Small Business Success doesn’t have to involve a lot of additional strategic planning, huge budgets, and loads of additional time. Let’s face it, as a small business entrepreneur you already have enough to think about without adding additional work and responsibility.
In this article you will find 6 SIMPLE, yet powerful success strategies to improve your business from idea conception all the way to completion of the exit strategy.
1. Go where others do not.
Seek out a niche that enables you to provide significant value with reduced competition. There will always be someone who will attempt to enter the market and sell at a lower price – don’t compete with them. Let the low price providers beat each other up over the low price shoppers. Instead look for what makes your product or service better than the competition and find ways to express its value – and charge for it.
2. Systematize your business.
Develop repeatable business processes that can be documented and performed with consistency. All successful businesses identify what is unique about their product and service as part of their niche marketing and then find ways to deliver that product or service utilizing existing efficient business practices. Don’t attempt to reinvent the wheel. Look at how other successful companies handle finance, sales, marketing, human resources, logistics, etc. and begin to implement similar systems across the board throughout your business.
Find ways to automate as much of the repeatable tasks as possible. Though necessary at many steps throughout the business process, identify where human intervention is unnecessary or potentially destructive and invest in the technology and procedures that will ultimately lead to more efficient and effective outcomes.
3. Implement Guerrilla Marketing Tactics.
A great marketing plan doesn’t have to cost a fortune. With the recent advances in social media networking and the ease that buyers can now access information from the internet, marketing doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to be effective. A huge budget is no longer essential in reaching large groups of interested prospects. What is important is identifying your target niche market and making sure you deliver the appropriate message to those people. Spend a considerable amount of time thinking about who is most likely to buy from you and why. Identify all the objections and potential reservations and then specifically attack those hesitations when approaching your niche. Clearing the air upfront enables the prospect to make an informed buying decision focused more on the value of what you have to offer then on the objections their mind my point out.
4. Create and share your vision for the company.
Spend time envisioning what your company will look like in 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years. Ultimately what do you want to accomplish in your business and who will that affect? What does your business success look like and how is it measured? Who will benefit from your business success and how will it impact the lives of those around you? Why is this so important to you? Once you have answered these questions formulate a clear and concise vision of what this all looks like in your mind. From there begin to communicate that orally and in writing to those around you, continually expanding the vision and the audience. As you continually share your company vision people and opportunities will begin to pop up that will share and support your quest for success.
5. Identify opportunities and build relationships.
Continually be open to new opportunities and relationships. Talk to others and stay open to changes in the marketplace. Specifically look for places of uncertainty, upheaval, and pending change. These are the areas most likely to produce an opportunity for significant advancement.
Pay attention to new people you meet and focus on how you can help them excel in their business. By helping them you will in turn be planting a seed for future harvest. The human mind has been conditioned traditionally to repay debt and favors. Seeds of good deed planted now will yield results down the road as more and more people look to repay the favor.
6. Begin with the end in mind.
Many people start with a dream of being in business for themselves without clear vision or direction. Often times these people will find themselves 5 years in to a venture that just doesn’t fulfill the entrepreneurial spirit. Consumed and exhausted the business may begin to falter.
Instead, clarify what your business will look like in 25 years. Where do you want to be, how do you want your business to look, who does your business serve? Take the vision you clarified in step 4 and work backwards from the end all the way to the day your business idea was first conceived. What has to happen and who to you have to meet now that will move you towards the end? What skills must be learned, what habits formed, what relationships maximized to ensure your business success? By beginning with the end in mind you will ensure the plan you chart will ultimately get you to the final destination.
[http://encompass-management.com] | Kevin Aubrey is an accomplished entrepreneur leading one of his current companies to consecutive Inc. 5000 awards (2006 2007) for the fastest growing privately held companies in America. Having worked with (2) different Fortune 100 companies early in his career, and currently operating a half dozen small businesses, Kevin shares his business insight as a consultant, author, and speaker. Kevin’s blog can be found at [http://kevinaubreytoday.com].
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