Four Processes Every Entrepreneur Needs To Nail
There are never enough hours in the day for a small business owner. From overseeing daily operations to creating new marketing strategies, there’s no end to the many and varied tasks that your days are filled with. In fact, focus and prioritisation are key areas to master in order to ensure that everything keeps ticking along smoothly. There may also be plenty of new skills for you to learn. As a first-time entrepreneur, the learning curve can be extremely steep. With so much to do and take in, what are the essential areas that will make the maximum impact on the performance of your business? Here’s a look at the four areas business leaders agree will give you the most bang for your buck…
Product Development For Success
This process is the lifeblood of your business, and where you keep the pipeline of creativity flowing. Without getting it right, your future profitability and longevity is at stake – so don’t get so caught up in day-to-day admin tasks that you neglect it. Use a ‘top down and bottom up’ approach which combines social listening and a customer feedback loop with your own vision for the company and insights about market trends. If you have employees, make sure that this is communicated to them with the rationale and a timeline of deliverables to get everybody fully bought in.
Refine Your Processes
To free up sufficient time and headspace for the creative development process, you must refine and aim to automate as many processes as you can. From invoicing to payroll.services, seek out best-in-class tech solutions which mean you spend less time manually moving these key areas along. There are some brilliant software tools for business that can support you to waste less time on busywork.
Create A Customer Connection
The main USP that your company can have is forging an identity and a reputation which connects emotionally with customers. In a crowded marketplace, competing on price or promotions only leads into a race to the bottom that won’t benefit you in the long term. Strike a chord with your key demographic however, and you’ll find it easier to convert customers into advocates who give you both repeat business and valuable word of mouth marketing. Spend time mapping out the customer journey, understanding their expectations and pain points along the way. Develop personas for different customer sub-sets so that you can delivered targeted marketing activity, using metrics to inform the dynamic development of your strategy. Getting under the skin of who buys from you and why is essential.
Map Out Your Financial Model
Financials don’t stop with the business plan – checking that you have a realistic, robust model is key to pricing decisions and stopping the slow, cashflow creep of death that many promising startups fall victim to. Set a realistic and a ‘stretch’ margin for net income and assign a percentage of revenue to each expense line item. Use this to create a gap analysis between your current and desired positions. That will guide you to other decisions on pricing and areas where you need to make prudent cuts. This plan should be reviewed on a very regular basis to ensure that operations are on track.