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Blog posts tagged SWOT analysis
Start your new business efficiently
December 18, 2009
1 Plan your marketing
Far too often, new businesses take a scattergun approach to marketing. They spend a huge amount of time and focus on marketing – which is correct – but there is no cohesive strategy, plan or thinking. So what happens is, 80 per cent of their marketing efforts results in little or no return.
If you have done your homework, you will be clear about how you help your target market with their ‘pain’, know where your target market hang out and how best to get your message to them. Use this knowledge to plan your marketing, so you focus your marketing on your target market, in a place where they will see it – and in a way that will encourage them to take action.
If you believe that word-of-mouth is going to be all the marketing you need, think again. Word-of-mouth works very well when you are an established business with a good name. Until you are an established business, word-of-mouth, in isolation, will not be an efficient marketing strategy.
Think very carefully about taking an enhanced listing in a physical or internet directory. When was the last time you looked in one of these for a tradesperson or supplier?
2 Know your costs
I’m going to be blunt. If you don’t know the cost of running your business, it normally means you are running your business as a hobby. Poor financial management of a new business is one of the main reasons for a new business to fail in its first year. Poor cashflow is a major factor in this. If you sell to businesses, see how short you can make your payment terms. For example, can you ask for some cash up front?
3 Look for recurring business opportunities
At the start of your business life, most of your business will have to be won from new clients. Winning business from existing clients is estimated to be between seven and 14 times easier than winning business from a new client. Aim to target new business from clients or customers that are likely to result in recurring business.
4 Be flexible
No one can predict exactly how your new business is going to perform. In the first 12 months of trading, you will probably need to tweak part of your business and marketing strategy. If you keep yourself open to opportunities and possibilities, you are more likely to be able to change strategy before it costs you time and money.
5 Work to your personal talents and strengths
In the early days as a one-man-band, you are going to have to be all things to all people. There are always going to be tasks that don’t fit your personal preferences. For me, this was bookkeeping. Be honest with yourself and outsource or delegate any tasks that can be done by someone else, without materially affecting the running of the business.
6 Set and write down business goals
Only about 3 per cent of adults have clear, written goals. These people accomplish five to ten times as much as people of equal ability and standing, but who, have never taken the time to write out exactly what they want to achieve. It’s the same with new businesses. Those businesses that remain focused on their goals are more likely to achieve greater things. In the early days, you are on a steep learning curve, so you will need to revisit these business goals every three months.
Review YOUR 2009!
December 14, 2009
Have you actually considered what you did achieve this year? Whether it’s in business or your personal life, what can you honestly say you are proud to have accomplished in 2009?We’re fast approaching the end of the year. Who’s going to admit it? At least one of us has said “I don’t know where it went!” It’s almost as traditional as putting mince pies out for Santa! Have you actually considered what you did achieve this year? Whether it’s in business or your personal life, what can you honestly say you are proud to have accomplished in 2009? The beginning of a year can start with great intentions filled with New Year’s Resolutions and comments such as “this is the year it will happen”. The question is, at what point do we review the last twelve months, allowing ourselves to celebrate successes and use our experience to improve? The answer is NOW! Allow yourself at least half an hour to consider the following points, which will enable you to make your plan of action for 2010 a lot more effective.
- What were your three principal ambitions for this year? Write them down followed by the answers to the following:
- How successful were you on a scale of 1 to 10?
- What would have made the difference between the score you gave and a 10....or an 11?
- How often did you monitor your progress? Would it have been helpful to have done this more often?
- If your priorities changed throughout the year, did you adapt your goals to ensure they were still realistic and achievable?
- Did you use all resources available to you? What or who else could you have used?
- Take five minutes away from these questions to make a cup of tea, check your email or make some calls.
...go on, put the kettle on! Now, imagine the answers you have in front of you are not yours, but those of a colleague who has requested your help. They’ve asked for your opinion on each of the points and are in need of complete honesty to help them improve for the future. What would you say to them?
- Do you think the scores they gave were reasonable?
- If they say that they did not adapt during change, or they didn’t use all available resources – ask them why? Was something holding them back? What obstacles prevented them from achieving each of these goals and how could they have overcome these?
- In what way have you seen them progress and grow this year? What do you see as their main achievements?
Finally, I’d like you to raise your mug (you did make that tea, didn’t you?) and congratulate yourself on everything you achieved during such a testing year – here’s to even more success in 2010...CHEERS!! To find out more about hgcoaching please visit www.hgcoaching.wordpress.com, follow me on Twitter @hgcoaching or contact Holly at hollygordon@btinternet.com
Your business idea is fundamentally flawed (you'll be pleased to know)
August 24, 2009
You're probably reading this blog because you are in the process of starting up a new business or you've got a great business idea that you want to develop and launch.
First of all, congratulations! It's a great feeling when you make that decision to start a new business. And if you’ve never done this before, you're at the beginning of a very exciting journey.
Now for the bad news. If you've just come up with a great idea and are now rushing to get it to market, you've probably got a really serious problem. And that problem is that your idea is quite likely to be fundamentally flawed. Or to put it another way, it's likely to go really badly wrong and it's probably not going to work.
I know that doesn't sound very encouraging, but before you rush off into the distance and start investing a lot of time and money into implementing your idea, you need to do something very important indeed...
You need to challenge it.
You need to look at your idea from different perspectives. You need to put yourself in the shoes of potential customers. You need to put on Edward DeBono’s black hat and challenge your idea seriously. While all of this may sound terribly negative and destructive, it's really important that you take this advice on board. So many businesses are launched with insufficient planning, insufficient testing, not enough feedback from people and poor advice.
If you actively approach your idea from a balanced and objective point of view, where you've considered the huge upsides as well as any potential downside which exists, then you'll be in a much better position to get it right.
Like with anything, starting up a business takes patience and a whole lot of learning. Market conditions change so quickly that you need to always approach you business holistically, and be willing to take advice on board. With those things in mind, it seems like you’re half way there having found this Donut!
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