When you start your business you probably did a lot of research, you may have sought help from business advisors and gotten information from them and other sources. You invest a lot in terms of money, time and sweat to get your business off the ground. The truth is that there are tons of people out there in your place of business waiting to see someone who will make a difference in that line of business.
If you have survived startups and built a successful business you may be wondering how to take the next step and grow your business beyond its current status. There are numerous possibilities to do so. Choosing the proper thing to do depends on the kind of business you do, the available resources and how much money, time and work you are willing to invest.If you are ready to grow that business
Key things in business sustenance and growth
- Remember your personal goals, values, vision and mission statement
- Focus on your strengths, that is your God given abilities and Talents
- Find your market niche
- Train and retrain yourself
- Set boundaries between owner and the business
- Retain earnings in order to plough back your profits into business
- Customer satisfaction
- Remember your personal goals, values, vision and mission statement
This is what I call start up motivators and they are
- Goal – what you set out to achieve (to become an employer of labor, create sustainable wealth, manufacture things that will help humanity solve a particular problem etc).
- Values – your emotional investment for something ( It might be a lifetime dream to build a company of your own and you never let this dream slip by even when you are working for another).
- Vision – a vivid mental image ( You see the picture of this business, how you wish to run it etc).
- Mission- the purpose of your business (to buy and sale, provide service of whatever type etc).
Most people in business especially the small and medium size business have already started business or perhaps done it for awhile before they hear of these things or even know of them true or false? Some do not even believe they are important and others do not know how they could be of help to them as such wave it aside as rhetoric’s, and these to me are the foundation to your business believe it or not. Someone who is not set out to achieve a particular thing will not invest time thinking about it and so have no image of what kind of business he wants to create and for who and what that business will affect. Granted you might run that business without stating out all of this openly but it’s right there in your mind even when you don’t know it. You might also run your business denying yourself that these motivating factors are not really important as long as your cash is coming but have you bothered to ask yourself if that business is creating sustainable wealth and whether it could live out your own generation talk less of the next.
Let’s not forget that you might know about this motivators and still your business is not doing well or doing as much as you want it to do but it does not take out that fact that they are very important. However these other things below are also needed to sustain our business
- Focus on your strengths, that is your God given abilities and Talents
What are those things you have passion to do and you do it effortlessly without stress and it comes out fine, let your business be in this line. A lot of people have argued that many times.
Talents do not pay the needed money as such should not be considered when investing in a business. But I am part of the school of thought that believes that you can never give up on what you love to do, you just do it anyway so these will enable you to keep pushing till you get to your desired place.
- Find your market niche
You might have passion for tailoring, but you might decide to design only young female clothes that way every tailor who sows female clothing will definitely come to you for great designs don’t be a master of all. Even if you desire to diversify get known in your niche first and bring out your business so as not to be swallowed by having a little bit much and not perfecting any. Understand your market and find out what makes it distinct don’t be a jack of all trade.
- Train and retrain yourself
The reason why most business lose touch with things after a while is that they do not upgrade to modern facilities. Sudden growth without training might spell dome for the business because they are not equipped to handle new challenges that come to them. Train not just yourself but also your workers. The training can be both formal and informal this will give you directions and new insight to your business. Remember that if you have a vision, mission and passion for your business you will always seek to satisfy all those you wish your business to affect.
- Set boundaries between owner and the business
These two are distinct systems, that is your family and the business and so you do not make your personal expense from your business, rather pay yourself salary and become a staff in your own company to enable proper accountability. What you do not know is that once you open a business evenIf it is a one man business, your staff and customers are stakeholders in that business and if that business fold it will affect the significant others because that business is nothing without them cause they are all participants.
- Retain earnings in order to plough back your profits into business
It so funny that most people in business cannot tell you exactly what their startup capital is neither can they separate their profit from their capital. Retained earnings are profits made by a business that are not shared to shareholders as dividends but are reinvested in the business or kept as a reserve for particular objective. One may argue that most SME do not have shareholders especially in Nigeria were most SMEs do not believe in partnership, but you can always set aside 20% of your profits to plough back into your business thereby increasing your capital. This will help you know if your business is actually growing or stagnant. It will also help your growth and modernization plans and make you credit worthy.
- Customer Satisfaction
The only thing that makes a business active is the customers, when you have good customers you have a flourishing business therefore the satisfaction of your customers is very key in sustaining your business. You might not have the means for adverts in social media and all but you can use referral that is word of mouth marketing by your customers. A satisfied customer will always sing praises of your product and service and so will a dissatisfied customer talk about your business in a very bad way. A good customer service can be very simple but exceeds your customer expectation
In conclusion we need to create profitable and purposeful business that will be sustainable so as to leave a lasting legacy to our generations
Please drop your comments and questions.
