Entrepreneurial Small Business Chapter 4 - Creativity, Opportunity, and Feasibility

Rearrange (or reverse)

-Magnetic Poetry example -What can you rearrange or reorder in the way your product or service appears?

SCAMPER

-a creativity tool that provides cues to trigger breakthrough thinking -Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Magnify or Modify, Put to other use, Eliminate, Rearrange

Entrepreneurial alertness

-a special set of observational and thinking skills that help entrepreneurs identify good opportunities -the ability to notice things that have been overlooked, without actually launching a formal search for opportunities, and the motivation to look for opportunities

License

-legal agreement ranting you rights to use a particular piece of intellectual property

Opportunity recognition

-searching and capturing new ideas that lead to business opportunities -involves creative thinking that leads to discovery of new and useful ideas

Magnify (or Modify)

-taking an existing product and changing its appearance or adding more features -can also cue you to minimize something

customer segment

A group or subgroup of potential purchasers that can be approached in a coherent manner

target market

A marketing term (also called serviceable obtainable market, or SOM ) that refers to the group of customers in the area you plan to serve who would be likely to be interested in your product, or those of competitors; Also referred to as individuals or market groups called segments

casual model of entrepreneurship

One of two approaches to thinking about entrepreneurship (the other is effectuation). The causal approach is one in which you want to create a particular product or service that does not yet exist, and to achieve that end, you have to cause the product or service to exist. This can mean you will have to learn new skills, or find others to help you achieve your end

value proposition

Small business owners' unique selling points (also known as benefits) that customers can expect from your goods or services, including benefits that differentiate your offer- ing from those of the competition

conversion rate

The measure of how many visitors to your website (or people who click on your online advertise- ment) are actually willing to make a commitment to the product or service promoted on the site

Licensor

The person or organization that is offering the rights to use a particular piece of intellectual property.

Adapt

adaptation from existing products or services

incremental strategy

taking an idea and offering a way to do something slightly better than it is done presently

Feasibility

the extent to which an idea is viable and realistic and the extent to which you are aware of internal and external forces that could affect your business

A/B testing

A way to check customer reaction to websites describing your product or service. Two versions (ver- sion "A" and version "B") of the site are posted and are served up randomly to prospective customers. The version of the website that gets the most commitments from customers is the one kept and the less attractive site is re- vised and the two versions tested until one revision gets consistently superior customer reactions

Put to other uses

Think of ways you could generate a high number of opportunities for your product or service

Pilot Test

a preliminary run of a business, sales effort, program, or Web site with the goal of assessing how well the overall approach works and what problems it might have.

Creativity

a process introducing an idea or opportunity that is novel and useful, frequently derived from making connection among distinct ideas or opportunities

Freemium

an approach to pricing, and a business model, that connects free and premium products or services. Typically a free version is offered and users have the option to pay to move up to premium features. Popular examples include Dropbox (5 GB of space for free, with more space or services at a price) and Angry Birds (free ad-supported version; paid version removes ads)

Imitative strategy

an overall strategic approach in which the entrepreneur does more or less what others are already doing

Business Model

are a way to iden- tify and organize key information on a business and how it achieves its goals. Business models can be analytic tools (like a business model canvas) or a way to do business (like the "razor and blade" business model)

gain

can be any sort of outcome (a product, service, outcome, or situation) customers or potential customers would like to encounter or be able to depend on. It is one of two driving forces of creat- ing new products or services, with the other driving force being pain

Pain

can be any sort of problem, annoyance, source of aggrava- tion, shortcoming, or suboptimal situation customers or potential customers face. It is one of two driving forces of creating new products or services, with the other driving force being gain

feasibility study

evaluates the potential of a business op- portunity by studying five primary areas in depth: the overall busi- ness idea, the product/service, the industry and market, financial projections (profitability), and the plan for future action

Royalty

payment based on the number or value of licensed items sold

Combine

possible combinations that result in something completely different

Radical innovations

rejecting existing ideas, and presenting a way to do things differently

radical innovation strategy

rejecting existing ideas, and presenting a way to do things differently

Eliminate

search for opportunities that arise when you get rid of something or stop doing something

RBI screen

stands for "Really Big Idea" and is a fast technique for making initial assessments (called screens) of prospective business ideas based on five questions. The RBI approach comes from Alex Bruton, and can be found at theinnogrpher.com/toolkit/really-big-idea

Licensee

the person or firm that is obtaining the rights to use a particular piece of intellectual property

Substitute

what might substitute for something else to form an idea