Testing Your Concept Mr Kuhn

Feasibility analysis Feasibility Analysis is the process that help an entrepreneur decide whether a new business concept has potential What it determines: Is there enough demand for your product? Are the conditions appropriate for you to move forward with your product? What it includes: The industry The customers The product and its requirements The founding team The competition The resources needed

Testing the industry An industry is a group of businesses with a common interest Eg. Retail, restaurant, computer…. When analyzing a industry look out for the following factors: How is the health of your industry? Are there any new changes in trends or patterns? Who are the major players in the industry? Are there any barriers to entering the industry? What are typical profit margins?

The market and its customers Your customer base is the most important contributor to the success of your company It is important that you not only speak to your competitors, but you customers as well When analyzing a market look out for the following factors: Target market demographics Customer profile Plans for communicating with both the customer and the competitor

Testing the product or service requirements In this section of the testing you must make a prototype or blueprint for your service or product Even if you do not manufacture something you should still create a blueprint Example: If you are opening a hair salon or music store you should create a blueprint of the layout of you physical place This will delved into further during the year Equally as important is protecting you idea You can do this through patents, trademarks, and copyrights We will also learn about this further in the year

Start up RESOURCES When creating a company it is important to investigate how much money you will need for start up resources by calculating the cost of the following: Purchase or lease equipment, furnishings, and a facility Buy starting inventory and supplies Pay employees Finish product development Carrying expenses until you make a profit Immediate profit is not always necessary Jeffrey Bezos created Amazon knowing that it would not profit for a long time Strong financial projections and a solid business plan allowed him to make money and get investments

Analyzing the value chain There are many stops your product must go through before it reaches a customer Manufacturing Distributing Retailers Each of these steps adds to the cost of your product, it is your responsibility to get your product out for as cheap as you can New technologies such as online stores have drastically minimized the amount companies spend selling their product

The competitive Grid The competitive grid is a five column grid that lets you analyze the competition in your industry The five columns investigate Competitor List all of your direct and indirect competitors Customer List the primary target of your competitors Benefits What benefits do the customers get from your competitors Distribution List ways your competitor gets its product to the customer Strength/Weaknesses List your opinion of what the strength and weaknesses of the competitor is

Strengths and Weaknesses Competitive gRID Competitor Customer Benefits Distribution Strengths and Weaknesses Sportscheck Sportmart Source for Sports Mt Waddingtons Catalog Sales Nike Online Walmart