October 2013

So be sure when you step.

Step with care and great tact

and remember that Life's

a Great Balancing Act.

- Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Putting your new product or service on the market is a thrill.  Rachel Jackson (owner, Peacock Publicity) told us how to make that thrill last – look before you leap.

First, decide what result you want (e.g., financial profit, prestige, societal change) from applying your product/service to the market.  Then find out if you can make your product/service fit the market well enough for the market machine to produce the result you want.  See if you can get the right tools (e.g., advisors; identification and understanding of potential competitors, customers, manufacturers, and distributors; money; patents; place of business; professional relationships; time) and skills (business strategy, energy, heart, spirit, technical knowledge) you need to create that fit.  Writing a business plan (see how: booklet, workshop) and getting free advice from SCORE and online courses will help you ask the hard questions you must ask: who can benefit from your offering; will you have to teach potential customers to want your offering; are those customers likely to buy what you offer more than what your competitors offer; will enough customers buy your offering at a price high enough for you to profit; can you find an affordable, reliable manufacturer or distributor.  When you can answer those questions, test your answers on your harshest critics.

Once you know who your potential customers are, impress them.  Not all customers are alike, so give different kinds of customers different messages.  Get a Web site (made by a professional graphic designer; your own internet address ending with .com) and email address (ending in .com) that inspires confidence in you and your offering.  Develop a high quality brand (created by a marketing professional) and a polished resume that will give people a reason to trust you.  Create a set of 30 second elevator speeches (for different kinds of potential customers) and keep up with your industry’s news so you can educate potential customers and have an intelligent conversation about your business.

If you want investment capital or sales leads, learn (from sources like Inventor’s Bible, eBay, ecommerce, KickStarter, or the SBA ) which groups can offer you the most, but be realistic.  Learn ahead of time what each specific audience wants from you (e.g., letters of reference, sales records, slide presentation, video) and show them with your business plan and statistics that you can give them value (e.g., enough paying customers) in exchange for their support.  If it becomes clear during your presentation that you can’t provide what they want, bow out gracefully.  But even with rejections, stay focused, be patient, and don’t flit from shiny object to shiny object.  It may take you months or years to build a sufficient customer base if your sales cycle is long.  Or you might have better luck licensing your invention. 

Plan for the long run.  Tools for customerrelationship management will help you reach people quickly.  Financial and marketing records (worksheets and other programs ) will help you figure out what works and will make your business more attractive to someone who might want to buy it.

Thank you for paving our roads to success, Ms. Jackson.  Ms. Jackson specializes in helping entrepreneurs, business startups, and small businesses with marketing/publicity and can be reached by email (info@peacockpublicity.com), mail (P.O. Box 39070 Indianapolis, IN 46239), or telephone (815-404-9920).