Startup Nation by Jeff Sloan & Rich Sloan

Author:Jeff Sloan & Rich Sloan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 0655-06-06T16:00:00+00:00

How big is the market and how big will you grow? Exploring the market and understanding the growth potential for your idea is essential. To get a handle on this, you have to understand the demographics of people in your target market. Distill those people into categories of low level of need, medium level of need, and high level of need for your offering. You can actually construct a target, like the archery target you may have tried to hit as a kid (the one with the concentric circles). Except the “bull’s-eye” in this case is your sweet spot—the target market that will be the focus of your initial marketing and sales efforts. Once you’ve penetrated that inner circle, you can grow bigger by broadening your offerings and your marketing and sales efforts to include the people with a medium level of need and so on. To get a fix on the degree of need that may exist for what you’re going to offer, try to figure out which market is easiest to penetrate. Is the market growing? If so, by how much? Can you figure out if the market is already saturated, mature, or shrinking? We find that a great deal of the information you’ll need can be readily gathered over the Internet. The information you’ll find there comes free in some cases, but there are also studies online that have been performed by major consulting firms. These studies are often purchasable and can be really helpful in facilitating a deeper understanding of a market and your opportunity within it. When a company really understands its markets, it can tackle them methodically.

Researching your growth potential will give you a sense of how big your company can be as well as help you set targets for rolling out new products.

A note of caution: Don’t get caught using “Chinese math.” It’s all too easy to pile up grandiose numbers for your market

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Your Competitive Advantage: How to Keep It

Once you’ve figured out your edge over the competition, think about how you’ll sustain it. Always focus on keeping that edge. Assume your competition is watching you just like you’re watching them, and that they’ll adapt and evolve just as you’ll try to swipe market share from them. Your competitive advantage—whatever it is—is your magic bullet. It’s what’ll keep competitors at bay and keep customers coming back. If your advantage is customer service, then make sure you continue to innovate and concentrate on new ways to serve those customers.

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