THE NORTHERN BLOG: ENTREPRENUERS

COMPLETE STARTUP GUIDE TO MARKET RESEARCH

Market Research, or Business Intelligence as it is sometimes called, is a vital weapon in ensuring your new business survives to become a strong profitable entity. It is about anticipating and minimizing risk, understanding your potential customers and so helping to ensure success for your new venture. Don’t skip this important step in the rush to get your product to market.

Finding customers is the most difficult part of running a business. So it is vital to research your market, identify potential clients and have a strategy for attracting them before you invest your time and money in a new venture. Only about half of new small businesses will survive 5 years. Here are some of the factors that often contribute to a new business’s failure:

Lack of capital, often due to poor planning or unexpected costs
Poor cash flow management
Unexpected market factors-growth or reduction in market size
Underestimating the competition
New entrants to the market
Technological problems
Not having a strong business plan in place
Lack of understanding of the market
Poor advertising or marketing
Weak product
lack of selling and marketing expertise
over trading or over expansion

Quality, professional market research helps you to ask the right questions for your business. Good market research reports will use a mixture of primary and secondary research to provide accurate information and conclusions. Primary research is information gathered through surveys, interviews and other direct contact with industry experts and participants. For example by contacting industry leaders and canvasing their opinions. Secondary research is information gathered from company reports, trade association documents and industry journals, and published market research reports.

It is a good plan to carry out both Primary and Secondary research. Then you should check out competition and assess your potential consumer base. This should give you a fair idea of the viability of your business. If you commission professional advice, you can expect a report that will cover the following points:

Context/Background: This is a review of the recent history of the market; how it has developed into its current size and shape. It will also consider the market in the context of factors such as the economy, social and cultural changes, globalization, and technology, and consider how these factors are affecting the market.
Detailed Market Data: While context and analysis are critical, this section will look at hard numbers. It will use whatever data is available.
Competitor Information: Players, products, profiles, competitive analysis and other information on the market.
Trend Analysis: This will look at what the data indicates about the health of the market and opportunities for future growth. It should cover emerging markets, and new forms of competition.

An understanding of the market potential should be gained from the information above. The size of the market and its possible growth will determine the viability of opening up a business in the sector. So from this report, or from your own research, you should be able to consider the following types of questions.

Assume your intended business is selling potted plants:-
How many people buy potted plants?
What is the market value?
What is your cost price?
What is the likely gross profit you could make selling a potted plants?
How many potted plants must you sell to run a successful business
Is this a realistic number for your business model?
Is the market already saturated or near saturation?

Can you enhance your business model-for example can you offer other products, services, sell online, open other outlets? Market research should answer key questions, expose risks, and will probably throw up other questions. Professional analysts who study markets, products, industries, sectors, and consumer demographics are trained to provide unbiased factual information, clearly stating the risks associated with a market.

If you plan to conduct your own research rather than commissioning a professional Market Research project, be careful that you don’t seize on information and data to back up what you are hoping to find – that your business is a great idea!! But take care to be open to market realities and factors that may even enhance your business plans. Keep a look out for niche markets that may present better opportunities than mainstream, where there is more competition.

Carefully assess market factors. There are many factors which can affect the size of a market and its pace and direction of growth. They include:

Regional economics, politics, culture, geography and weather
Seasonal and cyclical trends
Fashionability and trends
Customer wants and needs
Competing markets
Technological advances
Educational opportunities
Employment
Regulatory requirements
Financial incentives, grants and programmes
Company schemes and productivity.

Also look carefully at competition:

Is there a lot of competition in your market?
Who are the players?
Is the market dominated by a few large companies or is it mostly small operators?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors?
What is the market scope of your competitors?
How profitable are they?
What types of problems do they face?
What is your Unique Selling Point (USP)? What can you offer customers that your competitors do not?

Finding customers is the most difficult part of running a business. But without them you don’t have a business, so do some demographics research as well, to establish who your customer is. Make sure you know as much as possible about who will be buying from you.
For example, if you’re marketing to consumers:

What is their gender, age, marital status, religion, ethnicity
Where do they live?
What is their economic status?
Do they already buy the product or service you’ll be offering?
How are they purchasing these products or services?
What issues do they have with your competition?
What do they like about your competition?
How much are they paying now, and will be willing to pay for your products or services?
What do they do for a living?
What are their lifestyles like?
What do they think of your product or service?
Why will they buy from you and no one else?
How will you tell them about your business?

Knowing the answers to these questions will help you promote your business much more effectively. Then you need to consider marketing and advertising .How will you attract consumer’s attention, get them to purchase your product, and come back to you for repeat purchases.

What is your USP –how should you transmit that message?
What can you do to assure customer retention?
How can you exceed customers’ expectations?
Can you offer some type of guarantee?
What are the best advertising routes to reach customers?

Some of the more common advertising routes include Websites, Social networking sites (such as Facebook), Radio, Television, E-mail marketing,You Tube, Internet, magazines, newspapers. Trade magazines, Forums and Billboards.

Social media advertising, blogging, and use of other online social forums, has rapidly become one of the biggest platforms on which to advertise your business. What type of advertising will work best for your business depends on who you are trying to reach, your budget, and your product. You need to find the most cost effective method for you.

All of this information will be valuable in formulating your business plan, which we will discuss in another post. Having all this information at your fingertips will give you an edge over your competitors, an understanding of your client base and will improve your businesses chances of survival.

INTRODUCTION TO BLOGGING PART 1

What is a blog?

A blog is a type of website that is updated regularly with new content. Most blogs contain short, informal articles called blog posts. These posts usually contain some combination of text, photos, videos, and other media. At its core, a blog is just a website that you can create to record and express your opinions, experiences, and interests.

Why People Blog

Blogging has come to stay in the schemes of affairs of people’s daily lives; from those trying to express their emotions and/or passions, those trying to teach a skill, to those willing to make a living from blogging. And most of these wishes have found answers in blogging.

Here are some of the most common responses bloggers why people blog:

To share their experiences and expertise
To speak up about an issue they care about
To become more involved with their hobbies and passions
To be part of a community
To advance their career or start a career in writing
To keep their family and friends updated about their lives.

No matter what their main reason for blogging is, most bloggers have at least one thing in common: They're passionate enough about a topic to write about it over and over again, usually for free.

Blogging for money

Another reason some people blog is to make money. People make money from their blogs by hosting advertisements, selling products, or publishing their blog posts in the form of a book or printed articles.

The media often reports on bloggers who have done this successfully, turning their blogs into careers and even a book and movie deals. While it's fine to try to earn money from blogging, you should be aware that these success stories are very rare.

You may see advertisements for services that promise to help you make your blog profitable with little effort. However, making money this way is not as easy as it may seem. Many bloggers write for years without ever earning a kobo from their blogs. Keep this in mind as you begin blogging.

TO BE CONTINUED....

HOW TO BUILD A HAPPY COMPANY CULTURE

Startups have some of the best and most innovative ideas when it comes to company culture. A great company culture comes down to one thing: people. You define your values and mission, but ultimately, it's up to your team to live by them. And it starts with having a cohesive team in the first place, one that is willing to trade ideas, praise, and even lunch recommendations. We look at some of the cultures in some major companies around the world today. Here are some ideas you can pick from:

1. Integrate Culture and Mission

Company culture is a direct reflection of the brand, and workplace values should relate to the company mission. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done at startups, so focus on a work-life blend, not balance. Achieving this blend requires startups to focus on what’s most important to their brand and their culture. Make those values central to the company culture, the company should live and breathe them.

2. Celebrate Creativity.

A major part of employee satisfaction is recognizing and celebrating employee achievements. Creating a culture that celebrates success either big or small, boosts morale and keep employees motivated and engaged. Rewarding employee must always be about cash rewards, there a number of ideas or ways you can do that. At the end of the day, employee's happiness is equal to the companies success.

3. Exciting Rewards.

At the end of a long project, employees aren’t left with much. They move on to the next one with little fanfare. A culture that rewards employee based on performance during a project can always count on a happy staff. When employees know that, at the end of the month, their hard work will be rewarded. Small tokens of appreciation can be a big deal. It is always a good move to get employees excited about their own work and the overall accomplishments of the organization.

There are many other ways you can build a happy company culture. Putting people first is the sole secret when doing this. You can read our post How To Cultivate a Strong Team Spirit.

REGISTER FOR STARTUP CLASSES AND UPGRADE YOUR SKILLS

Startup Kano is organizing startup classes series a program designed to initiate participants into blogging, graphics design, content development, video blogging and digital marketing. The program is set to introduce tech enthusiasts into the real world in order to prepare them with both digital and entrepreneurial skills.

The classes are divided into Startup 101 and Startup X. Startup 101 is a free two weeks program and participants will get to work with the Startup Kano team for two months. While Startup X is a paid one month intensive training program to mold and develop participants by arming them with skills and tools that will make them compete with their counterparts all over the world.

This is an opportunity for young and aspiring entrepreneurs and techies to upgrade themselves with the latest skills and practices. Startup Kano have been championing the cause of entrepreneurship and self empowerment. They have role out several of these programs to help and build a better ecosystem for both tech and non-tech entrepreneurs.

The program is scheduled to start on 27th February, 2017. Interested participants should register here. The venue is at the Startup Kano Hub. For more information or inquiry visit www.startupkano.com.

Watch the video promos below.

HOW TO USE THE LEAN BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS

The business model canvas was born from the Lean Startup Methodology. It is like a blueprint of your business before or even after you've started your startup. The Lean Canvas is the perfect format for brainstorming possible business models, prioritizing where to start, and tracking ongoing learning. After identifying the problem you are trying to solve, and whether you have a product or you just have a prototype, you still need a business model. We will be going through the canvas and how you can apply it to your business. These are the key questions you must ask when using the model:

KEY PARTNERS: You need to identify your key partners, who are your key suppliers and what are the key resources or activities for acquiring them.

KEY ACTIVITIES: Identify also the key activities you will be doing to achieve your value proposition. Things like your distribution channel, your revenue streams and even your customer relationships should be taking care of at this stage.

KEY RESOURCES: At this stage you should be able to understand the key resources that your key activities will require. You should be able to identify this things as it will make it easier for you to carry out all these activities.

VALUE PROPOSITION: What value are you giving the customer. Which .of the customers problem are you solving. Things like how your minimum viable product affects them. This is more like the overall value the customer using your product or service will get.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP: Here you will also answer the questions of how to get, keep and grow your customers. Which customer relationship have you established. How are they related to the business model and how costly are they.

CHANNELS: Here you should specify through which channels do you want to reach your customer segment. How do other companies reach them now? Which of these methods works best and which is cost effective.

CUSTOMER SEGMENTS: Who are you creating value for? Who are you most important customers? Where can you find them? How can you reach them?

COST STRUCTURE: This is also an important part of the canvas where you will consider the most important costs in your business. The key resources that are most expensive as well as your key activities.

REVENUE STREAMS: Finally you should decided for what value are your customers willing to pay? For what value do they currently pay? And what is the overall revenue model and what are the pricing tactics.

If you are having trouble building a business model for your startup, feel free to inbox us.

HACKATHON: CODE PYRAMID DEVELOPERS MEET UP JANUARY 2017

CODE PYRAMID WILL HAVE A HACKATHON THIS MONTH IN KANO

Code Pyramid is a platform for techies (software developers, website designers, graphics designers etc.) and entrepreneurs. They provide mentorship on development and professional coaching on presentation skills, public speaking, project management and training to members and also network, share ideas, opportunities and provide solutions to challenges faced by members and the society.

Code Pyramid want to interact with existing organizations to build a tech ecosystem in the North by working with government, industry, schools, youth organizations etc. to identify challenges and problems they face and provide them with technology based solutions. They intend to achieve this by building a vibrant community of techies that will attend to these problems with creative and innovative mindset.

This month they will be having a hackathon focused on solving critical problems in the health sector. Winners will have a free co-working space courtesy of Startup Kano. This will give them enabling environment to turn their idea into a real working solutions and subsequently a business.

Interested participants should register here

Watch Video Promo Below:

BLUE HUB TO HOST YOUNG MINDS IDEATION GUIDE IN KANO

Blue Sapphires e-Solution is hosting an event aimed to help young minds ideate by enlightening them about the process of generating, developing, and evaluating ideas for launching innovative and viable new ventures. Ideation workshop entails a process of discovery designed to lead toward the creation of dynamic and impactful enterprises, whether business or social ventures.

At the event series of entrepreneurs, financiers, startup attorneys, marketing experts and others in the startup ecosystem will attend and networking door is open and they will teach best practices to early stage startup founders and those who would like to join an early stage startup.

The event is open to people of all background and experiences, anyone that is interested in joining a new startup or looking for a co-founder, anyone who has an idea for a startup or an early-stage company and anyone who would like feedback on their idea or pitch.

Attendees are going to understand the context of entrepreneurship and innovation and their significance in today’s economy and society, generate, develop and pitch innovative new venture ideas, evaluate the attractiveness and feasibility of new venture opportunities and analyze industries, markets, and competitors.

Some of the major partners for the event include Startup Kano, Code Pyramid, SP Quality Seeds, Sagad Farms and Young Innovators of Nigeria.

The event is scheduled to take place as follows:

Date: 28th January, 2017.

Time: 10:00am prompt.

Venue: No 231 Gandu GRA, ABH Street Sharada, Kano.

Interested participants should register here

CULTIVATING A STRONG TEAM SPIRIT

It is clear that the technological ecosystem in the North is becoming friendly to Tech start-ups. We are at the "open arms" phase. The North is still an open and untouched segment of the country for every innovative start-up to explore. The above stated is easier said than done. Starting up a technology company in a system like this has its ups and downs. I will be talking about one of the major factors that determine the success of any tech startup comprising of a team. Team work.

Like it or not the Nigerian environment unconsciously disallows team work. The educational system, the social environment, the social media, and many more unknowingly disallows it. Looking back I can’t remember anytime I was deliberately taught the values of partnership. This little concept we fail to deliberately teach affects a lot of potential entrepreneurs, especially at the startup stage. This however is a damage that slowly creeps into our mindset, we don’t notice the damage till it’s done. This short story about Adamu illustrates how.

Adamu is a computer geek. He studied and lived in the Northern part of the country all his Life. Right from his primary to secondary school days, everything seemed to him like they will go right if he gets to do it alone. In school he was always given individual assignments, and whenever they were given a group project, he would be automatically made the group leader, and would be left to do it alone. The saying "too many cooks spoils the broth" sank into his head and his subconscious, so much that he thought the lone wolf was the smartest and most efficient wolf. He wouldn't let anyone see his code, let alone touch it. The trust issues in the country made it worse because he heard stories of how so many people were duped and taken advantage of in business. He has seen example of groups that split ways like musical groups for instance. He is a reserved introvert like some nerds are, and he feels since it’s "the North", people like him to share ideas with are rare and hard to find.

Finally Adamu decides he wants to start a company, he is inspired by people he thinks are "lone wolves" like him. Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, Aliko Dangote, Bill Gates, Elon Musk. He fails to understand that the success of these people at many points in their lives was not a product of their creative genius and hard work alone, but other ingredients like partnership, and team play.

He tries, only to find out that he needs help. He is bad at communicating properly, managing revenue, and relating with customers, so he learns the hard way. He gets an extroverted person for a team mate. Chinedu. They both share the same goal, but the route they prefer to take to reach the goal are different. There is a clash. Adamu thinks his team mate acts like those classmates he used to have in the group assignments. The team mate thinks Adamu is just being bossy because of his technical skills. No one listens to one another, there is a misunderstanding, and they are young people with no experience when it comes to working in a team. They become one big unproductive duo.

Getting the right team mate to strengthen your weakness is as difficult as getting the perfect life partner, sometimes you would just have to mould the effort of your team mate into something that compliments yours. This is a key team play technique. Sometimes it takes luck to find the right people to partner with. But once you get a team, together the possibilities are endless. Each team member fitting neatly into the puzzle. Let's outline a few tips that I'm sure would have helped Adamu and Chinedu.

Eliminate the lone wolf syndrome. Understand that if you really want to achieve your entrepreneurial goals excellently in a system like this, you need good helping hands. 99.9% of the time this is true, 0.01% means your project is extremely concentrated on one activity, so you need no diversification. That's a small chance. You have to forget all you see on the media, look deeper and you will see the hands that helped. The reason why too many cooks spoil the broth is that they all have different pictures in their heads of what a good soup should be like.

Take time to understand your team members. This will help increase productivity and satisfaction in yourselves. Understand what your team member is comfortable with, his strengths, his weakness, the environment he is most productive in, and many other attributes. The idea is to get the most out of each other for maximum productivity. It will be of great help if everyone in the team works towards the aim, by understanding how each of their fellow members love to work. For instance i learned that some of my team members are more productive at night. So the efficient option was to give them the task to work on overnight, while we all give feedback during the day.

Be ready to sacrifice and leave your comfort zone. Appreciate when the same is done for you. People hardly want to leave their comfort zone for anything let alone another person. It's natural to feel it’s too much of a sacrifice to come early to the brainstorm workshop, write code when you don't want to, spend your pocket money on the startup. And this revolves around the fact that you think it wouldn't be noticed or appreciated. It sucks to come early when everyone else is late. You will seem like the over enthusiastic one. Over time you lose interest and you begin to point fingers. This is bad for any start-up team. Everyone must sacrifice visibly for the goal, and these sacrifices should be acknowledged and appreciated no matter how little. It boosts the team’s morale.

Be open to criticism, Share new ideas, and focus your criticism on the team’s growth, not on the person. Every action of a team player should be for the teams greater good. Nothing must compromise the growth of the team. But the growth of the team depends on the individual growth of the members, and one way to make your team grow is to constructively criticize each other, while appreciating your efforts. If you don’t do it, other people outside will. The only difference is, they wouldn’t care much about your team member’s feelings. it's awesome when everyone in the team wants to be better at what he does.

Treat Tribalism, Religious beliefs, Age, Sex, and Social status like it didn't exist. In Nigeria people allow these things to cloud their judgments daily. It is bad for any team. A perfect team is a diverse one. The team must share equal goals and zeal. And that is enough to make it work.

Communicate. Effective communication saves a lot of time spent on dealing with a misunderstanding. One team member must not assume another understands a concept when there is a possibility he doesn’t. Do more talking less working. Not less talking more working. This doesn’t mean the workspace should always be a noisy place. There is a right time for everything. This means if ideas, concepts, and tasks and communicated properly, there would be a decrease in errors and assumptions hence lesser working time. I'll say amongst all, the most important and common way to cultivate team spirit is to always believe in your team, and it’s potential. Getting the great team is not straight forward, but it's actually less complicated than working alone.

Author: Faruk Shuaib

Phone: 08148882058, 08176836670

Email: Farookshuaibu@gmail.com

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