This deck is a part of an eight-day introductory course that I originally designed for the residents of Inle Lake (Nyang Shwe), Myanmar during my volunteer work with Partnership for Change org. This is a basic introductory course for those who wish to start a businesses but aren't sure where to begin or what would be an effective way to run and operate a company geared for Western customers. This deck is free for anyone to modify and use, but please keep in mind that I do not own copyrights for most of the images on those slides (with some exceptions).

1. Empathy.
See your business from the point of view of your
customer.

2. Review.

3. Calculate business
risks.
Only make informed (researched) decisions.

4. ❶ What is the
competition?
❷ What is the demand?
❸ What are the costs?
❹ What is the ROI?

5. What tools can you use to
research your decisions?

6. Online research tools.
• You can use Google to find most of the
information available on the internet.
• TripAdvisor could give you a good
idea about local travel business
landscape.
• Check out your competitors’ Facebook
pages.
• See what tourists might be posting on
Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest - what
do they enjoy?
• Do you know any other places your
clients and fellow business owners
could have information on? Be in the
know.

7. Don’t forget “real-
world” research.
Pay attention to the news, talk to customers and fellow
business owners. Create and benefit from community.

8. What is
diversification?

10. Be careful with your diversification
strategies.

12. Experiments.
• Try your ideas on small scale
before going big.
• Learn from those test runs
whether it is a good idea.
• Not the same as market
research, your own opinion or
prediction about what would
happen. Experiments are
actually you conducting the
business on a small scale.

13. Measure, individually.

14. Restaurant
Bar
Bakery
Total: $300

15. Restaurant
Bar
Bakery
Total: $300
$-50
$250
$100

16. (Looks can be
deceiving).

17. Things you can measure:
• Income.
• Costs.
• Amount of work required.

19. Track your ventures.
• Tracking (also called
analytics) is recording your
measurements over time.
• Analytics can help you see
patterns in your business that
will help you predict the
future.

20. 0
25
50
75
100
April May June July

21. Feedback is a gift.

22. Collect & synthesize.
• Collect a good sample of
feedback (at least 10 people).
• Sort your feedback based on
opinions and suggestions.
• Think how it could apply to
your business.

23. Applying feedback.
Evaluate each customer
complaint, praise or suggesting:
• Is it feasible to make the
changes?
• Does it align with your
business objectives?
• Learn about your
business from the
customers’ perspective.

24. Replying to online reviews.
• You don’t have to.
• You can correct them if they were clearly wrong. Be polite.
• You can tell them you fixed the problem and offer a small gift.
• If you made a mistake, own up to it. Everyone makes mistakes.
• Keep it short.

25. Today’s topic: empathy.
It’s about understanding the point of view of your
customer.

26. Why do some businesses
fail?

27. The aren’t making their
products for the
customers.

28. Whom should the business
benefit?
• Customers are your biggest
asset and the only source of
income.
• Your business has to focus on
making their lives better.

29. Does “making your customers happy” mean being nice and
smiling all the time?

30. No.
It certainly helps to be nice, but a smile, no matter how
wide, will not persuade anyone to spend real money.

31. Understanding your customer —
— and building your business around helping them
achieve their goals will make them happy.

32. What are some ways you
can understand your
customer?

34. Empathy is a
little different.
But it is a very effective tool
you can use to understand
your customers.

35. Understand their pain.
We build businesses to create solutions for people’s
problems.

36. How do your local
businesses solve their
customer’s problems?

37. Empathy exercises.
• Create a customer story for
your business or product.
• Be your own customer. If you
hate your product, your
customer probably does too.

38. Customer stories.
• As a ___ I want ___.
• These are the things I have to do to get it: ___.
• I have put in ___ effort and ___ money to achieve
my goal.
• I wish ___ so that it would be better for me.

39. Use your own product.
• Eat at your restaurant just like
the customers do, have your
waiter serve you.
• Take your tour and pay for it.
• Travel outside of your city and
come back to stay in your
hotel while being tired.
• Use your own delivery service
and pay full prices; don’t ask
for any “special” treatment.

40. You might find things that your customers never mention in
reviews/feedback and you would have never known yourself
otherwise.

41. Put yourself on the same
level as your customer.
• If your customers are wealthy
foreigners, consider giving yourself
discounts to match the percentage of
their income they have to pay for a
service.
• If they are backpackers, consider their
mentality to save as much as possible.
• If your visitors travel or fly from far,
consider what it’s like to have a jet lag.
• Learn about your customers’ culture
and how it’s different from yours.
• If you can, travel and try to experience
people being nice to you, yet consider
you an outsider.

42. Assignment.
❶ Pick a business/product.
❷ Create a customer story.
❸ Imagine you are using your
own product. What can you do
to have more of an “outsider”
experience?