How will customers buy from you, and how much will they pay?

How will customers buy from you, and how much will they pay?

Outline in detail just how you plan to get your product or service out to the market. This includes describing how you’re going to manufacture your product and how you’ll deliver it. Will it be sold over the Internet or from the shelves of your own Main Street store? Will you have distribution into the “big box” retailers or use a national network of sales reps? Just remember that you must have a well-defined and achievable plan in order to get what you’re selling in front of your customers.
And what about price? It’s a critical component of success. Price your offering too high and nobody will buy your product. Price it too low and you might be leaving money on the table, or, worse yet, you might not make any money at all. Cheryl Tallman, started a company called Fresh Baby. What Cheryl did to position her products for success perfectly demonstrates the importance of appropriate pricing. She wanted to make sure that the prices for her freezable trays for fresh baby food and mother’s milk were below those of her well-known competitor Tupperware; she knew a lower price would differentiate her product. But the manufacturing cost of an initial run of 2,000 trays was relatively high. So instead of pricing her trays based on the cost of the initial manufacturing quantity, she asked her supplier how much a run of 50,000 would be.
In the higher volume, the unit price came way down.
“I took into account those extremes in price and picked a price in the middle. It was a price where I could still make money but undercut Tupperware’s pricing.” This meant Cheryl would lose money on those first 2,000, but as soon as the volume of sales increased she’d be making good profit margins overall. Cheryl’s story conveys perfectly why you should consider your customers closely. Figure out what price your customer would pay for the product and determine if you can offer better customer service than your competitors. Never, ever forget who pays the bills—your customers.



Slainte
Gordon

An Interesting Article by James Dyson

I spent a weekend with James at an OUBM workshop when I was working for my MBA, he was lecturing on DFM for the early stage company among a few other subjects, he is a good guy and worth spending sometime with, I thought I would share this Interview that he gave to the BBC. I will be traveling Monday so I may not get a posting done, hope you all have a great week...and keep the faith

Slainte
Gordon

The key take away "It has left me more convinced than ever that engineering is this country's future."
James Dyson

James Dyson, the engineer who reinvented the vacuum cleaner, says his recipe for success is simple: he makes things that people want to buy.
It may sound easy - but Mr Dyson, who received a knighthood in the honours list, was not an overnight success.
A former art-school student, he says it took him four and a half years and 5,127 prototypes to refine his design.
Mr Dyson's patience paid off. He is about to have a "Sir" before his name, and he heads a firm worth about $1bn.
Speaking of his long haul to the top, Mr Dyson said that while it may have sounded tedious, it was in fact fascinating.
"Each failure, the 5,126 failures taught me so much," the 59-year-old explained. "Success teaches you nothing. Failures teach you everything.
"Making mistakes is the most important thing you can do."
Exporting jobs
Mr Dyson was born in 1947 in Norfolk, the son of academic parents. After school, he studied at the Royal College of Art between 1966 and 1970, where he learnt furniture and interior design.
Following four years at engineering firm Rotork, Mr Dyson set up his own firm in 1974 and developed the Ballbarrow, which replaced the wheelbarrow's traditional wheel with a ball.
To survive against Chinese producers, we can't just rely on shallow styling. We need technology and design that they don't have
James Dyson
According to his company website, Mr Dyson stumbled across the idea for the bagless vacuum cleaner while renovating his country house in the Cotswolds.
In 1983, his pink G-Force vacuum cleaner was featured on the front cover of Design Magazine. A decade later, the Dyson DC01 came onto the UK market selling for about £200.
Today, the company has about 1,400 staff in the UK, with about 4,000 others working in production plants in Malaysia and China.
Despite his successes, Mr Dyson has been criticised for his decision to ship so many production jobs abroad.
Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB said: "Do people now get a knighthood for services to exporting jobs?"
'Country's future'
Mr Dyson has previously said that critical comments have little effect on him - and he is not shy of fighting for what he believes in, taking on vacuum-cleaner firm Hoover in a legal battle over patent infringement in 1999.
Despite selling products that easily recognisable by their bright colours, Mr Dyson argues that cute designs are not enough to ensure the success of a product, and wants the UK to do more to promote engineering and technology.

James Dyson wants the UK to be an engineering centre of excellence
"To survive against Chinese producers, we can't just rely on shallow styling," he said. "We need technology and design that they don't have.
"As long as we continue to innovate and produce products that have better features and work better, we can compete."
Earlier this year, Mr Dyson revealed plans to set up the Dyson School of Design Innovation in Bath, which will aim to encouraging young people to consider engineering careers.
"I have spent 35 years making things in a country that often has little regard for its manufacturers," he once said.
"It has left me more convinced than ever that engineering is this country's future."