Profitability is the ultimate purpose of any venture. Whatever business you’re venturing, it falls in the category of either product or service.

Product is a tangible, visible item available in the market for acquisition and consumption. Services on the other hand are intangible; they are rendered to people in exchange for money. 

If you are wondering which a better venture between these two is, I will tell you this question is not valid anymore. The concepts of products and services seem interwoven these days.  The reason is that tangibility which used to be the major distinguisher between the two now seems to merge them as one. While services are always intangible, many products especially in the digital age are intangible too. This lends fluidity to the disparity between them.  Also, services accompany products just as products accompany services as part of a whole marketing offer. 

Therefore, should not really have preference for one over the other you can say that products are now presented as services or versa.  

The most important thing in venturing is the solution you are designing to addressing a specific problem.

On that note, either you’re setting for product, service or mixes of both, here are the most important considerations:

The hands you hire to overcome your limitations:

We all have limitations. It may be that you suffer from attention deficit, you are not tech-savvy or you’re not great with time management. It may also be that you are a creative, but you lack to will to implement. Whatever it is, bringing people in to fill up for your areas of inability is a smart way to ensure you end up successful.

A sound knowledge of the market: 

The failure of majority of start-ups is connected to lack of touch with the market.  Identify the presentable values that make you acceptable to your market. Devise the best and most effective way to reach them. Construct the most fitting value proposition that move them to make a purchase? Consider the timing too. 

Focus on the 20 percent:

In every venture you can think of, the productivity metric is the same:  80 percent of all results are traceable to from 20 percent of your efforts. As a result, successful business owners channel their energy and attention to the 20 percent of tasks which are considered vital, and either delegate the remaining 80% to their subordinates, or outsource them