
Sorcit – for professional help with product development www.sorcitproducts.com
Lawyers4Mumpreneurs – for legal advice including non disclosure agreements www.lawyers4mumpreneurs.com
