To people who are looking to start a business, the process can seem both very simple in the steps that you often see touted as the right way to go about establishing yourself, and completely impenetrable due to the accumulated complexity of it all. People might tell you the same approach again and again about getting started (market research, finding your target audience, etc.), but none of that will matter if you aren’t actually sure how to take these steps in the first place. Zeroing in on what some of these steps are might help to clear away some of the fog and help you think about them in a more practical way.
Finding a Gap
The idea of finding a niche or a gap in the market is one that’s well-known to people starting a business, but it’s an idea that often feels as though it clashes with learning from the patterns of success. You can look at a business and point to the ways in which it’s managed to succeed, and while that can seem like a good blueprint to follow, it also creates a situation where you’re not doing anything new by following it – furthermore, the circumstances specific to that business might not relate to you at all.
So, how do you do it? Part of your research will require getting a thorough sense of the landscape you’re entering. What it currently looks like, the trajectory of it, gaps that have previously been opened and since capitalized on – all of these questions can help you to structure your debut.
Understanding the Landscape
Understanding the landscape is much more varied than it might first appear. It’s not just about knowing the big players of the industry and how public opinion of them is forming; it’s also about understanding the kinds of threats to these businesses and how they’re adapting – after all, you’ll be one of them before too long.
Knowing the approach you’re going to take to something like security can help you hit the ground running. Being able to answer what is MDR in cyber security, for instance, puts you in a great position to know exactly why it’s going to help you – minimizing the downtime that you spend later on adjusting your security position.
Knowing the Consumer
That shift that occurs in you, from audience member to business owner, is an important one. Many people have likely considered taking the knowledge of their time as a consumer and putting it into practice to present a ‘best of both worlds’ scenario where the product or service is tailored directly to the needs of the consumer. This is a great idea in theory, but it’s important to remember that as a business, many audience members are going to be immediately skeptical of you – they know you’re out for their money, and any attempt you make to endear yourself to them might be viewed cynically, and that’s the kind of knowledge that can help to elevate your marketing material.
