This week taught me a lot about the startup of any business. Not only do you need to have an idea of a project or service to sell, but you need to research those products to find which would be most successful, and find a business model that would best fit the product. There are several steps and tools to come up with a business idea. This is where all of your potential success begins.
Business Models
The different models included in this lesson were brokerage, advertising, infomediary, merchant, manufacturer, affiliate, community, subscription, and utility. Each of these serve a different purpose and fulfill different needs for the business owners. For example, if you are looking to have a web business that provides free content, you could using the advertising model and make money through banner ads. If you are looking to sell goods or services, you could use the merchant model.
In an activity to decide whether it was better to determine the product or the business model first for a new business, I thought that it would be more effective to choose a product first. My reasoning for this is as follows:
“I feel that it would be more beneficial to come up with a product or service idea first, and then choose the business model that best fits that product. The business models are set in place. Each has a specific purpose and method that works with specific products or services being offered on the web. You could look at any product or service and determine which business model would help that business be most successful. However, if you choose a specific business model and try to find a product to fit that model. This could limit your ideas, as you may have an idea that would not work with the business model you have chosen.
The BizThoughts article, Brainstorming Business Ideas, offers several ideas of how to come up with a potentially successful business. Some of these include creating businesses by finding problems and providing a solution, using your talents and skills, combining two products or services to make a new one, or importing things that may not be available in another area. I think that in this situation, with four people coming together to create a business, it would be more effective to work out an idea for a product or service before deciding on the business model. Once the four team members can agree on a product idea, there will be only a few business models that will work for that idea. From there, each member can agree on the business model that will best fit the business that the team has come up with.”
http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.html
Brainstorming Business Ideas
Coming up with a business idea is an important, but also difficult task. An article on BizThoughts provided several good ideas for brainstorming some ideas.
1. Think of problems that people have and find solutions for those problems
2. Choose a specific market and think of products that fit that market
3. Think of your strengths or talents and find ways that you can utilize that to make something that people could use/purchase
4. Take two unrelated products or subjects and combine them to create a new one
5. Import things that people in your area do not have access to
6. Use lateral thinking to provide solutions to problems
7. Think of something new and unique that people have not heard of before
8. Create a “disruptive” product that changes the industry
http://bizthoughts.mikelee.org/brainstorming-business-ideas.html
Google AdWords
Google AdWords is a very useful tool that lets you research what key words or phrases are being searched. The data shows how much competition these words have, the amount of impressions they receive per month, and much more. It can be useful in researching product ideas for a new company, or adding things in high demand to an existing business. The basic account is free, but provides plenty of information to get a look into what people are looking for in a business.
LINDSAY GEISER 