Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Selling for the Needy, Greedy and the Lazy

 Anyone who wants to venture into setting up his/her own business so that they are their own boss, or they want to create employment opportunities or all other reasons that may be, will have to consider three main lines of business that will sell, and therefore has a better chance of succeeding.

 

1. Business that feeds the need of people

2. Business that feeds the greed of people

3. Business that feeds the laziness of people

 

The need of people denotes all those aspects of life that mankind will require for a daily sustenance of life. Food is an important requirement on a daily basis and thus an hotel established in a strategic location has a higher probability of succeeding. Other examples of need include educational institutions, grocery stores, or even services such as carpentry or electrical repairs. These are needs that people can never compromise on as it is a critical element for sustenance of life, and therefore the businesses catering to these needs will also be sustainable.

 

The greed of people are extensions of the 'need' that has transcended into luxury. Getting food at a hotel is a need. But eating at a McDonald's is a greed that satisfies that gourmet craving of human beings. The mouth-watering advertisements showing delicious looking burgers and fries trigger the gluttonous greed of people, while in reality containing agents that are harmful to health. Yet people go after these food items because they are unable to put a lid on the greed that has taken over the mind. Greed does not restrict itself to food alone. Anything that converts a need into a luxury becomes greed. Setting up businesses or services that caters to this greed of people bring in more returns if it turns out to be successful. If planned strategically, these businesses have a higher chance of success depending on which strata of the society you cater to.

 

When luxury transcends into lethargy or desperation, it becomes a laziness. People wanting soap powder to wash their clothes is the need of life. People engaging a servant maid to wash the clothes is a greed of life. People who want an automatic washing machine so that they need not pay for a servant maid but still don't want to move a muscle to do the work themselves denote the segment that belongs to laziness of life. Usually commodities or services that cater to the laziness of life are more expensive than the luxuries that are more expensive that the need. A child can be educated in a government school which would be fulfillment of a need. However,  choosing a convent education transcends to greed and going to an international school is seen as a laziness. Laziness is not physical laziness alone, but anything that man tries to do by throwing around his money, for making his life as grand as possible. These are the most egoistic people and the business set up with these customers in mind should do enough to trigger their ego into buying your product or service. The more useless/lazy/comfortable a product/service makes a person, the more likely that it is very expensive. Such a market may be small, but the profit margins can still be large enough to make a sizable package over a period of time once established.

 

Thus, the need of people will have a wider audience, have smaller profit margins and will sustain better. The greed of people will have a substantial yet smaller audience, will be of moderate profit margins and has a decent potential of sustenance. The laziness of people will cater to an elite few though it can bring about a substantial profit, and comes associated with a larger risk in operations.

 

Any business that does not feed the need, or greed or laziness of people has a lower chance of survival if your marketing strategy is not top notch.

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