All important considerations that you need to make, but it won't be due to the passion for your Columbus egg! And once the egg is finally laid, the next challenge arises: who wants your egg or who should have your egg? And do you actually want to give up your egg or just keep dreaming and sitting on your egg?
Okay, enough about the eggs, Easter is still a while away... But this does remind me of the TV broadcast of Dubbeltje Op Z'n Kant In Bedrijf from a few years ago, which was about a woman with a store selling wooden toys. This had been her dream for years, but after opening, she was only making losses and was dipping into her savings. What turned out? Her sales skills were far below par. When a customer came into the store, she was happy that the customer thought it was a beautiful store. She made no contact with the customer and therefore hardly sold anything. Well, she might as well have started a museum.
Entrepreneurship is about connecting with the outside world and not least with your customer. Then the question immediately arises: who is your customer, where is that customer and better yet, how does he find you? Show yourself and let yourself be heard! Go on a market exploration and I literally mean going to the market. Take a look at similar vegetable or fish stalls. Why is it busier at one stall than at another? It’s not just about the quality of the product. Apparently, there is also something like the favor factor. And when do you get that? When you are full of passion about your product and can convey that.
It's handy to put all this knowledge into your product development beforehand, because maybe your customer doesn't even know that he needs your product. Just think of the first mobile phones. Insanely heavy and awkward with such a battery, and no one understood why you would need one... You have a phone at home, right? Then the question arises: is that customer really king or is it the strength of your product? Kind of a chicken-egg story, but with passion for your egg and customer, it’s a lot easier to sell.
I wish all student entrepreneurs from the Junior and Student Companies who will be at the market days of Jong Ondernemen a lot of success in the coming time! Interested in going to these market days and discovering the talents of today? Here you will find the agenda with all dates and locations. Have fun (buying)!
About Jacqueline Zuidweg
Jacqueline Zuidweg (1965) is the founder and director of Zuidweg & Partners B.V., and Businesswoman of the Year 2012. When she noticed as a lawyer at a consultancy for SMEs that there was no good debt assistance for (ex-)entrepreneurs in the Netherlands, she started Zuidweg & Partners B.V. In 2012, she was named Businesswoman of the Year and since this year, Jacqueline has been a board member of the Jong Ondernemen Foundation to promote entrepreneurship in education. Her book 'Falling, getting up and moving on!' was published.
