Archive for the ‘NYEW - Blog’ Category
Is Your Good Idea a Good Business? (Part 3 of 3)
This is the last in a series of three on how to build and use economic models to determine the viability of your business idea. In the previous two entries, I discussed how market sizing and segmentation and competitive market research can help you, the entrepreneur, validate initial revenue and cost assumptions and build a more robust model that can be used to feed into the financial projections of your business plan. In this post we’ll explore how “reference businesses” can contribute to the economic modeling process.
Entrepreneurial Lessons: What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Lebron James
Last week, we saw an incredible spectacle. The most popular free agent, the man who will be bringing millions to the team that signs him, created a show to declare who the winner is. Regardless of where he went, Lebron James would be making millions and have endorsements worth much more than that.
While his decision made some people jump for joy, other break down crying and others bashing him for this overly orchestrated event, there are many lessons that can be taken from what watching the whole process of Lebron going through free agency, some positive and others, negative.
Here are four very important lessons that an entrepreneur should take away from this “event”-
Why Do People Start a Business?
A survey from a pool of Columbia Business School alumni entrepreneurs was recently conducted to understand the overall pattern of our graduates’ entrepreneurial experiences and what factors predict success. One of the questions posed was: Why did you start a business?
The results showed the various reasons people first became entrepreneurs and how these motivations are linked to success. Interestingly, one of the least cited reasons is the only one that is linked to success.
Is Your Good Idea a Good Business? (Part 2 of 3)
In my last blog entry, I posed one of the first questions an entrepreneur should ask themselves before moving forward with their endeavor, “Is my good idea a good business?”
I proposed that building an economic model can be a helpful tool in answering that question. Start simple using your existing knowledge of revenues and costs. Next, validate your initial assumptions through market research. I discussed how market sizing and segmentation can help forecast demand, which is used to calculate both revenue and variable costs. Below, I will discuss how researching your competition can contribute in building and/or supporting the economic model.
Is Your Good Idea A Good Business
Every business starts with an idea but not every idea is a viable business.
Whether you write a formal business plan or not, you, the entrepreneur, should look to answer the good idea vs. good business question as soon as possible. To begin, model the economics of your proposed business. Initially, this can be a back of the envelope calculation using revenue and cost assumptions to get an idea of potential returns. If the results of this exercise show promise, validate your initial assumptions through market research. Much of this research will focus on market sizing and segmentation, competition and reference businesses (i.e. businesses inside or outside the industry that employ a similar business model).
Why Entrepreneurs are Unique
Over the last few weeks, I have attended numerous networking events, pitch parties and conferences in a wide variety of industries including music, film, technology, government and entrepreneurship. In going from event to event, you start to notice how different events are run, how the participants, sponsors and organizers interact with each other and the participants of the events. As I look back at my run of these events, I want to highlight what I think is a unique and great trait that entrepreneurs have – the willingness to help every other entrepreneur.
The Entrepreneur and the Community Lender
As a second follow-up to my original piece two weeks back on “Funding for the Rest of Us Entrepreneurs”, I would like to discuss a second area of alternative funding, that being the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). CDFIs provide financial product and services to people and communities underserved by traditional financial institutions. They normally work in low wealth areas and can take many forms (ex. banks, credit unions, micro-lenders, etc.).
UX, Entrepreneurs and Startups – Why Should I Care!?!?!
Ever since having the opportunity to work with a startup back in the early fall, I’ve jumped on any chance I’ve had to do so again. I loved the atmosphere and the people, but most of all I loved the freedom with which to try and adapt the User Experience practices that I’ve been learning for so long.
Many of the people in my field migrate towards full-time work with established companies, because they desire the security that that type of work brings them. That is all well and good until the complaints about not being respected and not having the opportunity to be innovative and to learn begin. Very slowly, but surely, a change is beginning in the user experience world, and it is one that you as an entrepreneur or small business owner should not only be aware of, but should take advantage of.
User experience professionals are starting to talk about the joys of working with smaller companies and startups… and a very, very early migration has started towards that direction.
