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Page 1 of 16Copyright Inventya Ltd 2007 i2m software solutions available from www.i2mOnline.com

Report automatically generated with Rapid Idea evaluation

Report Contents

Part I: Overview 2 Market 2 Marketing 2 Finance 3 Exploitation 3

Part II: Recommended Actions 4 The Next Step 7

Part III: Detailed Analysis 8 Market 8 Marketing 10 Finance 12 Exploitation 14

Copyright Inventya Ltd 2007 i2m software solutions available from www.i2mOnline.com


Part I: Overview

Thank you for using the Startups Rapid Idea Evaluation.

This report is provided to you by www.startups.co.uk and developed by Inventya, leadingsolution providers for the development of new business ideas.

This Rapid Idea Evaluation report provides an analysis of your ideas commercial potential asit stands today. The aim is to highlight possible areas of improvement so that you can focusyour attention on immediate priorities and create a plan for success.

Well done, your idea appears to be a potential winning business opportunity!

The following graph shows your score in 4 key areas. A green bar means that your idea isstrong in that area. A red bar means that your idea has room for improvement and youshould follow the recommendations given.

The Rapid Evaluation score for your idea is: 70%

Market

This is an analysis of the potential customers for your product or service. To exploit youridea financially, you need a sufficient number of customers to buy your product or service ata price that will give you a suitable profit.

You have scored low in that area, which means that you need to better understand yourpotential customers and whether you will be able to compete. This means some moremarket research.

Marketing



This section looks at how you intend to promote and sell your product or service so that itmeets your customers needs. Your objective should be to maximise your sales.You achieved a good score here. This means that the way in which you intend to make yourproduct or service available to the customer should have a positive impact on your sales.

Finance

Here the potential for your idea to make you money is analysed.

You have a good score here. A high score in this section means that it should be easier toobtain external sources of finance to fund your idea, particularly if you have a high score inthe other areas as well.

Exploitation

This section looks at factors important for the successful commercial development of youridea.

You have scored well for this area. This means that you have some of the key factors inplace for the successful exploitation of your idea, provided that you also score well in otherareas.

You can view the detailed analysis of your idea in Part III: detailed Analysis of this report.



Part II: Recommended Actions

Based upon the answers you provided the following action plan for you and your idea hasbeen created.

The "Recommended Actions" column provides specific advice on each key area you needto address.

The "i2m Tips" column explains how i2m software for new business ideas can help youcomplete each action. Developed by Inventya, i2m - Ideas to Market is an affordablesolution that will save you time, money and effort in researching your idea and turn it into arevenue-generating opportunity.

You can find out more about i2m on www.i2mOnline.com.

The "due by" column will allow you to set a time frame for completion based on yourindividual circumstances.

Recommended Actions: i2m Tips Due by

Action 1: Look at all possibleintellectual property protectionmethods available and determinewhich would be most appropriatefor you idea: i.e. patent, trademark,copyright, design rights, tradesecrets. Evaluate if potential profitjustifies the associated costs ofprotection. You can also consult apatent lawyer and many offer afirst half hour of their time for free.

Tip 1: Use the Protecting YourIdea section to review all possibleforms of intellectual propertyprotection and their associatedcosts. From there you can decidewhich are the most appropriatemethods for you.

Action 2: Think how you couldaccess the core skills that you donot possess personally, but willrequire to exploit your ideasuccessfully. For example, youcan find additional team members,outsource part of these capabilities(e.g. such as through the use of anaccountant/lawyer/web developer),or get training to increase yourown range of expertise.

Tip 2: The short tests in the Teamsection will be instrumental inhelping you understand what youand the members of your team caneach personally bring to thedevelopment of this idea.




Action 3: Conduct thoroughresearch to prove that customerswould buy your idea (in product orservice form) and that it can makeyou money.

Tip 3: The whole i2m processhelps you to conduct the essentialresearch required to determine thepotential of your idea. The Make itHappen section will give you awealth of resources to take youridea to the next stage.

Action 4: Identify some simplerproduction alternatives that wouldreduce costs while not resulting insignificant changes to the idea. Forexample consider alternativemanufacturing techniques,technologies or alternativemanufacturing locations (such asEastern Europe or China). If notpossible, it might be necessary tocarefully rethink about the idea.

Tip 4: The Finance section fullyexplains how you can calculate thecosts of making your product orservice. Only once you know thesecosts can you begin to negotiatewith the suppliers, organisations,manufacturers or developers whowill contribute to it production.

Action 5: Think about how youcould reduce your costs andincrease your price to make youridea become financially profitablemore rapidly (but without losingpotential customers!).

Tip 5: The Finance section in i2mprovide you with tools toautomatically visualise howchanges in your costs and priceaffect the time by which your ideabecomes profitable.

Action 6: Outline clearly what youneed to spend money on(expenditure) and how you thinkyou may make this money backand by when (income). This willprovide you with the basis fordeveloping detailed financialprojections and cash flowstatements. Then write acompelling business propositionpresenting your opportunity andhow you intend to make it asuccessful business.

Tip 6: Use the Finance section toquickly create realistic forecasts ofyour expenses and expectedrevenue and determine when youwill start making money. TheBusiness Proposition section willhelp you to summarise all yourresearch to date with a compellingproposition to would be investors.

Action 7: Think how you couldobtain more regular revenue fromthe same customers: e.g. create ayearly licence or membership orsell complementary or additionalproducts.

Tip 7: Use the quick, simple buteffective tools in the Financesection to analyse and maximisethe revenue you can get from yourproduct or service.




Action 8: Determine if there areadditional cost effective ways ofselling your product or service: e.g.using a distributor, throughretailers.

Tip 8: Use the ReachingCustomers section to identify allthe possible options for selling toyour customers and, based on keyguidance determine which are themost appropriate for you.

Action 9: Make a list of all thebenefits that are unique to youridea. Can they be incorporatedinto one sentence to describe theidea to potential customers (yourUnique Selling Proposition orUSP)?

Tip 9: Use the techniques in theDefining the Offer section todetermine the unique benefits ofyour product or service. Then usethe guidance provided to create aconcise Unique Selling Propositionthat will communicate thesebenefits clearly and with authority,to your customers

Action 10: You must identify howyou could prevent competitorsfrom copying your idea. Examplesmay be. a strong brand that peoplecan recognise; unique pricing;continuous improvements andinnovations to you offering to keepahead; or legal protection such asa patent.

Tip 10: Use the Defining the Offersection to identify the best strategyto adopt to keep your customerslong term

Action 11: Research yourcompetition and determine thesimilarities and differencesbetween what you offer and whatthey offer. Develop your offeringaround your strengths and theirweaknesses.

Tip 11: Use the Competitorssection to find your competitors,understand how much of a threatthey are to you and devise ways ofbeating them!

Action 12: Carry out marketresearch (via the internet or betterstill speaking to relevant people) toidentify who your customers areand what would make them buyyour product or service. Youshould aim at better understandinghow they currently deal with theproblem that your idea solves andhow much money they currentlyspend to do this.

Tip 12: Use the Customers Needssection to guide you to essentialinformation sources that will helpyou understand why customerswould buy your product or service.The Speaking to Customerssection provides professionaltemplates to help you collectspecific data about your customersby speaking to them directly.



The Next Step

Now that you have identified the strengths and weaknesses of your idea, you should focuson addressing possible problems to turn your concept into a profitable business opportunity.

1. The first thing you should do is review the detailed analysis of your idea to fullyunderstand the recommendations given.

2. Once you have put a due date for each of the action in your plan, you can startworking towards their implementation.

3. Whether you use i2m software or not to implement the actions, your objective shouldbe to carry out the necessary research to ensure that you have a viable business conceptbefore you decide to start your business or create your product.

4. www.i2mOnline.com provides a range of FREE resources from start-up businessspecialists in key areas - make sure you use them!

5. Finally, having completed your key actions, we advise that you run the Rapid IdeaEvaluation again to see how you have progressed.

GOOD LUCK!

Dont forget to keep visiting www.startups.co.uk for new and existing resources tohelp with your ideas!



Part III: Detailed Analysis

Market

Score: 55%

Q1 Generally how many customers do you think could use your product or service?

You answered: Large number

You have the opportunity to sell to a large number of potential customers. If you have an offering that people are prepared to buy your chances of success are verygood. You are likely to have potential for growth and is therefore more likely to interest investorstoo, who you may need to reach all these customers.

Q2 What would best describe the customers' need for your product or service?

You answered: Customer has not recognised the need for your product or service

Selling a solution to a problem not known to customers can be extremely difficult becauseyou need to educate your potential customers about why they need your product or service. Creating a need can be very costly and time consuming. Market research enables you to establish the needs of potential customers and increase thelikelihood that they will buy your product or service.

Suggested Action:Carry out market research (via the internet or better still speaking to relevant people) toidentify who your customers are and what would make them buy your product or service.You should aim at better understanding how they currently deal with the problem that youridea solves and how much money they currently spend to do this.



i2m tip: Use the Customers Needs section to guide you to essential information sourcesthat will help you understand why customers would buy your product or service. TheSpeaking to Customers section provides professional templates to help you collect specificdata about your customers by speaking to them directly.

Q3 Approximately how many competitors do you have?

You answered: Very low level of competition (e.g. less than 3) However, you need to constantly monitor competitors and anticipate how likely they are toreact to what you do. Competitors can create various barriers to stop you from selling to customers includingblocking you from ways of reaching your customers (called distribution channels), increasingtheir advertising or developing very similar offerings to yours that would greatly reduce yourchances of selling. The reaction of competitors will depend on how big a threat you are to them.

Suggested Action:Research your competition and determine the similarities and differences between what youoffer and what they offer. Develop your offering around your strengths and their weaknesses.

i2m tip: Use the Competitors section to find your competitors, understand how much of athreat they are to you and devise ways of beating them!

Q4 How can you stop competitors from developing similar ideas to your own andtaking customers from you?

You answered: Cannot stop them

You cannot stop competitors, which means that both existing ones and new ones can easilytake customers from you, especially if they have a larger promotion budget than yours.

Suggested Action:You must identify how you could prevent competitors from copying your idea. Examples maybe. a strong brand that people can recognise; unique pricing; continuous improvements andinnovations to you offering to keep ahead; or legal protection such as a patent.

i2m tip: Use the Defining the Offer section to identify the best strategy to adopt to keep yourcustomers long term



Marketing

Score: 80%

Q5 Will your idea lead to additional opportunities to sell to your customers?

You answered: Four additional opportunities or more

Your idea could lead to at least four additional opportunities, which means that there is goodpotential for growth and development a range of products or service for long term success.

Q6 How many unique benefits does your product or service provide compared tosimilar solutions?

You answered: Four or more unique benefits

You have at least four unique advantages over the competition. This should allow you to develop a strong, distinctive and attractive offer to customers. People will buy only if they can clearly see the benefits offered compared to other product orservices.

Suggested Action:Make a list of all the benefits that are unique to your idea. Can they be incorporated into onesentence to describe the idea to potential customers (your Unique Selling Proposition orUSP)?

i2m tip: Use the techniques in the Defining the Offer section to determine the uniquebenefits of your product or service. Then use the guidance provided to create a conciseUnique Selling Proposition that will communicate these benefits clearly and with authority, toyour customers



Q7 How are you going to sell your product or service to potential customers?

You answered: Online via the Internet

This has the advantage of being relatively cheap and fast to implement. However, you may miss opportunities since not everyone buys online. Aim at making your product or service available to customers in the most cost effective wayfor you. Having a varied number of distribution channels may help you maximise your sales, reducerisks, and increase the number of customers you can target while being cost effective.

Suggested Action:Determine if there are additional cost effective ways of selling your product or service: e.g.using a distributor, through retailers.

i2m tip: Use the Reaching Customers section to identify all the possible options for selling toyour customers and, based on key guidance determine which are the most appropriate foryou.

Q8 How frequently will customers make "repeat purchases" of your product orservice?

You answered: Sometimes

You can rarely receive additional revenue for your product or service from the samecustomer. You will need to spend a great deal of effort and money to win new customers. The more you can sell to the same customer, the more cost effective it will be and the moreprofitable your business will be. Aim at gaining a customer once and keep selling to him/her to make a long term profit.

Suggested Action:Think how you could obtain more regular revenue from the same customers: e.g. create ayearly licence or membership or sell complementary or additional products.

i2m tip: Use the quick, simple but effective tools in the Finance section to analyse andmaximise the revenue you can get from your product or service.



Finance

Score: 75%

Q9 How much money do you need before your idea becomes profitable?

You answered: Less than 10,000 or personal finance

Your personal savings or that of friends or family may be enough to finance your idea.Alternatively the amount needed may not be too difficult to raise from banks, grants or earlystage investment funds. Providing the funds yourself will save significant time in developing and commercialisingyour idea and will ultimately reduce your risk. Remember also to keep money back as a contingency solution and to cover any potentiallosses.

Suggested Action:Outline clearly what you need to spend money on (expenditure) and how you think you maymake this money back and by when (income). This will provide you with the basis fordeveloping detailed financial projections and cash flow statements. Then write a compellingbusiness proposition presenting your opportunity and how you intend to make it a successfulbusiness.

i2m tip: Use the Finance section to quickly create realistic forecasts of your expenses andexpected revenue and determine when you will start making money. The BusinessProposition section will help you to summarise all your research to date with a compellingproposition to would be investors.

Q10 When do you expect your idea/business to be profitable?



You answered: Between 1 to 2 years

This can be a long time without making money from your idea, even if you have securedinvestment The longer it takes for your idea to be profitable, the higher the risks are. You need to thinkif the risks are acceptable to you. To reduce this time, you can either increase your price; lower your costs or both. However,if your price becomes too high, you may lose some potential customers.

Suggested Action:Think about how you could reduce your costs and increase your price to make your ideabecome financially profitable more rapidly (but without losing potential customers!).

i2m tip: The Finance section in i2m provide you with tools to automatically visualise howchanges in your costs and price affect the time by which your idea becomes profitable.

Q11 How easily can your product or service be produced?

You answered: Some limits in how easy and cheap it is to produce

This may affect its feasibility as it will require more time, resources and this will generallylower the profit margins you may expect to make.

Suggested Action:Identify some simpler production alternatives that would reduce costs while not resulting insignificant changes to the idea. For example consider alternative manufacturing techniques,technologies or alternative manufacturing locations (such as Eastern Europe or China). If notpossible, it might be necessary to carefully rethink about the idea.

i2m tip: The Finance section fully explains how you can calculate the costs of making yourproduct or service. Only once you know these costs can you begin to negotiate with thesuppliers, organisations, manufacturers or developers who will contribute to it production.

Q12 Having deducted your costs what "margin" can you make on your product orservice?

You answered: High margin

You are in a good position and this should also give you more flexibility on the number ofunits sold.



Exploitation

Score: 70%

Q13 How advanced are you with the development of your idea?

You answered: Working on its development

When developing your idea, you must ensure that you are developing a product or servicethat customers will buy. This will avoid costly redevelopments. It is also essential that you determine if you have sufficient cash to carry out thedevelopment. Remember, that the sooner that you finish development the sooner you can make money.Your idea will never be perfect in your eyes do not miss the opportunity.

Suggested Action:Conduct thorough research to prove that customers would buy your idea (in product orservice form) and that it can make you money.

i2m tip: The whole i2m process helps you to conduct the essential research required todetermine the potential of your idea. The Make it Happen section will give you a wealth ofresources to take your idea to the next stage.

Q14 Which of the following capabilities do you or your team hold: leadership, finance,sales, marketing, operations and depending on your idea, technical and/or specialistknowledge?

You answered: 3 of the above capabilities



You are still lacking important capabilities required to successfully exploit your businessidea. The more capabilities you or your team have, the greater your chances of success becauseit is people who make things happen.

Suggested Action:Think how you could access the core skills that you do not possess personally, but willrequire to exploit your idea successfully. For example, you can find additional teammembers, outsource part of these capabilities (e.g. such as through the use of anaccountant/lawyer/web developer), or get training to increase your own range of expertise.

i2m tip: The short tests in the Team section will be instrumental in helping you understandwhat you and the members of your team can each personally bring to the development ofthis idea.

Q15 How do you intend to protect your idea (i.e. your Intellectual Property or IP)?You answered: Copyright, trademark, design rights or trade secrets

Copyright, trademark, design rights or trade secrets offer a basic level of protection and youmay benefit from additional intellectual property protection. Protection is required in order to prevent unwanted exploitation of your idea by others. However, certain forms of protection, such as patents can be very expensive. You musttherefore balance the level of protection possible with the cost associated. If you find that thecosts associated are too high compared with how much money you can make from the idea,a lower level of protection may be sufficient.

Suggested Action:Look at all possible intellectual property protection methods available and determine whichwould be most appropriate for you idea: i.e. patent, trademark, copyright, design rights, tradesecrets. Evaluate if potential profit justifies the associated costs of protection. You can alsoconsult a patent lawyer and many offer a first half hour of their time for free.

i2m tip: Use the Protecting Your Idea section to review all possible forms of intellectualproperty protection and their associated costs. From there you can decide which are themost appropriate methods for you.

Q16 How may legislation impact on the development or commercialisation of yourproduct or service?

You answered: No legal problem in any countries

You should be able to sell your product or service in any countries easily.



For more information about Inventya Ltd, please visit www.inventya.com.

Tel: +44 (0) 845 055 9844Fax: +44 (0) 192 560 7398Email: [email protected]

Inventya Limited, Daresbury Innovation Centre, Keckwick Lane, Daresbury, Cheshire WA4 4FS RegisteredOffice: 1st Floor Charlotte House, Charlotte Street, Manchester, M1 4EX Incorporated in England and WalesCompany registration number: 05820717 VAT Registration number: 892 3007 26

Disclaimer:

Inventya Ltd (of 1st Floor Charlotte House, Charlotte Street, Manchester, M1 4EX Incorporated in England and Wales - Companyregistration number: 05820717 VAT Registration number: 892 3007 26) has done its utmost to ensure that the information contained in thisreport is correct and up to date, however the information may be incorrect, incomplete or out of date. You should not rely on thisinformation and should contact the correct authorised representative of Inventya Ltd or of individual organisations before acting on suchinformation.

No warranty whether express or implied as to completeness, accuracy, fitness for purpose, satisfactory quality or infringement ofintellectual property rights referred to in the information contained in this report is given by Inventya Ltd or by any other organisation whosedetails or information appear here.

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