Stop asking a NDA when asking an offer for a market research
We have recently a series of inquiries for market research assignments in Belgium where prospects asked for DNA to be signed before the first meeting. Here is why it makes no sense and why we’ll always refuse to do it. Not sure the info you’re about to reveal is worth an NDA The most common situation is that of would-be entrepreneurs who are sure they have found a 1-billion $ gap in the market. They are...
Do firms go bankrupt more often than before in Belgium?
Two weeks ago we dealt with the previsions of bankruptcies in Europe and more particularly in Belgium. We said that the number of bankruptcies will keep increasing in Belgium to reach 11500 firms’ failures by the end of 2014. This figure should however be compared to firms’ creation figures. This is what we do here. The number of bankruptcies increases … One thing is clear from the graph below, the number of bankruptcies has increased 55% between...
Which perspectives for firms’ bankruptcies in 2014
More than 11000 firms went bankrupt in Belgium in 2013. Will 2014 be as bad as 2013 ? Bankruptcies all-time high in Belgium 11052 bankruptcies and 27912 jobs lost: those are the sad figures of bankruptcies in Belgium for the year 2013. It’s unfortunately an all-time record. Whereas startups still get affected by bankruptcy in their first years (read our post on the truth about startup failures), the Brussels Chamber of Commerce (BECI) also sees...
How to: define your pricing
A question that comes always back from our clients is how to set up the prices of their products (this is less relevant for services). What I’m really astonished about is how some entrepreneurs go candidly about defining their sales price. Two opposed ways but only one valid Take the example of this would-be entrepreneur that want to open a store (it’s a true story). He needs money from the bank and I was challenging him...
The truth about business failure and bankruptcies
There are few topics in the entrepreneurship and SME world of research that are as much discussed as the failure rate of new businesses (what we call generally “startups”). Here’s the truth about it. You all have heard of alarming statistics : 50% of startups die within 2 years or even 1 year, 75% within 7 years, etc … at the same time certain people advocate that these figures are completely false and do not deserve...
Decrypting how startups manage things
If you work in a startup you’ll probably agree with me that there are few processes and procedures in place, that communication and customer relations are rather informal. In other words startups have a more flexible structure that allow them to do things differently –and sometimes more efficiently- than big companies. Entrepreneurship research has long identified those flexible processes. Yet I was lacking a clear definition of the mechanisms used in startups to achieve that flexibility....
What’s hot in entrepreneurial and SME research in 2013 ?
I’m just back from the RENT conference on entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprises. This 27th edition took place this year at the University of Vilnius (Lithuania)a where some 200 researchers fro all over the world gathered to discuss this –hotter than ever- topic. How could entrepreneurship indeed be neglected. With more than 99% of companies in Europe being SME’s and with all the light shed on entrepreneurship by authorities (just think about the European Commission...
The criteria used by banks to give or refuse loans to entrepreneurs
The post we dedicated to our latest experience with banks led to many reactions and –this is also an interesting byproduct- to a peak in terms of visits. We’d like to thank here the readers who retweeted or shared our article on their Facebook wall. Yet, among the many reactions I got, one led me to think deeper about the role of banks. This reaction originated from one of our fellow readers whom I met this...
Crowdfunding: the consequence of banks not financing startups
We have dealt already several times with crowdfunding on this blog. As I explained in a post not so long ago several alternatives exist (in terms of business model). I explained the model of Look&Fin (a relatively –yet with good media exposure- new entrant on the market) and stressed some weaknesses. Yet, despite these weaknesses, I must admit I’m pretty impressed by how well they are doing and the quality of their pick. The ventures they...
Lessons learned on starting up a new store
On Nov 4th 2013 we attended the Grand Opening of Ethnik, a client’s project which became reality after 13 weeks of intensive work. In lower-ranked locations, leverage customer loyalty Ethnik will enjoy an AAA location that we found near the European Commission in Brussels and which was quickly secured to avoid the competition from coming in. Such locations are extremely rare and most of the time a newcomer will not be lucky enough to find one....
Meeting with a great entrepreneur, Alain Milliat
If you wonder what it makes to see his name printed on millions of products, just ask Alain Milliat how he feels. He’s managing the Alain Milliat company which produces 2,5 million bottle of juice per year. Alain is one of the most loyal readers of our blog and one of the very first subscribers. He’s been following us up for years and we have exchanged opinions and debated quit a few times. We finally were...
Positive return for subsidies to innovative SMEs
A recent press release by the European Commission has brought some interesting statistics about the effectiveness of subsidies to SMEs. More specifically the European Commission measured a series of performance indicators in eco-innovation SME which had received funding via the the eco-innovation component of the EU’s Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP). Based on companies funded over the past two years, the study found that recipients saw a 20-fold return on the money received. Every one that...
Is crowdfunding the best option for your savings ?
Several crowdfunding platforms have emerged in the last months in Belgium. One of them (MyFirstCompany), although very promising, already ceased operations earlier this year. The legal problem mentioned on their website seems not to have impeded another platform (Look&Fin) to start collecting money from individuals to fund local SME projects. Look&Fin successfully funded several projects, one of them being a new salespoint for the Mamma Roma chain. Look&Fin proposes several ways to investors for getting their...
Do High-Tech startups deserve so much support? What about Low-Tech firms?
Hi-tech startups receive a great deal of attention in the press and from official authorities; they are sexy, make cool products, are usually launched by talented young guys with excellent engineering / business degrees. The purpose of my post today is to show that the “sexyness” of a project or the intellectual content of it should not make us forget that there are many other firms out there, called Low-Tech companies, that deserve at least the...
BSE Academy: first prize awarded to bugs’ food project
The first prize of the BSE Academy was awarded on 12 June to Brecht Vanhecke and Jasper Peeters for their novel food project. Brecht and Jasper’s project revolves around insects and aims at transforming them into food that can be commercialize in western Europe. Unlike other initiatives that we have seen in the past years, a careful and sound market research was performed that enabled to identify to main customers’ pains. It was recognized during this...
Measuring customer satisfaction: the practices of large corporations and SMEs in review
Customer satisfaction measurement is a much debated topic. In this article we claim that measuring the satisfaction of its customers may not be useful for SMEs. Here’s why. For many firms the measuring their customers’ satisfaction level has become an end in itself which keeps people in the marketing department busy and has generated a whole industry dedicated to software for the design and the administration or satisfaction surveys. Given the low impact of satisfaction on...
Firms’ survival rate in free-trade zones
Eric Raoult, UMP Deputy of Seine-Saint-Denis (a region located north of Paris), submitted a report on free trade zones in July 2011 to the Minister of the City. In this report we learn among other things that the survival rate at 5 years of companies operating in free trade zones is 23.3% (for companies of the “first generation”, i.e. companies created after the first series of bills were passed to created free trade zones. Conditions were...
“42” School: why Xavier Niel’s initiative may fail
Non-French people are likely not to know Xavier Niel. He is however a famous tech entrepreneur, a billionaire and the CEO of Free, the telecom company that has been shaking the grounds of telecom competition landscape for years. Xavier Niel declared a war to the three French telecom operators (SFR, Orange and Bouygues) in 2012 when he launched in January its own mobile phone offer starting as low as 2€/month. One year after starting in the...
50% of the firms created in 2006 have died: all the factors influencing firm’s survival
There is a lot of controversy around survival rate of startups. A survival rate of 25% after 7 years is often mentioned although there’s no evidence around it; other authors speak of a 90% survival rate. The discrepancy is so huge that real actual figures are very valuable. Such figures have been published last week by the French statistical institute INSEE (Link to the original source – in French only). In 2006 a total number of...
An illustration of why you should quickly get back to leads if you want to close deals
To follow up on our post regarding the correlation between speed and the probability of closing deals, here’s the comment of a friend -and customer- of us. In his business Michel sells goods and services for 5-digit prices. And believe me it’s not 10000€. When we discussed the content of our post, Michel told me that it perfectly applies to his business too. He even shared a mathematical model with me and explained: “if I could...
What you need to do to make your clients sign a contract within 24h
If you want to do business and land new customers, time is of the essence. Yet I see that very few entrepreneurs have this culture of responsiveness rooted in their DNA. Here is a story that happened to me last year and another one that happened this year. Example 1: what you should NOT do For one of our customers, I got in touch last year with a potential supplier who happens to share an office...
The secrets of market research: how to avoid pitfalls when creating a new venture. Part 2
In our first article of this series of 3 on market research, we dealt with the methodology of market research and with trends and competition analysis. Today we move to the analysis of demand and will go in depth on qualitative and quantitative research. Demand analysis This analysis aims at qualifying and quantifying the demand for your product or service. In other words your goal should be to “see” whether the market wants, needs your...
“Les Causses”, an example of successful retail concept
Sometimes I feel fortunate. I do a wonderful job, have a lot of wonderful clients, advise a lot of very different businesses. And on top of that I meet inspiring entrepreneurs when going on market research tours. The story of Alexis Roux de Bezieux During our last tour in Paris I met with Alexis Roux de Bezieux who launched “Les Causses” a tiny upscale proximity store selling food and drinks. Alexis was kind enough to give...
What’s new in 2013: more advices for entrepreneurs with a focus on market research and innovation
Looking back over our shoulders Looking back at 2012 we’ve written a lot (like in 2011) but took a pretty long break after the summer. With a sudden increase in workload we had to concentrate on clients’ assignments. This is no excuse though as part of our company’s mission is to collect, analyze and diffuse knowledge. Fortunately enough there were a few events scheduled in the second half of the year that kind of forced us...
Meeting with a genius: Enric Ruiz Geli
Sometimes you meet up with people that can inspire you for the rest of your life. This happened to me when I met Enric Ruiz Geli, the architect of the MEDIA ICT building in Barcelona 2 weeks ago. I’ll not recount Enric’s life here (you can find enough about him on the internet); in a nutshell Enric won in 2011 the award for the world’s best building and he set up the office of his company,...
Sabine Laruelle, Belgian ministry of SMEs, on the importance of entrepreneurship
I was listening on Dec. 13th to an interview of Sabine Laruelle, the Belgian Ministry in charge of SMEs, on a local Belgian radio (Twizz). In a crisis context like the one we are currently going through, it is perfectly understandable that the attention of the States focuses on entrepreneurs. For instance Bruno Wattenbergh, the Managing Director of the Brussels Enterprise Agency, was dealing the other day on RTL with the powerty problems 15% of the...
Impediments in business transfers (#rentconference)
Yvonne Slots and Loek Swelsen presented at the RENT XXV conference in Bodo, Norway, a piece of research on business transfers. Their research was conducted in the region of Parkstad, The Netherlands, at the borders with Germany (Aachen) and Belgium. This region is characterized by an important number of closed businesses, so Yvonne Slots in her introduction. The two researchers at the Hogeschool Zuid studied in particular the bottlenecks in the transfer of soon-to-be-transfered businesses, owned...
Bankruptcies vs. business creations
During my latest weekly session at the Brussels Agency for Enterprises (BEA) I mentioned the record level of bankruptcies in Belgium. Since January 2008 the number of bankruptcies has increased by 35% as readers of this blog may have already read. One of the candidates entrepreneurs objected that the increase number of bankruptcies was the consequence of a proportional increase of firms’ creations. I wanted to verify by myself and search the info on StatBel. To...
New research project: looking for 5 entrepreneurs or marketeers to interview
We’ll be starting a new research project soon and are actively looking for candidates for interviews. The individual interviews will last for ca. 60 to 90 minutes. The topic will be on “customers” in general and the interviews will take place at the Arsenal, in Brussels, where we will settle one day per week with the entrepreneurial community for the coming months. View Larger Map The interviews will be conducted in English, French, German or Dutch...
Cerdan Heritage: a very professional SME
Generally I’m not easily convinced by new businesses and I rarely get enthusiastic about a young SME. Well, I think I must make an exception. I was in Paris this week where I met up with Alban Cordier who co-founded Cerdan Heritage with Nicolas Cerdan, Marcel Cerdan’s grandson. Marcel Cerdan was probably one of the first sportsman (with René Lacoste) to use his name as a brand on clothes. Nicolas discovered this pretty unknown aspect of...
Do you know Archiduchesse
Just like Michel & Augustin (whom I’ll meet in a few weeks), Archiduchesse is also a brand that receives much attention currently thanks to its products, 100% Made in France men socks. Archiduchesse is a pretty good example of a brand which was built entirely on Facebook-generated word-of-mouth (WOM). The owner of the company (Patrice …) applies a participative model and even shares the evolution of his turnover with his fans, followers and customers. It may...
Interview with Marc Alagem, CEO of Freedelity
Freedelity is a company established in Brussels and which got pretty much press coverage this summer. Freedelity launched a service based on the electronic ID card used in Belgium; namely, Freedelity proposes to use the ID card as a loyalty card. Advantages are obvious: no need to loose time filling in a questionnaire, the data being automatically retrieved from the chip on the ID card no need to have a loyalty card for the shops participating...
Why sme’s go bankrupt
Why SME’s go bankrupt is a topic that fosters a lot of myths. I attended last week a workgroup at the University of Liege (Belgium) organized by entrepreneurship researchers from Aachen, Maastricht, Eindhoven, Hasselt (B) and Liege (B). Bankruptcies were discussed based on real, tangible data. The discussions were for some of them pretty technical and academic by nature but one of them deserves to be know from a larger audience. It is the work of...
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