There are so many industries that are flourishing today, but we’d say the most promising area is anything connected with the IoT — the Internet of Things. Why? Because IoT is taking over more and more areas of our lives, starting from the simple act of connecting your phone to your TV set. For this reason, let’s take a look at:
- how other industries are changing with IoT
- how to make the basic plan for your start-up, and
- how exactly you’d be making profit.
Read more about it down below!
IoT and Future Trends
According to International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates, we can count on 41.6 billion connected IoT devices. Here is what trends we can expect based on the incredible amount of shared data:
- Artificial intelligence (AI) will be even more employed, especially in detecting and deterring security issues. AI will also help users solve their tech problems. In manufacture, management work will be automated too.
- Blockchain will replace the middlemen and secure the transactions even more as there is no way (for now) to meddle with the records. It’s been used by governments and entrepreneurs alike.
- Smart homes will become smarter, i.e. it will be possible to adjust even more devices to every person living in the home.
- Better data analytics for companies, and for ordinary people. This is connected to the previous one. The more data we upload, the easier it is for our needs to be recognized. Similarly, companies will be able to predict their clients’ behavior and resolve any issues, offer a more customized service, and so on.
In a nutshell, lots of opportunities arise for IoT startups. Let’s see now how you should plan it.
IoT Project and Marketing
Let’s start from the beginning. First of all, you should decide what area to focus on.
If we take a look at the most successful IoT startups, they serve different niches. Plenty of them are into data analytics and cybersecurity, but robotics, machine learning, microfactories and secure network infrastructure are also there, but there are also some other industries affected by IoT. In a nutshell, building the right type of software is what you are into — you “just” need to define it and find the right people for the job.
Think about who would benefit from you and how your startup will be able to help them. That should give you a clearer idea of what you wish to do.
As for the marketing plan, you’ve already started it with defining your end customer.
The more specific you are, the better you will satisfy their needs. Naturally, you’ll be able to collect quite a lot of personal data, but you needn’t contact the customer by saying “we have found this from your history”, as that will seem too intrusive. Only use the data they are comfortable sharing, and keep your offers updated.
This is a huge topic, so consider educating yourself even more. You could start with some of the e-books on founding a start-up and accelerating growth, for example. The more you know, the better plan you shall create and make use of it.
Think About Profits and Scaling
How are IoT startups earning so much? Naturally, you get paid for selling your software, for instance, but the big bucks could be lying in usage-based pricing.
Let’s take a look a some of its pros and cons.
On the one hand, this implies that every time a customer does something by employing your software, you’d be guaranteed a payment. In return, you are obliged to maintain the connected devices, added users, send requests, and so on.
The main question is whether the costs will be smaller than the profit obtained. Not just the temporary ones, but think about one, two, or five years in advance.
If you are in luck, i.e. have made an excellent and realistic plan, you will have secured your source of income in the following years.
Bottom Line
To sum up, this is just a brief preview of what you should study and investigate after reading this text. One thing is certain, though. The time of IoT startups is coming, and you should take the advantage of it as soon as you can.