Everything you need to know about business

Small business development programEverything you need to know about BusinessBusiness TipsJustice Mandhla5/12/2010What is contained in this report? > Business tips for beginners. > Business tips for business owners >Tips for employees Everything You Need To Know About Business My goal with this report is straight forward. To provide you with tips and strategies that you can use whether you’re an employee, you want to start your own business or you are a business owner. ,[object Object], Business Building Blocks Guide for Beginners There is no step by step roadmap to business success; but the following factors could guide you in building your business, help you eliminate guess work and start your business on a sound foundation. Decision – You have to make a conscious decision that you want to be an entrepreneur. Making a conscious decision for yourself is very important before you go into business for yourself. If you know you enjoy going to bed early, why would you start a business as a late-night delivery driver? If you know you don’t like working with kids, why would you start a business as a day care owner? By taking a conscious decision of what you like, you can find a small business for yourself that is much more fun for you to own. The more fun a business is for you, the more you will work at it and the better the business will do. You have to like what you do because you will be spending a lot of time with it. You need to think of it as a joy to do, not a chore to accomplish. Making the right decision can make that happen for you. The single most important success factor for entrepreneurs is choosing the right business. There are three common ways to get into business. You may start a business as an enterprise, you could buy an existing business or you could decide to purchase a franchise. What is the purpose of your business? For most people it’s to gain financial freedom and have time to do what they want with their lives. Often the best way to identify which type of business to start is to examine where your expertise and passions intersect. Therefore evaluate your expertise and passions. What is your expertise? Your expertise is your level of knowledge and familiarity with a specific subject - your knowledge, education, skills and abilities. What is your passion? Your passions are the pursuits that you find personally inspiring or enriching - your hobbies and interests. Starting a business that combines your expertise and passions is an excellent idea. You will choose the type of business that complements your interests, past experiences and knowledge background. Before you put too much work into your future business, make sure that the area you choose is the right one for you. There’s no right or wrong business – but there are businesses that are right or wrong for you. Many small business owners fail a few times before they get it right, but if you review your goals, interests, hobbies and skills this will give you an accurate assessment of what kind of business would be a good match for you considering all these factors. Starting Your Business To start building a business is not quick and easy. It requires some serious thinking and work. Why do you want to start a business? Do you love the product/service or business you want to start? Do you have passion for this business? Will you have staying power and resilience to hang in there until you succeed? Are you starting a business because you think it is easy to start and affordable? Does it promise to make you lots of money in a short time? What skills do you possess? How will your skills help you to start building a business? If you don’t have skills, how will you acquire those skills? What makes you think this business is right for you? Why do you think building this business will offer you the best chance of success? Are you really cut out for this business? What makes you tick? If you have answered the questions honestly as mapped out above and wrote down the answers in a note book, you can begin assessing yourself whether you are ready to start your own business. Visit businesses of the type you want to start and talk to people who work there. As an example, say you want to start a business of fixing computers, your ability and skills in electronics will be an essential prerequisite. If you want to paint business premises your prerequisites could be on heights and safety and electronic skills would have no impact on your ability to build and run your business successfully. If you like working outdoors, working in a cubicle will frustrate and make you miserable- why not choose gardening or landscaping instead. Once you have identified a business you would like to start, ask yourself the following questions; ,[object Object]

Is the market growing or declining?

What will distinguish my business from similar businesses and how will customers see this distinction?

Will I make money from this business?

Who actually uses this service or product?

What is the size of the existing market is it growing, shrinking or stagnating?Answering these questions will clarify your business objectives and help you define your business concept. You will know where your market is and who your customers are. You will have a clear picture of your customers before you start building your business because you would have narrowed your market. The questions will assist you to check the market trends taking note of seasonal businesses and consider implications regarding fluctuations in demand. Choosing a business that is reflective of global trends will have an influence on the success of the business you will eventually start. Choosing and building a business requires different skills sets and the ability to spot clearly defined interest groups and to find a marketable product or service to suit your niche market. Before you quit your Job! As a small entrepreneur, you learn about your new business while keeping the safe and steady income of your main job. You start small and build your business gradually. This limits your risk in case your new business fails. In exchange for taking less risk, you must work harder. You must be dedicated, willing to come home after a full workday and keep going on your side business. It takes discipline, tenacity, faith, and a very understanding family to manage your business while keeping your day job. It’s not easy to work all day at the office and then go home at night to work on your own project. The competition for your time can become intense. But if you create a plan and follow it in an orderly fashion, you have a very good chance of eventually succeeding.Mastering the essential skillsTo succeed in any business, you must know and do certain things very well. For starters, you must master the fundamentals of direct marketing. Direct marketing is by far the most efficient way to sell products and services profitably. It is essential for small entrepreneurs because it allows them to break into their market without losing a fortune on general advertising.You must also learn about the kinds of products the marketplace desires and which price points are ideal. You must know how those first sales are made — the specific marketing techniques to employ to generate a sale without spending too much money acquiring the customer. You must understand the “back end” of the business, too (how to upgrade a new customer into buying higher-margin products).Learning about the market you intend to enter can also be done while you still have your day job. It is relatively easy to take advantage of the Internet or use flea markets to test new product ideas cheaply. And you can learn the backend of the business by becoming a customer of a company selling a product similar to the one you want to sell. Create your backend strategy by seeing the kind of offers you get from them after you make your first purchase.Avoiding the most common start-up mistakesThere are several pitfalls in starting any new business. But as a small entrepreneur you can easily avoid them. The most common is dictating to, rather than listening to, the market. New entrepreneurs often waste precious time and effort hoping to bring something brand-new and exciting to the marketplace. But if the product doesn’t exist, there is usually a good reason for it. It’s better to start with a better or cheaper version of a product that is already known and in demand.The next-biggest mistake new entrepreneurs make is spending too much time and money on non-essentials like business cards, photocopy machines and fax machines. Keep in mind that the fundamental activity of a business is the commercial transaction. Your best chance of success comes when you devote 80 percent of your initial resources to making the first sale.Master the necessary skills, avoid the pitfalls, and your business will grow. At some point in the future, you may realise that you are making more money from your second income-your side business than you are from your first- your job. That’s when you may choose to drop your “day job.” 3 Essential Requisites before Starting Your Business Determine What Are Your Skills? If you are going to be successful at your business, you need to be good at what you are doing. If you are a horrible at sales, would you start a business where you had to be selling a product to strangers every day? By determining what your best skills are, you can begin to determine what small business is going to be right for you. To start, make a list of your top 20 skills. These need to be things that you are good at and it can cover the entire collection of your skills. If you are a good bowler, put it down. If you are good at yard work, put it down. Make your list and when you have completed that list, begin to cut it down to your top 10 and then your top five. Those top five skills are what you should concentrate on for your business. If you can, try and combine skills into one. For example, if you are a good bowler and have training as a manager of businesses, then maybe owning a bowling alley will be right for you because you can put those skills together. Likewise, if you are a people person who has been known to be good at doing yard work, combining those skills can help you start a business where you go to customer’s houses to work on their yards for them. When you have your list of your best and most important skills, you are ready to move on to the next list; your experience. Your Experience If you are a great bowler but have no experience managing a business like a bowling alley, then that may not be the best small business for you. However, if you are a great bowler, have experience working in a bowling alley and have managed a business in a different field or industry (even restaurant experience) then maybe that is a great small business for you, because you can transplant your experiences from one type of business to another. This is known as portability. Portability is the ability to transfer or adapting your skills sets, experiences and knowledge from one career to another. You need to make a good list of your experiences so that you can cross reference that with your skills to determine what fits and what does not. By filtering out skills based on your experiences with each other, you can have a much more solid list. You can choose to apply your experiences to all 20 skills you wrote down, or just the top five if you want. It depends on how many skills you have and how much experience you have associated with each. Any work experience you have will apply here. Also, any volunteer experience you may have can be included. Even hobbies that may apply to a skill can be included. Anything at all that has to do with the skills you have entered, and business in general, can be used as part of your experience list. Other Abilities – your hobbies and interests Beyond your skills and experiences, what other abilities do you have that can be used to help you choose a business? Most likely, your abilities will be covered in your skills assessment, but not always. For example, you may put down that one of your interests is that you can ride a bike and have for several years. This may not seem like much, but when you factor it in with your skill of knowing all the routes in the city for timesaving, and your experience as a delivery truck driver, you have a possible small business idea of owning your own bike courier business. Another ability to consider may be being able to juggle. This can be listed under skills as well, but this hobby can then be turned into a small business as a children’s entertainer. Make a list of your hobbies and interests now, as many as you can think of and cross reference them with your education background, knowledge, work experiences and your skills. By doing that, you will have created a comprehensive list of skills; abilities and experiences that will help you choose a small business that works with those. 7 Steps to get any bank to finance you Forget the ads where a happy, smiling team of bankers sing about their friendly service- banks are hard-hearted businessmen who only smile if you’re making them money or you’re about to make them money. And right now in today’s financial uproar, they aren’t getting any friendlier. They certainly don’t just finance a business just because you seem honest and friendly and look good. And maybe that’s what puts most people off when it comes to asking for money. They just assume they’ll just walk into any bank and the bank manager will gladly give them all the money they want. But if you follow the following steps as set out below, you’ll increase your chances of walking away with the finance you need, while others walk away empty-handed. Step #1: Use clever, hidden psychology Be clear about what your business is offering. For example, if you want to run a bar you might think you’re selling beer – but that’s not really what makes a bar or club a success. After all, all clubs sell beer, so you’re not going to excite anyone with that idea. Instead, think deeper. What’s your venture really about? In this example, it’s about entertainment - People go to bars to satisfy a social need, not simply to booze. They could do that at home for a third of the cost. So sell the idea of what will make people go to your bar rather than the one up the road. Step #2: Expenses are more important than profits! Don’t be afraid to show expenses. In fact, flag them up loud and clear. Show the set-up costs, show a marketing budget because you’ll definitely have to advertise, show the direct costs of your product - If you show the costs, you’ll show you understand your market and what’s needed to break it. So don’t go in with wild claims that you can turn $25 of their backing into $1 million overnight. That’s not realistic. Step #3: Entice them with your ROI Try to tie your costs into return on investment (ROI). Banks like clear figures that show that if $10,000 is invested then it will lead to $100,000 of income, for example. The tighter the link between the investment from the bank and the return – the better this will read to your prospective investor – your bank. Include goals and milestones in your plan that demonstrate how you will be measuring your success along the way. This shows to your bank that you intend keeping your promise, and they know from dealing with many new businesses that monitoring progress is a key factor in business success. Step #4: Use the power of innovation Demonstrate how innovative you and your business can be. Banks like to see creativity and even if your business concept or product does not set the world on fire with excitement, the way that you run your business can. So, introduce new and interesting ways of promoting your business. For example, targeted ads for women-only car insurance now appear on the back of cubicle doors in the ladies loos of many highway service stations! An idea like that is enough to make even a fairly dull business idea sound interesting! Check out the book “Boost your sales and attract new customers” by Justice Mandhla for innovative ways of how you can market and advertise your business cheaply. The book is available in most online bookshops including Amazon.com and Kalahari.net. Step #5: Get rich slow – not quickly! Impress your bank by showing them you’ve a well thought out strategy for future growth – and that you want them to work with you at every stage. Show your bank a short, medium and long term plan such as your initial set-up, three years and five years. Your bank manager will see that you have thought your way through the issues and how your business is likely to grow long term. And, if you talk about this long-term plan with confidence, the bank manager will actually start to picture your business being around for five years, ten years and longer. Step #6: Use realistic optimism At all stages show your bank you’re optimistic about your success, but realistic about the constraints along the way. All businesses have ups and downs and to suggest otherwise would show a level of over-optimism that would make your bank distinctly nervous. So, introduce a healthy dose of realism into your plan and show that you are ready to face the challenge! Step #7: Show them ‘Plan B’ Managing risk can be the make or break in any venture – and yours will be no different. If you want to make the big bucks, you’re going to have to take some chances. And you need to show the bank what you’ll do when things go wrong. And they will. Of course, your “rights” should heavily outweigh your “wrongs”. But banks will want to see you have a Plan B in the event that one of your ideas fails. Identify the major risks to your business in your plan and then show how they’ll be overcome by creativity, monitoring and good management. In other words, you should answer the difficult questions before they ask them! Use the seven points we’ve run through here and you’ll have a persuasive package that your bank manager simply can’t refuse. Business Tips for business owners Take a Fresh Perspective Seeing the gaps in your business Taking a fresh perspective should not be reserved for tough economic times only. To give your business a competitive edge, you do not always have to be relentlessly chasing new opportunities. Sometimes you need to review your plans and change them if necessary. You need to think of better ways of achieving your business goals. Forget the over used phrase ‘if it is not broken don’t fix it.’ Irrespective of how great your business is doing, every now and then you need to stand back and assume you are doing it all wrong and think how you are going to do it totally different. Ask yourself the question; what would I do differently from what I am doing right now? Reflect on the valuable lesson you have learned in the past. This will enable you to see the gaps in your business. Pulling away from the pack There are a number of ways of making your customer aware of what you do, but the key is to build awareness that appeal to your target customer base and to stand out from the crowd. Look for instant fix that are inexpensive relative to your current marketing and advertising strategies and immediately implement them. To make a real measurable impact, you must approach problems differently. You need to consider things you have not taken into account in the past. This requires you to venture outside your comfort zone and take some carefully calculated risks and only in this way will you pull away from the pack. Doing it differently Brainstorm and conduct a swot analysis, and from the results you will derive from this exercise, the information will help you to analyze your business and create marketing opportunities which are new, different, and unique. The greatest strength you will achieve from successful completion of this exercise is that when you have completed it, you will have a written tool against which you can plan to maximize the strengths in your marketing plan, address the inherent weakness in how you are marketing to your clients or customers, seize upon opportunities which you may not have previously recognized, and formally identified threats—which may not have been apparent to you. In looking at the strengths of your business, you’ll notice that most of the strengths will also have components which must be addressed as weaknesses, because each strength will probably have a corresponding weakness. Let’s assume that you are opening a small retail food store. If your business proposition is strength for you—you will have the ability to operate the food store, you will also have a corresponding weakness in that there are many different food stores in the marketplace, and you must recognize that for each strength you must have a plan to address every weakness. The importance of brainstorming and swot analysis cannot be overemphasized, because it forces you to look at many different aspects of your business in a different way. No matter what business you operate, most challenges you will face will be exposed through brainstorming and swot analysis. You have to apply your mind to the problem that you want to solve. How many times have you read a book that promise to provide you with a formula to do something in an easier, quicker and more efficient way? A book that promise you to make you money, make you a millionaire or help you to lose weight and become healthy and fit. There are hundreds of such books out there. You can read them all or those related to the problem that you want to solve. Some will attempt to provide you with the step-by-step method of doing whatever you want to achieve based on the writer’s knowledge and experiences. While some will only ramble and provide you with a lot of repackaged and rehashed information that you already know. Which brings me to the answer to the question; is there anything like a blueprint or formula to success? I have to warn you upfront to be wary of any book that purport and advocate that it can provide you with a formula to success. Because there is no such blueprint in real life. What works for one person cannot be replicated by another to achieve the same outcomes and results. I am the first to admit that you can learn from mentors and you can be inspired by and motivated by self development gurus to start projects and achieve your goals. The buck unfortunately stops there. You have to apply your mind to the problem that you want to solve. The path will not be easy; it is full of cliffs, and cul de sacs. The steps that I will describe below will assist anyone who wants to start a project or solve a problem. Clearly identify and define the project or problem you want to solve and construct a foundation upon which your project will be based. This involves; ,[object Object]

Determining what need to be done to solve the problem

Understanding the scope of the problem

Brainstorm and take into account all the links that may be possible solution to the problem.

Analyze the positives and negatives of the ideas to determine the strengths and weaknesses (SWOT Analysis)

Decide and choose which ideas will work

Combine, connect and piece together the ideas to form the structure for a possible solution to the problem

Choose the ideas that are likely to work

Conduct Scenario Planning (Risk Management)

Test the ideas to determine whether they work

Based on the results of your testing implement the solution to your problem

Review and evaluate the results

Continuously monitor the resultsUsing the above steps will help you to see things holistically and enable you to perceive pieces of ideas and links, even outside of your problem scope and how these can be put together to form the solution to your problem. Entrepreneur Tips The following are the most important tips for any entrepreneur who wants to succeed in any business: Have a clear goal and pursue it relentlessly. Focus and get the basics right and be disciplined. Be in tune with customers and staff. Ability to recruit the right people for the right roles in the right positions. Recruit people who are passionate about what they do and keep them stimulated, engaged and interested in their work and create reasons for them to stay. Find a way to retain the best of these people. Invest in employee development. Have a reward strategy and philosophy. Ability to make good people decisions. Use this ability as your competitive advantage. Maintain morale and keep employees happy and productive. Success is all about Perseverance, Determination and Focus. If you've been in business very long, chances are good you've started out spending hours closing sales, processing transactions, fulfilling orders, and finding new leads in an effort to boost your sales. You wasted time on the phone talking to prospects who asked dozens of questions and then never bought anything. You wasted money into your website without seeing the results you expected. You did your best to provide amazing customer service, but you still had to fight tooth and nail for referrals and repeat business. You worked for hours on end without seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. And you long ago, gave up the idea of doing what you love. But you know, nobody starts a business expecting to give up their personal life and spend hours at the office. It's just what happens when there are bills to pay, employees to manage, customers to keep happy and prospects to convert. But what you need to realize is, despite all the things that keep you running day-in and day-out there is a reward at the end. Continue building your business despite all the hardships. Success is all about perseverance and determination, not giving up, doing your best, keeping at it focus - when you would rather quit and rid yourself of the business. But when we quit, we can forget about achieving the goal we are working towards. It's like running a long-distance race - a marathon. At the start, you feel strong and full of enthusiasm, but as the miles take their toll on your energy reserves, you think to yourself, 'Why am I doing this? This is tough!' If you decide to quit you are immediately out of the race. You will never be able to finish the race let alone running a business - It's over for you. There is no committee that sits down at the end and decides whether or not you should still get a medal. No one says, she/he tried so hard in the beginning, “can't we just give it to him/her?” No. There is no vote. Hang in there! The worthy projects you are involved in are worth fighting for. Success takes strength of mind, courage, moral fiber and drive. It does not come without these traits. But it is worth it in the end. A happy marriage, a successful business, a mature son or daughter, a fulfilling career in your chosen field. These things are the rewards of perseverance and are worth every ounce of blood, sweat and tears. Stay the course and finish the race. You can do it! No matter how successful your business performs, it can always be improved. As a business person you need to take a critical look at your business and decide what is working and what is not. Concentrate your efforts on looking for new ways of doing things. Continuous improvement, constant re-evaluation of every aspect of your business to find ways to make it better needs to become part of the culture of your business. To accomplish this situation, here are steps to help you and your team. Responsibilities for Teams ,[object Object]

Provide open, honest, full and accurate information to the team leader and to other team members

Always act in a positive and constructive manner ( always act professionally)

Understand the difference between personal responsibilities and team roles

Accept ownership for team decisions

Recognise and respect each team members roles and understand that each serve a purpose in achieving the broader team’s objectives

Show loyalty to the business, the team leader and the team.

View criticism as an opportunity to learn

Everything you need to know about business

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Featured

Featured (20)

Everything you need to know about business