Taking your hobby or passion and turning it into a sustainable career requires a business plan. When we hosted our series of business planning workshops at OPEN.innovate Creative Arts Incubator of Durham Region, a not-for -profit organization we founded in 2019, we always started with the basics. We would take a deep dive into the ‘pre-work’- the part where we see if the business idea is worth the time and money we are about to invest in it.
Don't underestimate the importance of doing research, talking to your consumers and diving deep into your core values before getting attached to an idea.
1. Market Research
How to determine if what you are offering is consumable?
People have to want what you are offering. A business needs income to survive, and income is based on the demand for your product or service.
Market research can: • Help you understand the market demand and threshold for your product or service. • Reduce chances of your product or service failing due to lack of customers or a wrong price point.
• Guide your marketing strategy
Market Research takes time because it involves a lot of research on your competitors, partners, suppliers and most importantly- who your customer is.
2. Core Values How to align your core beliefs and values into a successful consistent brand.
Values are not necessarily morals or ethics, but simply the things that make you feel truly alive and passionately committed to what you’re doing.
For one person it might be providing a service to others; for another it might be creativity or working in a team; and for someone else it might be challenge and adventure.
Creating a business that is aligned with your values will give you a greater connection, commitment and enthusiasm when you develop and hustle for your business - especially when things aren’t going as planned.
3. Vision & Mission Write statements that support your values.
4. Evidence Modelling Understand how your business can and will impact society. With the way technology and business are growing these days, this was a fairly new addition to Business Planning 101: Building Blocks.
When inventing a new way of doing something or developing new technologies, it is important to examine what the impact will be on society and the effect your business will have on the environment or the industry.
It contains four questions you can run your idea past:
What does it enhance/bring new value to? For example, Skype enriches personal and business communications by allowing free video calls.
What does it replace/make less desirable? Online news and social media are making the traditional newspaper less desirable.
What does it revive/re-use or build upon? New ideas can change how we see and value older ones. For example, because people now mostly buy music digitally, vinyl records have changed from being common to being rare. And that means they now have a new value as collectible objects worth a lot of money.
What might be the backlash/limiting effects? Could an idea become so successful it actually ends up having a negative effect? For example, if a car-sharing service is so well designed it actually tempts people off public transport and into cars, increasing congestion, then a successful idea actually ends up having a negative effect.
Answering these four questions about your business, will help you spot any downfalls or negative impacts before they emerge. This will allow you to work on solutions or change plans before you invest the big bucks.
• SWOT: How to analyze your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and to determine your strategic position in the market.
Trust me, your business idea will evolve so much when you're in the middle of this process. Building a business involves a lot of planning and articulate moves. Don't throw money at ideas you didn't take the time to set the foundation -building blocks.
I also have worksheets that make this process easier. Sign up below for the worksheets.
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