Starting your own business is easy. Growing a business is not so easy. Over 500,000 new companies are expected to be incorporated in the United Kingdom in 2022, but that doesn’t include the hundreds of thousands of sidelines and supplemental incomes established by individuals. A large part of this remarkable growth can be attributed to a decreasing barrier to starting a company/business, coupled with the huge number of opportunities that exist in today’s marketplaces, thanks to the availability of amazing technology, enormous amounts of support, funding, and willing workers!
I would like to emphasize this last point. Many businesses fail due to blissful ignorance. You can’t assume success… you must create it. Any successful entrepreneur will tell you that establishing and building a sustainable business involves countless hours of toil, torment, stress, financial constraints, and the need to stretch capital in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances, sacrifices in friendships, obligations to family, decisions, compromises, and persistence working with employees, customers and suppliers. Although there are challenges, there are equally as many rewards. Understanding what it takes to build a business is the key to success.
Too often I see entrepreneurs hope, pray, beg, and even scream for their business to be successful, without knowing why. I work with many entrepreneurs, and I am often puzzled by the attitude that prevails when it comes to selling, marketing, delivering, planning, and financing. An entrepreneur should recognise that creating a successful business is not a rite of passage; it is not something that just happens. The foundation for a successful business must be sturdier than the façade, consisting of quality thinking, strategic planning, meticulous research, high-quality resources, and a talented team with the resolve to succeed. This isn’t a matter of luck.
Your business should have a plan, a strategy, a budget, and the very best resources (people, funds, systems, etc.) to meet its goals. If you don’t have these things, then you need to rethink what your priorities are. Start by focusing on the basics; what do you sell? Who are your target clients? How will you sell it? How will you deliver it?
When this is in place, take a step back and ask, what else can we sell? What can we do to increase sales? Is anyone else interested? In what way can we reach them? Can we do anything differently? What is our vision for three years down the road? And so on.
You are probably familiar with supply and demand curves if you’ve studied economics. Presently, the market is characterized by an abundance of supply and a scarcity of demand. Don’t make the fatal mistake of assuming people will come if you build it. Building a successful business doesn’t work that way. Plan your business strategy and deal with the opportunity by creating an actionable plan that can be executed. You can always hire a coach if you’re having trouble with this!
My passion for entrepreneurship comes from hearing people’s stories. So tell me about your journey.
Get in touch at pierso@thebusinessbox.com, call me on 073 666 55 666 or find me on Linked In or Facebook. I might be wrong, but I am never uncertain and I’ll certainly lend you an ear!
