The Best Strategy to Know Your Business

The best way to test your business plan and to learn is to talk to customers.  Customer interviews are about exploring what you don't know you don't know.  

Avoid surveys or focus groups since surveys assume you know the right questions to ask and as a results surveys assume you know the right answers too. The main problem with Focus groups is that they quickly evolve into "group thinking".

When approaching customers make sure:

• To understand the customer problem before you pitch a solution

• Don't ask customers what they want, measure what they do, validate what they say with what they do.

• Stick to your script, you need consistency to instill some method to the process

• Narrow down and filter your customers as you progress

• Face to face interviews will be more accurate

• Start with people you know who fit your target customer profile -  it helps you practice.

• Take someone along with you, it helps you to keep more objective

• Pick a neutral location, more casual atmosphere

• Ask for sufficient time, it provides right time expectations without rushing

• Don't pay or provide incentives to prospects, it could skew the results

• Avoid recording interviews, it makes people self-aware and biased

• Document results immediately after the interview while your thought is still fresh. 

• Prepare yourself to interview around 50 people in order to get an accurate picture.

Now let's get to work; it's time to tart developing a strategy and put all this into practice.

One of the core values we have as a company is to inspire and empower people in all aspects of their lives. Additionally, if you want to read about our Custom Software Solutions and Consulting Services, please visit www.isucorp.ca

Cheers!

Use This One Trick to Keep your Business Afloat

There have been plenty of promising businesses rising to the top only to reach the surface of the water belly-up with Xs for eyes. Let’s think about business as the sea and the sky. Start-ups always begin at the bottom of the ocean and struggle to swim higher.  We swim higher and higher until we reach the surface and find that we need to change to be able to fly higher. How do we do that?

It is necessary to change the direction your business is taking. To be able to jump from the water’s surface and soar higher yet, you’ll need to ditch the fins and grow a pair of wings. What does that even mean?

It means that at some point in the growth of your business, you’ll reach a plateau where you remain stagnant and unmoving until you change something. This is the surface of the water. Many businesses fail to change, and that is why you see so many dead fish in the water. OK, think of it like this: let’s say you have a business that sells health products originally targeted to young athletic men. It’s doing okay, but you know you’re not reaching full potential. You notice that your sales are largely made up of middle-aged women trying to lose weight, instead of young men. It would be foolish not to change your marketing strategies to draw more attention from those middle-aged women! It’s a terrible idea to ignore that strong section of your audience just because you don’t want your product to be for that crowd.

Change is a beautiful thing. Change whenever it best benefits your business. Don’t be afraid to harness your ability to adapt to the changing terrain and you will find yourself on the track to success. 

Inspire and empower people in all aspects of their life is one of our core values as a company.
Additionally, if you want to read about our Custom Software Solutions and Consulting Services, please visit www.isucorp.ca

What's The One Word for Startup Success?

There are tons of people creating startup companies, many of which don’t manage to take off. This shouldn’t discourage you because failing is part of the process that leads to success. A lot of startup companies that didn’t succeed failed to focus on the most important word…“TRACTION”.

Traction is a sign that your company is taking off. Let me explain: it can be measured in the number of users, downloads, searches, etc. it all depends on what field you’re in. Many companies focus on creating the perfect product and all the money goes into the creation process. This is a huge mistake because you could have the best product in the world, but if nobody knows about it, it won’t be long before your company goes down. The solution is to focus heavily on traction, get creative and find ways to exponentially increase your company. Look into advertising methods that are in line with your target user base, and start exposing yourself.

Look at your company and find out how much budget you're allocating towards “traction” and be honest with yourself to see how much more you need to put in. Focusing on traction is not only great to get your company off the ground but it also helps to see if your product actually has a need in the market, allowing you to fail faster and move on or pivot your idea into a success.

Inspire and empower people in all aspects of their life is one of our core values as a company.
Additionally, if you want to read about our Custom Software Solutions and Consulting Services, please visit www.isucorp.ca