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Business as it were, may be referred to as all activities of a man or an organization that are connected to production of goods and services with the aim to make a profit. Business plays an important part in the economy of any country by creating jobs, goods, services and improving or driving innovations. Business is owned and registered by an individual, partnership, corporation, or other legal entities with efforts to producing goods and services. After registration of your business name, the next steps should be how to grow your business successfully and what are these steps? Legal registration of your business name is a good start and required, but registration of your business name in the mind of people is better. Whenever, the need arises in the mind of people to buy a product or look for a service, what will make them to remember your business or company name with regards to the product or service you render is the kind of business name registration that maters to growing your business. These are what you are expected to gain in this article. However, here are the factors to grow your business:
- Passion to meeting and improving Customers’ Satisfaction.
Customers are the life-wire or life-blood of any business or company, they are the one who patronize your products or services and without them it may be difficult if not impossible for a business or company to survive. Indeed, customers are the most important key in any business. Providing outstanding customer experience is one of notable ways to grow your business. Let’s take for example, Adolf ‘Adi’ Dassler the founder of Adidas in 1949, in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany, he came up with an idea to make the best sports shoe for their customers or athletes, by meeting and improving their satisfaction on their products. How? I guess you may ask! Adi Dassler met with the athletes he carefully listened to them on what they wanted in details and always observed what can be improved on or invented to support their needs, so as to meeting and improving their customers’ or athletes’ satisfaction. Today Adidas has grown to become the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and the second largest in the world after Nike!
Planning is the ability to sit down and think carefully to choose before time what to do, how to do it, when to do it and by whom is to be done so as to achieve a desired ambition. It’s a method of arranging ideas into actionable steps. Also, for more understanding, Planning may be define as activity by which a person or managers analyze present conditions to determine the ways of reaching a desired future result. Better still, planning may be defined as all the thinking that takes place before actions and decisions are taken. Every individual going into business must plan in fact, planning is both an organizational necessity and managerial responsibility. Since, no organization is free of change all must plan effectively for survival and growth. For your business to grow you must plan, planning is very good, it helps you to provide right direction to follow, any business venture contains an element of risk, planning helps you to look into those future risks and also show you the ways to reduce the risk or to leave above them. Planning helps you to take a good decision in your business, hence, the saying, “he who fails to plan, plans to fail”.
- A Good Business Idea
First and foremost, what is a business idea? Simply put, a business idea is the reason why you establish your business or company. It is a plan or an idea conceived for starting your firm. It’s the first step you need to take in building a successful business. A good business ides must be primarily aims to solve a problem.
- Innovative Business Idea
Having good business idea without innovation may not be enough, in an environment where change is inevitable. It’s good to introduce your product or service in a new way that will make your business unique. It involves what goods to produce or services to offer and how they be marketed. Business idea is what first comes into your mind, it has to do with the problem you intend to solve with your product or service you want to offer and while, innovative business idea, in the other hand, is how the product or service you want to offer can be improved upon on a regular interval to meet your customers’ satisfaction. Innovative business ideas will help you or your organization to stay above your competitors. Innovative business idea helps the organization to differentiate its self from other organization producing the same products or services by implementing different innovative marketing, production and sales strategies. It will help your organization to grow in terms of profitability, productivity and cost effective. Your innovative ideas you bring into your business will help your target customers to patronize your products or services, in other words, it will help you to gain more customers.
Examples of business innovation
“Apple was a $2 billion company in 1997, then it jumped to a $700 billion valuation in 2015 as a result of innovation that came from Macbook, ipod, ipad and iphone.” Source (Wikipedia)
“Uber was founded in 2009 and has become a $50 billion company in just 6 years, with its simple yet unusual idea of getting a taxi with the press of button that has completely revolutionized the way we book taxi.” Source (Wikipedia).
Truly speaking, innovative business ideas, will help your organization to grow in terms of profitability, productivity and at the same time maintain cost effective.
- Secure Startup Capital
Another step in growing a successful business is to secure the initial capital needed to start your business. You need to do your calculation very well to know the cost and the amount you will need to venture into a business till it will starts to yield profit. Starting a new business without the proper funding or amount of capital to get the business running may force you out of the business. This explains why you need to do your proper calculation and ensure you secure the adequate fund or amount of money needed to get the business up and running. However, in case you want to source for capital to start your business, you still need to be extra ordinarily careful on this, because there are different sources to seek capital for a business that you need to consider carefully. Sourcing capital from the bank to start your business may be difficult to obtained, sourcing it from family and friends may be easier and better but it may come with certain conditions attached to it, while sourcing it from your own saving account is the best, it’s the writer opinion anyway! What matters here is to do your own calculation or evaluation very well before taking any decision. There other sources that time will not permit the writer to go into details, it’s better to secure capital to start your business. This will help your business to grow.
- Website / Online Marketing
An effective communication tools through appropriate channels to get across a wider audience is also a notable way to grow a business or company. Online marketing is a way to promote your products or services, by using the internet and other digital communications to connect with potential customers. Online marketing is cost effective it reduces expenses, and improves customer service. Online marketing campaign is very fast, allowing your organization to target specific audiences. It also allows you to share a quality contents that may compel the reader to start demanding for your products or services.
- Vision
For better understanding purpose I’ll like to start this paragraph with provoking questions. Why do you want to go into a business? What particular business do you want to venture into and why? What do you intend to achieve by going into a business? What particular problem do you want to solve by your product or service? … If you can answer more questions in this direction you are likely to define your vision. Business vision is the goal you plan to achieve through the business you want to venture into. Your business vision is the reason for your business. Your vision will help you or guide you not to take any action or decision that is not aligned with your vision. Your vision will guide you to follow the right direction to realize your future ambition or aspiration. So what is your vision statement?
Vision Statement.
Here are examples of vision statement:
BBC : “To be the most creative organization in the world”
Disney : “To make people happy”
Google : “To provide access to the world’s information in one click”
IKEA : “To create a better everyday life for the many people.”
Instagram : ”Capture and share the world’s moments” etc.
- Mission
Mission is the work or activity you need to do to bring your vision into reality. Vision is the goals you need to achieve while the mission is the plan or the road map you need to follow to achieve them. Mission can be seen as a great tool to develop business goals. A good mission statement specifies what to be done to achieve their vision statement.
Mission Statement.
Here are examples of mission statement:
Apple: “To bring the best user experience to customers through innovative hardware, software and services.”
Procter & Gamble: “We will provide branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world’s consumers, now and for generations to come. As a result, consumers will reward us with leadership sales, profit and value creation, allowing our people, our stakeholders and communities in which we live and work to prosper.”
Understanding the words “Vision” and “Mission”
One important thing I’ll like the readers to note in this article is to get the clear picture of both the vision and the mission. While vision is the aim you wish to achieve in a business, it explains the purpose why you go into business, mission in the other hand is how to bring that your aim into reality. Mission explains what you have to do with passion to bring your vision or that aim into reality. At this point, I think it’s better we look into one or more vision and mission statements of different companies for better understanding.
Case study one:- Apple.
Vision statement: “To make the best products on earth and to leave the world better than we found it.”
Mission statement: “To bring the best user experience to customers through innovative hardware, software and services.”
Here the Apple vision is to make the best products on earth and to leave the world better than they find it. How do you think they can bring this vision or aim into reality, please listen to them again in their mission statement which is “To bring the best user experience to customers through innovative hardware, software and services.” If customers have best experience in using their products or services definitely they have achieved their vision. So, their mission is the road map to achieve their vision. A good mission specifies the strategic approach to fulfill the vision.
Case study two:- Procter & Gamble.
Vision statement
“Be, and be recognized as, the best consumer products and services company in the world.”
Mission statement.
“We will provide branded product and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world’s consumers, now and for the generation to come. As a result, consumers will reward us with leadership sales, profit and value creation, allowing our people, our shareholders and the community in which we live and work to prosper.”
P&G mission statement has the following attributes to bring their vision into reality:
- Branded products and services of superior quality and value
- Improve the lives of the world’s consumers now and for generation to come
- Leadership sales, profit and value creation
- Prosperity of people, shareholders and communities.
A company that producing products and services of superior quality and value purposely to improve the lives of their various customers and the generation to come with intention to remain a leader among their competitors in terms of sales, profitability and value creation, that will also support the prosperity of people, shareholders and communities will surely be one of the most recognized and with best products and services providers in the world.
- Time Management
“There’s time for everything” is one of the popular saying, time waits for no one and in business time is money. Proper use of time is very crucial in growing your business. Time management may be refers to how time is effectively handled with a degree of skill to do the right job or task at the right time. Time management matrix may be used which is the methodology of planning your task according to their importance and deadline, so that you can do them at the right time.
- ‘Never Give Up’
In conclusion, ‘Never give up.’ No organization is free from change, everyone must plan effectively for survival and growth. There may be different threats to your successful growing of your business such as substitution and competitive rivalry, natural disaster e.g. flood etc., there may be situation and circumstances that may cause your business to struggle for survival, just keep going, you will learn a lot from not given up, you deserve happiness and success, some of the successful organizations today may also have their own stories on how their business struggled for survival, but today they are successful businesses, tough situations build strong people in the end, always remember that “tough time never last but tough people do.” So, ‘Never give up.’
Thank you !
A very educative right up.