Unfortunately, I come to share a rather different thought with you. I will be sharing with you based on my experience and those of others, the three pillars that determine the strength of any business. My intention it to spur you up so that you consider working on these three things first, so as to be able to set up a strong business that will stand the test of time and beat any form of competition there exist in the market.
Every strong business you see today must have put in so much on each of these three aspects. It must have spent so much money strengthening these three areas and that it why it stands strong even in the midst of fierce competition. For you to build strength in your business, the following are the key aspects you must work on strengthening:
1. THE MEN
Have you ever seen a business without people? No workers, not customers, no partners? Not possible. Every business has people and they are the ones who make the business move on. Whether they are workers, partners or customers, their role in your business is pivotal and building on them is only but normal, for anyone who intends to experience any form of growth.
You need to put up a winning business team for your business; a team that knows how to work together and with you as the coach, achieve all that you desire to achieve. Your business team is made up of you, your employees (full time and part time), your partners and your investors.
The way to build a winning business team is to hire the right kind of persons, build the right business environment for the team to function at their best as well as provide the right incentive for the workers to become motivated and give out their best. Just one person could leave your business and that becomes the end of it. See my post titled “How to Build a Winning Business Team” for more on this.
In working on the “Men” aspect of your business, you also need to build a strong customer-base with whom you will build strong customer loyalty. Your customers are looking out for something and unless you know it and provide it, you will not succeed to keep them. They are the most dynamic persons around your business and will easily become disloyal to it at any time, if you don’t give them what they are after. One customer alone is capable of making or destroying your business. See my post titled “Four Things That Will Keep Your Customers Satisfied” for more on this.
The Men of your business are those on whom your business stands. Focus on them and guarantee a strong pillar of success for your business.
2. THE MANAGEMENT
Management is an art and those who have mastered this art, always have an edge in business. I love management. A good manager can still produce excellent results with a not too good team. Management is about making use of the men, money, machine, materials, space and information you have, in the most efficient way such that you get your desired results.
Businesses need managers just because men, money, machine, materials, space, and information are not always sufficient enough to satisfy the need at every moment. So it is expedient to have people who can make the most out of the insufficient resources. When you are able to do this excellently, you have a strong management system.
The failure of many businesses is attributed to poor management. A good business team will require a strong management system in order to perform excellently. What is your management system like? Two major aspects to deeply consider in your management system are your management of people and your management of money.
Managing people effectively, entail making the right decisions on hiring staff, keeping them motivated, building their skills and abilities, empowering them with responsibilities, compensating them adequately, promoting them when due, and so on. It is also about managing the customers you have in a way that they continue to grow in number.
Managing money entails planning, organizing, directing and controlling financial activities that pertain to how money is made and spent, what it should be spent on and when, how it should be invested, and so on.
Your business seriously depends on the effectiveness of your management system. Have an experienced manager to manage your business, pay him/her well and demand for excellent results.
3. THE MARKETING
Have you ever wondered why companies spend so much money to market their products? Some companies spend even up to 40% of their profit on advertisements. Such companies don’t go out of the market for doing so. Instead they soar even higher.
Marketing is however more than advertisements. It is discovering a need, creating a product to meet that need and going to where the need is, in order to satisfy it. While adverts just help creates awareness in the mind of the customers, about the goods and services, marketing takes goods and services from concepts to customers. Adverts are a part of marketing strategy.
Every successful business must have a strong marketing strategy. It needs to have a plan on how it shall market its products in a way that strategically positions it in the minds of its customers. This is by identifying/selecting/developing a PRODUCT, determining its most suitable PRICE, decide on the best PLACE where it will easily be accessed by the target customers and how it will be PROMOTED for a great sale.
When you have a business and the marketing system of your business is weak, you make wonderful products but are unable to put them at the disposal of those who need them. A few days back I was on a journey in a bus full of colleagues. I had a discussion with one of my colleagues who sat next to me and she told me how she makes beads and sells. I asked her if she had a place where she displays them for sale and she said she did them only when an order is placed. Then I asked her how many of our colleagues knew about her business, and she said very few. Then I told her the problem with her business is that she did not market it aggressively, and she admitted.
You see, marketing your business is key to your business growth. If people don’t know what you do, they can’t be expected to come after it. In my post titled, “How To Market Your Business Aggressively”, I speak on the practical things you can do for your business to be known by many of your potential customers, and meet their desired needs.
In order to build a successful business, you have to build on these three strong pillars. Build on your Men, your Management system and your Marketing system.
I hope you have gained something from this post. Make your comment below.
By Kadzem Claude
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