Amusing Businesses - the original entrepreneurial spirit

I just love this. I was at a local garden centre recently and typically, came across bags of "fertilizer" for sale.

I just think it's brilliant, you sit there for a moment, staring at a big pile of poo and wonder to yourself "what am I going to do with this?"

Sell it.

Making money from the byproducts of your business is a fantastic idea, mainly because it is such a simple one.

I'll admit that this blog originally started out quite aspirational - but I think that bit of my learning curve has maybe ended. The thing about trying to think of something interesting to blog about has turned into blogging about things that come up during the week and just approaching it from a business sense. A business start up sense :)

I have just started a blogroll, I hope that's ok with those I've listed. They are blogs I read that I find amusing. As I venture futher into Irish Blogland I will no doubt keep adding to them...

But back to the point of making business from byproducts. It's not as difficult as it looks - just step outside the box for a moment and have a little think.

This is apparently the time for us as a nation to focus on The Knowledge Economy. So, if your business is not in manufacturing or farming or retail or hospitality, but more service or IT based, then think about getting a healthy cashflow early on.

For Example!

If you have a web based business and you are busy looking for customers but they are not coming along as quickly as you would have imagined - how about selling your valuable IT skills on the side on a consultancy basis, just to get the coffers healthy. It will benefit you in 2 ways:
1) Cashflow, obviously
2) Get you back into other businesses

The second one is another byproduct, but this time - for you. It's a lonely old road starting up a business, and sometimes (cheesey but true) you can't see the wood for the....big leafy things. So interacting with others will help, but learning about their day-to-day issues will help you too. It can only help to discuss general business issues in the long term, I find.

Something interesting happened today...

Listening to Customers/Potentials! How unusual...

Irish King of Blogging Damien Mulley posted about Perlico yesterday - a flyer came in his door disguised as a message from Eircom, but really it was just some "alternative" marketing by Perlico. Cue rant! Cue lots of other rants from fellow bloggers and blog readers alike! (Cue me laughing at the success of such a cheeky move by Perlico Morkeshing Deportment).

But what I think is really swizz is that they replied to all the moans and gripes, explained their moves and welcomed a cuppa with the ranters to really get feedback on what would work!

Have a read, go on - it's amusing. But also SO important. If you are going to start a business, LISTEN to your customers. It doesn't matter how big or small your business is going to be, just make sure you listen - people don't always moan for the sake of moaning (some do, I grant you!) so if it's free feedback on you, your services or your products - take it on board. Do something about it. Impress the world!

Well done Paul Woods, Perlico's Commercial Director. Now, the next time you post to a blog Mr Woods, would you PLEASE explain the stalker-like cold calling system? Does it really work anymore?

Market Research. How? Why? When...

Sometimes people are amazed when they ask me where to start conducting market research, and I joke around and say, "Well, have you tried typing Market Research into Google?"

Yes of course someone has got a website called www.marketresearch.com, but it still amazes me why people don't take more advantage of online research tools.

Some basic ones to get you started at the birdseye view (A.K.A. macro) end of things:

• www.census.ie (where is your target market? what's the population count there?)
• Also Known As...
• www.cso.ie (other people have done lots of work on handy stats - no need to reinvent the wheel! It's not laziness, just efficient! If you do use this site - reference it, make sure people know where you're getting your stuff!)
• Market Research Dot Com - you can get some basic stuff there but the juice info - you have to pay for. It was someone's hard work!

When you are getting down to the more practical stuff, that's when it gets REALLY interesting!! And just try it...for example, you want to find out about hotel groups. You have a brilliant new service or product that would be perfect for every hotel owner out there - the receptionists, the bellhops, the general managers, the waitresses, the chamber maids. You want to target two markets in particular: Ireland, the UK.

Check these out:

• UK Hotel Research
• Irish Hotel Research

The list goes on.

You decide to target architects. Hairdressers. Anything. You name it, the information is out there. Remember - the more you know about your competitors the better a position you will be in to be better than them. The more you know about your customers & potentials, the better equipped you will be to make their experience with you better, and bring them back to you for repeat business.

Today's Top Tip. Because I've just experienced some.

Efficiency. That's a thing. If you are going into business, make sure you have this item at the top of your priority list. It will make your customers happier, and that will keep bringing them back to you. Having given this a good bit of thought, I can safely say that if your effiency levels are tiptop, then you can charge quite a bit for your service...and that's always good news, hey?!

Hey hey.

Phew!

Sorry for taking so long to blog... It's been a busy few weeks! I'm delighted to report that the number of people in Ireland considering self-employment as a major life choice is on the up-and-up!

It's great to see so many versatile business types popping up all over the place. The most common questions posed to me recently have been around the areas of marketing - the market research side of things (in great detail, often sector specific!) and the advertising side. Much of the time, people simply just don't know where to start. The best thing to do is a wee spider diagram. It really is that basic! That's all it takes to start. A doodle.

Once you start you will realise it can be difficult to stop! And yes, you will automatically move into the more grown-up sort of scenario, with lists, graphs, diagrams of your target market... The pages of market research will become almost endless.

Why?

Because the more you know about your target market, the better equipped you are to service it.

Same goes for competitors.

If you can identify the best and worst bits about your competitors, then you're laughing.

Because?

You can make their weaknesses your strengths. And their strengths your strengths too. If you are both catering for the same type of client, find out what works for them and provide it too - do it better than them - and whatever area of weakness they have, learn from their mistakes and make sure it's not your area of crapness too!!!