WHAT IS A BUSINESS MODEL?
A business model is a description of a company’s products or services, reasons why they are desirable to customers or clients, identified target market, anticipated expenses, and features of these products or services that stand out from other competitors.
These are a company’s ideas and strategies for creating, proposing, and maximising value which would help to provide a structured and comprehensive understanding of how the company generates revenue and uses its resources.
Your business model is designed to assist you in developing a strategy and addressing key challenges such as how to identify existing problems that you intend to solve, the approach to take in dealing with the problems, and the opportunity for growth within your target market.
Setting this up not only gives you direction as a start-up, but it also gives you insights into how to get funding, a clear focus on your marketing, an assessment of your competing products, and a prediction of your estimated revenues and expenses, all of which will save you time and money, help you raise capital, and increase productivity.
HOW TO CHOOSE A BUSINESS MODEL
Choosing the right business model would solely involve doing a deep dive into the market to understand the economic value of a product or service before launching into the market.
Here are a few factors that should influence making a decision on what business model to use;
- THE CUSTOMER:
The ideal business model for your company is determined by your product and your consumers, and in order to properly understand what it is, you must conduct research to identify your possible target market.
After you achieve that step, you need to also search and look for a model that not only aligns with your customer’s needs and expectations but also adds value to them. Also, consider going out to talk to your customers to gain a sense of things like their buying patterns, how to outrightly address the problems you wish to solve, and designing a model that causes the least inconvenience to customers.
- THE MARKET POTENTIAL:
Examine the market’s potential as well as the competitive market environment. Spend significant time analysing if the market has a substantial customer base and, if not, whether it has the tendency to advance.
Study how other companies generate revenue and devise a strategy to serve a growing market where consumers are open to new brands. Be innovative and do not get stuck on just the traditional ways of doing it.
- VALUE PROPOSITION:
A value proposition is a statement that introduces a brand to customers and describes what the company stands for, how it operates, and why they should do business with company.
Your business model should explain to your customers how they will benefit from doing business with you, describe how your goods or services will address a problem they have been experiencing, and assist in defining your company’s specific and real advantages.
- SCALABILITY:
This is a company’s capacity to meet the market’s expanding demands in a way that maximises profit margins while increasing volume of sales. Incorporating this while designing a company’s business model before it even begins to generate any revenue can contribute to reducing the likelihood of failure as a start-up.
- REVENUE STREAMS:
Taking the revenue streams of a company into account when drawing a business model is important because it drives strategy, business planning, and investment. A revenue stream indicates the monetary value that customers are prepared to pay for the goods and services provided. Work on generating multiple revenue streams without always relying on a particular one.
An effective business model will lay a solid foundation and boost a company’s chances of success. There really is no “set” business model; rather, focus on developing one and gradually modifying and aligning it with your market.
VALIDATING YOUR BUSINESS MODEL
Testing your model will assist to demonstrate if your products or services would provide value to your consumers and also position your company for long-term success and development.
Some of the ways of validating your business model are:
- Make it collaborative and easy to use in order to receive feedback about your products or services from consumers and team members.
- Ensure that the products or services you choose to offer and all the company operations in the chosen business model would develop enough income to pay shareholders, invest in capital developments, expand operations in the future, and still enable you to stay in business.
- Conduct a detailed market research, as well as assessments and reports, to enable you evaluate your model and make the required changes based on actual results and reliable data.
- Research the legal and regulatory framework in your market to determine whether your products or services are compliant with the law.
- Investigate the market for competitors. If you already have a competition, you must figure out how to upgrade your products or services and become far superior to them.
Validating your model would put you in a better perspective to understand the industry and concentrate on improving your company and properly satisfy your customers.
Establishing a business model is a vital aspect of building a strategy, so make sure it answers critical questions about your company to help set a clear vision for your company.
