Growing a business is as tough as starting a business. You'll have to be prepared to face a whole set of challenges coming your way as you try to establish yourself in the market.
Here are some useful tips to help you run your business smoothly:
Leadership and strategy
To be an effective leader, what you say and what you do must be aligned. Hence, straight forward communication, clear expectation and obvious core vision must be presented to all staff to ensure that what is spoken and what is done are hand-in-hand. Hierarchy is also a necessity in a big company with a big production team.
If you're looking for highly skilled board members, evaluate and find one who can maximise a board's impact.
There are three types of board members:
- Working boards
These boards contribute significant ongoing support to your company. They will roll up their sleeves and help the management team on the job. They meet frequently and discuss how to improve the business performance.
- Reporting boards
These boards meet a few times in a year for a status report on the company. They are usually critical of the management team if there's a problem. They will take action if the company continues to do poorly.
- Lame duck boards
These boards have no influence on the company as they are simply rubber stamp exercises for the CEOs and founders.
Handling sales
To ensure your business presence is felt in the marketplace and most importantly, your targeted audience, you can:
- Find a well-trafficked location for your company and put up a good signage for optimum visibility.
- Develop a mailing list to inform customers of special promotions, change of store location.
- Create opportunities for "second sales" by offering other products or services other than what customers mainly come into your store for.
- Make your space inviting as you may want to keep your customers around as long as possible. The longer they linger, the more they understand your products or services and the more they'll spend.
Customer service
Customer loyalty speaks volume for your products and services. They can generate new businesses with praises they share about your offerings
Some of the surefire methods to build your word-of-mouth business are:
- Offer incentives to catch their attention by giving away free samples, discounts for future purchases or even plain cash!
- Send a referral form to your clients or customers with your invoice for services rendered.
- Ask prospects who have turned you down for referrals.
Offices and operations
If you decide to run your business from home, keep in mind the following:
- Never use your home address for your business cards, stationery, collaterals, etc. Please use a Post Office box instead.
- Spend money on business cards, brochures and stationery that reflect your professional operation. Without a storefront, your image is all you have.
- Get a dedicated phone line for business use only. Get a voice mail, Internet connections and fax lines as well.
- Answer the phone professionally.
- Get out of the house every day as creativity suffers the longer you spend in one place.
- Don't stay trapped in your SOHO. Keep yourself busy with outside meetings and activities.
Nevertheless, setting up a new office is a mighty task. Don't spend beyond your budget when you:
- Find the right location.
- Negotiate the deal.
- Purchase/rent office furniture.
- Purchase/rent equipment and technology.
- Design the office.
Marketing
The key words are to make others feel good about your products or services in the most ethical way possible.
The most important thing is to determine the market for your products or services. Ask these three crucial questions when starting a business:
- Who has a real need for your products or services? How big is the demand?
- How much are they willing to spend to buy the products or services?
- Do your products meet the customer's need either by saving or spending substantial amounts of money?
Finance and capital
The hard truth is that sending out an invoice doesn't always result in getting paid. Hence, you need to develop a consistent accounts-receivable programme. You need to:
- manage your receivables.
- revamp your payment procedures.
- be clear when you expect your money.
- provide incentives for quick paymasters.
- give clear and well-prepared with documents.
Law and taxation
Whether it's surviving an audit, capitalising on business deductions or finding tax-friendly ways to run your business, you can reduce your tax obligations by:
- review your compensation arrangements.
- plan out purchases for the year.
- avoid mistakes you might have made in the past.
- reassess your form of business.
