Eight Questions to Answer Before Starting A Business

Inspired from Accidental Entrepreneur (2008) by Susan – Brown

1. Who am I?

Before going in any kind of business one must know fully about his/her own self and strength/ goods and bad things in personality and tactics so that when he/she comes into the business or any other place, a better understanding of one own-self is always good, especially in making decisions.

2. What Business am I in?

It is always better to define the products or services which will be focused an entrepreneur will be in the market. Also defining the kind of solutions also viable and which are not.

3. Is my Business Idea Doable?

In this step it is to get the information about the consumers and selling the product in the market. Also to analyze that what kind of potential is available for profit, plus getting the information and study of the competitors is also necessary.

4. Research on Market Niche?

It is the in-depth analysis of the business in order to find the uniqueness and exclusivity of the business. Another important factor in this step can be the price of the service or the product so that the customer can get the answer of most of his questions.

5. Marketing my Business?

To think about the marketing strategies and the type of advertisements including the medium for the advertisement like TV, newspaper etc must be analyzed before starting the business.

6. Financing the Business?

The starting, profit loss projections etc are also necessary for business startup. And for this thing the basic know how of the accounting must also be known by the entrepreneur so that he/she can have a proper check and balance on the business strategies.

7. Need of Business Plan?

Planning ahead can make the difference in the success and failure of the business and can lead to solutions of many of the problems before time.

8. Why I go into my Own Business?

Doing business is like going for a marathon, as for marathon proper preparation and exercise is required, same is for business that each and every aspect of the business and every plus and minus should be analyzed.

If a person has unyielding and importunate answers of these eight questions before he/she start a business then there is kind of no harm and it is particularly safe to start with own business idea, as these steps provide the in-depth analysis of all the important aspects of the business.

COMMENTS ON BOOK

Inside the Patent Factory

The Essential Reference for Effective and Efficient Management of Patent Creation

BY

Donal O'Connell

Intellectual Property, which is defined as something from the intellect of person or organization in general and which has its own commercial and public value.Keeping the IP of one’s company secret and use it to obtain Sustainable Competitive Advantage in the later stages of the business expansion is always a major problem faced by many of the entrepreneurs, particularly in the stages of growth.

When every company has intellectual property for itself the it take certain measures to protect its intellectual property, and there are many means of doing this. Patents, trademarks, service marks, copyrights or by keeping the policies and plans as trade secrets are the ways usually used by most of the companies.

Patent is the most common way of protecting the IP, although it is granted for the limited duration (e.g. in US for 20years) but it provides the owner to have a right to exclude others from making, having made, using, or selling an invention without prior permission which is kind of temporary monopoly but beneficial for the longer term of the society and the company itself.

Donal O'Connell is a director of IPR(Intellectual Property Rights) at Nokia. He has an extensive experience in the wireless telecom industry across the world. He has led a major change project within Nokia IPR and he is extremely well networked within R&D and Environmental Fields, being in R&D department and working in IPR he has an broad knowledge about the importance of IP and especially the patent methodologies.

This book by Donal is actually a coaching guide for anyone interested in IP and those wanting to extend or especially embark on their patent creation. In this book, the author has drained his widespread experience and insights from change projects, management and leadership at his work place. This actually guides the reader through each stage of successful facilitation, management, and leadership of patent creation. Focusing on key issues and themes involved, it provides examples, diagrams and models to illustrate how they can be put into practice.

This book guides the reader through each stage of business, from setting up a successful unit to invite the core customers and Ventures to come and invest in them. Focusing on key issues and themes involved, it provides examples, diagrams and models to illustrate how they can be out in to practice.

Important chapters of the books are the core activities of patent creation, The management of external patent agencies, possible organizational models, costs, quality and the comparison of external and internal allocation of tasks. Most of the discussion concentrates on how to such define the roles and responsibilities with emphasizes of the management techniques especially for having and attracting the external resources of funding and in long run to have SCA.

It also let the reader (especially those working for a firm or in the management position) to analyze their current position and depending on the structure of their organization, devise techniques and methodologies to improve R&D structure and then to have a product that when being patented, give them real upper hand over its competitors.

In short, the spotlight of this book is on the knowledge creation and utilization in such a way that it not only proves to be beneficial for the organization but also let them to protect their IP and its by better usage of IP that a firm can really maintain its competitive advantage in the market and ultimately PROFIT which is a combination of Physical, Reputational, Organizational, Financial, Intellectual and Technological resources.