
Establish a new business: Market research
One of the most important aspects of new-business planning is the market research. ?You?ve got to test your idea and your product,? says Sharma. ?There is a danger sometimes if you?re working in isolation that you?ve come up with an idea that you think is great but it might not test so well outside your immediate circle.? ?Don?t just test it with friends or people who are just going to nod along, but try to get a proper objective view. Kick the tyres a bit on your delivery model.? There are a number of ways you can do this ? you can organise a focus group, or pay a firm to organise one for you. If you don?t have the money for this, you can just go out and canvass your customer base directly. Sometimes there will be reports and other market research available to you on your target demographic or industry, but if you?re offering a disruptive service you must proceed with caution. ?You?ve got to be really careful about using old market research. If you?ve found a new way of doing something and you pin your market research on stuff that?s been pinned more towards the old way of doing something then it can sometimes give you a really skewed view,? explained Sharma. Something else to keep in mind during the market research phase is to try your best to be open to criticism. ?You find quite a lot that when people have launched a startup everything is really personal, and I get that, because they?ve invested so much time and effort and it?s their baby. If you point out some fundamental flaw or something that will stop them scaling, there is this natural push to be quite defensive about it, and that?s not helpful,? said Sharma. ?You?ve got to be really open and take it on board and if it?s good solid feedback use that as a way of improving.?The sweet spot
During the market research stage, that is so key when an entrepreneur wants to establish a new business, a startup needs to nail down is unique selling point (USP) and its pricing. In some instances, these two things will overlap, but this is of course not always the case. ?In terms of pricing, first of all you?ve got to be really honest about it. Is what you?re selling a commodity or is it a luxury item, because clearly that?s going to change your pricing,? explained Sharma. ?If it?s something with a lot of competition and it?s a bit more commoditised, you?ve got to look at the market because there is a ceiling to what you can charge.? At the same time however, you need to be careful about under-pricing. If you end up in a loss leader situation, you might get lots of customers through the door, but the more you sell the bigger the loss overall. In instances where a company?s USP is its luxury or aspirational branding, that is a different kind of market and people are often happy to pay a bit more. For some disruptive businesses, the USP might be the convenience of its service.Setting achievable goals
How quickly can you get out there and start selling your product or service to customers? This should be the main goal for most entrepreneurs establishing a new business, according to Sharma. ?Some small businesses over-engineer, so rather than getting out there they keep on trying to perfect it and adjust it. ?Sometimes the only way you?re going to know if your product works is to get out to the market and start selling something to customers. Then you can learn what things are and aren?t working and tweak.? The other goal people establishing a new business should set for themselves is to get in a cash flow positive situation as soon as possible.A stable foundation
For many, establishing a new business is a daunting prospect. You might have a great idea, but if you?ve never run a business before, the associated work with remaining compliant might seem like a headache. For this reason, Sharma recommends taking on professional advice, and ensuring you have a really good accountant. ?You?ve got to use your time wisely, if you?re the creative force and responsible for the business development, then just get rid of the work and get someone else to pore over receipts and organise your VAT returns.? However, this doesn?t mean you can just delegate all your work and turn a blind eye to the accounts. Every startup owner needs to keep up to date with bookkeeping and monthly management reporting ? in other words, you need to understand where your money is going. ?The quicker you can get that information, the quicker you can tweak things and the more confident you?re going to be about making decisions. Otherwise, you are kind of operating in a black hole. ?There?s always the fear of whether you can afford things, or alternatively you act recklessly and spend all your money moving in to fancy offices with exposed brickwork and you end up with cash flow problems.? Overall, establishing a new business is all about finding a happy medium. You don?t want to rush your product or service out to market, but you don?t want to waste time over-engineering; you don?t want to over-price or under-price; and you don?t want to get bogged down in compliance and miss all the fun.? Strike the right balance and get a business plan in place to avoid unwanted surprises later down the line. Make sure you don?t miss our expand, evolve and exit articles, all put together in partnership with KPMG Small Business Accounting. If you?d like to receive an alert, please register here.Sign up to our newsletter to get the latest from Business Advice.