Start Business
As simple as it gets
I hope you have thought about your own business approach and get some ideas goin. But if not, here are some examples…
1. Translator Business
Back in the days when I was in college, there’s this foreign language class that all need to take. I was pretty good at that class and my grade was in the top tier. At that time, I was also involved in some organizational activities.
One day, it turned out that an international organization needed to translate a guide book to native language. So there it was the three things for business… First the entity was me, I have the ability to write in a foreign language. Second, there was the need to translate a book from the foreign language to native language. Third, there was the customer. the international organization.
It was as simple as it gets. I offered my service and got the job done. I got paid for my current skills that match the current needs at that time.
2. Bubble Tea Business
While sometimes we can do business with what we are currently good at, sometimes we just have to look for the ability and master it to get the a business.
I have also some experience at this. Close to my graduation, I have some spare time before getting a job. At the time, me and my friend noticed that teenagers and people at their 20s like to drink this beverage that filled with some kind of round jelly. There was these brands: HopHop, TeaStation, Quickly and they were selling a beverage called Bubble Tea.
So there were the business elements. A target market of teenager and people at their 20s that require beverage called bubble tea. And there were me and my friend, business and law students who knew nothing about this so called bubble drink and have never made one.
We knew that this product was nowhere to be found in our university and there was this opportunity. All we have to do is to find out how to make and marketed this drink.
Long story short, we search for suppliers that sell the raw material (a tapioka pearl, they said), learn how to cook/make one, try different flavors, give free drinks to test the taste, rent a place, and sell the drinks.
It turned out that people liked the offering and bought the drinks repeatedly. It was also something new, fresh, trendy and close to where they study. We branded it Happy Bubble Drinks.
So this is the same 3 elements, but different approach. We have the target market, the needs, and ourself. But in this case we have to learn the ability to serve the needs.
3. Printing Brokerage Business
One other story combined both approach, in which we utilize what we have and learn the skills to better match the target market needs.
I have a friend, who during her college, utilized her spare time to do a printing brokerage business. So you know that sometimes we want to promote an event and that will require some promotion materials. Well if you don’t, she observed that needs very carefully.
She realized that there were these difficulties to find a printing company that offers fast and competitive price in her college. Some of them were from student organizations, event organizers, and the college itself.
In short, there were the target market and needs but she lack the know how of printing. She knew something about design that cannot be separated from printing and she knew people from printing company but she did not know exactly how to print and what is this print business.
What she did was basically get to know the target market and their needs and link them to the printing companies. She spent some time to learn on types of printing, machine quality, cutting quality, paper types, paper finishing, and how to deliver in time. This actions brought together and became a sustainable business.
In this example, she has further improved her design knowlege toward printing knowledge and by doing some complementary actions she has serve the needs of her target market.
These 3 examples are very simple but require some focus to get results. To summarize it again, what you have to do is basically watch the needs of your surroundings and try to offer something better with your ability or with your ‘future’ ability. Future means something that we will learn in order to serve the needs.
Get the 3 elements and focus on it…
