Transcripts
1. Course Introduction: Hello and welcome to the city in your small business
for success course. My name is newer and I will be your instructor.
In this course. We will work through
the essential steps to set your small
business for success. Following a proven framework, many people fear getting
into the world of business and entrepreneurship
because they fear failure. Whenever you take a new risk, there is a chance of
losing or winning big. And what scares most starting
intrapreneurs is that they imagine they might lose their entire money and
end up on the street. In this course, we will overcome that fear by lowering
the risk of starting a small business and making better decisions by
taking calculated risks, we will simplify the
process of planning for the success of your small
business into four steps. Firstly, we need to
make sure that we make products
people want to buy. Secondly, we need to secure enough cash to generate
and maintain sales. Thirdly, we need a
basic plan of how to reach the market and
how to sell our products. And lastly, we need a
simple emergency plan in case things don't go as desired. Once we clarify
those four points, we can decide whether to pursue a business opportunity or put it aside and chase something else. In this course, we aim to avoid the overwhelming
pressure that's failing business brings into our lives and make
it highly stressful. Your small business should bring more happiness and
prosperity into your life. If not, it isn't worth it. Okay, so let's get started and I will see you
in the next video.
2. Make Products People Want to Buy: Welcome back. The first point to minimize the risk of starting
a new business is to ensure we create a product
people need or want to buy. In other words, we need to
look for products in demand, which many people
spend money buying. We can do a lot of
market research and use complicated tools to reach
broad market studies. However, these tools only
offer practical results in substitutions because we live in different locations globally. A tool that analyzes the market of the United States
might not work for India because those are two different markets
with different demands. Therefore, the
research should be around the location
of making sales. The second reason is
that most of us are creators and we rely on our
skills to start a business. Therefore, using a
sophisticated tool to find 20 products that don't match
our skills isn't practical. We can rely more on common
sense and simple observations. For small businesses,
every person knows that there is a
good demand for MUX because most people
use mocks daily for drinks at the market will
always demand for this product. Therefore, selling
max is less risky than selling something
entirely new for the market. Many creators argue
that they want to sell something unique and different
than what already exists. But uniqueness is an
extremely tough concepts. Can you describe uniqueness? Here's an image of a simple
white mug I found on Amazon, which looks okay for my daily use in terms
of function and design. Some creators might
say that introducing a new materials will make
their marks more unique. And others would say that
introducing new shapes and creative designs might make their products more remarkable. The truth is, all
of these marks have decent sales because each has a unique feeling on
different buyers. If you had to Amazon and
search for earrings, you can find plenty
that looked generics, too many, but have
a lot of sales. You can sell similar products
or give it a little twist. However, you're
slight twist isn't a significant risk because there is a big
demand for earrings. The issue with differentiation
and uniqueness is that intrapreneurs need
to understand it better. Someone who lives in an Asian country where people
are used to specific food, flavors and ways of eating. Think if they offer something
completely different, is a great idea to start
a new small business. However, in most scenarios, they tend to fail
because they dismiss the cultural habit of the
local people and in return, the market rejects the offer. Instead, they could
have a safer business by offering the market the
things it's familiar with, but with different twist
or ways of presentation. Always ask yourself, will
many people use my product? And then ask how
unique my product is. Your aim was your first
small business is to avoid inventions and
products with little demand. When you start a business, you must make as many
transactions as possible and ease your marketing effort by giving the market what it wants. For the first exercise, do market research locally
or on the Internet around your skills and find
what products are in demand. Currently keep the process
practical and straightforward. He walked in the local market or a Google search can do it. Okay, so let's take a short break and I will see
you in the following video.
3. Plan for Generating and Maintaining Sales: Welcome back. Securing enough cash to
generate and maintain sales is the second step to
minimizing business risk. More starting intrapreneurs
spent a lot of time budgeting for the basic cost of starting their
small business, such as the cost of
constructing a business, overhead and operating expenses, and then stop there. They believe they have done a great job and the business
should be excellent. However, sadly, they
fail in the end. The reason for that failure
is that the intrapreneur only thought about the cost of starting and
running a business, but dismissed the
expenses for generating consistent revenue and covering the losses resulting
from making sales. The first point you must
consider is marketing. When you start a business, you need to generate a lot of awareness around your product. Therefore, you must
budget for advertising, influencer marketing,
and offline promotions. If a business has to reach
$100,000 in revenue, it may spend 20% to 35% of
that amount on marketing. Starting a business without a marketing budget and hoping
for the best is risky. The second point to
consider is cash turnover, which is how quickly
you can collect money to keep your
business running. If you sell your products
on a platform and expect to collect
money every 30 days, but have to pay your
suppliers weekly. You would run out of cash
quickly and lose your business despite all the hard work you have already put
in your business. Depending on the nature
of your business and the amount of money you
need to stay in business. You may need to find a
lender who agrees to vacuum financially when there is potential for your
business to grow. The third point is the cost of messing up or unexpected losses. Sometimes you may make
damaged inventories. Other times, you
might find you need more employees on your business. Sometimes you get
customers returns and other times
unexpected things happen, like fixing a piece
of equipment. This cost can eat eight
to 20% of your profit. And if you don't put it
for them in advance, you might run out of cash during your first three to six
months in business. As we said, that
business is about practicality and
understanding your budget defines the nature
of your business. I have come to meet
many big dreamers. Still, they needed access to enough cash to
realize their dreams. Many had to scale
down their ideas, and others give up on
the entire business. I always advise small
business entrepreneurs to start small with
the business was low expenses have low
inventories that allows them to stay in business for at
least six to 12 months. And then they can go bigger from their business is about
sustainable growth. It is okay to start small
and grow over time. There is no need to overwhelm
yourself financially. For this exercise,
take a few minutes and estimate the savings you
can put into your business. Remember to secure your living
expenses and basics first. Okay, So let's raise
for another minute. And I will see you in
the following video.
4. Develop a Simple Business Plan: Welcome back. The third step to setting your business up
for success is to have a simple plan for how you
would approach the market. Most intrapreneurs go
into business with everything they have without
any planning and lose big. Instead, they should
spend more time gaining more clarity about how to
approach their business. Starting a small business
includes two parts. The first is creative
brainstorming, and the second is
practical execution. As much as the creative part of starting a business
is fun and engaging. The reality is, most
small businesses are simple and require
more practicality. I helped my students
and clients to develop a simple business plan
with a simple framework, I call it the three Fs
of business success. First, you must figure out your customers somewhat interested in fashionable T-shirt looks for different things from someone looking for a simple t-shirts. Therefore, your offer
should be clear to a specific group of
customers interests. Secondly, you have to
figure out how to make your product at a cost
your customer can afford. Your customers should
anticipate to buy your product because it's too expensive
and they cannot afford it. Regardless of how
unique your mug is, there's a price point that most customers can
afford for a cup. And you must have
a clear idea about the market price for
products similar to yours, and then manage your costs to meet these numbers
while making a profit. Thirdly, you have to figure out the most effective way
to reach your customers. Unlike random marketing,
effective marketing gets you directly to consumers
and helps you make sales as
quickly as possible. Some businesses work best
with influencer marketing, other with online advertising. Some sell products and
advertise on platforms, and others must join trade shows and
establish relationships. Keep in mind that
you don't have to stick with your plan forever. And you should always pivot
when you collect new data. Your simple plan is only your starting point to kick start your business
with more clarity. Your exercise for this video is to search and analyze businesses similar to yours and use their steps as a starting
framework for your business. There is no need to
over-complicate the process. A Google search is
more than enough to have a simple idea
about other people, businesses, and how we can apply this strategy to our business. Okay, so let's take
a short break and I will see you in
the following video.
5. Develop a Basic Emergency Plan: Welcome back. The fourth and final
step to setting yourself up for business
success is to have an emergency plan
you can rely on in case your business does
not go as desired. As we said, starting
a business is a risk. And many starting small business entrepreneurs fear getting into the business world
because they fear going broke and ending up
hungry on the streets. Before starting a business, we must figure out our red line. When we get close to
crossing this line, we pause and immediately
shift to plan B. I suggest that you keep an extra three months of
essential expenses in saving. Then you can rely on these
savings to find a job or freelance opportunities
to protect yourself first, then go back to
entrepreneurship. I always advise
starting intrapreneurs to diversify their income
through time management. At the beginning,
they can keep 70% of their activities on task that
earned them the most money. And 30 per cent
on side projects, once they see a petition in earnings in their
side projects, they can shift more
time toward it. Starting a business
isn't ideal if you are struggling with the basics such as food, rent, and others. Your exercise for this video is to develop a simple
emergency plan. If things go against
your interests. And how would you prioritize your time through
your new project. Okay, So let's take
another and final short break and I will meet you
in the following video.
6. Conclusion: Congratulations on reaching
the end of the course. I admire your discipline and motivation to achieve
business success. Before we end this course, let's do a quick recap. Before getting into
a new business, we must plan by researching for four essential and
straightforward points. Firstly, we need to
make sure that we make products and demand
and people want to buy. Secondly, we need to secure enough cash to generate
and maintain sales. Thirdly, we need to
have a simple plan of how to reach the market
and sell our products. And finally, we need to have a basic emergency plan
in case things go wrong. When we have the essential
preparation figured out, we can start a business
with a lot more confident. That confidence would reflect in our daily lives and keep us optimistic and energetic
while running our business. We have reached the
end of the course. I wish you all the success
with your business. This was nor the care. Bye.
Nour Boustani, Branding & Marketing Strategist
