How to START and run Business
This weeks book is the Personal MBA by Josh KaufmanI really enjoy this book and only read 10 pages at a time. Here below is a useful summary I found on: https://readingraphics.com/book-summary-the-personal-mba/#:~:text=Kaufman%20explains%20several%20key%20financial,time%20value%20of%20money%20etc.Value CreationThis is about assessing the attractiveness of markets (e.g. using the 10 Market Evaluation Questions), understanding what people want and how they evaluate value (e.g. knowing the 4 core human drives, and 12 forms of economic value), how to translate an idea into a viable offer (e.g. testing critical assumptions, creating prototypes and a minimum viable offer, and improving using “iteration cycles”).MarketingTo get your prospects’ limited attention, you need to present your offer in a way that connects it with an existing desire. This aspect of business is about framing your offer, triggering prospects’ interest (e.g. through visuals, hooks, free gifts) and sustaining it, and focusing your limited resources in the right areas (e.g. the most-profitable customers).SalesA transaction is essentially an exchange of value. This part of business involves knowing how to build mutual trust and common ground, setting the right prices, structuring the right proposals and fallback options, and addressing barriers to purchase.Value DeliveryHappy customers are more likely to buy again and refer you to others. This aspect of business is about increasing satisfaction, and mapping out your value-stream so you can identify ways to improve your throughput, duplicate and multiply your value delivery.FinanceFinance is about knowing how the money flows in and out of a business, so you can decide how to allocate it, and assess if it’s producing the desired results. Kaufman explains several key financial concepts, including what it means to achieve sufficiency, how to increase profits, how to look at Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), ways to finance your business, understanding opportunity costs/ sunk costs/ time value of money etc.
South Africa