{"id":27,"date":"2012-06-06T02:14:42","date_gmt":"2012-06-06T06:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/example.org\/business-planning-the-easy-way-what-do-people-need"},"modified":"2012-06-06T02:14:42","modified_gmt":"2012-06-06T06:14:42","slug":"business-planning-the-easy-way-what-do-people-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/?p=27","title":{"rendered":"Business planning the easy way – what do people need?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ephemera\"<\/a>I was helping a friend last night with the planning for a family business that would utilize  their skills and give them the freedom to travel and would leave them financially set when they were ready to retire.<\/p>\n

They have been working on this project for several years and had not been making much headway so I was invited to pich in and see what advice I could offer.<\/p>\n

The description of their business planning seemed remarkably like what appears in the pages of Entrepreneur Magazine, but on a smaller scale. They had done a skills inventory, some financial planning, and they were carefully working on the details on how all of this was going to come together.<\/p>\n

He is a talented engineer and she is an experienced program manager so they have a fair amount of technical horsepower to apply to almost any problem.<\/p>\n

The one thing that kept sticking them was deciding on a product or service that they would produce or provide. They have been wrestling with this issue ever since they started planning a business.<\/p>\n

I wanted to give my friend three basic questions that he and his wife must answer before they make any further plans:<\/p>\n

1. What do people need in the way of goods or services that isn't available in adequate quantity or quality?<\/p>\n

2. Which of these needs can you satisfy with your currrent skills and resources?<\/p>\n

3. Can you generate enough demand so that you can cover your expenses and generate positive cash flow in less than three years?<\/p>\n

We actually ran hard aground trying to grapple with the very first question and it is not surprising considering their family backgrounds.<\/p>\n

Neither he or his wife or any family members have ever run a small business. They have always been employees so they never learned how important it is to recognize what customers need and satisfy it.<\/p>\n

The successful entrepreneur is always on the lookout for opportunities to satisfy a need. A business startup that is created to satisfy an identified need has a better chance to succeed than one which hopes to sell products or services by persuading people to buy. If you find the need, product creation can be a matter of hitting cost and reliability goals.<\/p>\n

If you are going to start your own business, keep your eye out for goods and services that people need. Once you find a need that you are interested in satisfying, then<\/span> you can start your business planning in earnest. You will be able to estimate market size and a host of other factors like product lifetime, and price points.<\/p>\n

If you start with finding needs to fill, your business planning will pick up momentum quickly. If you start with organizational details, your plan may never get off the ground.<\/p>\n

The successful start ups I was associated with were created to satisfy a clearly defined need and they evolved as the need evolved. <\/p>\n

Once the need is identified, business planning becomes simpler because it is focused on satisfying the need efficiently and profitablly.<\/p>\n

If you cannot bring yourself to ask people what they need and want, you will be better off working for someone who can.<\/p>\n

Find a need. The rest will follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Ephemera\"<\/a>I was helping a friend last night with the planning for a family business that would utilize  their skills and give them the freedom to travel and would leave them financially set when they were ready to retire.<\/p>\n

They have been working on this project for several years and had not been making much headway so I was invited to pich in and see what advice I could offer.<\/p>\n

The description of their business planning seemed remarkably like what appears in the pages of Entrepreneur Magazine, but on a smaller scale. They had done a skills inventory, some financial planning, and they were carefully working on the details on how all of this was going to come together.<\/p>\n

He is a talented engineer and she is an experienced program manager so they have a fair amount of technical horsepower to apply to almost any problem.<\/p>\n

The one thing that kept sticking them was deciding on a product or service that they would produce or provide. They have been wrestling with this issue ever since they started planning a business.<\/p>\n

I wanted to give my friend three basic questions that he and his wife must answer before they make any further plans:<\/p>\n

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