Want an Organized and Successful Company? Build a Business Strategy

In a small business environment, the owner is the all-star of the game. And in some cases the only star. They are the operators, accountants, salesmen, customer service, marketing, etc. When sales soars, the leading player becomes overwhelmed, and business tends to decent into chaos. There are ways to avoid such disaster.

Managing a business can be compared with a game of chess. The winner is the one who can best move the pieces into strategic locations. Astute players understand the final objective and have a strategy even before the first piece is moved. As the game gets underway, they observe the adversary’s moves and adjust their plan accordingly.

A clever business owner will have a plan with strategy layout out before the first paper is filed, and the first customer acquired. Whether you are thinking about starting a company, or you have been an owner for some time, it is not too late to create a winning strategy.

Building your strategic objective is not the same as a business plan. This is to provide a structure for your company to operate. It will help you in many different ways. It is a good exercise to vision the finished version of your business. The objective is to create standards for your business to where any new hires can rely on to learn your procedures.

1. Long-term Objectives

Start from the end. Identify your objectives and work backwards. Think of where you want to be, then work the steps you must take to get there. Your strategy must be long-term, and above all, realistic. What products or service are you providing. Visualize your company the way you want it to turn out. How big will it be? A $100,000 company? A $3 million? This will help you understand your primary goal.

I know it is difficult to think how much you are going to produce in sales that far in advance. But then again, put your goals together, and work all of the steps you must take to achieve your desired number. If anything, it will serve you as guidelines. If your business is already running, look through the past years, and analyze your sales. If you been in business for some time you know what brings the sales, concentrate on that. From there you will know what to do to increase your sales, and reach your desirable income.

2. Opportunity

There are many business opportunities all around us. Do a through market research, and analyze if an opportunity can fulfill the financial standards you created as your primary goal. If it cannot, then you should stay away from it. Determine the risk and challenges before pursuing this opportunity.

Understand that people are more interested in the experience other than a product or service. You might offer the best product at your store, but if your establishment is disorganized or dirty, or you provide a poor service, chances are you will never see that person again. As Michael Gerber describes on his book, The E-Myth, people do not buy commodities (referring to a product), people buy feelings.

3. Demographics and psychographics

The only way to determine if an opportunity is worth pursuing is by understanding the demographics and psychographics of your customers.

Demographics tell you who your customer is. For instance the gender, age, income, family status, etc. You know the group of people purchase at your store, or using your services. But you do not know the rational behind it.

Psychographics, on the other hand, tell you the rational used to purchase your product or use your services. It will tell you their political affiliation, personal opinions, their concern for appearance, whether they choose quality over economy, their hobbies, etc.

4. Time to market

When it comes to time to market, you must analyze all of your options. Your decision will depend on the product you are offering, the cost involved, and the demand. Is it cheaper to purchase the product already built or to build it yourself? If you are building it, are you able to keep up with the demand? Understanding your product and the needs of your prospects will tell you what you need to do as far as time to market.

5- Scaling your business

It will come a point where you will need employees in order to scale your business. Before you hire someone, you must have a prototype in place with standards for each position you are planning to hire. The importance of standardizing your business is so that your customer will have the same experience every time they come to you.

6- Risks

How much are you investing in your business or idea? Consider all scenarios, including failure. You might have the most solid plan, but forces outside of your power could play a role into your game plan. Study success and failures and learn from past experiences.

In closing, developing a strategy is the right start. But a plan must be nurtured and executed properly. I have seen way too often where owners create a standard for their services, but fail to enforce it. An employee, or contractor must be held accountable to fulfill the service accordingly.

As your business grows, you should continually test new ideas and implement newer and fresh strategies. This is specially important when you business scale up to a competitor, which at one point you were not even considering competing with. At that point a new strategy should be considered.

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