Business Environment

Business Environment

Imagine yourself as a new businessman. What are the objectives of business that you will keep in mind if you have to launch a new business?

In business, not every good idea succeeds. The dot-com experience showed that even if you get millions to fund your business, your business could still fail if all the elements for success are not present. Selling pet food on the Internet is a dumb idea; hence, it is no wonder that Pets.com perished. WebVan.com closed one of its warehouses, after learning that delivering groceries 80 miles away from a distribution center is not such a bright idea after all.

So what do we need to do to successfully jumpstart a new business? I think here are six steps to launch a new business successfully.

1. Provide a benefit.

A new business stands a greater chance at success if it is responding to a need of a consumer. Our potential customers will buy our products or service if they see that it provides some benefits to them. We must be able to respond to their "what is it for me" question.

As a new business owner, our main task is to understand the difference between the features of our business and the benefits it provides. For example, if we are in the business of selling baby gift boxes, the feature and benefits are:

Feature: Baby toys, books, CDs and videos not found in department stores

Benefit: The customer will be able to conveniently find in one location the baby gift items she or he wants.

Remember, customers buy on the basis of the benefits, and not the features of our products. This is what we are going to use as our main selling proposition, or what we will highlight to convince people to buy our products and services. By understanding the business and its benefit to consumers, entrepreneurs can differentiate their business and create niches in the market where they can enter and survive long enough to build

2. Determine the fit with our market.

Before we can start marketing our new business,...