Small Business Considerations – Successful Business
We spend a lot of time and energy in comparing our status with the status of the other members around us and this is a fact of human life. To maintain the status or to compete with others, we are sometimes led to making poor decisions in business, leading to bankruptcy or debts. Every entrepreneur must understand that status consideration is present in every level of the core human drive. A customer will first examine how your product will influence his social status before he makes a decision to buy it. Which means a business has to put conscious efforts in building social signals into its offers, to increase customers and target market.
Every successful business sells a combination of status, power, money, love, protection, knowledge, excitement and pleasure. To make your offer more attractive, you must clearly articulate how your product will look. To create a responsive marketing campaign and to create compelling offers, you need to understand your customer’s wants, needs and their decision-making power. Each lower need of a person is to be replaced by the higher need. First existence, then relatedness, then growth. Every human being has five core human drives which influence his actions and decisions.
- The Drive to Bond
This drive is based on relationships with others, be it a person, organization or community. It could be a platonic or a romantic relationship as well. It also involves the drive to go to good restaurants, have comfort etc. Being a social animal, our drive to bond satisfies the desire to feel like a valued participant in a relationship. Companies that promise to make us attractive, better looking or highly recognized, connect to this drive.
- The Drive to Acquire
This drive is usually linked to influence power or presentation. The desire to collect materialistic things like a car, a house and other physical objects and immaterial things like power, influence and status.
- The Drive to Defend
Companies that promise to keep us safe, or stop bad things from happening, connect to this drive. In this, a person desires to protect himself and his loved ones. Martial arts training, insurance policies, safety alarms, are good examples to explain this drive.
- The Drive to Learn
Companies that promise to make us more knowledgeable or competent connect to this drive. This drive is related to the desire to satisfy our curiosity. Keeping this drive in mind, educational businesses are involved in book publishing, academic programs and training workshops.
- The Drive to Feel
This drive is related to pleasure, excitement, entertainment, anticipation and other such desires that stimulate emotions. Businesses like sports events, movies, games, anything that gives pleasure, connects to this drive.
Seeking Status
Status seeking is a universal phenomenon. Status consideration has a lot of influence in the buyer’s decision making and actions. All humans are social creatures. We live among people and compete with others for power and position. Usually, everyone likes to be associated with someone who is more powerful, influential, exclusive, important, and exhibits high quality of status and behavior. Everyone would like to grab the opportunity to increase their status if they could. If there is a choice to make between different alternatives, people tend to choose the option which has the highest status or value.
Investors hear ideas on a daily basis. While many sound great, they may not be viable. Even a business plan is simply is not enough to attract an investor. You must be a business with a model that scales, a product or service that has “legs,” and even people in place to make it happen, including the talent infrastructure. Even then, you still have to prove you know what you are doing. Make sure you have some experience in operations before seeking out investors. This will allow you to illustrate how you have handled hurdles and what opportunities you are currently developing, including a pipeline of leads.
It’s not enough to simply have a dream. However, a business plan and solid understanding of what types of businesses are needed and what types aren’t in your local area, can make or break your success. As a small business owner, what you put in will almost always yield what you get out, which is a solid plus not only for you and those who benefit from your hard work, but also for your family as well.
Contact HyperEffects to chart out a tailor-made tool for your business processes to be more swift, organised and easy.
