Belief: Small business owners
are looking for communities of like-minded people to share failures, successes
and clients.
Unmet need: A destination site that allows SMBs to collaborate and
share success, failures and client contacts that enable growth. Small business owners have this need while
trying to effectively network and learn to grow their business. The need
originates during the start up phase of a business as they look to acquire clients. Business owners are joining networking groups
or posting ideas on social media that broadcast to a broad, untargeted
population of people.
Prototypical Customer: A small
business owner in the first three years of business.
Customer Interview 1: Solo practitioner of law firm
This customer strongly agreed there is a need
to connect with other attorneys and share opportunities and success. She went on to say that it does exist today
through attorney networking groups, but they are not targeted to specific areas
of practice. The need arises when
matters are outside of their experience and include processes that need to be
followed by the court, preference of a particular judge, or billing/estimating
issues. They first became aware of the
need when they started practicing law. They
encountered a matter that did not relate to case law or statues- which are very
accessible.
She is currently addressing the
need with two networking groups: NPI (Network Professionals Group, Inc.), and
JDNG (Juris Doctor Networking Group). It
was noted that the value is hit or miss and not all meetings are relevant or
valuable, but for the few client leads that converted, it was well worth her
time.
After reflecting I realized her
need was partially being met by groups, but they were inefficient and too broad. Technology was lacking, but they did have a private
Facebook page for the members already enrolled.
Customer Interview 2: Bakery Start Up
This customer did not initially
understand the value of my proposition and thought their biggest challenge was
marketing. They did come to the
conclusion that it could be valuable to connect with other bakers but were
afraid of sharing trade secrets and thought others would feel the same. Given they felt their unmet need was generating
awareness of their brand, we spent the rest of the time chatting about
that. They first became aware of this
need when they came up with their business plan. As they were generating a sales forecast,
they realized how many customers they would need pay for their initial investment
and variable costs. They are currently addressing
this need through 1) local green markets where they share samples of their
baked goods and sell product from on-site inventory or delivery at a later date;
and 2) by launching a web site that they will announce and communicate via
email lists purchased. Their initial
results from the markets are better than expected, but still not enough volume
to meet their forecasted targets.
After reflecting on this
interview, I quickly realized that trade secrets prevent this small business
from sharing success and failures and this they would not be an ideal customer for
my solution.
Customer Interview 3: Accounting Firm
This customer did agree that it
would be valuable to participate in a community of accountants. However, he noted that it would be good to
associate with broader groups too because everyone could use an Accountant- especially
during tax season. He informed that most
of his leads come from unrelated industry, not other accountants. He felt that given federal accounting
standards and his collective knowledge, the need for consulting other
accountants was minimal. He first
identified with this need during his first year of business. He knew that networking was a popular way to
establish trust and get referrals. As
his business grew, word of mouth and repeat visits replaced the need to hunt
for new clients. It is still a practice
he does, but a much less frequent basis and mostly for social interaction with
company he enjoys.
After reflecting on this
conversation, I started to feel like me belief was indeed present for small
businesses. Although the baker was not a
good fit for my belief, the accountant and lawyer were. Their preferences were slightly different though-
the lawyer wanted efficiency and expert advice; the accountant wanted leads. I also
realized that events and groups satisfy this need, but millennials will likely
want to achieve this with greater efficiency and prefer a technology solution. Older generations enjoy the social benefits.
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