Ask Mendy 3 – Online Companies
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Mendy Marcus
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018
Online companies seem to have become the norm. In fact, there appears to be a reduction in the number of retail companies in favour of online replacements. Does this seem to be the trend? If so, what can entrepreneurs keep in mind when building newer businesses and business models?
When approaching the conceptual, early stages of business development, such as an app, what are some of the critical thinking, reflective steps to keep in mind?
Where can the early stages of the development of an online company go wrong?
It’s true retail is dying but that’s a good thing not a bad, because we are replacing it with something much better. I wouldn’t say it’s a trend thought, that implies that is popular at the moment and has the option of fading. This started with someone or many people who were tech enthusiast who probably told things online just to show it can be done, then you had the internet boom where everyone wanted to sell something online because it was so new but they didn’t know how, even Google has blamed the boom on people who wanted to sell food online, at the time they just didn’t know how. Then you had Amazon, Google Book and other forms of industry being completely digitalized or at least the sales aspect became digital, now we are finding more and more business models and technologies that allow
I don’t have a billion dollars in my account so I’m not going to pretend I have all the steps figured out on how to create a successful startup, instead i will focus on something I find very few entrepreneurs and businesses do and is also a personal annoyance when not done right and that is create a great user experience, whether it’s digital or not UX is the most important thing.
People tend to structure the UX according to how they want to do business or how they think they would do business instead of doing business according to their user experience.
I’ll use a tech business as an example but this can apply to a restaurant as well. Whether you are building the walls of an app for the walls of the restaurant doesn’t make a difference. The first think you want to do once you have decided to open a business or have an idea is figure out the user experience, how does the customer wants to experience what you are selling or offering.
Don’t go right to researching how the market work, that tends to make you want to do what the market is doing or “follow the rules of the industry in order to succeed”, what you should do is close your eyes, imagine yourself as your first customer that walks into the restaurant/uses your app, what experience do you want, not what you are expecting because you are expecting what you are used to and you are used to what all the other restaurants and apps are doing but that doesn’t set you apart neither does it satisfy them or they wouldn’t need you, so take yourself through the experience you want as a user/customer not what you are expecting, now do the same as the 1000th user here for the first time and a user who’s used the app many times.
Once you have figured out what the user experience should be, talk to a lot of people, annoy some strangers with some really bad UI designs or describe what your restaurant looks like and get honest feedback, don’t ask your friends or polite people who don’t want to hurt your feelings. Now you can research the market and figure out how you can create a business model and strategy according to the user experience. Many places sell pizza and there will be a lot of apps like yours even if you have a new idea, many will copy, people choose you because of the experience.
If this wasn’t the case Tesla would be all about the technology, the electric vehicle itself is pretty cool but Elon knew it’s a matter of time before there’s another few electric car companies so he had to make the driving experience amazing, the car has to look sexy, the website experience had to be just perfect, picking up your car had to be a thrilling experience, even the test drive had to feel like a big deal, every detail was carefully thought out and even thought the customer is having the time of their lives and living in the moment and is all so natural to him/her, it is all created moments by Elon and his team, even the marketing has a user experience.
When I have an idea I don’t turn it into a business and figure out how to make money from it right away, first I think about the user experience, then I play around with the UI, this tends to point out the flaws in my UX, once I have that down I try to figure out whether I can make some money from it as well. I suggest always starting out a project as a hobby, this way you’re not in a rush, you are not chasing the money you’re just having a good time perfecting something that may or may not be monitisable later on, but for now it’s all about having a great idea, an excellent user experience and eventually a good shot at a business idea.
License
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightjournal.com.
Copyright
© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-2022. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.
In-Sight Publishing 
Comments are closed.