The Joy Killers - A business murder Mystery.

Understand your competitor’s Strengths and Weaknesses ​ Identify your competition Conduct internet searches. Exercise care in your search terms. Search your product, your industry. Use how to searches – A legal firm may search how to find a good lawyer. A ceramic adhesive manufacturer may search how to fix a broken plate Trade Associations are another great source of information Classify into Dire...

Episode 8 Test your hypothesis; launch your minimum viable product. The Minimum Viable Product evolves from the Lean Start Up Theory. Which espouses the fail early philosophy. MVP is the first working version of a product, with just enough features to satisfy potential clients and collect & analyse their feedback for the next product version, with minimum effort and resources required. The nex...

Episode 7 Confirm your findings by engaging with your potential customers. If the results of the research covered in episode 6 has shown that there are potential customers for your product you need to learn more about them. Zoom down from the 30,000-foot view to get real answers to questions such as: Are people willing to pay for your product? How much? How do they solve their problem currently? W...

Episode 6 Demand Validation – Get the basics right. Can be thought of as internal research or desk top research. Use sources that are available to you to start to refine your ideas. Use the three questions you asked yourself in Episode 5 to begin your demand validation. Objective is to confirm that your potential customers really have the problem you think they have, and they would be interested i...

Episode 5 – Demand Validation The must do first step for success ​ The CB Insights tech market intelligence platform analysed why 110 Tech Companies failed. The leading cause of failure was that they ran out of money. The second most common cause of failure was that there was no demand for the product or service. How can you avoid spending hours and money developing your business only to find that...

Much is made of the high risk appetite needed to be entrepreneur, It is true that many successful entrepreneurs have a high risk appetite it is not essential to be an entrepreneur. You manage the level of risk to what feels right for you.

The easiest ways to set up your business might expose your personal assets to risk. With greater protection comes greater bureaucracy. How do you get the balance right.

We take a look at the leading causes of failure in Startups and how you can avoid them.

There are many myths about the great life you can live as an entrepreneur and they are just that, myths. I share my experience with reality. Entrepreneurship is exciting and enjoyable but it is not easy

Some start ups spend more on acquiring a customer than the customer’s life time value. This leads to failure and closure. Tune into to learn why most entrepreneurs incorrectly calculate LTV and how you can avoid the mistake of paying too much to acquire customers. Also we look at three questions you can ask your team to improve their problem solving skills and your unique role in the solution. Fin...

Learn about a company that was founded in 2011, achieved Unicorn status in June 2013, and was out of business by mid 2014. A rapid rise and an even more rapid fall. The story of how a company that sold $600,000 of merchandise in its first twelve days of business fell victim to the speed trap. We will look at the specific reasons Fab.com ran into difficulties, and then discuss how the speed trap ca...

In this episode we learn about why a successful start up, Dot & Bo failed to scale up. Scaling up is a challenge so in the last 12 minutes you can learn from James Bilefield who helped Skype become a leading communications company. Hear his advice on what a company must do to scale up successfully

A pet care service expands rapidly in Boston and Chicago and then falters. Did a false positive lead them astray. Listen to find out. What do you think went wrong? Entrepreneurs need to present their businesses in the best light. This can lead to exaggeration of the truth, even deception. Is this acceptable if the ends justify the means? How do feel about bending the truth if it gets your business...

Taken from Professor Eisenmann's article in HBR May 2021 Case study 1: Two friends, with complementary talents, an identified unmet need and a clear solution to the problem in an industry that was not familiar to them Enough cash to last one year at launch, Case study 2: A solid idea, an outstanding leader and top flight team able to attract funds from a leading VC. Proponents of Lean Start Ups an...

This week, starting in China we look at which companies are winning in China and which have failed. And why they achieved success or failure. It is had to ignore the second largest economy in the world, and many are forecasting that China will soon overtake the US to become the world’s number one economy. The next topic may seem a strange choice for a radio show that focuses on helping entrepreneu...

The first article we discuss is from McKinsey & Co and is entitled Team work at the top. This will provide you the ability to identify if some of the common causes of less than ideal performance are present in your company and how to fix them. The article mentions the need for diversity of thought in any organization and neatly takes us to the second article from Wharton, that encourages you a...

Our first article from McKinsey looks at how live commerce is transforming the shopping experience. By blending entertainment with instant purchasing, live commerce provides the solopreneur the opportunity to stand out from the crowd. Then we turn to McKinsey Digital “Building e-commerce ecosystems on Amazon. A conversation with Rainforest’s JJ Chai” a cofounder of the Singapore based e-commerce a...

The Covid pandemic taught many businesses to move at remarkable speed as they reacted to events that disrupted their commercial operations. It showed that it was possible to quickly adapt ways of working to cope with unprecedented conditions. No one can be sure what the post covid pandemic world will look like. What we can be sure of is that companies that react faster to the changes in the post c...

How to help your sales team excel at virtual selling. 92% of buyers prefer virtual selling to a visit from a sales rep. You have to master this technique. Net Zero is likely to replace Covid as the top concern so learn from the World Economic Forum and their publication Aligning to Net Zero, How CEOs can get on board with the transition. In a survey where 75% of participants said the most stressfu...

This week we will look at an article from McKinsey & Co and two articles from the latest edition of the Harvard Business Review Firstly the article from McKinsey How Tech will revolutionize retail. McKinsey & Company. John Straw, a senior advisor to McKinsey based in London, a serial entrepreneur and technology expert. In this McKinsey article John Straw is focused on larger corporations b...

This show summarizes Season 5 when we covered topics that need to be considered if you are planning on expanding abroad. More information is available on the full length podcast on your favorite platform. My show notes have full contact details or you can contact me directly on jeremy@business-in-asia.org.

Today – Taxes, incentives, and repatriation of profits. We will start with a look capital structure to the extent that it might limit your ability to take some tax deductions.

If you have looked at the websites of companies that offer formation services, you might come away with the impression that setting up your company structure is one the vital first steps. But there is a reason I have left this to show 11, because until you know what your company is going to look like, what activities it will conduct in country, what activities will be outside the country, where yo...

There are so many considerations in choosing a location for your business that finding the perfect site is probably impossible, but by carefully  assessing the options you can find the ideal site for you. This is something you need to get right the first time. Moving is expensive and disruptive and should be avoided. Your ideal site is the one that minimizes the cost to serve your customers. There...

Building a plant is a significant investment whether green field or using an existing building. It is a long term investment. The initial investment will not be recoverable in the short term. If you go greenfield you will have the land and buildings that you can sell. But you will be extremely lucky if you can sell the plant for more than scrap value. If you have rented a building there will be cl...