For small businesses looking for advice, the Internet provides an ideal consultant: the consumer.
All sorts of start-ups and small companies are using the Internet to involve customers in decisions on everything from what to sell, how products look and work, how much they cost, and even how the company operates, like what hours a store should be open or how its floor space should be laid out.
For business owners who are short on cash and have little margin for error, there are two big advantages to using consumers as advisers: They’re cheaper than the professional consultants that bigger companies routinely employ. And the end result is likely to appeal to customers because they were involved in creating it, says Ken Zolot, a senior fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City, Mo., nonprofit that promotes entrepreneurship.
“Your customers might be better at designing your product than your elite team of product designers, who might be hiding in an ivory tower somewhere,” says Mr. Zolot. Consumers often will provide input out of sheer passion or in return for the chance to win cash prizes or other incentives, he adds.
This approach can have drawbacks, entrepreneurship experts say. There’s the risk that the crowd that provides input isn’t representative of the people who might buy the product later on. And innovation may suffer.
Photo by vierdrie.