A HouseBeautiful Home Business. Emma Jones
What price can I charge for my product/service?
What’s competitive and takes into account the amount of time, personal service and added value that I offer?
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Friends and family focus group
When moving from hobby to business, friends and family represent a key focus group and will often be your most ardent supporters. Talk through your ideas and ask for feedback on the product/service itself and your qualities in being able to deliver. Joanne Dewberry rightly says that you should test products on strangers too, but conversations with friends and family will help you prepare an initial SWOT analysis for the business.
SWOT Analysis
With your idea and research in hand, prepare a SWOT analysis. This stands for: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.
Strengths
What are my strengths?
What can I do better than anyone else?
What resources do I have?
What’s my unique selling point?
Weaknesses
What are my weaknesses?
What should I avoid?
Where do I lack skills?
What might hinder my success?
Opportunities
What opportunities do I see?
Does my idea tap into any trends?
Are there any emerging technologies that could help my idea?
Has there been anything in the news related to my idea?
Threats
What threats would I face?
Who’s my competition?
Does changing technology affect my idea?
TIP { What am I worth?
How much do you think customers or clients would pay for your product or service? To begin with, take a look at how similar offerings are priced and talk to your potential customers about how much they’d be willing to pay. Then talk to potential suppliers to check you can source materials and deliver at a price that covers your costs and still leaves a margin for that all-important profit.
Since starting a business from home will save you lots of money, you can pass some of these savings onto your customers, which could give you an edge over other businesses. However, make sure you don’t undercharge for the expertise, talent and knowledge you offer, as this is all part of the product people are buying.
Also consider charging less for work that will reflect well on your business and boost your reputation, perhaps in the media or with a credible customer.
James and Sally Tickner carried out market research when they wanted to take their business to the next level . . .
Beautiful Business: Liberty Rose Interiors
Name: James and Sally Tickner, Liberty Rose Interiors Limited
Business: Furnishings and upholstery
Website: www.libertyroseinteriors.co.uk
Social media: www.libertyroseinteriors.blogspot.co.uk, www.pinterest.com/LibertyRoseUK, www.facebook.com/LibertyRoseInteriorsLimited, @libertyrose
Liberty Rose Interiors Limited was established in spring 2012 by husband-and-wife team James and Sally Tickner. James began life in the upholstery industry over 20 years ago and has been passionately revitalising furniture by hand ever since. He has also worked in the leather-trimming business to transform the interiors of many luxury yachts, helicopters and classic cars. Sally has been in the book-publishing business for most of her career and is a self-confessed spendaholic!
“We bought an old house and tried new influences and styles – Jim created some chairs for our lounge which were the envy of our friends so we decided to design and create our own pieces to suit a contemporary home and we looked for a way to sell them.”
Like many new businesses they initially struggled to think of a suitable name for themselves but after much discussion they decided to use their daughter’s name, Liberty Rose.
“When she entered our lives the one name we agreed upon (and there were many!) was Liberty Rose and the meaning of it seems to fit with the aim and scope of our business – Liberty means the power of choosing, thinking and acting for oneself, and a bed of roses is a situation of comfort or ease. In our minds, Liberty Rose is about taking something precious such as a much-loved antique chair and revitalising it – boldly choosing something exquisite which will provide comfort (and hopefully fun, passion and warmth) for years to follow.”
Liberty Rose sold their first piece to a friend! “We were having dinner at their place and they mentioned that their sofa was in need of a complete makeover. The next day they asked us to submit a quote, which we did. This then prompted us to map out a business plan and to start to think about how to generate new opportunities.”
Like many new businesses, when James and Sally initially decided to go for it, they had big dreams combined with little time and money. As a result, they created a basic marketing plan for the initial phase and worked with a friend to design an effective website to showcase their collection.
“In particular, we highlighted some ‘before and after’ pictures of a sofa transformation to demonstrate the traditional methods we use. Our original website was simple and has been easy to maintain, so we update that regularly and also use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to inform people of our latest news.”
However, they soon realised that they needed to offer potential customers a way to see for themselves how their portfolio was different from the normal foam-filled chairs and sofas found on the high street. They considered a number of ways to do this.
“We looked for a showroom in a prime location where we could feature our range of products and promote our upholstery service. After some