new business module

Recommendations

Info

54 BUSINESS SKILLS meets customer expectations. Customers tend to look at different aspects for different products. While they may focus on quality and workmanship when buying a chair, because they do not want it to break when they sit on it, they may focus on design and colour when they buy a shirt. Entrepreneurs have to find out what their target customers consider important in a comparable product. Once they know this, they should shape their product as much as possible according to the customers’ preferences. Shaping and improving a product’s characteristics requires effort and costs money. It should only be done if it helps sell the product and/or increases the profit to be made by selling it. If an entrepreneur enhances the quality of the product at significant cost but cannot sell more of it as a result of the improvement, then the improvement was not worth the effort. The entrepreneur bears more costs for the same amount of income, but generates less profit than before the improvement. The best sources for information about product quality improvements are customers. Entrepreneurs should ask their customers and their competitors’ customers what they think about the product’s quality and characteristics and how they felt using it. They should note their comments and suggestions. The products sold by small businesses often resemble each other. If many businesses offer the same or similar products, they will tend to saturate the market, i.e. there will be more products than there are people to buy them. This means that not all businesses will be able to sell all of their products. It also means that there will be pressure on the price of the product. If customers can choose among many suppliers and all suppliers offer exactly the same product, customers will go for the cheapest product. Suppliers know this and will try to offer lower prices than their competitors to sell their products. Consequently, entrepreneurs are chiefly interested in differentiating their products from those of other suppliers. If you are selling products that are similar or identical by nature to your
MARKETING PRODUCTS 55 competitor’s – let’s take vegetables as an example – you can make sure you deliver consistent quality by grading the vegetables according to their quality. In this case, the products are not just vegetables but properly quality-graded vegetables. Quality-sensitive customers are likely to choose your produce over other vegetable suppliers because of the superior quality vegetables on sale, while poorer clients may visit your stand for cheaper, lower-quality vegetables than those they find at the stands of other suppliers. 2.2 Price The price of a product is the value customers have to pay to acquire it. It is of central importance in selling. Customers compare the price of a product with the value it gives them. It is the perceived value the customers see in the product that determines whether they are willing to buy it. The sales price strongly influences the demand for a product and therefore the volume of sales. In general, it can be said that the higher the sales price, the lower the volume of sales and vice versa. The level at which the sales price for a product is set has a considerable impact on the income generated. In some situations a business can increase its income by raising prices; in others it will have to lower its prices to increase its income. The difficulty is to find out in what situation a business is. An entrepreneur might try to find out by making small price changes. Typically, a business will produce products that are already available on the market and there are limited possibilities for product diversification (see 1.6 Maximizing profit). This means that, in most cases, the prevailing market price for a product provides the upper limit for setting the sales price. Entrepreneurs need to assess at what prices the product they plan to sell is presently sold. The lower limit for the price of a product is given by the product’s total costs. If the product is sold at a price that does not cover its total costs, the business will generate a loss.
Page 1 and 2:
BUSINESS SKILLS TRAINING COURSE FOR
Page 3:
BUSINESS SKILLS TRAINING COURSE FOR
Page 6 and 7: 4 BUSINESS SKILLS MODULE 5: ESTIMAT
Page 8 and 9: 6 BUSINESS SKILLS It is important t
Page 10 and 11: 8 BUSINESS SKILLS They make the cou
Page 12 and 13: Monluck Sidara/ICRC
Page 14 and 15: 12 BUSINESS SKILLS Module 1 starts
Page 16 and 17: 14 BUSINESS SKILLS (d) Trading busi
Page 18 and 19: 16 BUSINESS SKILLS The main duty of
Page 20 and 21: 18 BUSINESS SKILLS must be able to
Page 22 and 23: 20 BUSINESS SKILLS Typically, small
Page 24 and 25: 22 BUSINESS SKILLS 2.2 From busines
Page 26 and 27: 24 BUSINESS SKILLS 2.3 Discussion o
Page 28 and 29: 26 BUSINESS SKILLS Session 3: Plann
Page 30 and 31: 28 BUSINESS SKILLS 6 Typical questi
Page 32: 30 BUSINESS SKILLS NOTE: Hand-out 4
Page 35 and 36: MODULE 2: DEFINING AND ASSESSING A
Page 37 and 38: DEFINING AND ASSESSING A BUSINESS I
Page 45 and 46: Session 3: How to assess a business
Page 51 and 52: MODULE 3: MARKETING PRODUCTS
Page 53 and 54: MARKETING PRODUCTS 51 • enquiring
Page 55: MARKETING PRODUCTS 53 Session 2: Th
Page 59 and 60: MARKETING PRODUCTS 57 Publicity is
Page 61 and 62: MARKETING PRODUCTS 59 Entrepreneurs
Page 63 and 64: MARKETING PRODUCTS 61 Marketing mix
Page 65 and 66: MARKETING PRODUCTS 63 Promotion (1)
Page 67 and 68: MARKETING PRODUCTS 65 Homework Defi
Page 69 and 70: MODULE 4: INITIAL MARKET ASSESSMENT
Page 71 and 72: INITIAL MARKET ASSESSMENT 69 The fo
Page 73 and 74: INITIAL MARKET ASSESSMENT 71 overvi
Page 75 and 76: INITIAL MARKET ASSESSMENT 73 Adapt
Page 77 and 78: INITIAL MARKET ASSESSMENT 75 Be ale
Page 79 and 80: INITIAL MARKET ASSESSMENT 77 Compet
Page 81 and 82: INITIAL MARKET ASSESSMENT 79 discus
Page 83 and 84: MODULE 5: ESTIMATING INCOME, COST A
Page 85 and 86: ESTIMATING INCOME, COST AND PROFIT
Page 102 and 103: 100 BUSINESS SKILLS Hussein Al Sead
Page 104 and 105: 102 BUSINESS SKILLS Once entreprene
Page 106 and 107:
104 BUSINESS SKILLS recurring expen
Page 108 and 109:
106 BUSINESS SKILLS expenses of run
Page 110 and 111:
108 BUSINESS SKILLS Session 3: Sour
Page 112:
110 BUSINESS SKILLS Homework Estima
Page 115 and 116:
MODULE 7: KEEPING RECORDS AND MANAG
Page 117 and 118:
KEEPING RECORDS AND MANAGING FINANC
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 128 and 129:
126 BUSINESS SKILLS Zelimkhan Mesto
Page 130 and 131:
128 BUSINESS SKILLS Module 8 presen
Page 132 and 133:
130 BUSINESS SKILLS LIST OF REFEREN
Page 134 and 135:
132 BUSINESS SKILLS Organization wi
Page 136:
4202/002 10.2014 200
show all

new business module

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?