Not every idea can turn into a business opportunity. In order to have a clear and defined action plan, entrepreneurs rely on in-depth market analysis.

The most reliables means are the following:

A Gantt Chart allows to:

The financial planning is of paramount importance as it concerns the evaluation of the financial and economic potential of any business idea. The financial management requires a specific document, the Financial Plan (FP) which sets business objectives, development opportunities and marketing strategies. 

The Financial Plan is structured as follow:

The balance sheet is a snapshot of what you have and what you owe at a given point in time. Unlike the income or cash flow statements, it is not a record of performance over a period of time, but simply a statement of where things stand at a certain moment.

The balance sheet is a list of assets, debts or liabilities, and equity or net worth, with their values. In business, assets are resources that can be used to create income, while debt and equity are the capital that financed those assets. Thus, the value of the assets must equal the value of the debt and the equity. In other words, the value of the business’s resources must equal the value of the capital it borrowed or bought in order to get those resources.

assets = liabilities + equity

Profit and Loss Account is a financial statement that summarizes the revenues, costs, and expenses incurred during a specific period of time, usually a fiscal year or quarter. These records provide information about a company's ability (or lack thereof) to generate profit by increasing revenue, reducing costs, or both. It includes the "statement of profit and loss," the "statement of operations," the "statement of financial results," and the "income and expense statement.“

The P&L account reveals the company's realized profits or losses for the specified period of time by comparing total revenues to the company's total costs and expenses. Over time it can show a company's ability to increase its profit, either by reducing costs and expenses or increasing sales. Companies publish P&L accounts annually, at the end of the company's fiscal year, and may also publish them on a quarterly basis. Accountants, analysts, and investors study a P&L account carefully, scrutinizing cash flow and debt financing capabilities.

The statement of cash flows, or the cash flow statement, is a financial statement that summarizes the amount of cash and cash equivalents entering and leaving a company. The cash flow statement (CFS) measures how well a company manages its cash position, meaning how well the company generates cash to pay its debt obligations and fund its operating expenses.

The main components of the cash flow statement are:

1.operating activities

 2.investing activities

3.financing activities 

Although the digital market is proposed as an alternative to the offline one, there are many similarities between this two channels of commerce, as well as customer identification and profiling techniques.

For this reason it will be important to take into account some peculiarities of the offline market by identifying the preferences of the potential customers and intercept their needs in the online market too.  Customer's profiling will be very useful to improve the quality of your products by understanding the market trends. Furthermore, this is a very effective way to identify merits and defects of your product and/or offer.

How to understand online customers preferences:

Customer’s identification moves on the basis of the following three fundamental questions:

The Digital Transformation has multiplied the opportunities to reach potential customers by advertising, contents and techniques to let them maintaining a relationship with the brand. Users will always prefer to use web-store/platforms/applications that are more smart, agile and attractive; however, do not forget to keep in touch with the real market and real in-person customer relation keeping in mind what are the strengths of the offline market so that you can always offer a service that pushes the consumer to prefer buying online.

Common Mistakes…

Digital leaders are recognisable by the following main traits:

In this context, the true digital leader is the one who understands how technologies can most effectively enhance the qualities of human capital. In this sense, technology is not an alternative to individuals, but a tool to convey their qualities.

Why People Management is Important

Understand how to manage different groups of people defining a common approach and objectives

Learn to understand the others’ point of view

Find the most appropriate way to communicate and to let the team feel an important part of the project (emotional intelligence)

Develop

Giving and receiving regular feedbacks to/from your team members:

1. is the most effective solution for their development
2. will improve everyone's performance

If you can help team members to become better at what they do, you will be a manager who people aspire to work for

Communicate

• Agree with the team members a common approach for internal communication (weekly Skype call, Zoom Meeting)
• Set regular team meetings (plenary vs. one-to-one)
• Provide immediate feedback on performance
• Be ready to clarify roles and responsibilities when necessary

According the Korn Ferry Lominger’s Learning Agility Model, in team management, the real leader will be characterised by the following features:

• Mental Agility – A critical thinker is able to find fast solutions to the everyday issues
• People Agility – Individuals with high people agility are skilled at sizing up people and the political landscape
• Change Agility – Leaders need to be comfortable and confident with change
• Results Agility – Results-agile leaders are driven and resourceful
• Self-Awareness – Is the sum of the agilities listed above

Learning Agility Model

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Not providing feedback
2. Not finding time for your team
3. Failing in defining and validating goals
4. Not delegating
5. Misunderstanding roles and responsibilities

Good Practices

1. Don’t always assume you’re right
2. Make transparency a priority
3. Encourage and nurture your team’s growth
4. Focus on serving rather than managing
5. Be open to change

Millions of people buy online on e-commerce sites every day. The volume of business increases year after year especially because the online marketplace is seen as a space where you can find opportunities at any time of the day.

Online sales represent a very effective way to:

1. Increase your sales
2. Reduce your business operating costs
3. Increase profit margins for your business

Furthermore, we can observe several advantages for selling online as follow:

Managing your Digital Business: E-Commerce Opportunities

Snapshots of Digital Markets: Worldwide E-Commerce in 2019

E-commerce is very popular in the EU. The proportion of individuals aged 16-74 that shopped online is 63%. In particular, those aged 25-54 had the highest share of online shoppers among internet users up to 2016. In 2015, the youngest age group (16-24) overtook the EU average level, surpassing the level of the 25-54 years age group in 2019.

Internet users who bought or ordered good or services for private use in the previous 12 months, 2014 and 2019

Source: Eurostat

The European E-commerce market is experiencing a positive growth across all the most important countries, resulting in one of the most dynamic and fast growing industries. The share of e-commerce users in the European union has constantly increased, showing how companies are investing in their online presence and how users, or customers, are confirming their interest in online services.

In particular, E-commerce revenue in Europe is expected to grow to 502.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2024.

E-Commerce industry in Europe (2017 – 2024)

https://www.statista.com/topics/3792/e-commerce-in-europe/#dossierSummary__chapter1

The COVID-19 crisis accelerated the expansion of e-commerce towards new firms, customers and types of products. It has provided customers with access to a significant variety of products from the convenience and safety of their homes, and has enabled firms to continue operation in spite of contact restrictions and other confinement measures.

Despite persistent cross-country differences, the COVID-19 crisis has enhanced dynamism in the  e-commerce  landscape  across  countries  and  has  expanded  the  scope  of  e-commerce, including through  new firms, consumer  segments (e.g. elderly) and  products (e.g. groceries).

Retail turnover, year-on-year change, EU-27 (July 2019-20)

E-commerce transactions in many countries have partly shifted from luxury goods and services towards everyday necessities, relevant to a large number of individuals. Some of these changes in thee-commerce landscape will likely be of a long-term nature, in light of the possibility of new waves of the epidemic, the convenience of the new purchasing habits, learning costs and the incentive for firms to capitalise on investments in new sales channels

Source: OECD

Despite debit and credit cards remain the most common payment methods, many different alternatives are now available: in particular, e-payments methods allow entrepreneurs expand their operations into additional markets so they must familiarise with the payment mode preferred by local customers.

Source: E-Commerce News

The EU co-funded project IncuVET (2014-2016) aimed at creating an information hub with material, best practices, case studies and research on the role and potential of VET schools as local/regional hubs for entrepreneurship. IncuVET envisaged to support and promote an innovative role for VET schools as local/regional hubs for entrepreneurship, beyond the mere provision of start-up advice. The idea behind the project was that VET schools are in a position to stir a multi-stakeholder process where local authorities, employers, start-ups, teachers and students come together to shape the way entrepreneurship education is embedded in the curriculum and learn from each other in a collaborative way, with valuable impact on the schools, the students, the market and the community as a whole.

https://www.incuvet.eu/#page-top