There’s one secret that many successful entrepreneurs know, and that’s managing a business well before marketing it. Starting and running a business is time consuming and stressful, however that’s just a part of the race. To turn your business into a client magnet, it needs some form of dedication, effort as well as planning. Here’s a list of tips or guidelines that every entrepreneur should follow.
If you can answer yes to one of the following questions, then it’s a sign that you are not making use of the 14 great guidelines that every entrepreneur should follow.
(a) Do you feel like you are overwhelmed each morning, so that you don’t even know what to do when you open your business in the morning?
(b) At the end of the day, do you feel like you’ve been occupied working hard the whole day yet you’ve achieved absolutely nothing?
(c) Do you find that your clients/customers are falling through the cracks?
If your answer is yes to any one of the above questions, then here are 14 things you must know and practice if you want a successful business that will satisfy you.
1. Keep an eye on how cash flows in and out of your business. It’s quite easy to assume this, yet money is the lifeline of your business. You should know exactly what’s going on in your business at all times.
2. Motivation is vital in any business because it boosts employees’ morale. You can’t afford to have workers who are there for the sake of working and earning a salary. You need to make them happy about what they are doing by motivating them. For example, could purchase gifts for those who perform well. There are many ways of motivating them.
3. Make both repeat and first time customers happy and you’ll be happy. Many businesses are biased towards customers who spend little, compared to those who spend more. You should treat them all equal.
4. Keep your staff and suppliers happy and they’ll be more than ready to work for you. Making them happy boosts their morale to work for you, hence productivity and success at the end of the day.
5. You must learn how to improve your profit margin. You don’t have to rip off your customers to achieve this. Instead, you can negotiate for cheaper production processes, cheaper packaging and other alternatives, and that will help you minimise your cost, translating into profits.
6. In addition to your existing customers, you should always seek to add more customers through networking. You could also pay your existing customers when they refer someone to you.
7. You must hire skills that you don’t have. You certainly can’t be a jack of all trades. It’s important that you hire what you need because your business can only be run by professionals experienced in different fields.
8. Create a calendar template that you can use at all time. You can assign Monday as your marketing day, Tuesday as your business development day etc. Once you create a structure, you’ll realise that it’s easier to focus on one thing at a time.
9. Focus on simple tasks first before resolving to do the most difficult one at the end. Difficult tasks need concentration, and when you dedicate time for them, you’ll be able to execute them without having to worry about other things.
10. You should pay attention to surveys and statistics because they reflect the actual happenings in the market. The market changes so fast. One minute, a product becomes the talk of the day, the next minute, it’s no more. So you should always update yourself based on the stats and surveys.
11. Focus on creating a long term plan. If you must, use spreadsheets to lay out how you’ll do things. Once you follow specific criteria, you’ll know what to do each morning when you open your business and that translates into an effective long term plan that’s achievable.
12. You must always have two or three plans to back you up in the event that plan A or B fail. You need something to caution you in form of an idea.
13. Get everything organised to avoid confusion when performing tasks. Being organised means that you are only keeping your documents in order, arranging weekly meetings with your employees, and managing your sales well. It works magic.
14. Finally, you need to capitalise on your niche. You can’t be the best in everything, however you can be good at one thing. Find out what that one thing is and focus on making it even better.
The 14 guidelines every entrepreneur should follow above are very effective for any business that aims to achieve success. Try implementing them and see the changes taking place in your business.