Thursday 25 October 2012

To Build Your Business, Focus On These 5 Areas


Thursday 7 April, 2011
The best way to grow your business is to surround yourself with people who understand and specialise in each of these five areas.
Most businesses have five areas that require focus. If you proactively manage these five areas, a lot of hassle can be avoided.
  1. The product or service that you offer

    Many businesses get started because someone has an idea or a passion. Unfortunately not enough research is put into whether the product or service is viable and if there is a market for it. Passion is important in business, but if the idea just doesn't have legs, it's going to cause a lot of heartache.

    The product or service needs to be well researched to ensure it delivers a solution or benefit.  Research, testing and improvement needs to be ongoing, as markets change rapidly.
  2. Marketing and selling

    Once you've found a great product or service and you've identified a market, how do you let people know about it?  Marketing is one of the most important factors in business success. There is no point in having a fantastic product or service if no one knows about it. If you can't convey your value proposition, the business will fail.

    You must research your market, let them know what you have to offer and the benefit. Once you've got some interest, the deal isn't done yet. You need to sell to your customer. You need to engage with them, listen to their needs and find ways to solve their problem.

    It is a long road from enquiry to closing a sale and it needs patient and trained salespeople. A good sales process can have a massive impact on revenue and getting top performers to share knowledge is vital.
  3. Operations and finance

    Once you've made the sale, you have to deliver. There is a lot involved in delivering a product or service to the satisfaction of customers. Systems are the best way to ensure efficiency.

    SMEs are often time poor and lack ways to implement systems. SMEs complain about being overworked and trying to do everything. Systems are the solution. Documenting tasks, especially repetitive ones, will help the business owner be involved in more strategic aspects of business.

    Then there is finance to consider. There are costs and overheads to pay, stock and jobs in progress to finance, debts to collect, equipment to be bought or financed, suppliers to pay, interest to financiers ... and the list goes on. Cash flow is one of the biggest issues for SMEs.

    It has to be managed proactively with forward planning, such as budgets and cash flow projections. If cash runs out, the business won't survive without outside injections. These can be difficult to source if finances aren't run effectively.
  4. Customer service

    Have you ever heard the saying "The customer is always right"? If the customer is wrong, go back and read the first line! Without happy customers - business will be a struggle. Constantly finding new customers is expensive. It's an often quoted point in customer service training, that a happy customer will tell two or three people, whilst an unhappy customer will tell around twenty. Nowadays you can multiply that by several thousand with the Internet.

    A customer service mentality must be paramount. If those dealing with customers don't understand this, it could be costing you thousands of dollars in lost income.
  5. Human resources

    Happy staff mean happy customers. If you want staff to look after customers, you must look after your staff. I often hear that even big businesses rarely have reviews with staff and don't provide any mechanism for feedback. Your staff are your most valuable asset.

    You can have a fantastic product or service, market and sell it well, but if the person delivering it is grumpy and unhelpful, all that good work can be undone. Your staff are often the ones interacting most closely with customers and hear their comments. These provide clues for improvement. Including front line staff in development meetings is vital.

    A good start to efficient HR management is an Organisational Chart and Job Descriptions for all staff and the business owner.
You probably spend time dealing with all five areas, but you can't be an expert in all five.  If you try, you will wear yourself out and create an unhappy working environment.  If you surround yourself by a team with each focussing on one of these areas, it will free up your mind and time to focus on strategic management and growth.

I can recommend this thinking. If you don't currently employ these people, start looking for them, or outsource to specialists.

Source:ceoonline.com

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