3. How does a business start?

Subject title How does a business start?

Purpose of the activity The aim of the session is to encourage participants to take a creative look at the business idea development process, to generate activity ideas and to employ their hobbies.

Duration 3–4 hours.

Location and tools Chairs, projector, flip chart, writing tools, large paper sheets, magazines, scissors, glue, pencils, crayons, felt-tip pens.

Number of participants 10–30 participants.

Acquaintance/ team building methods At the beginning of the session, the group of participants is given two short tasks, during which the whole group is invited to participate in the discussion.

Task no. 1: “Recognize an entrepreneur according to a photo”

Pick some photos of famous entrepreneurs and invite participants to tell what personalities are pictured in these photos, to tell the life stories of these entrepreneurs and how their businesses work.

Task no. 2: “Employment of favourite activities”

Participants are invited to write on a piece of paper all the activities they can engage in with pleasure for many hours a day. These can be hobbies, leisure activities, learning areas. Approximately five minutes after completing this task, participants are invited to review their list again and write next to each activity how it could become profitable. For example, if the participant likes to sew, he/she can start providing sewing services, if the participant is interested in fitness, his/her activity has the potential to grow into a sports club. Practice shows that most of the favourite activities of people have the potential and tendency to become the start of a profitable business or individual activity.

After completing the task individually, participants are invited to group in pairs and present to each other what they have written.

Practical tasks Participants are invited to submit their answers for each of the points in the theoretical part described above and for the four tasks described. Participants can perform these tasks individually or in groups, depending on their own needs.

After completing the task, participants are invited to present it to the whole group of participants and to participate in the discussion together.

End of session reflection methods Participants are invited to publicly share their work, present their creatively portrayed and described potential client, as well as share their impressions during the session.

THEORETICAL INFORMATION

HOW TO LOOK FOR BUSINESS IDEAS?

There are several ways to discover an idea for your future business.

1. Hobbies and leisure activities

Confucius has said: “Choose a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”A hobby is the most reliable option for building a personal business, because by creating it you will be able to do exclusively what you like and, at the same time, earn well.

2. Do not engage in a reinvention of the wheel Take a look around: what business ideas inspire you? Perhaps you recently visited a foreign country and saw there an interesting business idea that you could repeat in your own country?

This is a very convenient way to build a business, because in this case the business is already established elsewhere, so you can explore all its nuances. However, you should also look at this way of building a business with caution. For example, you like to visit cafes and are thinking about opening your own cafe. But it is also worth considering that there may already be enough cafes around here. In this case, this idea of your own cafe will not be the most profitable. If you saw a business idea in a foreign country, it is not worth bringing a direct copy of it to your country. All national, historical and mental features of the area need to be taken into account, i.e., you need to implement the project taking into account all the realities of your city.

3. Take a look at a variety of information online, read articles and books about the field you want to pursue. When creating a business idea, it is important to consider the following conditions: • A business idea has to solve people’s problems and make their lives easier, otherwise no one will want to buy your product or service.

• A business owner needs to thoroughly examine all the nuances of his/her future business. In order to establish your own cafe you need to go through all the career ladder in a cafe to understand how all the processes function there. • The business idea needs to be adapted to the location where it is being developed.

Task no. 1: Unique sales offer In order to have a high chance of successful implementation of the project, it is important to thoroughly examine and understand the uniqueness of the idea, how it differs from hundreds of other similar proposals. It is important to have a clear understanding of what the target customer group is and how best to communicate with that group. Therefore, you need to work extensively in preparing to present your idea to the public. Task no. 1. Answer the questions below: 1. What is the essence of your project? Describe in detail your idea and its uniqueness (the description should be as detailed as possible).

2. Choose some of the most important nuances you have described when answering the first question. In other words, shorten your detailed description to three essential sentences that outline the most important ideas about the project. 3. What customer problem will you solve when implementing your project?

4. Why is this a problem?

5. How is this problem being addressed at the moment?

Task no. 2. Fill in the table about the target group of potential users of the product or service

No. Question Answer (answers are provided by the participants of the sessions)

1. Customer gender, age, nature of activity

2. Education, income, family status

3. Where do customers often spend their time?

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

What are the most important values of the customer segment group? (E.g., family, ecology, honesty, etc.)

What pleases potential customers the most in respect of their problem and its solution?

What angers and saddens the customer the most when he/she is looking for ways to solve his/her problem?

Who are their authorities? (Who are these people your customers admire and whose level do they want to reach?)

What actions are they willing to repeat while observing their authorities? And what actions would they never perform?

What price is offered to customers for a product or service and what do they think about the price offered?

10. What makes customers like your competitors?

11. What makes customers dislike your competitors?

12.

13.

14.

What is the most important to them when making a decision to purchase your offered product or service?

What could stimulate potential customers to start buying your products or use your offered services already today?

What social networks do your customers visit most often and what are their actions there?

Task no. 3. Portray your customer It is a creative task in which participants are invited to imagine their potential customers and portray them, taking into account all aspects of them as active buyers. Participants are invited to draw their customer or cut out images of their potential customers from magazines. Participants are also invited to describe in detail the needs, lifestyle, problems, financial resources, work and leisure style, and other important aspects of their client (or several clients).

(Place for participants’ descriptions)

Task no. 4: The uniqueness of my project This is a key short message to the target audience. The message should contain the unique benefits of the product that the potential user of the product or service would receive. Awareness of the uniqueness of your product or service helps to differentiate yourself from competitors, to stand out in the face of similar goods or services as well as to increase the results of advertising campaigns. Here you can describe the unique characteristics of the product, new solutions, “problem - solution” scenarios, etc.

(Place for participants’ descriptions)