Starting a business is a tough row to hoe. Turning it into a successful one is a different game altogether. Whether you’ve just started out or been in the business from quite some time, you are going to face a number of challenges.
At times, there won’t be enough leads and sometimes, the growth rate would decline despite your best efforts. You must learn how to overcome these challenges to run your business successfully. Here are a few things one need to know to have a successful business venture:
1. A great business plan and a solid strategy
A great business plan plays a crucial role in determining the likelihood of your business success. The main intent of the business plan is to clarify the purpose and direction of your business. A good business plan entails the business description where services, target audience, and everything related to business is described in detail.
Good business planning leads to a smart business strategy. Having a great business strategy is extremely important to increase the odds of success. It prepares you for all the risks and situations that you might encounter in advance so that you can tackle them head-on.
2. Use the best tools
If you are smart enough, you know the role of technology in accelerating the growth of a business. The implementation of the right technology and effective productivity tools open new avenues for business owners to create more investments and close more deals.
Businesses also need tools to prioritize tasks, streamline communication, and track the progress of their projects and campaigns. Some also use organizational, note-taking and productivity tools to increase their efficiency. For example, you can try ProofHub for managing work and handling project communication and HootSuite to keep your social presence active 24/7.
3. Attract and retain the right talent
Around 54% of businesses are having a tough time to attract and retain the right talent for a specific job. You can go all alone but you need to have a good team who believes in your vision and is willing to go the extra mile for you.
Don’t blindly hire someone with impressive work experience and technical skills. You have to find people with congruent values, beliefs, and positive outlook. Apart from technical skills, look for soft skills, creative thinking, and communication skills as well. Along with securing funds and finding clients, put your focus on getting the right people on your business as well.
4. Build your online presence
Today is the age of social media with more than 5.4 billion users on the internet. Almost 81% of successful businesses and retail brands are using two or more social media accounts to make their presence felt in the world of social media. No matter how great your product or service is if it fails to get noticed on search engine rankings, it’s really doesn’t matter.
It starts with a simple website that clearly shows who you are and what you do. Use good search engine optimization (SEO) practices to improve the user experience and usability of a website. In brief, your website should have a mission statement, a summary of what you do (your products and services), contact information, and a few testimonials to develop trust and credibility. Once you’ve done this, targeting the right audience and getting new customers will be much easier.
5. Build word of mouth
There’s a lot of power in the word of mouth marketing where customers are advertising for your business through their positive feedback or customer experience. Do you know that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from their family members and friends before buying something either offline or online?
The best ways to get positive word of mouth from customers include providing exemplary services, building a presence (both online and offline), sponsoring local events and charities among others. Whether or not you believe it, word of mouth can do wonders to take your business to greater heights.
6. Keep track of business rivals
One of the biggest needs for businesses today is to keep up with new changes, developments happening within a market along with keeping a keen eye on competitors. It doesn’t hurt to track habits, patterns, and strategies used by rivals that are benefiting their business and can help yours too.
Spend some time reviewing competitors’ websites, check out customer review sites, and understanding their product pricing. You can also follow competitors on social media and learn about their following and marketing strategies. Keep a track of your business rivals and know where you stand among your industry peers.
7. Use the 80/20 technique
The 80/20 rule is also known as Pareto’s principle. It states that 80% of the output or results will come from 20% of the action or input. It was first discovered by an Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto when he found out that 20% of people held 80% of the total wealth in Italy.
Pareto’s principle can help you grow business with fewer efforts. Most of the times, 80% of the sales come from 20% of the customers. You must find out what 20% you should focus to produce 80% of the outcome.
8. Get organized
Getting organized is the key to run a successful business. Things fall through cracks when you fail to organize them whether due to negligence or procrastination. Learn the art of organization and prioritize things in accordance with the required needs and requirements.
The easiest way for getting organized is to prioritize tasks either on a paper or even using organizational tools. You would be amazed to see how easier your life becomes and the amount of time you would save.
9. Take care of your health
Too many business owners put their health and well-being at stake while pursuing their business goals. Make sure you take your health seriously and doesn’t ignore it – not even for extra profits or likes on social media.
Eat healthy food. Get enough sleep. Do regular exercise to stay fit and alert. If you find the workload too overwhelming, try your hand at meditation, mindfulness, or even yoga. Healthy habits and lifestyle will help your business to prosper over the course of time.
Whatever be the nature of your business, we are a hundred percent sure that these tips will be immensely helpful to grow your business into a big one.
