What do you do if you're laid off and want to start your own business using creative strategy?

1 Assess your situation

Before you jump into any business idea, you need to assess your current situation and determine your goals, resources, and constraints. How much time, money, and energy do you have to invest in your business? What are your skills, strengths, and passions? What are the problems or needs that you can solve or fulfill with your business? How will you measure your success and progress? Answering these questions will help you narrow down your focus and identify your value proposition.

3 Design your solution

After you have validated your idea and understood your market, you need to design your solution and test it with your potential customers. How will you deliver your product or service to your customers? What are the features, benefits, and costs of your solution? How will you communicate your value proposition and persuade your customers to buy from you? What are the risks, challenges, and assumptions involved in your solution? Creating prototypes, mockups, landing pages, or minimum viable products will help you test your solution and iterate based on the results.

4 Plan your execution

Once you have tested your solution and validated your product-market fit, you need to plan your execution and launch your business. How will you finance, produce, and distribute your solution? What are the legal, regulatory, and ethical aspects of your business? How will you manage your operations, team, and partners? What are the milestones, tasks, and resources needed to achieve your goals? How will you monitor, measure, and improve your performance and customer satisfaction? Developing a business plan, a budget, and a roadmap will help you execute your strategy and launch your business.

5 Grow your audience

After you have launched your business and acquired your first customers, you need to grow your audience and scale your business. How will you reach, attract, and retain more customers? What are the channels, platforms, and tools that you will use to market your business? How will you create and distribute valuable content that educates, entertains, and engages your audience? How will you build trust, credibility, and loyalty with your customers? How will you leverage referrals, testimonials, and reviews to grow your word-of-mouth? Implementing a marketing plan, a content strategy, and a customer relationship management system will help you grow your audience and scale your business.

6 Innovate your offer

As you grow your business and face more competition, you need to innovate your offer and stay ahead of the curve. How will you keep up with the changing needs, preferences, and behaviors of your customers? How will you anticipate and respond to the emerging trends, opportunities, and threats in your industry or niche? How will you improve, expand, or diversify your product or service portfolio? How will you create more value and delight for your customers? How will you foster a culture of innovation and creativity in your business? Applying design thinking, brainstorming, and experimentation techniques will help you innovate your offer and stay ahead of the curve.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?