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As a business coach, I often come across the same issues – over and over – that clients identify as critical steps they need to take to accelerate their business. However, this identifiable list requires time and effort, both which are often in short supply when you are running a SME. However, if you want to accelerate the growth rate for your business while simultaneously outperform other entrepreneurs in your sector, upping your business development efforts is crucial.
You cannot hope to outgrow and outsell competitors if you’re not willing to go all-in on increasing your growth efforts. Savvy entrepreneurs understand it’s not only their product/service that determines their success rate, but their willingness to be – amongst a long list – more creative, expeditious and impetuous than their competition.
If you’re ready to double-down on business success, these following five competitive components of business development warrant your consideration.
1. Extraordinary Networking
Investing early and often in your network is one of the smartest moves you can make as an entrepreneur. Attending networking events in your community, connecting with potential business partners on social media, and even building profitable relationships with vendors are all critical to your business success. Be sure to identify the areas in which you want to focus your effort; IE start-up, small or large business etc. Then, if needed, break it down further into more specialised segment, be it sales, manufacturing, marketing etc. Be clear who you need to contact in these segments as it may include business owners, company executive, consultants or specialists. The network you build early in your business life will pay dividends far into your entrepreneurial future and stand you in good stead in various business arenas.
2. Strategic Long-Term Planning
Too many entrepreneurs focus on the here-and-now of business development without taking a strategic view of the long-term future of their business. If you make it your mission to develop a succession plan, growth plan (or an acquisition plan), you will be investing in not only your own growth as an entrepreneur, but the long-term stability of your business.
Planning has always been one of the cornerstones of good management and allows owners and managers to not only have a framework and the tools to handle future issues, but to cope with sudden and rapid changes inside and outside of their business. Importantly, planning allows the company to deploy their (often limited) resources in more structured way.
Detail where you want to see your company in 5 or 10 years, as well as the types of success you want to strive for as an entrepreneur. Investing in (strategic) planning is a core competency of being a business builder.
3. Business Model Mastery
A growing number of today’s startup founders and ‘wantrepreneurs’ focus on creating a business as their main priority and think they can develop a business model for their company once they attain a product or market fit. This is a critical mistake. Whether you hope to attract investor funding, or bootstrap (start a company with little capital) your business to profitability, understanding your business revenue model options at an early stage is vital. There are various factors to consider (your resources, customer value proposition, processes etc.) and this can be a daunting and often slow process. However, do not discard this step in the development of your business. Plan your pathway to profits from the moment you conceptualise your company and your chances of entrepreneurial success increase significantly.
4. Talent Acquisition Skills
As a business coach, I spend a lot of time with clients discussing their companies need for good talent and as such, honing your talent acquisition skills early is essential for long-term business success. In an increasingly competitive market for talent, startups and SME’s are finding it difficult to attract, acquire, and retain top talent. It is important to understand and figure out what candidate is the right fit for your business and how you can meet their particular needs. You are, after all, aiming to attract and acquire quality, not quantity, and as such need to offer terms and conditions that appeal to not to all the applicants, but the one you need. If you want to increase your odds of business success, longevity (and less stress) and be highly competitive, start learning early what it takes to attract and retain superior talent.
5. Feedback Finesse
To be an effective business owner and manager, you need to have the skills to give out both praise and criticism and hence, you need to develop your own personal feedback strategy. Feedback is essential for business success; smart entrepreneurs understand this truth and integrate feedback into the fabric of their companies. Most owners and managers seem to believe they are good listeners and hand out lots of praise. However, I rarely meet an employer that feels that the boss sufficiently or adequately values her/his achievement. The feedback process can take place in myriad ways, but it is a critical and imperative piece of every owner’s development.
Understanding these five competitive components (there are others) of business development can and will lead you to greater success as a company builder. Be relentless in the effort you put into continuously improving the processes by which you can do better work and in so doing, develop a better and sustainable business. Know that it will significantly improve your odds of entrepreneurial success.
“The opinions expressed by BizWitty Contributors are their own, not those of BizCover and should not be relied upon in place of appropriate professional advice. Please read our full disclaimer."
