One of the core things we need to know in business is demand and supply. That can best summarise what happens in the marketplace anywhere in the world. Whatever the business you are in, the law of demand and supply always applies.
On its rudimentary level, supply is how much the producers of a product or service are willing to produce and can provide to the market with a limited amount of resources available.
Demand on the other hand is how much of that product, item, commodity, or service consumers are willing and able to purchase at a particular price.
Scarcity and supply go hand in hand, and so is demand and supply. Put in another way, anywhere there is scarcity, there’s a supply need.
The market demand is a set of actual or potential customers, who have a common set of needs or wants. Whatever is scarce is a sign that there is a market need, and people are usually willing to place a higher demand (or value) on it.
And value is about providing answers where they are market questions and frictions posing as needs.
The market demand is a sign that market need exists. And the simplest way to create demand is to look at what needs fixing, changing, or solving.
It’s difficult to supply what the market does not want and remain in business. When we supply what the market does not want, we run out of business fast!
You must understand this fundamental principle necessary to scale any business, and that is: are you addressing a real and deeply felt need or the elimination of specific problems?
Who will buy your solution is as important as the solution you have created? What impact will your solution have on the customer? Every other thing springs from there.
If there is no market for your product or services, you have no business. And if your impact in the market is negligible, so will the demand from the market.
Whenever the demand for your solution is small, so will be what you will supply to the market.
There is no point in selling a product or service unless you know there is a market for it. Great enterprises are particularly good at finding gaps in the market. They understand the needs of the customer and work to address the need.
You cannot deliver value without it being accepted in the market. In other words, whatever value you are creating or have created is meaningless without a customer who needs, wants, desires, and, ultimately, determines the final value of your creation.
Whether you call them your customers, your market segments, or your audience, they provide the necessary context paramount in effective business growth. You can’t create a sustainable business with low market demand.
Is there a need in the market for the products or services you rendering? More so, what unmet needs, or poorly met needs, do you see in the marketplace?
This is how I summarised it in my book, Business Sense: Find a hole and fill it…Find a thirst and quench it…Find an itch and scratch it…Find a need and meet it… Find a want and satisfy it…Find a hurt and heal it…Find a question and answer it…That best captures the pulse of this article! So, if there is the right demand in the market, then unending supply will follow.
About the author:
Tony Ajah is a Business Growth Strategist, and the author of BUSINESS SENSE, and ON BECOMING AN ENTREPRENEUR.
He maintains a personal blog, www.tonyajah.com where he shares proven business ideas and principles for SMEs.
