Category: Entrepreneurship

Biomedical engineering is vital for the effective functioning of modern hospitals and healthcare centers. Biomedical engineers design, maintain, and operate the machines and devices necessary to test, identify, and treat disease; without them, doctors would hardly be more effective at eliminating illness than they were a few centuries ago.

Yet, health tech isn’t an altruistic field determined to fund the best solutions and administer them fairly to every medical facility. Rather, endeavors to improve health tech begin and proliferate like all other tech startups in Silicon Valley: with idea pitches, venture capitalist backing, aggressive marketing, and ultimate wealth. Thus, ambitious biomedical engineers would be wise to learn the basics of entrepreneurship — and vice versa.

Fortunately, there is plenty of innovation in biomedical engineering to go around. Here’s how entrepreneurs and biomedical engineers can create profitable businesses in the field of health tech:

Understand Biomedical Engineering

It’s not impossible, but it is extremely difficult to start a business in a field you are unfamiliar with. Before you take any serious steps into starting a biomedical engineering business, you should be certain that you understand the details of biomedical engineering, both so you can appropriately guide your enterprise in the right directions and so you can appropriately predict the needs of your staff.

It is possible to study biomedical engineering online. Enrolling in an advanced program over the internet will provide you with the necessary exposure to the field without dramatically impacting your day-to-day responsibilities and schedule. Plus, such online courses typically train engineers for management positions, which is ideal for an aspiring entrepreneur. Because engineers are unique employees that require specific care and attention, obtaining a master degree that provides such unique training is advantageous before you launch your biomedical engineering business.

Develop a Business Plan

Ultimately, a biomedical engineering business is like any other business. Thus, to be successful like any other business, you need a plan.

A proper business plan isn’t a throwaway document used to woo investors; it is a comprehensive strategic resource that is integral to business success. You can learn the intricacies of building business plans through further education, perhaps in business administration, but if you utilize business plan software, the work is much less strenuous. Your plan should consist of seven elements:

• Executive summary. This is the elevator pitch which distills the important aspects of your business into easily digestible language. It must include your business’s value proposition.
• Business description. This will describe in detail what your business does. It should include your mission statement and goals as well as the structure of your business.
• Market analysis. This is an evaluation of your competition and your customers. It requires significant research, and it will help you make strategic decisions about your business and products.
• Organization and management. This is a showcase of your top talent. You should explain how and why you chose your management team. Additionally, you should explain your business structure.
• Sales strategies. This is where you establish your funding practices and your profit models. This should be a detailed section covering everything from price point motivation to web marketing strategy.
• Funding requirements. This will tell prospective investors how much you need to get started. You should be realistic and specific; undercutting yourself will set your business up for failure.
• Financial projections. Finally, you should summarize your current successes and predict your successes in the future. This should be based on accurate information and realistic forecasting.

Be Aware of Competitors

Biomedical engineering works toward the health and well-being of the population — but make no mistake, it is a cutthroat industry. If you skip the rest of business planning (but you shouldn’t) you should at least put significant time and effort into the third section, market research. To ensure your success, you should become an expert on your competitors; you should know what devices they specialize in, what their audience is, what their marketing strategy looks like, what their price points are, and more. For every competitor, you should compile a list of strengths and weaknesses, which you can use to carve out your own space in biomedical engineering.

During this process, it is wise to become gain the trust and support of true biomedical engineering experts. Especially if you lack thorough experience in the field, it is invaluable to have a network of experts providing advice and guidance. Ideally, these experts won’t be in direct competition with your budding business; instead, you should seek alliances with biomedical engineers across the country. Then, you won’t have to cut your mentor’s throat when your business gets big.

We all have that desire that makes us want to be entrepreneurs. The idea of having a crappy boss breathing down your neck is just not right. However, becoming successful at entrepreneurship takes more than just desire and sheer luck; it takes resilient, persistence, hard work, pain and sweat: And that is just to get you started. We will discuss few secrets that are vital if you are to become a successful entrepreneur.

Define What Success Is

Don’t get me wrong, but success has a different meaning to different people. To some success is just tons of money, to others it is having an empire, while to others it is giving back to society, and others is going on business trips. Whatever success it is to you, you have to define it and work towards it. You might amass a lot of wealth in your business, but if your definition of success is not wealth, then you will not feel satisfied or have the feeling of accomplishment.

Brace Yourself for Change

Being an entrepreneur means taking all the risks, well you will encounter things down the line that will shake you down right in the middle. You have to be prepared to take the challenges as they come. For instance, your competition might roll out a better version of the product you are selling. You need to know how to adapt to the change and how to plan and implement a comeback. You have to distinguish yourself from your competition by building your brand loyalty. Your customers are your most valuable asset, let them know why you standout by knowing how to adapt to change. 

Set Attainable Goals

The problem with most entrepreneurs is that they fail to set realistic goals. They set goals too high, and when they fail to attain them, they beat themselves up over it. Learn how to set short-term and long-term goals. When doing so, you have to remember what your definition of success it, your goals will depend on it. Set timelines that are rational six months to three years for short time goals and five years to 15 years for long-term goals. The 80:20 rule come to play when you are setting goals; 80% of your success will come from 20% of your actions. So spend quality time on what matters, and it will reward you.

Build a Team

You have to accept the fact that you cannot do it alone. You will need to have a team with a different set of skills as you. The team will complement what you lack and make your business run smoothly. Your team has to have the same mindset as you, and they have to believe in your philosophy, you will have to make them believe in you. Your team should share your ideas and your mantra; they will be the cogs in your machine (business), and it has to work to succeed. You must motivate them when they feel demoralized, remind them why you are doing what it is that you do.

Use Technology

You must have realized that everything today relies on technology. It is the new trend; you do not want to have a business that is going against the grain. To remain relevant, you will have to harness the power that technology offers to solve problems. Use social media for marketing it is a powerful tool that will position your business and reach your customer base. If you are old-school and you have little knowledge of the new technological advances, hire someone who will fill in the gap. Part of being an entrepreneur is in knowing your limitations as well as your strengths and acting upon them.

Becoming a successful entrepreneur is no simple fete; you will have to have what it takes. Most people fail because they do not know the secret. Lucky for you, these five tips should guide you through. However, do not limit yourself to the five tips, discover more and success will be yours.

Article Contributed by Kara Masterson

Planning to take that crucial first step towards becoming a new business owner? If you build your business properly, there’s no limit to how successful you could be. It’s unlikely that you’re going to “get rich quick,” but if you’re willing to put in the work and you know what you’re doing, it’s certainly possible to create the business of your dreams.

When you’re a budding entrepreneur, knowledge is power. It’s important to learn from both the successes and failures of previous business owners. Here are four pointers to get you started on the right track.

Find Your Unique Selling Proposition

Your unique selling proposition (USP) is how you differentiate your business from its competition. If you don’t have one, why would a customer choose you over all their other options?

Think about what you can offer to your customers that your competition doesn’t have. Maybe that’s a special product feature – M&M’s set themselves apart by using a hard sugar coating to prevent their chocolates from melting. Or it could be your pricing – Southwest Airlines did this by offering no fees on your first two checked bags at a time when all other airlines were going the opposite direction.

Take Your Time Putting Together Your Business Plan

Too many entrepreneurs are in a rush to get their businesses launched and spend minimal time on their business plans as a result. Then, they waste time and money on issues that could have been avoided with proper planning.

Your business plan should include your USP, your startup costs, your target market, your profitability estimates and your plans for the early stages of the business. You should spend at least a day putting this together, and you may want to spend a week putting it together and revising it.

Surround Yourself with the Right People

There’s a saying that you are the average of the five or six people you surround yourself with the most. If those people are ambitious and have positive mindsets, they will likely help you succeed. If they’re lazy and negative, they’ll only hold you back from achieving your dreams.

It’s especially important to find the right people in terms of business partners and employees. You want people who are just as driven as you are and who you can trust. When you’re launching a business, you also need to find people who have versatile skillsets and can fulfill many different roles.

Hone in on Your Target Market

Just like you need to know what your business offers that’s unique, you also need to know who exactly you’re targeting with your products or services. The more you narrow this down, the better, because it makes your marketing easier. You wouldn’t use the same marketing methods on teenagers that you would on senior citizens, which is why you need a precise target market.

An example of a target market that would be far too broad is “women ages 18 to 45.” You’d want to narrow that down to something like “women ages 24 to 32 with a bachelor’s degree or higher and annual income of $60,000 to $100,000,” which will give you a more specific profile to use as the focus of your marketing efforts.

You shouldn’t be afraid to make mistakes when it comes to starting a business, but you shouldn’t be eager to make them, either. Remember that even large and successful companies with a history of good customer service can have their names dragged through the mud, like during the supposed ACN scam, so a little adversity is to be expected. When you keep these four pointers in mind as you start your business, you can avoid some of the most common mistakes and have a far better chance at success.

Article Contributed by Aloukik Rathore,

Before talking about how to succeed really, I need to speak a bit about failure and its outcomes. In the Business Industry, failure is often praised, especially when you fail fast. One thing that our elders have teaching for centuries is that you learn from your mistakes.

Amusingly, most of the pioneers in the Silicon Valley with their successful businesses had no real history in the market and very less or negligible experience. Indeed, the ignorance of the potential pitfalls seemed to be the catalyst and what enabled them towards success. As well all know that Success isn’t a good teacher, it’s the failure that makes you humble.

Keeping that mind, here are some of the best tips for my fellow hustlers and entrepreneurs that would help you towards the road of success.

1. People are more prominent than strategy.

One simple way towards being successful is surrounding you with the people who are talented and like-minded. If you constantly are in the company of such people, chances are you’ll end up with great ideas together that will work for sure. If you are initiating with an idea and then try and find the required skills, chances are you’ll be putting a square peg in a round hole at the end.

2. Be the Customer and know what he wants.

All the MBAs and Business schools preach about the importance of listening to customers. That’s great if you know what to look for. Most of the times, customers don’t know what they need but can easily describe what they want or what they hate. You can simply sell a product if the masses don’t demand it. Whatever business you are in, it is steered by the ability to know what people want and not what they say they want.

3. Know about the size of your Market.

During my pitching and hustling times, most of the time when I was encountered by the VCs for investments, the first question that popped was to get the intel about the forecast of the potential market. Dominating a subtle market may take ten times the effort. Work out how big your opportunity is and what piece of that market you think you could own.

Most of the grooming and beauty startups initially target a particular kind of audience and knowing their potential growth, they expand, even to the different niche products as well. Remarkably, it works most of the time because of the investment in the market research.

4. It’s all about the Timing.

You can never sell an umbrella on a bright shiny day. One of the most crucial reasons businesses succeeds or fail decided by their timing. Entering the market at the right place and at the right time matters a lot. All of which leads to my first point about not fearing the failure in life because you don’t always know until you try. Before there was a Facebook, there were numerous other social media platforms. Anyone remember Orkut? It was quite big in its time. Then Facebook came, and the rest is history. Facebook didn’t create a dramatically better a social media as it was all the same, but Mark did create it at the right time.

5. Growth should be your Power.

We have all wondered that what we’ll do if we win any lottery. When initiating your idea into a startup or business, you need to think about what happens if it rises exponentially. How will you ascend? Who would you hire? Would you franchise the business in other cities as well? There’s a saying that if you are trying to build the plane while flying it, don’t be astounded if you crash.

All in All, never stop innovating. If you’re nourishing in the right culture and you are hiring amazing people, and consistently putting yourself in your customer’s shoes, then as an entrepreneur you’ve built a company that should endure. I am raising this last point because I believe as a company, you have two choices: either you innovate, or you die. It’s that much simple.

Author – Aloukik Rathore, Content Marketer and a Hustler

Email – aloukik.r@gmail.com

Here’s the thing about sustainability that developing entrepreneurs need to keep in mind: Some of today’s most successful entrepreneurial brands achieved their size and reputation by weaving planet-friendly policies, practices and initiatives into the very fabric of their businesses.

Take Elon Musk, who has dedicated himself to leveraging technology to make the world a better and more environmentally healthy place. With Tesla Motors, he’s made electric cars cool and mainstream, even as he takes a deep dive into other commercial initiatives to vertically integrate clean energy.  Or Patagonia’s founder Yvon Chouinard, who pioneered the idea and practical application of “circular economy,” as opposed to the linear economy standard – “make, use and dispose.”

However, entrepreneurs don’t have to cause green revolutions to reap the benefits of an environmentally friendly orientation.

One route to success is by integrating sustainable practices into the way business is done. It’s becoming the new norm in real estate development, for example, where entrepreneurs can strive to create buildings that meet such sustainability metrics as GRESB, or the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark. Others, like Toronto’s Mizrahi Developments, have demonstrated their commitment to green standards by including Energy Star technology in their developments and earning GreenHouse Certification.

Other entrepreneurs adopt a green focus that’s reflected in their operations. A sustainable model can improve profits and reduce costs by reducing waste and recycling. Making a practice of acquiring energy-efficient equipment can also yield returns in terms of overall business performance.

Consider the benefits to an entrepreneur of an emphasis on sustainability:

• A burnished brand. Increasingly, people base their decisions to purchase goods and services on a company’s sustainability practices and overall impact on the environment. A strong brand creates lifetime customers. It’s also an important competitive differentiator. It’s something that can solidly carry an entrepreneurial business into the future.
• An attractive posture for recruiting and retaining employees. Younger generations, especially, have been raised on a pretty steady diet of messages promoting environmental protection. They not only want to buy from sustainable companies, but want to work for those that walk the talk. Your sustainability practices will ensure people who share your values will want to work for you.
• Better productivity and reduced costs. Sustainable business operations create greater efficiencies. This streamlining conserves resources by reducing waste, which improves employee productivity. Ultimately, costs go down.
• Easier compliance with government regulations. Climate change, dwindling energy resource and a jeopardized environment are all in the sights of government regulators. Taking a proactive stance on your organization’s role in countering such impacts will put it in a better position to respond in a timely manner.
• Happy investors and shareholders. Ultimately, sustainable companies do better overall. Various studies have shown that high-sustainability businesses substantially outperform low-sustainability companies as well as the market in the medium and long terms.

Making sustainability and environmentally friendly practices a building block of an entrepreneurial business can be a challenge. Early stage companies, in particular, tend to cope with issues like a small customer base and high operating costs that can inhibit investment in a sustainability strategy. Those that can overcome such barriers, though, will make substantial contributions toward the greening of economic development.