There are really two, fundamentally separate phases in the development of any high-tech or new product market: an early phase that builds from a few, highly visible, visionary customers; and a mainstream phase, where the buying decisions fall predominantly to pragmatists.
Derived from Figure 4.4; Key Characteristics, Needs and Role of Adopter Groups in Adrian Ryans, Roger More, Donald Barclay and Terry Deutscher Winning Market Leadership, strat
The human mind can only deal with up to 7 units of information at a time. People therefore have rationalise and simplify the world of non-stop, multiple communications and messaging to process the information they need to make decisions.
For a business to be viable, it has to do something as well as its competitors; to win in a competitive market, it has to do something better than its competitors. Most early stage entrepreneurs are strongly product focused‚ but it is crucial at this emerging stage that the entrepreneur thinks about getting into the customer's mind. Here's How to Go About Creating Marketing Strategies for Your Startup:
Tom Peters, the Excellence guru, asserted that the real job for marketing was and is to make sales redundant! Image your marketing being so targeted, motivating and convincing for the customer that you require little or no sales effort to execute the buying transaction.
In a recent research study of B2B buyers and decision makers, the use of the internet is shown to be increasingly important as a tool for researching and supporting their buying decisions. Online communication is emerging as a powerful tool for both buyers and sellers.
Traditional postal direct marketing is as powerful a tool for communicating with prospective customers as it has always been notwithstanding everybody increasing online life. Direct mail marketing can be even more effective if you keep in mind the following:
The chart below highlights many of the marketing activities that entrepreneurs employ during their start up and emerging stages of evolution. Their objectives, strategies and communication media typically revolve around:
Make sure you check your checklist for Trade Shows and Exhibitions.
Finance products which utilize a company‘s debtors as security such as Debtor Finance and Factoring are excellent ways to fund a business with a strong growth story.
There has been a search for an ideal or perfect structure because of its impact on the business model. The right structure depends on the environment, the vision, the values, the purpose, the goals and priorities, the skill and experience levels, the culture, the team, etc. Each of these is unique, which makes recommending the “right” structure very difficult. However there are a few things that of high performing organisational structures have in common:
It is the dream of many entrepreneurs to start their own businesses, grow the businesses and eventually take the business public. However, a public listing may not be the natural progression once your company has grown to a certain size or profit level, nor is it the be-all-and-end-all. Here's how to prepare for an ipo:
What Growth Stage Are you at? What lies ahead on your Growth Map? Successful small and medium sized business owners and entrepreneurial growth companies steer their business ventures through four key growth stages – the start-up; the emerging stage; the rapid growth market penetration stage; and then onto the next level for re-invention, internationalization and new growth paths.
The business is recently founded and the imperative is to specify/make the product (concept), prepare a business plan, get market feedback and peer advice , find and access production capacity and fund this product concept validation stage from own resources, credit cards, potential customers and earnings from related/previous work capabilities
If you believe your company or business is at this stage you may find some very helpful articles and videos with all sorts of advice in the Start Up section of this site. You may also like to hear from some other entrepeneurs telling their stories from Newstalk Podcasts or why not have your own say on the lively smallbusinesscan.com Forum
The business is driven by the imperative of making sales. Without sales, there is no survival. The market is approached in a random way initially. Low-hanging fruit is the objective. Successful business sales patterns eventually replace ad hoc experimentation and not knowing where the next piece of business will come from.
If you believe your company or business is at this stage you may find some very helpful articles and videos with all sorts of advice in the Emerging section of this site. You may also like to hear from some other entrepeneurs telling their stories from Newstalk Podcasts or why not have your own say on the lively smallbusinesscan.com Forum
Sales and customers reach a critical mass. Employee numbers are now becoming significant. Whereas sales was crucial previously, the imperative now shifts towards developing the company’s brand position in the market and an operational, decentralised infrastructure with the capability to sustain growth as the “hot product” fades and members of the initial founding team moves on.
If you believe your company or business is at this stage you may find some very helpful articles and videos with all sorts of advice in the Rapid Growth section of this site. You may also like to hear from some other entrepeneurs telling their stories from Newstalk Podcasts or why not have your own say on the lively smallbusinesscan.com Forum
At this point, one of three things happens: (1) the business plateaus, reaching its internal limitation to growth, (2) or the business declines and fails (3) or the company experiences a breakthrough by redefining its business strategies, structures and processes. It marks a crossroads, sometimes seeing the founder/entrepreneur moving on. If this stage is managed well, the company begins a new cycle on the growth curve: serving new opportunities for profitability.
If you believe your company or business is at this stage you may find some very helpful articles and videos with all sorts of advice in the Next Level section of this site. You may also like to hear from some other entrepeneurs telling their stories from Newstalk Podcasts or why not have your own say on the lively smallbusinesscan.com Forum
