The mobility product business is a type of business that centers around helping mobility-challenged community members attain bespoke products/solutions that enhance their independence and ability to move around effectively and comfortably. It involves selling a wide range of mobility devices that encompass wheelchairs and transport chairs, scooters, walkers and rollators, canes and their accessories, crutches and their accessories, prosthetic devices, bath safety equipment, and orthotic devices.
If you’re looking to start a business in this sector, here is a quick guide to help you get started.
Conduct Market Research
You should not venture into the mobility products market without understanding the intricacies, nuances, and dynamics of the sector. For starters, you need to appreciate the fact rarely are the needs of two or more customers similar, hence the need to understand how you can tailor your offerings to different customers. Equally, it’s essential to learn how you can provide your customers with bespoke solutions that improve their lives.
Aside from learning how you can meet the needs of different customers, you must also gain an intricate understanding of the market conditions within which you intend to set up your business. Research the suppliers, competitors, and the target market to understand the range of products available (along with popular product designs, materials, and prices) in your target market and possible product gaps.
You also need to find your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses, including their marketing strategies.
You need to find and evaluate this information as part and parcel of the market research stage.
Niche Your Offerings, If Necessary
After you’ve conducted comprehensive market research, you may decide to niche your offerings. Rather than sourcing and stocking the full range of mobility products and accessories, you can narrow your product offering to a few products. This allows you to grow your business while being focused on being the go-to vendor for a particular product or product category.
For instance, you can elect to sell the full range of wheelchairs only. As such, you’ll stock wheelchairs, including basic manual wheelchairs, sports wheelchairs, powered wheelchairs, all-terrain wheelchairs, pediatric wheelchairs, positioning wheelchairs, etc.
Understand and Meet Regulatory Requirements
The mobility products market is highly regulated to ensure the safety and reliability of the products being sold. The last thing healthcare officials and regulators would want to deal with is individuals in need of mobility assistance being harmed by the products they use to move around. As such, they’ve set up product quality standards, manufacturing standards, licensing requirements, and other regulatory approvals for both manufacturers and sellers to meet before they operate.
Unfortunately, these regulatory standards are complex, and it will take time to understand all of them. However, you must meet all the standards and regulatory requirements to operate your business and build a trusted brand.
Create a Comprehensive Business Plan and Secure Funding
After conducting thorough market research and understanding the regulatory requirements you need to adhere to, you should develop a comprehensive business plan. Your business plan will come in handy when seeking financing from banks and investors. While crafting your business plan, ensure you include your business name, business concept, a breakdown of startup and operational costs, pricing strategy, and marketing strategy.
Build Your Supplier Chain
A significant part of your mobility products business success rests upon creating an effective and reliable supply chain. You need a reliable supplier that prioritizes consistency in product supply and quality of their products. Establishing a strong relationship with your suppliers ensures you can provide your customers with the mobility products they need when they need them. You need a strong supply chain to provide excellent after-sale services that revolve around fulfilling your customer’s accessories and spare parts needs.
With the above in mind, you need to put a lot of effort into building a trusting and mutually beneficial relationship with your suppliers, an endeavor that will take time. You need patience and persistence. Importantly, you should be ready and willing to network and engage with industry players. Take time to attend industry exhibitions to engage potential suppliers. You might also visit the manufacturing plant to not only negotiate prices but also discuss issues of quality assurance.
Develop and Implement a Marketing Strategy
Developing a marketing strategy involves deciding on your sales channel. In other words, you should decide whether to sell your goods online, offline, or both. To this end, you should interrogate your sale channel choices based on the comparative advantages of online and offline based on operational costs and your intended market reach. This will also influence your marketing strategy.
After deciding on your sales channel, you should establish your brand to anchor your marketing. As part of your branding efforts, you tell your story to the world and how your mission connects with your target audience.
To market your business, take advantage of social media, SEO, email campaigns, and traditional marketing channels to create an integrated marketing approach that yields a comprehensive touchpoint cover. You should aim to be visible among your target audience. Moreover, you should enhance the ability of your customers to interact with your business, thereby creating a community around your brand.
Conclusion
Starting and operating a mobility products business is not only profitable for entrepreneurs, but it’s also a fulfilling endeavor. Your efforts to bring products to your target market will help increase your customer’s choice as they look for solutions to their mobility challenges.
While it is challenging to get started, when done right, you can create a thriving and enduring business.