Five Aspects of a Business Plan You Need to Get Right

/in /by

StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article | Five Aspects of a Business Plan You Need to Get RightBuilding a business cannot be done without planning. The second you start a business your future and your financials are at risk. While the pay-off can be great, and you can even start a legacy, none of that will come to fruition if you don’t have an accurate plan on how to get from place A to place B.

Take opportunities as they arise by all means, but never go into a new business without creating a solid business plan:

Business Model

Choosing your business model is very important, especially with all the options available today. You can go for a subscription model, an advertising model, a pay now model, and so many more, and that’s just the payment plan. Decide in advance how you plan your company will be run and what it needs so that you can strategize around a real product.

Competitor Research

Your competition will offer a lot of valuable insight into what does and does not work. You should try to extend this research into companies that have failed previously and learn from their mistakes. Not only will you be able to improve upon your business model, but you will also be able to devise services and marketing strategies that appeal to your customers.

Cashflow Forecasting

You need to work out overhead beforehand so that you can predict how much you need in sales. This way you can either improve your business model or diversify your incomes to meet your base needs and hopefully exceed them. Once your business gets off the ground for a year redo your cash flow forecast so that you can better predict where spending will be tight.

Your Financing Options

Knowing your financing options is critical, especially as a new business. Without any previous business credit history or substantial enough assets banks will not provide you with a loan. Instead, you will need to diversify between personal funding and third-party loans.

Then there is the type of loan in question. A secure loan is secured against your assets, but if you do not have substantial enough assets, there are unsecured loans you can look at. You can learn all about the pros and cons of an unsecured business loan on biz2credit.com, and though it can be a good way to launch or expand your business you need to be aware of the risks ahead of time, as rather than leverage an asset you will often have to provide a personal guarantee.

Location

If you are opening a physical store the last part of your business plan that you will need to address is the location. Rent costs will be high, but more than that you will need to ensure your location serves your needs and is where your demographic is located.

It is important to remember that, though business plan size recommendations might only be a few pages, the work that goes into those few pages needs to be substantial. Consider your final business plan like a summary for a much larger report that works out what you need for your business to succeed. The effort you put in early on will be a key factor in any success you see.

Cunning Retail Tactics For A Profitable Christmas

/in /by

Cunning is what you’re going to have to be if you want to get through this festive period as a retailer. Retail is an industry that’s so hard to break into, and if you’ve done well thus far, then you’re going to want to tackle all the obstacles that you possibly can, as quickly as you can. And despite thinking that this is the time where you’re going to make more money than you’ve ever made before, you might be sadly mistaken. It’s no secret that brick and mortar shops are becoming less popular at the minute. People are far more inclined to do their shopping from the comfort of their own home, or even on the go as long as their mobile is still glued to their hand, which is where it always is. So, you have to think about the tactics that are going to keep your store alive throughout the whole of the festive season, that includes into the new year.  So, keep on reading, and find out what cunning retail tactics we think you should be using.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article | Cunning Retail Tactics For A Profitable Christmas

Luring Customers In

Luring customers in is the first item on the agenda, because the lack of customers is what is going to bring your profits crashing down, profits you will have invested into the business more as of late to boost stock and production. So to lure customers in, you need to target the right people, and the right people are those with children. Children are taken shopping nearly all of the time, simply because they can’t be left at home. So to get the shoppers in, you have to grab the attention of the children first, which is best done by getting yourself a santa. Hire Santa is just one company you could use to do so, and it would bring hoards of people into your store. A quick photo with santa, and a big of a nudge from you, and you’ve got them secured in your shop, and chances are they’d buy something!

Picking Sale Times Right

Sales are going to come in thick and fast, and you’ll join a race to make sure that your sale is the one that’s attracting people. So what we’d advise, is to hold one right before Christmas, only a few days. You’re going to attract those desperate shoppers who are looking for a last minute presents, and often a bargain. So holding one before Christmas, rather than waiting until after, might mean the difference between getting profit, and struggling to get it.

Focus On Advertisement

Advertisement is key, and the best way to do so is through visuals that people are going to see often. TV advertisements, radio, and billboards are all popular at this time of year. The more people can see you, the more people will visit you, and the more sales you’ll get. So don’t be afraid to splurge a little where marketing is concerned. Simply putting up posters in the area local to your shop could draw the attention that you need.

Every Business Faces An Existential Leadership Crisis

/in /by

StrategyDriven Management and Leadership Article |Leadership|Every Business Faces An Existential Leadership CrisisStop for a second. Think about the last time you saw a CEO do an interview. When was the last time you saw a business out in the open, showing off it’s latest and greatest talent? When was the last time you saw a business that showcased its raw young talent at a business exhibition or conference? Most likely, not a whole lot. The general public doesn’t often get to see the young people that a business is hiring. They may not have earned the right to be represented the business out in public. The company may not even care about its image in that way. It’s clear that most businesses have a tough time passing the torch to the next generation and doing so in an open and honest way. But that also means, most businesses are facing an existential leadership threat. If your business cannot be gifted to the next generation, it won’t survive more than one lifetime. How can you stop this from happening?

Internal culture protection

The reason why Apple didn’t collapse when Steve Jobs passed away, is because they had an internal business culture that groomed the next in line. Tim Cook took over and approached the challenges of the business to be innovative and build on the Apple ecosystem, just like Jobs would have wanted. This did not happen by mistake. Cook was able to approach the future in a similar way because the entire business, protected its internal culture. It’s the way you want employees to think about their roles, their tasks, designs, marketing, social media, etc. A culture encapsulates everything about you. So one way to make sure your business has a future is by protecting your culture and helping the best employees to understand it on a deeper level.

A skills transition

Becoming a leader isn’t for everybody. In fact, it’s true that most people just don’t fit the profile. But how do you know who does and who doesn’t? Putting your employees through leadership training is the best way to find out. They will learn a plethora of skills including, knowing what employee strengths are and getting the best out of them. Effectively influencing employees to make them channel their abilities better when it comes to tasks and roles in group projects. Being able to effectively lead meetings of staff, talking to people both personally and professionally. Navigating conflict and having the skills to resolve problems when they arise. Managing your time as the leader among other things will be taught to your chosen prospective employees.

Choose high potential employees

Every successful leader has some level of intuition. They can just spot someone out of a crowd and see they have more potential than the rest. If you see an employee you believe could be a leader, then look past their role and their rank. If it’s someone on a lower level in your business, then give them a chance to prove themselves. You never know when your diamond in the rough might appear.

For businesses wanting to carry on their excellence from generation to generation, it’s vital you protect your company culture internally.

Easy Ways to Encourage Customer Retention

/in /by

StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Customer Retention|Easy Ways to Encourage Customer RetentionCustomer retention is one of the hallmarks of a successful business. When you have repeat customers and genuine loyalty, you know that what you have to offer is just what your customer base is looking for. And, when this happens, you don’t need to worry so much about figuring out ways to appeal to more people or different groups. You know where you’re pitching.

Designing a customer loyalty program is one of the most effective strategies to boost your business growth. It is organic and doesn’t require the same amount of resources or time as trying to locate and identify new customers. However, this doesn’t mean that you can be complacent about your customers at all. You still need to think carefully about how you can keep their custom and continue to raise the bar.

So what does it take to ensure customer retention?

Make it Easy to be Loyal

People like doing the easy thing. We prefer supermarkets because they offer everything we need under one roof, we prefer products that free-up our time and once we’ve found something we like, we tend not to keep searching. This is ultimately what customer loyalty is about – you need to make it as easy as possible for your customers to stick with you.

One way you can make it easier is to offer a subscription service with easy and accurate billing. Billsby is a great option for this and the software can even give you a greater understanding of your customers with a value score. For your customers, a subscription means that they don’t have to think about using your company, they can make their choice once and then roll with it.

Another good way to make it easier to be loyal is to offer your customers incentives to continue shopping with your business. Supermarket loyalty cards are some of the best-known programs and many offer their customers discounts and exclusive deals, often based on the customer’s shopping habits. This is why loyalty programs like these are so important – not only can you encourage your customers to spend more by offering small discounts, but you can also learn a lot about them.

The easier you can make it to be loyal, the more likely your customers are to stick by your business. Just make sure that you understand what your customers are looking for and continue to meet their needs better than your competitors!

Stay in Touch

Staying in touch with your customers is all about communication. If you can’t talk to your customers, you won’t be able to tell them about the latest deals you have for them or find out what they could be looking for. There are so many ways to stay in touch now that if you don’t have a social media account, you are already way behind the times! Don’t even bother to continue reading this article just yet – open a new tab right now and set those things up!

Welcome back!

So, now you have a social media account, you need to know how to use it. Social media is brilliant for showing off your brand identity and engaging your customers on a more personal level. You don’t need to be constantly advertising or showing off; you can ask questions, comment on industry developments or simply post things you find interesting or amusing.

Another crucial form of communication is the humble email campaign. Again, if you don’t have one already, you must start thinking about this as soon as possible. You can even use your social media presence to build up your list of email addresses. The key thing to remember is that your emails must be relevant to your audience and provide some value. This might mean sending a newsletter including links to your blog but it could be more tailored and include particular deal codes they can use with your business to get discounts or other incentives.

Staying in touch with your customers should also allow them to influence how you grow and develop your business. In other words, you need to be able to have a conversation, not just a one-way lecture.

Use a Customer Feedback Loop

And that’s where the customer feedback loop comes in. If you want to know what your customers think of your services and business, the best way to find out is to ask them. Yes, it’s really that simple!

Surveys are one of the best ways to ask a lot of customers about a specific aspect of your business and to find out what the majority think. However, you must ask the right questions to get the information you really need. Remember that even though you might really want positive responses to all the questions you ask, the reality is that you know that there are things you need to improve and you need to be neutral to find out what those things are.

Another way to gain customer feedback is to run a focus group. This is a brilliant way to gauge interest in new products or ideas you would like to experiment with soon. Customer focus groups also provide forums for people to give their opinions in a more open way. Though you should certainly keep the conversation from deviating too far from your requirements, allowing your customers to express themselves openly could be hugely beneficial. Asking a market research company to run these groups on your behalf will also remove any possibility of unconscious bias.

Customers want to stay loyal because it is easier than constant shopping around. However, you still have to make an effort to keep their custom and ensure that you don’t take them for granted. Shopping around might be frustrating but it doesn’t mean that your customers can’t be tempted away. Keeping an eye on the competition is one way to avoid losing customers but you should also be thinking about what unique services or products you could offer.

If you really want to keep your customers, the best thing you can do is keep them at the very centre of your business plan.

Have You Found The Right Idea For Your Business?

/in /by

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Business Idea|Have You Found The Right Idea For Your Business?Finding the right idea for a business is still a hard thing to do for a lot of entrepreneurs out there. You have to do your research. You have to reach out and talk to people. And when you’ve done all of the necessary leg work, there’s no saying your work stops there.

And coming up with the perfect idea – viable enough to put down on a business plan for an investor to look over, and clear enough to follow through when you’ve established yourself – doesn’t just happen overnight. There’s some things you’ve got to do first, before anything else.

So, without further ado, here are those exact things. If you’re sitting there with a business concept in mind, make sure you get these out of the way before you try anything else.

Target the Market

The market you want to sell to needs to be the first thing you come up with and get your eye on. If you’ve got a product idea, it’ll mean nothing until you find out whether or not people will want to buy it – and no, there’s not a gap for every single half baked idea an entrepreneur has ever come up with!

You’ll need to look into the people who might want to buy what you’re selling; their age, their schedules, their price ranges, and even their generational shopping habits. A lot of previous research has gone into these, so you won’t have to start from scratch either.

Mingle with the Professionals

You’ll want to get a bit of one on one time with the people who know what they’re talking about. Before you fully set out in your business venture, talking to the people who have been and gone before you is a great way to get to know the scene, and just how long it might take for you to reach the same level of success.

For example, if you’re planning to start an online only business, you’re going to be relying solely on the income driven through your website. That means you’ll want to talk to an ecommerce business consultant; someone who knows what it’s like to sell online, and how fast rates, prices, and demand can change.

Are You OK on Your Own?

You might be of the mind to run your business entirely on your own; it’s a micro venture, or it might just be a small home run operation. But when you think about it, no business is set up entirely on its own – no one is really a self made person.

A lot of us have to rely on the experience and labor of other people, especially in the early stages of a small business. And if you’ve already got quite a tight schedule, some serious rearranging might need to be done.

Finding the right idea for your business takes time, so don’t try to rush this stage of the process. A lot of work lies ahead, and it’ll require full attention.