Without a defined strategy, businesses drift away from their customers, ultimately becoming less competitive and less profitable. Having a plan is the way to remain competitive or force a strategic change when an organization is starting to fail.
We’ve put together the top 5 traits of a successful business:
Management
Successful business management teams know the company’s goals, objectives and vision at their fingertips. They are focused on the pursuit of the company’s objectives. They know their specific role in the company, and they concentrate on this role to make sure that they meet the business objectives. And they understand their industries.
A competent corporate manager in the food industry may not perform very well when assigned to a business operating in the oil and gas sector. Why? The reason is that the industrial intricacies and the market are entirely different.
At the core of every successful business management team is the business mission. This mission keeps the team together; take the mission away, and the centre will not hold any longer for the entire business.
People
Without exception, the most successful business owners understand that it’s all about people. Hiring and retaining the right people, eliminating ineffective people and providing the necessary resources to master their tasks.
Yours is a small business. So your people will be action-oriented. Hire employees who make decisions and take chances. While chances may lead to failure, they will more often lead to success and mould confidence while generating new ideas.
Processes
Lack of structure and the absence of systems all but ensure inconsistency in how work is done, conflicting agendas, discord and confusion. Structure supports success.
A frequently credited attribute of success is the streamlining of business processes. We call this “creating predictability.” Unfortunately, this is probably the least understood task a small-business owner can take to accomplish.
Business processes are how things are done within a business. Every company has some methods; some are clearly defined, others are implicit. The intention here is to increase productivity and reduce costs while generating the same (or better) outcomes.
But, a process is a set of defined tasks needed to complete a given business activity, including who is responsible for completing each step, when, and how they do so.
Marketing
Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or a one-person shop, to be successful, you must have a marketing strategy, and you must implement it consistently. However, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune, and you don’t have to be a creative genius.
The key is developing a marketing strategy that forms a solid foundation for your promotional efforts.
Effective marketing starts with a considered, well-informed marketing strategy. A good marketing strategy helps you define your vision, mission and business goals and outlines the steps you need to take to achieve these goals.
Market segmentation
Little of what is best in marketing theory and practice work without correcting market segmentation. It is one of the most fundamental concepts in marketing. Your choice of which approach to adopt will directly affect the impact of segmentation on your business. Market segmentation, correctly applied, is about understanding customers’ needs and, therefore, how they decide between one offer and another.
