From Idea to

Product
The 7 steps you need to start a successful business.

A publication of
kpakpakpa Inc
Content

Intro (from idea to product)

Chapter 1 ~ Market Research

Chapter 2 ~ Prototyping

Chapter 3 ~ Producing

Chapter 4 ~ Selling

Chapter 5 ~ Customer Service

Chapter 6 ~ Financing

Chapter 7 ~ Planning

Get Credible Information

 i
INTRO

From idea to product

 From idea to product
The 7 steps you need to start your own business.

The execution of a plan that brings a product or service from

idea to actuality can be daunting and challenging. But with a
good amount of planning, determination, resilience, and
adaptability - you can start making your own product or
providing a service now. With proper growth you can become
a large scale manufacturer or huge service provider.

We have broken down the process into 7 general, but key

steps that can help you on your journey from idea to product:

Market Research
Perform market research to learn about your target customer.

Prototyping
Test your idea in small iterative steps to validate the idea.

Producing
Make a product or develop a service that people need - Solve
a problem.

Selling
Generate revenue by selling your product or service.
 From idea to product
The 7 steps you need to start your own business.

Customer Service
Make sure your customers are happy and keep them coming back.

Financing
Finance the growth of your business with debt or equity.

Planning
Set yourself up for long term growth and success.
 1
CHAPTER ONE

Market Research
 Market Research
Understand your customers

So you are sitting under a mango tree and a ripe mango snaps off its tiny
branch and lands on your head. You pick up the mango and at that
moment you get the idea to process the mango and make mango juice.
This is a great story about how you came up with your mango fruit
juice, but in most cases ideas do not hit you on the top of the head this
way. So what are the ways that you can find the right idea for a product
to make a profitable business around.

Here are some ways to start:

Look for a niche market

One way to find a new product or service to provide is to focus on a
niche market. A niche market is a subset of a market on which a specific
product is focused. Usually customers in a niche market are usually
underserved because they have very unique needs. Also with a niche
market, you can focus directly on making a specific product for these
customers and grow your business gradually after serving the niche
market

Solve your own problem

A lot of business ideas begin with people solving their own problems.
There are problems that riddle us daily that we complain about. Most
people discard these problems as some type of nuisance but
entrepreneurs solve these problems by building products and services.
So pay attention to the issues that you have and think about solving that
problem. Make sure you validate that other people have the same or a
similar problem. Find out by surveying and interviewing people.
Talk to your prospective target customers and
understand them: Through interviews and surveys, you can
learn about their needs and build a product or service around
those needs.

“
To succeed in business you need to
be original, but you also need to
“
understand what your customers
want.
Richard Branson, Entrepreneur
 Market Research
Understand your customers

Follow your interests

Building a business can be very challenging and rigorous. To get through the
tough spells of doing business requires commitment. A lot of the commitment
comes when you do something that you are passionate about. So if you are
passionate about health and nutrition, you could start by researching how to
make healthy and nutritious product.

Look for the trends and how you can serve current & new trends
Understand the current market trends in the industry that you are interested
in. If you notice that everyone is doing the same thing in an industry, then you
will want to differentiate yourself. In a case where everyone is riding the
current trends (too much competition for a starter), try to understand where
the new trends will emerge so that you can be a market leader when the new
trend is dominant in the future. Talk to industry experts, they are a good
resource in understanding trends in specific industries.

Understand your current business ecosystem

Learn about what will make up your business ecosystem. Learn by asking
questions such as - who are my potential vendors and suppliers? what's the
access to a serviceable customer base? Getting a good understanding of the
business landscape and the commercial ecosystem will help you understand
whether your idea is a good fit for the infrastructure that is available for you to
get your business off the ground.

Understand your prospective customers

This is the most important aspect of your market research - talk to your
prospective target customers and understand them. Through interviews and
surveys, you can learn about their needs and build a product or service
knowing that there is a need that you are satisfying.
 2
CHAPTER TWO

Prototyping
 Prototyping
Start Small

After doing some market research, it is important to test your idea on the
market before you go into full production or service. Here is where the
concept of “crawling before you walk" is important.

For instance, if you are going to make bottled mango juice, start by buying
some mangos and making a small batch of mango juice in your house. Give
it to some of your friends and ask them what they think about it. They can
give you some tips on what to improve and what they liked about it. You can
incorporate this feedback into the next batch of bottled juice that you make.

With every step of taking feedback from prospective customers, you will
continue to build something valuable that will eventually be adopted by your
target customer. Understand the development cycle of most successful
products and services.

Development Cycle
Irrespective of whether you are making a product or developing a service,
most successful products follow four stages of creation: requirements,
design, development, and testing. Understanding and using effective
practices for each stage allows designers and entrepreneurs to maximize a
product’s probability of success.

Here are the four base stages of development:

Requirements
Requirements are gathered through market research, customer feedback,
focus groups, and usability testing. Design requirements are best obtained
 Requirements Design

Testing Development

Development Cycle: Most successful products follow four

stages of creation: requirements, design, development, and
testing. Understanding and using effective practices for each
stage allows designers and entrepreneurs to maximize a
product’s probability off success.

“ Africa is Design, because it’s the

birthplace of civilization, it’s the
birthplace of intentionality, it’s the
“
birthplace of dreams and aspirations.

Jason Mayden, Designer

 Prototyping
Start Small

through controlled interaction between you and your target audience. Be

cautious in this stage because you may not get the right requirements simply
by asking people what they want or like - often times they don’t know or can’t
articulate their needs.

Design
This stage is where the design requirements are translated into a form that
yields a set of specifications. So you have gathered information about what
people need, now you have to envision how you can design a product that will
meet those needs. Unique design is achieved by brainstorming and thoroughly
researching existing solutions and coming up with a set of specifications that
creates a solution to meet the requirements from above.

Development
The development stage is where design specification are transformed into an
actual product. The goal of the development stage is to precisely meet the
design specifications. You should have something that your target audience
can interact with. This could be a prototype product or a small scale service.

Testing
Testing stage is where the product is tested to ensure that the prototype meets
design requirements and specifications, and will be accepted by the target
audience. You should take as much feedback in this steps and use it to
generate new requirements to begin the next iteration of your development
cycle.

Use the development cycle as you start your service and make your product to
build something that meets the requirements and needs of your target
audience. You should always keep the development cycle in mind as you grow
and expand into new products and service offerings.
 3
CHAPTER THREE

Producing
 Producing
Your products or services

Producing.
You have prototyped and learned a lot about what your customer needs and
likes. At this stage you have decided whether you are making a product or
delivering a service. Your business could actually do both. A lot of businesses
make products and provide services at the same time, although one is usually
more prominent than the other in any business.
Regardless of the types of business that you want to start, you should know
the basic steps to making a product and providing a service.

Making a product
You want to be a make a product - that’s great. You can provide a lot of value
by making products that people will love. Product makers come is different
shapes and sizes - form the intricate home craft artists & artisans to the large
scale manufacturers. The process of transforming materials from one form into
a finished product is a very enjoyable and and fulfilling. It can however be very
challenging business to be in because making a product has a lot of moving
parts that can easily become too complex for a beginner to succeed at. Building
a facility is capital intensive, so start small. Here are three simple steps to
increase your chance of success as you make your product.

- prototype a product
Create a simple prototype of your product and get something in the hands of
the customer so that you can quickly learn what works and what doesn’t.

- outsource your production

Learn the supply chain in your industry and find the position that matches
your strongest capabilities at the moment and start there. Outsource the
production to a facility that is more efficient at producing the product, while
focusing on the the higher part of the supply chain - designing, branding, sales
& customer service.
 Producing
Your products or services

- build capability
If you find it advantageous to the growth and goals of your business to bring
the production process in-house, then start building the capability with the
profits of your business. You can do this process slowly - one mixer today, a
tank in three months and build up to a full facility. With proper investments,
you can get finances to cover your capital expenditure for land and
equipment.

Providing a service
So you are thinking about providing a service instead of making a product.
Service businesses are very crucial to an economy because they provide
support to both customers and businesses.
 Understand your supply chain: Knowing the right
information and where you fit in your supply chain will help
you produce your product or service more efficiently.

“ Information is crucial in fine-tuning

the quantity, timing and the mix in
“
the production process.

Hau Lee, Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business

 Producing
Your products or services

Here is a definition of the service sector from Investopedia - “The service

sector produces intangible goods, more precisely services instead of goods…it
is comprised of various service industries including warehousing and truck
transportation services; information sector services; commodities, securities
and other investment services; professional, technical and scientific services;
waste management services; health care and social assistance services; and
arts, entertainment and recreation services.”

Businesses in this sector are rapidly placing more focus on what is becoming
known as the "knowledge economy," or the ability to surpass competitors by
understanding what target customers want and need, and operate in a way
that meets those wants and needs quickly with minimal cost. To succeed in
this industry, here are some things to consider:

- focus on the customer.

The things that separates you from your competitors is what you know about
your customer and their needs. Stay in contact interaction with the customer
to build services for their needs. Do surveys, perform customer interviews,
incorporate customer feedback into your processes to properly understand
customer needs.

- build partnerships.
The service business is a relationship business. Since your business is not
producing a tangible good, you will have to focus a lot of your business on
building the right relationships with everyone in your supply chain. From
your vendors and suppliers to your customer. You have to think of everyone
in your supply chain as a partner and focus on nurturing that relationship as
you grow your business.
 4
CHAPTER FOUR

Selling
 Selling.
Time to get it in the hand of the customer

It is a great achievement when you have created your product or service, now
the real work starts - you have to sell it to the customer. There are several
things to consider as you think about getting what you produced in the hand
of the customers. The three main things to think about is sales, marketing
and distribution.

Sales
One of the most important factors for any business is SALES. This is how you
generate revenue for your business. As a small business owner, this is one of
your most important duties. You are the focal sales person for your business.
To be a good sales person, you have to be comfortable with talking to your
customers & clients on a consistent basis - telling them about the benefits of
your product or service. Your job is to make sure they completely understand
the benefits of what you are offering and how you are different from
competitors.
If you have a product that is really solving a problem, you will be comfortable
talking about what problem you are solving and what need of the customer
that you are satisfying. Through market research and consistent feedback
from the customer, you will be able to stay attuned to what benefits your
product or service provides. Sometimes, even the customer does not realize
their needs or they are not so aware of the reasons why your product exist.
Your job is to make these customers realize why they need your product or
service.

Marketing
Marketing is the process of getting people interested in what your business
has to offer. Every good business should be creating value for its customers.
Marketing is how you communicate the value that you are creating.
 Awareness

Interest &
Consideration

Evaluation

Purchase

Understand Your Sales Funnel: A sales funnel is a visual

representation of the journey from awareness by prospective
customers to the point of purchase by your customers. The
number of individuals usually reduce through each stage of
the funnel.

“
My philosophy is that not only are you
responsible for your life, but doing the
“
best at this moment puts you in the best
place for the next moment.
Oprah Winfrey, Media Mogul
 Selling.
Time to get it in the hand of the customer

Start by understanding what makes your business different and unique

from others in the market. Do you offer premium customer service or was
your product made with the finest raw materials? Find out what makes
you different and communicate that directly to current and prospective
customers. The more people are interested in the value that you are
creating, the more people you can eventually turn into customers.

Distribution
Another aspect of selling is distributing the product from your house,
warehouse or production facility to the customer. This is more important
for product makers, although it also pertains to service providers.
Working with right distributors in the early stages is important.
Partnering with a distributor that cares about your product as much as
you do will ensure that your product is distributed with the same standard
of quality as you produced it.

Understand Your Sales Funnel

It is not the same day that you get someone interested in your product
that they will make a purchase. So set your expectations properly by
understanding your sales funnel and how long it takes from the moment
you get a prospective customer’s interest (awareness) to the time they
become an actual customer (purchase). A sales funnel is a visual
representation that shows the journey from the moment of awareness to
the point a customer makes a purchase decision. It shows that every sale
begins with a large number of prospective customer and ends with only a
few that make a purchase. By understanding your sales funnel, you can
fine-tune your sales and marketing process and make it more predictable.
 5
CHAPTER FIVE

Customer Service
 Customer Service.
Is the customer always right?

Now the customer has purchased your product or service. You believe your
work is done - you produced something, someone paid for it and you made
some money. Well, there's one more step. You have to find our if your
costumer is happy with your product or your service. Providing great
customer service is what separates exceptional businesses from regular
businesses.
In Nigeria, companies have become too complacent in this department. All
too often, service providers act like they are doing their customer a favor by
providing a service. When a customer is put in a position where they are
parting ways with their money, but is still made to feel like they were
honored to be provided a service by the company - that is wrong. It should
actually be the other way around. A lot of businesses lose customers
because they don’t treat their customers properly or they don’t regard the
customer valuable because the customer is paying them. This is more
apparent in the bigger companies, but as a small business owner, you cannot
afford to have bad customer service. Remember that the customer comes
first and you will only get their business again if they are treated properly.
Here are the advantages to your business of having good customer service.

Turn your customers into repeat customers

The best customers are happy and satisfied customers. Not only will they
provide referrals about your product or service to their peers, but they are
also potential repeat customers. If you don't really care about long-term
success, then you can choose not to provide good customer service. If you
however care about long-term sustainable growth , having happy customers
that keep coming back and leaving satisfied with your business is key.
Connect with your customers: Make your customers feel
good by connecting with them and making them feel valued.
When a customer feels valued, they will keep coming back.

“
People will forget what you said.
They will forget what you did. But
“
they will never forget how you
made them feel.
Maya Angelou, Poet
 Customer Service.
Is the customer always right?

Build Brand Loyalty

Good customer service is one of the best ways to build loyalty to your
brand and business. Once a customer is happy with your product/
service and they are also happy with the overall experience, they will
immediately associate your brand with something of significant value.
They will also be your “ambassadors” that are so eager to spread the
word about your business. There are other ways to build brand loyalty,
but great customer service helps to differentiate your brand from
competitors.

Is the customer always right?

You hear this always - “the customer is always right”. Well, is that true?
As a slogan it reinforces that customer satisfaction should be given the
highest priority. It is good to have this as a mandate to strive for but if
the customer is right all the time, you have to ask “at what cost?”. A
better saying is “the right customer is always right”. There are some
extremely difficult customers, there are some customers that have
impossible expectations and there are some customers that just believe
they are right because they are paying you money. These type of
customers may not necessarily be the “right” or “ideal” customer for
what you are offering. If you can bear the cost to service every customer
that makes a complaint to you about your business even when that
complaint is beyond the scope of what you are offering, then go ahead
and factor in that cost into your business. However your time will be
better spent focusing on getting and serving the right customer for your
business.
 6
CHAPTER SIX

Financing
 Financing.
Get your financing in order

For your business to be successful, it has to be financially sound. From the day
you begin your business, even if you have not completely figured out how you
will make money, make sure you are thinking about your finance. Finance is
like the oxygen that makes your company breathe. If you run out of money,
your business will not sustain. Keep an eye on your cost and expenses,
understand your cashflow, and continue to think about how you are going to
grow revenue.

Track your expenses

It is amazing how many small businesses do not track their expenses. This is
the most basic level of accounting that is necessary for a business owner to
properly understand how much they spend on business operations. Without
tracking your expenses, it is difficult to know where you have spent most of
your money and it will be difficult to create a reasonable budget for future
expenses. Make sure you document every transaction on your business from
day one, so that you can have a proper grasp of your business spending habits.

Understand your cashflow

This is a very important thing to look at. Simply put, cash flow is the amount
of cash moving into and out of your business. A positive cash flows indicates
that the cash (liquidity) you have at hand is increasing with time. When you
have positive cash flow, you will have cash to settle debts, reinvest in your
business, return money to shareholders, pay expenses and provide a buffer
against future financial challenges. Negative cash flow indicates that a
company's cash (liquid assets) are decreasing. Understand how cash moves in
and out of your business, to determine whether you are growing or not. Even
if you are not currently growing, your cash flow will direct your decision-
making on how to grow in the future.
 e
r Tim
e
Ov
w th
o
Gr

Funding Your Growth: Grow your business steadily by

tracking your expenses and paying attention to your cash flow.

“
“
Remember to celebrate milestones
as you prepare for the road ahead.

Nelson Mandela
 Financing.
Get your financing in order

Getting Financed
When you begin a business, you will need some money to start. There are
several ways that you can finance your business. You can use your own money
- money that you have saved up, you can get a loan from the bank or you can
get some investors (institutional or private) to finance your business. Banks
and Investors want to understand how your business will bring them some
returns. This is where your knowledge of your cash flow comes to play. When
you can explain to investors how you are making your revenue and explain
your profitability, they are more likely to invest in you. Everyone that invests
in you expects a certain return on their investment, so make sure you
understand what your investors want in return to make sure you both set
similar expectations.

Debt vs. Equity

The money you take to finance your business can be classified into either debt
or equity. When you take a loan it is considered a debt and you will have to
pay it back with interest. This is called debt financing. Banks usually give out
loans with the expectations that you pay an interest expense until all the debt
has been settled. You want to pay close attention to the interest rates provided,
because you will have to include this cost in your accounting to account for
servicing the debt over time.
You can also get financed by selling portion of ownership (equity) of your
company. This process is called equity financing - raising capital through the
sale of shares in your enterprise. Equity financing spans a wide range of
activities in scale and scope, from a few thousand raised by an entrepreneur
from friends and family, to big capital investments from private and public
investors. Understand the value you are creating, communicate your short
term and long term goals to get banks and investors interested in your
business.
 7
CHAPTER SEVEN

Planning
 Planning.
Set yourself up for long term growth and success

Build a team
When you start a business on your own, you initially have to wear so many
hats. You will have to be the salesperson, the marketer, the producer, the
fundraiser, the customer service rep…. you get the idea. So as you grow your
business and expand, you will want to build a team that can work together to
accomplish your business goals.
Start by hiring people to fill in roles that you are not so great at. So if you are
not that good with customer service, hire someone who is good with people.
Make sure you create an atmosphere or a business culture that makes team
members happy to work with one another.

Build the right relationships

The journey of building a sustainable business is long. Successful businesses
did not become successful overnight, they grew over the years through
dedication to their vision and the value they provide for their customers. At
the end of the day, people come first. People - your employees, your investors,
your customers. It’s really all about people. So as you build your products and
your services make sure you are building the right relationships with all the
stake-holders in mind. Be thoughtful about how you want to build all your
relationship because this will determine the culture of organization. And the
culture of a company is crucial to its success.

Collaborate - build partnerships

Competition is good for business, it allows businesses in an industry to be
more efficient. As much as competition is good, you should also value
collaboration. Look for people or businesses in your industry and find out if
there’s a way that you can collaborate with them. Collaboration lets people
combine their capabilities to achieve bigger goals. Think about how
Team Building : To build a successful team, you have to
surround yourself with talent. To get the best talent, you have
to provide the right culture and incentives that will attract them
to execute your vision.

“ My advice to young entrepreneurs is to

be very focused and understand what
they want to do…they have to persevere
and be tough.
Aliko Dangote
“
 Planning.
Set yourself up for long term growth and success

you can build long term relationships with businesses and how you can grow
together.

Always Think Ahead

One of the most important things for small business owners and
entrepreneurs is dealing with uncertainty - what is going to happen to my
business next? Successful businesses come about when people are willing to
navigate through uncertainty, using available tools to mitigate their risks,
while working towards incremental achievable goals.
You should always be thinking about what the future could look like or how
your service is going to make life better for another person. How are you
going to provide some value in the future based on market trends and
customer needs. These are things that should be on your mind as you
navigate the uncertainty. FOCUS and think long term, while taking small
steps along the way to achieve your goals.

Access Credible Information

Access to credible information is crucial as you start and build your business.
Be in tune with recent market and industry trends, understand how
businesses around you are successful, learn from successful entrepreneurs
and business owners, ask industry experts for guidance. Use the tools around
you to get the information you need. The internet is a great resource for you
but make sure the information is credible and reliable, because you will want
high-quality information to give you that competitive edge as you grow.

You can always trust kpakpakpa.com as a go-to guide for credible information
from experts and industry leaders.
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Information
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industry trends.

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