If you were to start a business, there is a high chance that you are going to start it based on your intuition, most times based on what you love but you see, what you love doesn't give you money and this wasn't how companies like Facebook, or AirBnB started out. It wasn't done for the purpose of loving what they did, it was done for the purpose of creating solution.
To start a business, you need to understand how to decouple the market chain. Business is fun, not the type of business itself. When we talk about decoupling the market, we could look at Uber as an example. Before Uber, people would wait for a taxi, or have to work to stops where taxis were just waiting for customers. There are times when people would think there are no taxis whereas there are a lot of taxis waiting, not just in the street where the person is at, also there are times where taxi drivers would say there are no passengers where as there were enough passengers just knowing where they were was the problem. Do I need to explain how Uber came in? I guess you know the answer already but I will help answer it either ways and that is that it connects drivers to riders.
In every successful start up, this is what they usually look at. They are concerned about the custormer's need and in other to know what they need, they look at the value chain. They check out the customer value chain which involves what a customer does to get a product in their home from its origin or to get it to dispose when they are not in need again.
It goes beyond finding the customer value chain because finding that alone would not create a business idea, rather finding the weak link in this chain and looking for a solution is where a profitable business come into play. This weak link is the opportunity to start a business. It is where decoupling begins. With this, startups are able to disrupt this industry when they come in to play in the market as a result of taking advantage of the weak link in the customer value chain.
When looking for which part of the value chain you want to take advantage of, you can look at activities like Value chain activity, value capturing activity, and Value eroding activity. These activities determine disruption in any industry. You can either be in the value creation of the consumer activity, or be a part of the value capturing, or value eroding part of the consumer activity.
Making money in business would have to do with value in business but then there is no guarantee in all type of business that the value you create will mean profitability. For instance, Facebook is creating a value of connecting people together but that itself although being a good value creation business isn't profitable if Facebook wouldn't include ads, subscription, or loyalty scheme.
While starting a business might begin with intuition and passion, it’s crucial to focus on solving real problems and addressing weak links in the market chain. By doing so, you can create value and potentially disrupt the industry, leading to a profitable and sustainable business.
Posted Using InLeo Alpha