In the previous blog, I discussed the first three steps to starting a business: know yourself, know your people, and know your customer. Basically, these first three steps involve an understanding of the people important to your business.

For this blog, let us go to the next three steps in building your business. In the succeeding steps, you will realize that knowing the essential business elements, in addition to knowing certain people in your business, is crucial in determining business success. Read on to find out why.

Step 4. Know your solution

When we say “solution”, we mean a product or a service that your business will offer the customers. In step 3, you have already acquired a comprehensive profile of your customers: who they are, what motivates them, what their purchasing behavior is, and how they are influenced on what they want to buy. This step branches from a thorough understanding of your customer, as knowing your solution requires you to put yourselves in the shoes of the latter so you can give an answer to this essential question: What is the customer’s problem that I could provide a solution for? For instance, if your customers are stay-at-home mothers, understanding their psychology would help you realize what they most need in taking care of the household while tending to the needs of the children and satisfying their own interests. From there, you can come up with what you want to sell to this specific group of customers with the confidence that they will buy your solution to what bothers them.

Step 5. Know your technology

There is no doubt that every business we know of today uses technology. You just cannot escape from it even if you want to stick with the “traditional way of doing things”. Technology makes business operations more productive and communications more efficient, among its other advantages. Knowing your technology does not require you to become an expert in it. What you can do is understand how a specific technology works and how it contributes to your business. This way, you will not get left behind as digital innovation takes over the industry.

Step 6. Know your business processes.

If you are thinking of starting your own business, you should learn, as early as now, that excuses for not understanding an aspect of your business process are not acceptable. As an aspiring entrepreneur, you need to recognize that even a small business has its processes that are interrelated. As with knowing your technology, this step does not demand you to become an expert in each of your business processes. Rather, this step entails a basic understanding of how a business process works and how it affects the entire business operations. For instance, if you do not understand marketing or accounting, it is time you attempt to learn about these important processes as these will contribute to your business success.

Watch this video as I talk about these steps. Stay tuned for parts 3 and 4 of this blog article series.

This is Joey Gurango, your Business Technology Coach!