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Central Oregon is a great place to start your business. It’s a thriving, growing region and a rich environment for new businesses, but as consumer expectations change, entrepreneurs need to be prepared to provide value-adding services that challenge established players and attract new customers.
If you’re preparing to open a new business, it’s time to learn about value-adding services and how they can make or break a start-up.
#1 Start with Customer Needs
The process of developing value-adding services should start with identifying true customer needs. No matter what your industry is, your value proposition starts with insights into what customers want and a solution for delivering on it. Value derives from providing your customers with something they can’t find anywhere else. That’s how you carve out a market for your company.
Look no further than Nobul, the dynamic digital marketplace where consumers connect with real estate agents. Industry thought leader Regan McGee identified a core need in real estate:
“The job has completely changed, but the fee structure has stayed the same. With our competitive marketplace, agents that want to charge 5 percent can if they justify their 5 percent through their reviews and their service proposition. If they’re doing something that’s more like a 3 percent job, then that will come out as well. It’s really about consumer choice.”
Consumers wanted lower fees and more transparency from real estate, and Nobul created a way to deliver.
#2 Be Different – Not Just on Price
Price is not the only way you can differentiate your company. Delivering a value-adding service is how you find customers without cutting yourself short on the value of what you do.
When you generate more value for your customers, they can afford a higher price. As long as you’re delivering the ROI to make it worthwhile, you can justify higher prices and avoid racing your competitors to the bottom.
#3 Value-Adding Services Open the Door to More
The biggest and most successful tech companies today don’t just fulfill one need; they provide a whole ecosystem of solutions that consumers can rely on for whole lifestyle needs.
Apple is a quintessential example of a tech company that has grown into the ecosystem model, where a company provides a range of products and services that can operate in concert with each other.
No start-up starts by providing an ecosystem on the scale of Apple, but a core value-adding service can lead to additional service offerings. Growth-focused businesses build on their core services to find new ways to support their customers.
#4 Offer Your Services at the Right Time
The timing is a core part of your business model, but your model has to fit customer needs. A SaaS model may not be ideal if your customers only need your services at the start of a project. Subscription services won’t attract customers who have a one-time need.
Tailoring the timing of your services to fit the needs of your clients will add more value for your customers.
