How to Build a Cash Rich, Innovation-Driven Company

If you registered for the ISSA 2020 Virtual Show, you might have been a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of talks and presentations. I know I was. I didn’t know where to start. This article is intended to act as a taste of the actual presentation. Taking an hour out of your day to watch a video might not sound like a good use of your time as a business owner. So, by the time you read this, you might decide for yourself if you want the full experience. If you weren’t sure if you wanted to attend the virtual show itself, then this article will serve as a way for you to definitively decide. Many of the presentations and products on display will be available until March 31st, 2021.

This on-demand presentation was given by Kedma Ough, VP of Business Coaching. She started off her presentation with ten areas to focus on while marketing in a recession. These ten areas include spending smarter, focusing on current customers, outsmarting your competitors, investing in growing market segments, fighting for your resources, keeping spending on marketing, supporting your supply chain, adjusting pricing strategies, emphasizing core values, and giving back to your community.

Then later on she got into the meat of what her presentation was about. She showed various examples of products that people have made simply by being in their industry and identifying a need. Sometimes a product may seem silly, and you might think there’s no way it could sell. But as Kedma said in her presentation, it’s not what you think, it about what the market segment you’re selling to thinks.

When creating a product, you have to ask yourself four things, according to Kedma.  Does it solve a problem? Do Customers want it? Is it affordable? Does it have market reach?

After talking about this, she went on to product licensing.  This is something Kedma says she specializes in.  he provided a link to a patent search website that she believes is one of the best you can use.  However, she also warns that you shouldn’t do a patent search by yourself and that she offers a service that can help you due to her resources which include lawyers and other experts on patent law.

As well as creating products, Kedma broke down actual data from a cleaning business franchise and showed us how to make the business more efficient and full of cash.

The finances of a cleaning business franchise that Kedma broke down in her presentation.

Of the breakdown, the top takeaways were paying attention to labor costs, cost of goods sold, fixed expenses like leases, and focusing on a strong net profit.

After the financial breakdown, Kedma went into a deep dive on how to find the money for your products.  Sometimes you won’t have extra cash lying around. And that’s okay.  Luckily Kedma goes into great detail about how and where you can find money through investors and grants.

Kedma shares a lot of very useful information, especially for someone who was looking to create a product and raise funds for it. As this article only covers cursory information about the presentation, I recommend checking it out yourself by clicking the link below.