90 Day Business Sprint Archives - Page 2 of 2

Problem + Impact = Opportunity

Understanding the problems we face each day allows us the chance to look at the impact these problems cause and in so doing, provides us with an opportunity for a business solution.
Frustrated people are a ripe market for solutions and solutions lead to business ventures that lead to profits. One of the great skills of a seasoned entrepreneur is to allow the world to provide us with business opportunities. We just need to retune ourselves into that mode and not wallow in the problem with others, but rise above the situation and identify ways to move forward towards a solution.
This week we have already given you some tools to analyse the problem using the 5 Whys to get to the root cause. The next stage is to identify all the people who are affected by the problem. This is normally more than one group, each with their own perspective and issues related to the problem. Now we are ready to begin to analyse each group and determine a way forward with solutions and eventually a product that can be taken to market.
This methodology of business development always ensures you have a customer base when you launch. These customers are the original people you identify as being frustrated or affected by the problem. How easy is it to just start a business and launch your product knowing that your initial sales are already secured through your upfront market research.
This is far better than trying to develop a product offering that you think or hope people need then try to launch through persuading and begging people to use your product.
Consider what your problem is that you are trying to solve and then realign your product around this and the affected people. Then re-launch with the focused effort of problem-solving rather than market manipulation.
We have some more tools and tips on problem-solving on our social media pages this week and next week we start looking at our customers in greater depth. #90DayBizSprint

By Bruce Wade|2016-09-21T07:13:39+02:00September 21st, 2016|90 Day Sprint|0 Comments

90 Day Business Sprint – What is your Problem

I remember as kids whenever anyone did something wrong or weird, we would ask them “What is your problem?” Who knew that this would become a cornerstone to building a business?
Getting to know and understand the identified problem is always one of the first steps of coaching we do with new business owners. And often we revert back to this for existing businesses to better understand their market and find new opportunities for business.
So, what is the problem you are trying to solve? Why does the problem exist? Who are the people involved? What are the causes? What are the effects? What would be a better outcome? What is the ideal solution?
Using the 5 WHYs and keep asking the What, why, when, who and where questions assists in a full analysis of the problem. This is always done before the ideation around a product or solution. The key here is to firstly fully understand the whole problem, look for potential opportunities and then begin to formulate a strategy that will result in a solution, but more on that next week.