We may have a business idea in mind or want to start a project but we don’t dare to take the plunge because we simply don’t know where to start. But, what if the key is in the public we want to access? The finance expert Natalia de Santiago reveals some ideas that may help us to embark on an undertaking from another perspective in a new chapter of Mucho por Hacer, CaixaBank’s financial culture program created with the aim of increasing the population’s awareness of basics of personal finance
“When we think about our future customers, we not only need to know who they are, what they value and what their priorities are,” warns De Santiago. For the specialist, there is something else. “You also need to know their preferences,” she points out. When we look at the client, making him the main protagonist, “we will be giving priority to the business model ahead of the purely financial vision”, explains De Santiago. And it is that knowing who our audience is will help us define the project to promote.
According to the expert, the strategy to follow will consist of various steps. First we will identify the client and his needs, and then see what type of services or products can cover those needs. In reality, it is about identifying a problem that our target customer is facing and for which there is still no solution. Putting yourself in the customer’s shoes, knowing what he is looking for in the market, is one of the keys to success. Although not the only one.
When starting a business, nothing can be taken for granted, but you have to invest time and effort in collating all kinds of information. It is also important to validate our business idea, looking for evidence or objective data that confirms that the problem we have identified does indeed exist and that customers are looking for a solution for it and are willing to pay for it. After that, it is time to look at the numbers and work on the financial vision.
We must be clear about the margin each product will leave us and the acceptance it will have among our customers, without forgetting possible promotions or discounts that will act as a hook for the public. In any case, the finance specialist stresses the importance of having a sufficient number of potential customers and being able to access them. “There is no point in having many customers in need of our solution if, for example, they are too far away to deliver our product or service to them,” she says.
We will have to think about where we are going to find our client, what type of channels are the ideal ones to publicize our product and how we are going to communicate it. All this, taking into account that any business idea is not alone in the market. “Once our competitors have been identified, we must decide how we are going to differentiate ourselves from them,” says De Santiago. Being different will help to add special value to what we do.
Together with the Mucho por Hacer program —in which interviews with well-known faces and advice from financial experts stand out—, CaixaBank has a hub through which it disseminates all the basic financial concepts linked to the most frequent vital projects of the population that can be accessed free of charge through Cultura Financiera | Individuals | CaixaBank, located within the entity’s global portal.
CaixaBank continues to work on a daily basis with the aim of disseminating knowledge and making everyone aware of the importance of acquiring a good financial culture. In addition, it promotes training activities that cover the specific needs of young people, the elderly, entrepreneurs or people in a vulnerable situation, through specialized workshops, training courses and conferences.
