How to Maximize Your Small Business Success

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleStarting or maintaining a small business is challenging and risky: your limited resources mean that your company is more susceptible than most to the tosses and turns of torpid financial tides. However, with the right planning towards optimal efficiency, you’ll be able to turn your small business into a profitable and risk-free enterprise that’s based on savvy decision-making and mature financial planning. This article depicts such a strategy for small businesses hoping to absolutely maximize their potential is often busy and turbulent marketplaces.

Cash flow

One of the major obstacles to business efficiency is a blockage in your cash flow. In plenty of scenarios, this means you’re unable to reinvest the money you’ve made through sales of products or services, which means your business plateaus on a certain level of business that prevents its exponential growth. To help avoid cash flow blockages, consider using Peerform peer to peer loans for speedy and well-established loan arrangements, up the $25,000 mark, which are provided with a competitive interest rate and with the benefit of your being able to adjust the loan amount and repayment schedule on a sliding scale, as it suits you and your business.

Marketing

Successful companies aren’t just good at what they do: they’re good at telling the world they’re good at what they do. To increase your visibility and draw in more customers, it’s therefore a crucial part of a small business’s strategy to plan marketing campaigns aimed at encouraging repeat customers and enticing new clients. You’ll be able to outsource this if you don’t have the capability to manage this in-house, or otherwise hire a digital-savvy employee to cover your branding, website, social media and marketing initiatives, with measurable data analysis showing you the success of your marketing endeavors.

Staff

The crux of a successful business is the staff that work the inner cogs of your intricate business plans and market penetration strategies. If your staff are unhappy or demotivated, you’ll be far off maximizing your potential as a company. In this sense, it’s well worth the investment of your time and occasionally of your money in order to boost morale, encouraging a more enthusiastic working ethos within your staff. Staff reward days and incentives will help you motivate your staff, as will personal meetings and benefits set-ups that will help your workers feel valued and cared for.

Strategy

The final component that contributes to a sound small business that’s using maximal efficiency to drive up its profits is the establishment of both long-term and short-term strategies that are aimed firmly at future growth. It may take weeks to draw up a sound strategy, and some small businesses like to use financial advisors and business strategy consultants to help formulate their ideas. However, on the whole, your strategy should guide all the efforts you make to become a well-performing, efficiency-saving and smart business with a model that maximizes your ability to profit and accrue new custom.

These four tips should be useful for any small business owner looking to further maximize their potential for sales, profits and growth.

Nathan Ives

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StrategyDriven Service Provider NetworkNathan Ives

Like most entrepreneurs, Nathan Ives wanted to bring his digital products to market without impacting his family’s already tight budget. So began a ten year journey of research, trial, and error to develop an inexpensive, fully integrated, and rapidly deployable digital products platform.

Today, Nathan Ives’ creative genius drives the elegant professionalism of numerous online businesses and digital product platforms. His flagship website, www.StrategyDriven.com, hosts hundreds of digital products – ebooks, videos, podcasts, articles, and full-scope training programs – and has been visited by over 1 million people and garnered over 10 million page views.

Nathan solved both the financial and technical challenges of creating a truly integrated Digital Products Platform, one that automates the marketing, lead capture, sale, and delivery of digital products without the need for expensive third party services. With this knowledge and experience in-hand, he developed the Digital Products Platform training program; showing entrepreneurs and business owners how to get their digital products to market effectively and inexpensively.

Nathan Ives online training programs are copyrighted and offered by StrategyDriven Enterprises, LLC. These programs support StrategyDriven’s commitment to providing entrepreneurs with the planning and execution advice, tools, and practices needed to create greater organizational alignment and accountability for the achievement of superior bottom line results.

Contact Nathan Ives

Phone: (770) 284-0926

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://nathanives.com

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StrategyDriven Enterprises

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StrategyDriven Enterprises, LLC

StrategyDriven is dedicated to providing executives and managers with the planning and execution advice, tools, and practices needed to create greater organizational alignment and accountability for the achievement of superior results.

We help our clients create and execute a clear, forward-looking strategy – translatable to the day-to-day activities of all organization members – that’s critical to their realizing success in today’s fast paced market environment. Not only does a compelling, well executed strategy align individuals to a common purpose, it ensures that purpose best serves the company’s mission.

The StrategyDriven website provides access to a wide array of best practice business planning and execution tools, streamlined process flows, how-to articles, example-rich podcasts, and customizable ready-to-use program management templates. Premium Members receive access to over 200 members-only articles, whitepapers, models, and tools and templates; providing an in-depth look into critical business performance areas; placing specific focus on the alignment of organizational standards, programs, and behaviors to the optimal achievement of mission goals. Sevian Business Program purchasers receive fully implementable business performance improvement processes out-of-the-box, enabling the acceleration of business growth and heightening of operational efficiency needed to significantly improve bottom line results.

Collectively, our products offer business leaders the opportunity to access the knowledge of a highly educated and experienced staff without the associated overhead expense.

At StrategyDriven, our seasoned business leaders deliver real-world strategic business planning and tactical execution best practice advice – a blending of workplace experience with sound research and academic principles – to business leaders who may not otherwise have access to these resources.

Contact StrategyDriven Enterprises, LLC

Phone: (770) 765-3692

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.strategydriven.com

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4 Ways to Safeguard a Company from Failure

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleWhile the abundance of tools and resources available online mean that this generation is arguably the best time in history to launch a new company, many startups are still sinking within their first few years of operation. Regardless of which industry you operate in, there are going to be expenses and risks that contribute toward the possibility of going under. Some business models carry fewer risks than others, but any time you go into business you’re taking on the fundamental risk that things might not go as planned. With that said, here’s a short but powerful list of four steps every company can take to ensure continuity and avoid closing down prematurely.

1. Study Safety and Redundancy

Occupational safety and operational redundancy are two factors that can cause serious financial, legal, and informational issues in the event of a mishap. Startup founders should immerse themselves in the research process and maybe even attend educational events like SeminarFest before officially launching any kind of business. Doing the research beforehand will ensure that you’re not surprised and overwhelmed by problems during the early stages of company operation. Of course, if your company is already doing business, it’s not too late to go back to the drawing board and make precautionary revisions.

2. Diversify Revenue Sources

Diversification is a classic concept that’s often pushed by successful entrepreneurs, and for good reason – it helps to have your eggs in many different baskets. Even within the confines of a single niche or industry, you can still diversify by obtaining more clients and pursuing more projects. You can also diversify your marketing efforts by targeting additional keywords, intersecting topics, and new demographics. Taking a multi-faceted approach will prevent your company from losing big when one source of revenue starts to dwindle or dry up.

3. Practice Stringent Hiring Techniques

Unless you’re running a one-person show, the success of your company is going to depend entirely on the skills and effort contributed by your employees. Thus, it’s imperative to create a strong foundation in the beginning by building the business around a staff of competent, experienced, credentialed, and collaborative individuals. Take time to screen plenty of candidates and consider offering appealing salaries and incentives to attract premium talent.

4. Use Performance Monitoring and Analytics

It’s possible to hire an all-star staff and still face operational deficiencies and suboptimal results. People don’t always live up to their track record, so it’s important to monitor or review employee performance and correspondence to ensure that everyone is carrying out their job duties in the most effective and efficient manner.

Taking Steps to Reduce the Probability of Failure

Ultimately, all of the tips suggested above should be thought of as core components to a much larger risk mitigation and prevention plan. Start by identifying the biggest risks your company faces, and then implement strategies to proactively address those potential issues. By operating with the “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong” mindset, you can create backup plans that account for almost every possible cause of company downfall.

Important Things to Consider Before Starting Your Own Business

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleYou’ve got a great business idea that you’re pretty certain won’t fail. Perhaps you’ve got a crafty side to you and can make things you know people will want. Whatever your new business idea, there are a few things you should consider before you give up your day job and leap into working for yourself. Starting a new business can be very exciting, but it can also be very costly. Costs you’re not likely to get back if you don’t have a clear plan for the future!

The best place to start with your new venture is to write a business plan. It will help you decide whether your idea is as feasible as you think and give you some direction to follow. Draw up your business plan correctly, and it will provide you with a series of clear steps to follow. To help with your business plan, there are going to be some questions you need to ask yourself.

Do You Have Any Competition?

Is there anyone else doing what you want to do? Are they any good at it? Before setting up your own business, you need to do some research on the competition. It’s possible you could learn a lot from the mistakes they may have already made. You should also be able to gain an insight into what their customers appreciate. Look at what people are prepared to pay for the same kind of service or product you’ll be offering.

Who Will be Your Target Audience?

It’s extremely unlikely that your product or service will appeal to everyone, and even if it did, you’d need to narrow your audience down for marketing purposes. Consider the type of people who are going to want to pay you money and target everything at them. It will include your website, advertising and your marketing campaigns. If you’re not sure whether you’ve targeted the right audience, you can always send out a questionnaire. Alternatively, communicate with them via social media. There is another benefit to consulting with your customers; it will make them feel like they have a say, which will ultimately bring their loyalty and increase the chances of them making a recommendation.

Think About a Web Presence

It might surprise you to learn that as many as half of small businesses don’t actually have a website! Out of these, there are bound to be a large percentage that wants one but doesn’t know what to do about building one. If you’re likely to fall into this bracket, don’t worry because it is easier than you think. There are some pretty amazing web building tools that an absolute beginner will be able to understand. Even if you’re not planning to sell anything online, it is important to have an online presence. So many consumers do their research using their smartphones you’d be mad to miss out on such an opportunity.

What Payment Methods are You Planning to Accept?

This is particularly important if you’re planning to open an e-commerce store. There are a wealth of different payment methods you can choose to accept. However, it’s probably not wise to accept all of them. For example, will you accept credit cards or just debit cards? What kind of card provider would you prefer? Is PayPal going to be an option worth considering? Payments can also be made using:

  • Skrill
  • Bank transfer
  • Cash on delivery
  • Direct debit
  • Amazon payments
  • Payoneer
  • Checks

Do You Have Any USPs?

What are your USPs? They are unique selling propositions or points; it’s what will make you stand out from the competition. Is there anything special about what you’re offering? Are you offering something customers won’t be able to get anywhere else? Maybe the customer service experience you’re planning is what will make you stand out. Think about your angle and make sure everything is true to it.

How Are You Going to Fund Your Enterprise?

The ideal scenario would be for you to have enough money to fund your new business yourself. The truth of the matter is more likely to be that you will need to look for funding. Start with friends and family as they might be willing to help you out in the short term. You’ll also be able to avoid paying huge sums in interest payments. There may be business grants available in your location. If you’re struggling to finance your idea, then start small and prove to yourself that it works before looking further. This will also put you in a better position to approach banks or investors for their support.

There are numerous other things worth considering such as licenses, accountants, insurance, staffing requirements, bank accounts, partners, marketing your business and many more. Starting your own business is a big step to take, but as long as you have your realistic plan, you’re already on the right road to success.