Home Business Tips

What to Sell?

What good is a business without a product? One of the first things that a business should consider is what product to sell to the consumer. Whether the product he or she sells will be a service or goods that can relate to what the consumer needs.

Not being able to know what the market wants and needs is often the common pitfalls of entrepreneurs. Some entrepreneurs just feel that their product is great and the public would buy it immediately. To some there will be a lucky break, to others it could be a big loss.

Everyone says that entrepreneurs are risky people. It is another common misconception for entrepreneurs. They are risk takers all right, but they take calculated risks. If they do not take calculated risks, loses could be more.

That’s why before starting a business they create plans. The plans they had made are virtually “what ifs”. But at least their plans include contingency plans and other stuff. The risk that entrepreneur’s take is whether to start the business or not.

As stated above, knowing the right product to sell is essential. Here are some fifteen key questions that mat guide you to learn if your product is really great and can sell well. These questions will also help you determine what kind of product you’d want to sell if you have no idea what to sell as well.

There are two factors that should be assessed when deciding to select a product. The two factors are the inherent qualities of the product and the state of the market. Here are some questions based on the factors.

The Inherent Qualities of the Product:

1. Is your product of high quality?
2. Is the product really effective or defective?
3. What are the benefits the product gives to the consumer? Are the benefits valuable?
4. Can the product be able to increase pleasure or utility, or reduce the pain?
5. Should your product be reordered?
6. Can a back-end of the product be easily developed when needed?

State of the Market:

1. Can your product be obtained or produced at a low cost to have higher margins? Or are you willing to sell via low profit margin but high volumes?
2. What is the demand for the product? Just observe here. You don’t need a very broad study. See if a product like what you are thinking moves fast in the market.
3. Is the market for your product growing? Go check if companies selling products similar like yours are growing fast or slowly. Observe these companies if they are expanding or not.
4. How many competitors are selling similar products? More competitors mean more choices by the consumer. More competitors mean you have to be innovative to capture a share of the market.
5. How many of these competitors are serious or really big time companies?
6. Are there products that can be substituted for the product you are planning to sell? When there is, it means more competitors.
7. What are those substitutes?
8. Are there factors that increase or decreases the sales of the substitutes?
9. Will it be hard to differentiate your product from competitors?

Here are seven prerequisites of Great products as well.

1. The product should be fulfilling a need or want
2. Either niche market or mass market appeal
3. Should have a profit margin of at least 2:1.
4. Has a value perceived to be high
5. The product should be replenished or repurchased more often.
6. Can be easily cross-sold or up-sold.
7. The product has a related back-end product.

Basing your product from the following criterion can help prevent you from losing more money. It can help give you a feel of what the best business is right that can earn instead of losing money.

Small/Home Business Tips, General 2006-06-23 Home Business Tips