Start-ups Should Be All About Solving Problems

Start-ups take birth by solving problems. If there are no problems there would be no need for start ups. Big companies can solve them more efficiently anyway. But lets get real, Problems do exist and arise all the time. And start-ups come to the rescue to solve these problems.

Yet somewhere amid all this information, start-ups tend to forget that their sole purpose is to solve a specific problem and make some money while they are at it.

I have realized through my own experiences that the product made real sense while it was solving a real problem. And the people who benefited were willing to pay for it and not just that, they were happy to consume the service for a price.

Yet this simple thought gets lost the moment the idea hits the ground, and the entrepreneur starts worrying about a million other things that “seem” important. And then sometimes even while focusing on a problem things may not go in the right direction. In this post I will try to talk about some of these points.

Is your start-up solving a problem ?
You may have a web3.0 social networking highly viral idea. But are you solving a problem. If you cannot answer this question in 5 seconds then you have failed.Take a step back. Don’t do anything else until you have figured out what problem you are solving. Sometimes the problem is evident. Sometimes its hidden or not well expressed. But its out there find it.

Is it worth solving?
Now this is where it gets a little more hard to answer. Go ask the people who face the problem . Some times the problem is just too small. More often the problem may be just too big. And almost always there is someone else out there who is also trying to solve the same problem. If the problem is too small, look wider . If its too big. Break it up into mutually exclusive pieces and pick one to solve. And don’t bother if there is someone else you know who is trying to solve it too. Unless the market is already mature, you need not worry of the other players. In a few months you should expect more competitors to fight you and many of the existing ones to vanish.

Getting Out There Fast
Now that you have a problem to solve and a solution to offer. Get out there. In front of your customers. Solve the problem for them and dont shy from asking a price for it. We always pay for things where we are able to identify the value we get. Either it is a pack of popcorn at the movie theaters or the sundae at the
ice-cream store. How ever you woudnt pay if the value is not clear. So keep the value proposition simple and clear. You offer this solution and you charge a certain amount for it.

Never Underestimate Getting Every Customer Really Happy And Excited About Your Service
Large companies have thousands of customers and can get away without caring about them. As a start-up you should be fanatical about customer satisfaction. Just make every customer really really happy about your service. When the times are bad this is the only strength you can rely on. Never Never Never ignore your customer you cannot afford to do it.

Have Fun
Just Have Fun , if you are running your own startup and still not having fun, there is something really wrong. Make sure you and the entire team and enjoying every moment.

Looking Into the Future

As the New Year Dawns, every one has a question of what lies ahead. Here is an interesting video .

The Consumption Chain – Whats That?

Whether you offer a product or a service there is a certain flow of events from procuring the input resources to delivering a solution. While. There has been a lot of progress in analyzing this supply chain and ensuring that efficiencies are achieved . There seems to be little effort in the consumption chain.

The Consumption Chain
So what is a consumption chain? Consumption Chain is broadly the set of events that start from the first sale of your product to the retailer/distributor/consumer to the point of actual consumption and the capture and transmission of the consumption experience back to the organization. This information has to flow to the right teams in operations, product and design so that there is a continuous improvement process built into the system.

Information like

• What happens when your consumers buy your products ?
• How did they like the product ?
• What would they like to see more of and what would they like to avoid?
• When do they need your services again ?
• In what scenarios do they like to get in touch with you ?
• And most importantly how can such information be driven through the organization to the right personnel so it meets its logical end.

So Why Has the Consumption Chain Been Largely ignored
Well a lot of information is still captured. Companies like to capture information of whats selling, whos buying it etc. But the lack of ownership for that data means that this information is hugely under utilized. The data is there but no one bothers. Its just that no one is sure who is responsible
for it and hense its just left there.

Marketing/Operations/Design who owns this anyway
Companies are still unsure who should use this information and how it must be put to use. In most companies customer feedback is still a marketing function than an operational function . Further a problem may have its roots in not just one but several departments. Ensuring that issues meet a logical end has be driven from the top management. I myself have been in so many scenarios at my bank or my favourite restaurant where I wanted to give some feedback but there was just no real way to do so. The ground staff seemed to just not want to accept the feedback as it would effect them directly .  As a result customers get indifferent to the business and there is no form of customer loyalty.

Addressing the Consumption Chain
Closing the feedback loop is a key step. It helps you understand the health of your business. How customers value your business and where you could be doing more. This allows operations to ensure that service levels are kept high and the businesses is healthy.

There is a quit a lot of work yet to be done in the consumption chain. If addressed well, we will have companies that are responsive and progressive.