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It’s very easy to assume that if you haven’t attended university for six years (including both an undergraduate degree and a masters) in some form of business study, you’re simply not cut out for running a business but that’s not true! Many of the largest brands we see today were started by people without the best education or experience possible. In fact, many new brands that rise to prominence are the result of diligent entrepreneurs taking a risk so if you have a plan, just go for it! It may be that you’re even a little more experienced within business markets than you had anticipated because you have conducted deep research and have also been a consumer within that space.
But to what extent does your consumer experience help you run a business? What lessons does it offer? Can you avoid making mistakes by watching other businesses make them? In this post, we’ll discuss a few essential considerations that may help you feel more inspired in your efforts to start and run your own business.
Yes, Conveniences Are Worthwhile
Most people tend to prize convenience in the services and products they use. As a small enterprise, you may consider how to best deliver that to your customers. What worked for you? Did you appreciate monthly subscriptions as opposed to outright expensive purchases, in which case you might take time to set up recurring billing here. If you appreciate deliveries, consider working with fulfilment center to ship your products. Consider how consumer conveniences shaped your own buying habits, and move on from there.
Marketing Without The Eye-Roll
If there’s one thing marketing departments up and down the country are guilty of, it’s in being quite blunt or eye-rolling with some of the messages they put out. Sometimes this works in their favor, because it gets you thinking about them. You might consider your own sensitivity regarding how you like to be marketed to, and use that approach. Perhaps you prefer value-added information such as with SEO blog writing that naturally incorporates a link, or promotions that run with other services. Consider implementing them into your own firm as a measured plan.
Identifying Your Niche
It’s also good to use your consumer positioning as a means of determining who actually exists in the market, and who is being underserved. If you found a given product didn’t really target mothers but you believe it could, then you might fashion the product or service to better cater to them and their needs. For example, a budgeting approach that helps track motherhood expenses and the cost of living for children. As a consumer you have a little more understanding of the market because you were once part of it, and that can help you make diligent decisions. Just trust your perspective, it didn’t grow in a vacuum.
With this advice, we hope you can better use your consumer experience to run that business you were hoping to implement.
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