Tag Archives: idea testing

Small Business Solver is Better Than Ever!

Innovation & Creativity, Start Ups, Strategy, , , , ,
The Small Business Solver logo - A cartoon man in business attire stands smiling against a blue sky with a cloud in it. "Small Business Solver" in black and "www.SmallBusinessSolver.com" are centred in grey on a white text box next to him.

Small Business Solver has done a relaunch! We’ve worked hard on our website and modules and made some changes to what we offer, and we’re very happy with what we’ve come up with:

  1. 100 new training videos and 105 coaching guides
  2. PowerPoint slides for business centers and incubators
  3. A pay-what-you-can option for business owners and a low-cost plan for coaches that wish to use our materials in their trainings
  4. A new staff member, Sarah Levis, to help with marketing and to respond quickly and efficiently to customer concerns.
  5. A monthly email newsletter to keep all our contacts up to date on company activities
  6. A bi-weekly educational webinar series designed to educate entrepreneurs on a variety of issues affecting today’s small business owner.

We’re very excited about all these things, but in today’s post we want to draw your attention to our live webinar series, which debuted on March 28, 2019. Small Business Solver co-founder and CEO Carla Langhorst did a presentation called “Make It Fly!” where she talked about how to evaluate whether your business idea is a good one, using Small Business Solver’s Make It Fly Idea Tester.

You’ll learn about:

  1. How to test business ideas (and why we don’t, even though we should!)
  2. Questions to ask to determine your idea’s viability as a business
  3. Determining your breakeven numbers
  4. More good questions to ask and things to consider

The live webinar series will run bi-weekly, each one covering a different topic. You can get the schedule for each month, including topics, in our monthly Newsletter. Please do sign up for the webinars, attend, and let us know what you think of them! We would love to hear your feedback.

We post Recordings of all of our webinars to our YouTube channel. Check them out and let us know which one is your favourite.

See you soon!

Starting Up Right

Start Ups, Technology & Online, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 
Starting up your business can leave you feeling out of your element as you are moving up a huge learning curve. There are a few common pitfalls that you need to look out for.
 
1. Business structure
2. Planning
3. Testing for your Minimum Viable Product
4. Brand Properties
5. Loyalty / CRM
 
If you have these components in place, you are much more likely to be successful. Watch the video to understand each pitfall and the best practices around them.
 

 

Contact the Expert

 
Jazz
jazz@thestartupshop.ca
Small Business Start-up Professional
The Startup Shop Prez CL
 

Want more? Here are some additional small business resources:

 
Setup
www.Corporationcentre.ca
 
Testing
Lean Start-up: Eric Reis
The Four Hour work Week :Tim Ferris
 
CRM/NPS/Loyalty
The Ultimate Question: Fred Reichheld
www.Salesforce.com
www.Zoho.com
 

Let Your Creativity Out!

Established & Growing Businesses, Innovation & Creativity, Start Ups, , , , , , , ,

 
As a small business owner we need creativity to help us with product development, creating new ideas in our business, and to stay ahead of the competition.
 
Sometimes we think that other people are the creative ones and that this is not a strength that we have ourselves. But that is not true! Everyone has creativity inside of them, they just need to know the tools and how to recognize it in yourself.
 
This video outlines the three major steps of creativity:
 
1. Brainstorming. Some different tactics to approach brainstorming and tools that you should try out. A lot of times it is as simple as starting to write things down.
 
2. Prioritization. Once you have a bunch of ideas it is important to figure out which ones are the best ideas or what order you can actually approach them. Everyone has a limitation on time and money, so prioritization becomes important.
 
3. Implementation. Once you’ve decided on the ideas, action becomes necessary. Many times people want to wait and make things perfect, but often it is good to get your MVP (minimum viable product) out there to begin your testing.
 
At the end of the video, there are additional tips and tricks, as well as an example of where creativity has made a huge difference.
 

 
Contact The Expert
 
Sheri Andrunyk
womenforwomen@primus.ca

New Product Development

Established & Growing Businesses, Innovation & Creativity, Operations & Efficiency, Start Ups, Strategy, , , , ,

85-95% of New Product Launches fail annually (FORBES article of March 24, 2010 based on approx. 250,000 global launches).
 

With this daunting figure, we want to do everything right to increase our product’s chance of success. Learn from the expert, Kevin Scanlan, who has over 30 years experience in new product development with enterprises and small business.
 
In this 30 minute video, you will learn:
 
– what invention is versus product development
– the importance of a roadmap and the process
– how to scan the environment
– the QUAD approach and the 4 different types of product development
– the components of a product specification
– the Gate process used by the most successful companies out there
– red flags and things to look for during the process
 
Plus, if you have any other questions you can always contact our expert.
 

 

Contact The Expert!

 
Kevin Scanlan
Anubis3D
tel: 905-963-9130
email: kevins@anubiscorp.com

Test A Business Idea In Minutes

Finance & Accounting, Innovation & Creativity, Start Ups, Strategy,

Test whether or not your business will fly by going through the idea tester’s funnel.

 

This 30 minute session is delivered by Small Business Solver co-founder and the author of “Will It Fly? The Idea Tester”, Carla Langhorst. It will give you a solid process to evaluate quickly any great idea that you have. If you have a new product, service, or business, this is for you!

The process has been tested on 1000s of small business ideas and has been used by small business coaches throughout North America as a guide to highlight red flags in a business model.

Top questions that will be answered:
1. Will people buy your product?
2. Is it better than the competition?
3. Will you burnout?
4. Are your salary expectations reasonable?
5. Will you end up working more than you are intending?

Test your business idea for free through the Idea Tester.