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Businesses that last the test of time tend to be evolving and changing all the time. For smaller businesses the key to innovation comes down to listening to customers and identify opportunities to introduce new solutions.
Turning an idea into a new product or service is a lot harder than just coming up with new ideas. In addition to having the right product idea in the first place, there are three essential ingredients for successful new product development:
Coming up with innovative ideas isn’t always intuitive and you may need to develop a number of ideas before any one comes to fruition. To help develop a tranche of ideas try:
Try to identify the major risks early on so you can decide if the overall expense and time is worth the potential reward. Minimize the risk by:
Work out how to reduce each risk to an acceptable level. For example, can your new design be patented or protected in some other way?
Ask potential customers, suppliers and members of the development team for feedback on the idea or a prototype. Good feedback at this stage can save time and money.
While a good product idea is no guarantee of success, a bad product idea is guaranteed to fail.
Here are some fatal flaws:
Traditional businesses like cafes, plumbers, builders, professionals often can’t suddenly transform themselves into something new. If you’re a baker, you’re a baker. But they may be able to alter existing product or service lines or change the way they sell. The internet, apps, the growth of online shopping and banking have changed the playing field.
Taking for granted ‘normal’ online shopping, other ways of selling now include:
This list isn’t exhaustive, new ideas will come along all the time, but what is trending in your industry that you could take advantage of? Investigate if there is a new way of selling that opens up a new business channel to your customers by seeing what other businesses are doing that you could adopt.
If you do need to find new products and services, a normal process would be to develop a prototype, research if there is demand, test with customers and then launch.
To find new ideas find out what similar businesses are doing (either here or offshore), search your industry key words, read research papers or websites that report on trends affecting your type of business. Social media channels are also a useful source of information by following relevant feeds and groups.
Stay up-to-date what’s is relevant to your industry, evaluate new software or channels introduced by your industry and contact your customers to ask them what else they need, what are their issues and problems that you can help to solve. They will be the ones that have the most invested in your innovative new ideas.
Note that the resources listed here are meant solely as overviews and helpful information. Please consult experts regarding your specific security needs for your business.
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