This book is not based on my experience, although I started businesses and even now I am the founder of YourGroup Holding (yourgroup.ru.com) in my 17 years, but I can not give business advice because of the small amount of experience. BUT DON’T YOU DARE CLOSE THIS BOOK! I have talked to many successful entrepreneurs, learned a lot from them, and I am ready to share this information with you. This book is suitable not only for those who are just looking for a business idea, but also for those who already have a business. This book will help you find an idea, choose a sales strategy, tell you about the basics of online promotion, and much more. Throughout the reading, you will be given the tasks recommended for completion. Of course, you may not fulfill them, but know that only you are responsible for your future.

I sincerely hope that this book will be the beginning of something new, the beginning of positive changes in your life.

WHERE TO START

The motivation of the entrepreneur

There are many motivations, for example:

– Business to realize your dreams

– Business to implement your ideas and initiatives

– Business as a financial instrument

– Business for your financial well-being

– Business for your personal and professional development

Understand why you need to be an entrepreneur.

Three qualities necessary for an entrepreneur:

1) Determination

2) Attention to detail

3) Perseverance

How to find your business scale and format

There are four business scales:

№1. Self-Realization (a business where money is not the main goal)

№2. Closing needs (a business that will allow you to close your needs, but no more)

№3. Sustainable business (a business in which the owner can afford to give work to other people)

№4. Wildest dreams (Corporation)

Make a decision – what scale of business do you choose for yourself.

The bigger the business, the more money you need to launch it.

How and where to look for business ideas:

1. Do what you like

2. Do what you do well

Formula for success: interest + skill = your business idea.

When you understand what is interesting, you need to determine the type of activity:

● Sell what you are interested in;

● Teach what you are interested in;

● Advise on a topic that interests you;

● Share information about what you are interested in;

● Invest in a field of activity that interests you;

● Engage in production in a field of activity that interests you;

● Organize events that interest you;

● Take care of what interests you;

● Provide entertainment in a field of activity that interests you.

Task: choose three of your areas of interest that are very important to you today, and then choose three of your areas of expertise that you are best versed in, connect three areas with three competencies and see what kind of business you can build.

How to choose the most promising idea

Now you have 3—4 business ideas. What should you do next? Every business idea can be tested. In order for the project to start well and develop well, you need to take into account two points:

1. Resources (your funds, capabilities, and competencies);

2. The speed of the launch of this project;

Now rate each project from 1 to 10 points, based on what resources you have and how quickly you can start the project. The project that scored the most points should be implemented first.

What employees are needed and how to distribute roles between them

Success in business depends on the quality of the team.

There are 4 roles in the team:

1. Controller (result-oriented and goal-oriented. This person will always keep the whole team in good shape and remind you of the results)

2. Motor (a person who creates the right mood of the team, which has no obstacles, who will move the entire project and promote it to success)

3. Support (a person who creates high-quality relationships between team members)

4. Analyst (a person who provides information for decision-making)

Ideally, each person should have a role, but at the start you can combine all these roles in yourself. However, these roles must be present in the team.

Task: right now, think about whom you specifically need to attract to the team, what kind of people can they be? What can you already actively manifest in yourself, and who do you need?

HOW TO BUILD A BUSINESS MODEL

What is the business model and how it helps the company. How to model a business to reduce risks

The business model is a visualization of your future project. The business model is used to describe the basic principles of creation, development and successful operation of the organization, reflects the mechanisms and logic of the business, covering its key areas.

Everything is simple, if you have a good template. Fortunately, there is such a template-this is the template of Alexander Osterwalder.

Task: fill out the template.

Start working with the template with consumer segments. Move sequentially along the pattern from the right part to the left, working through each block.

What questions to ask yourself when building a business model?

● In the «Consumer segments» section, you should ask yourself the following question: «What groups of customers is my business focused on? Who will come and buy my products and services?»

● In the «Value Propositions» section, you should ask yourself this question: «What can I offer my customers? What customer needs will we meet?»

● In the «Customer Relationships» section, you should ask yourself the following question: «How will customer service be organized?»

● In the «Channels of Distribution, Sales and Communications» section, you should ask yourself the following question: «What will be the points of contact of the company with the consumer?»

● In the «Sources and amount of Revenue» section, you should ask yourself the following question: «What will our customers pay us for and how?»

● In the «Key Activities» section, you should ask yourself the following question: «What does the company do best to generate revenue streams?»

● In the «Key Resources» is to ask yourself this question: «What do I need in order to start a business?»

● In the «Cost» is to ask yourself this question: «What are the costs involves our business model?»

● In the «Key Partners» to ask yourself this question: «Who and what I can charge, in order to facilitate their main activity in business?»

These are the main questions you should ask yourself when filling out the template.

Recommendations for getting started with the business model template

What you will need:

1. Large sheet of paper

2. Stickers

3. Pencils

4. Lots and lots of patience…

Let us start with a little warm-up, you need to ask yourself the questions: «What do I want to achieve by starting a business? What do I want to avoid? What do I want to keep, leave unchanged?» The answers to these questions should be written down. These questions are very important because they describe your goal.

Write the answers to the questions of the blocks on colored stickers and glue them to each part of our template. Let there be many answers. If there are no answers somewhere, but only questions – write down the questions. At this stage, it is important that there is a lot of material.

After the template is completed, based on what is written in the template, try to tell the story of your business as if it already existed, functioned, and worked. As you talk, move from the right side of the template to the left side of the template. Based on the template, describe your business:

– as its owner

– as a client of this company

– as a competitor or bystander

When you tell and follow what is written, you will surely find more hidden resources, broken connections, inconsistencies, questions. This is all material for you to think carefully and add information to your template.

The last step in working with the template is to commit the plan. Record what decisions came to your mind after you have written the entire template and told the story of your business. Record what you need to do, in what time frame, and how you need to do it. When you have a ready-made plan of action, you can consider that you are already a few steps away from success. But it’s too early to relax, you need to start acting.

How to get expert help when creating a business model

Each of you who tried to work with this template has already appreciated how many ideas, thoughts arise along the way, and how difficult it is to «digest» all this material alone. Therefore, it makes sense to go to those people who can help you, who are experts in some kind, who have a lot of life and business experience. But you need to go to these people according to strict rules:

– invite 3 to 6 people to discuss your business idea, if you invite more than 6 people, there is a risk that the discussion may come to a standstill due to a difference of opinion

– define the role of each participant

– describe the basic logic of the template, the questions, and the main areas in this template

– introduce your business idea to the audience based on the template blocks

– enter a ban on criticism. Keep a constructive mindset when working with your business model

– fix all the meanings

– say, «thank you» to everyone who participated in this discussion

External factors and their impact on the business model

Even the best ideas are broken down by reality, even if you have drawn the business model very accurately and clearly, attracted the best experts for advice, the fact is that there are still a few things to consider:

1. Consumer advice. Be attentive to the customers of other companies, because the customer always knows better how to provide him with a service or how best to deliver the goods.

2. External environment. Analyze the environment, look for trends that occur in the economy around us which industries evolve, what industries are in the stage of decline – all this important information, which will allow you time to adjust your actions and make management decisions.

As you move forward with the business model, you have already noticed that this work provides a lot of answers to your questions and helps you make an actual management decision. If you were able to get a complete picture of how your business will function, then you probably already have the answers to these questions:

– Is this my business?

– Can I raise this business or do I need partners? And where should I look for them?

– Do I really want to do business?

– What will my customers get?

– What values do I create in the world, in life, in the market?

But also many other answers. All these answers lead you to the main decision-the willingness to implement your business idea.

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From idea to first sales. Tips for starting a business from successful entrepreneurs

Preface