Entrepeneurship week 1

Identifying Market Problems

Entrepreneurial Process – is a step by step procedure in establishing any kind of business that an
entrepreneur has to undergo.

Aspect of Entrepreneurial Process

1. Opportunity spotting and assessment – take note of interesting trends in their

environment through glaring problems in the environment, problems encountered by co-
entrepreneurs, new trends, processes and development.
2. Developing a Business plan – after spotting and assessing opportunities, entrepreneurs
should formulate business plan
Business plan – comprehensive paper that details the marketing, operational,
human resource, financial, strategic directions and tactics of the business
3. Determining the capital needed – calculate the resources needed to establish the business
and compare against entrepreneurs current resources.
4. Running the business – entrepreneur use the resources, business plan have been
implemented and should be critically observed from operations, marketing sales, human
resources, finance and strategy implementation and controlling and monitoring system to
check and balance the formulated plans.
5. Market problem – silent or common problem of the target market that refers to existing
inefficiencies, awkward workflows or non-optional solutions.

Things to consider in Identifying market problems

1. Existing customer - people who have already purchased the product you are selling.
2. Target market user –people in target market who are currently looking for a solution.
3. Prospect – people who have not yet purchased your product nut have an intention to buy.

Tips in Identifying Market Problems

1. Focusing only on innovation and the competition

2. Focusing only on customers
3. Focusing only on revenue

The customer base will determine the success of your business venture.

The wider the market potential is, the more chances of growth and success.
Evaluating Market Problem
How to Evaluate Market Problem?

1. Consider if the market problem is urgent

Is the perceived problem actually urgent?
Will customers care if the problem is not solved?
Do they have another way to solve this problem?
2. Evaluate if the market problem is persuasive or easily diffused – determine if the
identified market problems applies to a significant percentage of the target market. Data
collection method includes surveys, census information and other primary market
research.
3. Determine if buyers will pay to have this problem solved – understand how much they
would be willing to pay for a solution to this problem through conducting surveys or
additional interviews with your target market.

When interviewing potential users, the goal of the sellers is to understand the target market’s
everyday problems; whether or not you believe that you can initially solve those problems.

Evaluating Market Problems: Market Research

Market research – is the process of gathering information from different sources to identify
the market trend and market capabilities. It is a continuous process of collecting and
analyzing information about the market as well as the competitors in order to determine
which steps can lead to success of the organization.

Categories of Market Research

1. Problem Identification Research -helps marketing teams identify and discover what types
of problems or opportunities they might have. Pinpoint what types of problem you
potentially have.
a. Brand image – customers’ perceptions of your brand or the impression in the
customers’ mind of a brand’s total personality.
b. Market characteristics – describes attributes of the buyers in making decision related
in purchasing a certain product or the characteristics of your target market
c. Market potential – estimate of your product’s potential profit.
d. Market share – percentage of total sales volume in a market captured by a brand,
product or company or percent of total sales compared to your competitors.
 2. Problem solving research – helps identify ways to solve those problems through
marketing mix and segmentation.
a. Distribution research – determining on how to transfer product from the manufacturer
to ultimate user.
b. Market segmentation – grouping customers by similar characteristics or similar
purchase behaviors.
c. Pricing research – determining the ideal price for the product.
d. Product research – testing the new or revise products or completing test marketing.
e. Promotional research – determining the best research in the area of disseminating
information.

Using research for problem identification and problem solving is essential to make the company
best in its market. Classifying your problem should always come first before attempting to solve
them. Otherwise, you might be spending money to solve the wrong problem.

Entrepreneurship – is the science of converting processed ideas into a business venture.

Entrepreneurs – individuals who are alert to profitable opportunities for the exchange of goods
and services.

Week 2
Techniques on Seeking, Screening and Seizing Opportunities
Acierto, 2017 – it is the entrepreneur who develops new products and makes innovation that
becomes the backbone of more economies. They provide employment, pay taxes, create profits,
improves capital base of the economy, provides healthy competition and creates people
empowerment and social mobility.

Macatangay, 2015 – entrepreneurship involves introducing something new and novel in forms of
dramatic changes or can be in a small or subtle modifications.

The 3’s of Opportunity Spotting

1. Opportunity seeking – entrepreneurs are innovative opportunity seekers because they

have endless curiosity to discover new or different ideas and see whether these ideas will
work in the market place.
Essentials for opportunity seeking:

a. Entrepreneurial mind frame – allows entrepreneur to see things in a very positive and
optimistic light in the midst of crisis or difficult situations.
b. Entrepreneurial heart flame – is driven by passion, drawn to find fulfillment in the act and
act of process discovery.
c. Entrepreneurial gut game – ability of the entrepreneur to sense without using the five
senses using intuition.
2. Opportunity screening – the most rigorous and most important because it
takes4Opportunity screening – the most rigorous and most important because it takes a
lot of time, effort and knowledge to discern which among potential opportunities
uncovered would be worth investing on or at least narrowing down the list to the few
promising one.

12 Rs of Opportunity screening:

 Relevance to Vision, Mission and Objectives of the Entrepreneur

 Resonance to values
 Reinforcement of entrepreneurial interest
 Revenues
 Responsiveness to customer needs and wants
 Reach
 Range
 Revolutionary impact
 Returns
 Relative ease of implementation
 Resource required
 Risks
3. Opportunity seizing – the entrepreneur has an idea to where he/she will locate the
business and how he/she will market the product or service. The entrepreneur must be
able to identify the critical success factors that enable other players in the same industry
to succeed and be vigilant about those factors that cause this business fail.

Process of opportunity seizing:

1. Crafting a position statement – looking for competitors in the marketplace and

customer profiting.
2. Conceptualizing the product or service offerings – an idealized abstraction of the
product or service to be offered to the preferred market.
3. Designing, prototyping and testing product – render and translate the concept into
physical and real dimensions.
 4. Implementing, organizing and financing – choosing correct technology, right people,
designing the operating workflow, specifying systems and procedures and designing
organizational architecture.

After going through the 3s of opportunity spotting and assessment, the entrepreneur needs to be
ready to prepare a comprehensive business plan that covers marketing, operations and financial
plans to ensure business success.

Acierto, 2017 - determining the marketability of business is typically done in the context
of creating a business plan and performing an analysis of the competition. It requires
research in the areas of marketability. Consider whether the business offers a new
solution to the old problem or complements and emerging trend.

Market analysis – a quantitative and qualitative assessment

Market need analysis

1. Demographics and segmentation

Demographics – statistical characteristics of human population (age, gender, income,
etc.)
Segmentation – process of dividing segments with similar characteristics.
2. Target market – a group of customers to whom a company wants to sell its products and
services, and to whom it directs its marketing efforts.
3. Market needs – the functional or emotional needs of target market.
4. Competition – is to analyze your competitor angle to the market in order to find a
weakness that your company will be able to use in its own market positioning.
5. Barriers to entry – the economic term describing high start-up costs or other obstacles
that prevent new competitors from easily entering an industry or business sector.

Barriers to entry:
 Investment
 Technology
 Brand
 Regulation
 Access to resources
 Access to distribution channels
 Location
Product: Its nature and sustainability
Unpublished manual on principle of marketing (Ramos, 2017) – product can be tangible and
intangible in nature that can be offered for satisfaction. A product is a bundle of satisfaction
which buyer receives as the result of a lease or purchase.

Entrepreneurship (Macatangay, 2015) – products which are manufactured or created or done, are
either goods or services.

Level of products:

1. Tangible product – basic physical appearance which can be a service or idea having
precise specifications and offered under a given or specified description or model
number.
2. Augmented product – includes the image and service features of a certain entity that
emphasize on the intangible benefits that the customer will be getting from buying it.
3. Generic product – emphasizes the impact of the product to the consumer that will signify
the purpose of its existence and the primary objective in creating the product.

Types of product:

1. Good – sale of the physical products from the manufacturer to the consumer or final and
ultimate user.
a. Durable goods – physical products that are used over a long period of time.
b. Non-durable goods – physical products that are quickly and easily be consumed or
worn out, become obsolete, unfashionable or no longer popular.
2. Services – intangible products that satisfaction can be measured in future preferences.
a. Rented good services – consumed rented facility of the sellers in a certain period of
time.
b. Owned good services – repair and maintenance services rendered by the sellers to the
products of the customer.
c. Non good services - personal service on the part of the seller; most common are the
expertise and profession of the seller.
3. Consumer product – good and services destined/produced for the final consumer for
personal, family or household use.
a. Consumer products – purchased with a minimum or less effort because the buyer has
knowledge of product characteristics prior to shopping.
 b. Staples – low priced items that are routinely purchased on a regular basis and
products that are used every day.
c. Impulse products – items that consumer does not plan to buy.
d. Shopping products – products that consumers acquire though further knowledge and
information in order to make final purchase decision.
e. Specialty products – items with particular brands and stores with consumers are loyal.
4. Industrial product – good or services purchased for use/consumption in the production/
manufacturing of other goods or services, in the operation of a business or for resale to
other customers.
a. Accessory equipment
b. Raw materials
c. Industrial or operating supplies
d. Component materials
e. Installations
f. Fabricated products

Product Satisfying Feature

Acierto, 2016 – product patronage in the market is conditioned by the strategies and policies
employed by the manufacturer and the marketing organization on the product attributes.

Macatangay, 2015 – service and product design involves deciding whether to offer a good or
service and how a good or service is to be designed, composed and created.

Products satisfying features

1. Design – good design can improve the marketability of the product through its design and
appearance and may significantly differentiate the products from the others in the market.
2. Product colors – the possibility of differential advantage comes in knowing the right
color combination that will appeal to customers and an important consideration for highly
technical products.
3. Product quality – set of features and attributes of a product or service that determine its
ability to satisfy human needs. Product quality should be the byword of the manufacturer
and the provider of service to create a differential advantage. Continuous quality
improvements make the product stay in the market.
4. Product warrantees – important attribute of the product where the buyer is assured that
the product meets the specifications stated in the product labels that warrant the quality of
the product.

Week 3
 Viability
Acierto, 2017 – the entrepreneur’s desire to establish his business is a visible idea yet it must
come into test whether it is viable option. It needs careful analysis of opportunity evaluation.
The entrepreneur who fails to evaluate his noble idea because of his eagerness to plunge into
the business world often discovers later that he has more problems to solve and at times
abandons the idea after spending his time and money.

The viability of business is measured by its long term survival and its ability to sustain profits
over a period of time. A business is able to survive when it is viable because it continues to
make a profit year after year. The longer a company can stay profitable, the better its
viability.

Steps to evaluate the idea of the types of business

1. Conceiving a new product is a process of innovation into a reality must be different from
existing product.
2. New product needs customer evaluation. The new product must satisfy customers’ needs
and wants and it needs market exposure and public acceptance before it could take off the
ground.
3. The entrepreneur must find a new approach to win customer on his side if the product is
similar to what is existing in the community.
4. Entrepreneur must know the strengths and weaknesses of his competitor and devise a
new system of promotion and advertising.

Viability of a Business

 The viability of a business is the key in understanding whether or not a business will
be successful in the long term.
 A business demonstrates its viability by making a profit every year of its existence.

Things to consider for Business Viability

1. Research the Market – understand and look the current market in creating a viable
business.
 2. Unique selling proposition – what your business stands for. It’s what sets your business
apart from other because of what business makes a stand about.
3. Competitive Advantage – find out who might be your competitors, who might sell similar
or new competitive products. Create a marketing strategy that keeps your competitive
advantage.
4. Cash Stability – financial stability refers to making enough money from your operations
to pay for your regular business expenses and feeling that the long-term financial success
of your business is secure.
5. Ask for Honest Feedback – bounce your business idea off your family, friends and peers
to get some objective, real world advice.
6. Marketing strategy – refers to a business overall game plan for reaching prospective
consumers and turning them into customers of the products or services the business
provides. It contains the company’s value proposition, key brand messaging, data on
target customer demographics and other high-level elements.

Areas based on Viability Entrepreneur should look deeper:

1. Management must set the direction of the enterprise with clear vision and mission as the
guiding tool for its plans and programs.
2. The technical and manpower complements are important factors in the success of the
business.
3. The management must introduce new technology to make work easier for the working
team.

Profitability
Macatangay, 2015 – the goal of business enterprise, basically, is to earn profit. Profit is the
monetary rewards obtain from managing a successful business.

Fajardo, 2017 – venturing into business needed financial resources. Money is needed to finance
the activities of business.

Profitability – is the ability of the company to use its resources to generate revenues in excess of
its expenses. This is a company’s capability of generating profits from its operation.

Profitability – is measured with income and expenses.

Income – is money generated from the activities of the business.

Expenses – are the cost of resources used up or consumed by the activities of the business.

Areas of Profitability that Entrepreneur should look:

1. Money is needed to finance the activities of business and capital determines the kind of
business operation.
2. Internal source of capital will come from the savings and assets of the starting
entrepreneur.
3. Other sources of funds are partnership and stock options.

Customer Requirements
Customer – is the one who purchases or buys a product or service. To earn profit to have viable
business for a long period, an entrepreneur must consider some customer needs and wants.

Customer requirements – are what motivate customers to purchase a product or service. This is
driven by a set of needs, including product functionality, price, reliability and convenience. It is
the particular characteristics and specifications of a good or service as determined by a customer.

AREAS OF CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS AN ENTREPRENEUR SHOULD LOOK

1. Marketing program needs demand analysis for the last 5 years as to the major users of the
product.
2. Demographic profile of the target customer must be taken into account.
3. Demand and supply analysis must be conducted through marketing research.
4. Channels of distribution should be measured in terms of the capability of the distributors
to handle the product.

Productivity
Productivity – refers to how well an organization converts input (such as labor, materials,
machines and capital) into goods and services or output.
AREAS OF PRODUCTVITY AN ENTREPRENEUR SHOULD LOOK:

1. Product specifications must be maintained according to product standards. Customers are

now aware of the product quality and they must be able to get their money’s growth.
2. Good quality materials should not be sacrificed in terms of price as poor quality will
affect the production of quality products.
3. Production schedule must be made together with product specifications. Work schedules
must be followed to save energy and time.
4. Customer must be served with dignity and smile. Front line production crew must have
the personality to attract customers. They must possess pleasing personality, clean looks
and proper attire.