In our First Step course, the first thing we do is help you assesses your readiness for the life of a startup owner. Then we guide you through all of the questions you need to ask your prospective customers before you do anything else. We show you multiple ways to get the answers you need, and we provide you with a clear process for evaluating the information you collect so you can make solid decisions for yourself and your new business going forward.
Far too many business plans are written based on what prospective entrepreneurs believe to be true, or hope to be true with nothing to back up that optimism.
Steps Two through Five rely on the customer preference data you’ll collect in the First Step course, giving you the data you need to focus your efforts and justify your hope! We show how to plan and execute the development of your business model, your competitive strategy, your operating model, your marketing and selling strategies, and your performance management systems all based on what’s most important to the market you want to serve.
Over 30 years, whether for service businesses, manufacturers, B2B ventures, tech companies, distributors and wholesalers, or retail operations, our approach has proven to be successful over and over again for clients ranging from first-time entrepreneurs to well-established larger companies. And the reason is simple.
Too many business plans are written based on what the entrepreneurs believe to be true, or hope to be true. They invest considerable time, effort, and money building out a business only to find that they’re not able to connect to their intended market – after the money is spent, and often after the window of opportunity has closed. Even when entrepreneurs collect preliminary market research, they often fail to ask the right questions of prospective customers and they fail to use the information collected from customers to shape every part of their business model, from their operating strategy to their pricing to their branding, advertising and marketing.
With our approach, there’s no speculation, no guessing. Customers in the market you want to serve will tell you exactly what they need, what they want, how they prefer to find out about your business, how they want to interact with your company, how much they’re willing to pay, and how they prefer to complete the buying process. They’re willing to talk if you know how to approach them. If you listen and plan accordingly, building your entire business around what they’ve laid out for you, you’ll gain advantages over existing providers in your market – your competitors – that are impossible for them to overcome.
We know there are thousands of companies out there that prey on the dreams of new entrepreneurs, bombarding them with promises of success. Coaching programs, software companies, and professional services of all kinds designed to raise your hopes and take your money, but ultimately leaving you with nothing but disappointment and empty pockets.
Before we launched the Startup Business Workshop, the prospective clients we interviewed told us they were fed up with the “pay first” models that promise the world and deliver nothing. “If it’s so good,” they said, “why wouldn’t you be able to prove it to us first?” Good point, why not? We listened to what our prospective customers told us, and built our business around what they want and prefer.