Wazihub Uganda: Understanding your business

Many times, as innovators, it is very easy for technology entrepreneurs to give very little attention to the business models of their innovations and yet it is a very core component of their companies.

Understanding one’s business model is extremely important in order to create a business which has the potential of lasting a lifetime.

In one of the prototyping sessions we had in June, we were able to answer some of the key questions every entrepreneur should have answers to. These questions include:

1. What customer problem are you trying to solve?

2. Who will pay you?

3. How large is the target market?

4. What is the customer doing now? Who are the competitors?

5. What will it cost to deliver?

6. What is your marketing message?

7. How easy is it for you to stop imitators from snatching market share?

8. What are your prospect’s alternative options?

9. What category of problem and solution do you fall into?

10. What is your unique value proposition and unfair advantage?

11. What is your go to market strategy?

12. What are your key costs of sale and sources of revenue?

13. What are the key metrics you use to manage the business?

14. What are the most important features and capabilities of your solution?

15. What trends and trigger events cause your prospects to search for solutions?

16. Who are your ideal customers, and how do they make buying decisions?

17. What business critical problems do you solve for your customers?

Throughout the onsite sessions we had in June at Hive Colab, the participants were able to answer all those questions under the guidance of the facilitators. One of the entrepreneur thought that his product had no competitors which was a clear sign of a lack of detailed research about the problem they are trying to solve and the available solutions. To them, competitors were considered to be another IoT (technology) product. They had never considered that a competitor could actually be a process and not a technology.

On observing this, it was very clear that it is crucial for business for continuously review/discuss their business model so as to make better sense of it.