Business plans are a prelude to success, and failing to create one is a mistake that too many small businesses make. Not only can a great business plan help you achieve success by driving your efforts in a more calculated manner, but it can also help you gain the funding that you need from either banks or investors. Of course, there are as many business plans as there are individuals, and as such many business plans fail to capture all of the key elements they need to help their business succeed. To help you achieve a good business plan that will help you succeed, ensure you include these three points:
Market Analysis
If you do not conduct any market analysis, you are failing yourself as a start-up. You need to know not only who your competitors are, but who your local competitors are, and more importantly what the local consumers are like. If you open up your business in an area that has very few members of your demographic you are doomed to fail from the start. There are two kinds of market analysis you need to conduct as a result. The first is into the industry itself; who are the main players, what technologies do they use, where can you fit into that market, and so on. The second market you must analyze is your customers. Know who they are and what they want so that you can market to them more effectively.
Ensure Your Practice Adheres to Applicable Laws
Every business is subject to laws and regulations, from how they work to how they manage their data. It is important that you include how your company is not only going to excel, but also how it is going to excel within the parameters of the law. With law firms, for instance, Redbrick Solutions offers consultancy to ensure your firm complies with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) if you work with or within the EU. This, in turn, will allow you to offer more security and assurance to your clients as a result.
To ensure your company does comply with the laws that regulate it, you must first ensure you know what those laws are. Contacting a consultancy law firm or hiring a specialist in your industry can help you know the laws that apply to you and teach you how to adhere to them.
Budget
When it comes to creating a business plan, budget should always make an appearance. Without accurately understanding where the money will be coming from and where it is going, you cannot make any guarantees for the success of your business. You need to do cost analysis and prove to either investors or to yourself that you can survive until you get your first few clients in through the door. Either through savings or through money-saving activities like managing the entire business by yourself until you have enough income or notoriety to hire someone else, you need to know how you will pay for your business.
Never underestimate the power of a good business plan. It can help you circumvent easily avoidable challenges and see your business succeed.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/img_7716.jpg9171280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2018-04-25 11:00:312018-04-28 15:18:46Three Important Points to Include in Your Business Plan
Online marketing is something that never remains stagnant. The industry constantly moves forward and new trends and approaches are being developed all of the time. If you want to stay at the forefront of your industry, you are going to need to adapt and progress. If your marketing campaign is outdated, it is going to be hurting your business more than you realise, and it will eventually result in your being penalised by Google. With that in mind, read on to discover some of the most evident signs that your marketing campaign is totally outdated.
You are using social media like a machine – Social media is an extremely powerful platform for businesses today. However, it is surprising how many businesses are still failing to use social media effectively. One of the most outdated and damaging approaches is to treat social media like it is a machine. This means that you simply post an endless stream of promotional content. Social media is all about engagement, so if you are not engaging, you may as well not have a social media presence at all. You should use social media to talk to your customers and potential customers about anything relating to your industry. It is also a good customer service platform, enabling you to answer questions.
You are developing your campaign in-house yet you have no expertise – Marketing is not an area whereby corners can be cut. If you do not have the expertise in-house to put together an effective campaign and to maintain it to ensure that it continues to achieve results, then you need to look for the right firm for you.
You spin articles you have found online and put them on your own blog – Spinning should never be used – ever! It produces quality of a terrible content. It is obvious that the content has been duplicated, and it is obvious it has been spun, or it looks like someone with no grasp of the English language has written it. Not only is this bad for your brand image, but it will really hurt your search engine ranking, as spinning is heavily frowned on by Google. If you do not have the capacity to produce original, engaging, and impressive content in-house, you need to hire a B2C or B2B content marketing firm to do it for you. All posts need to be scheduled on a consistent basis. They need to be unique, they need to inform the reader, and they need to show you as an expert in the field. Spun content does not achieve this.
You are promoting, not providing – This is a big one! A lot of businesses are guilty of offering a flashy and amazing marketing campaign, yet they have nothing to back it up with. Let’s get this straight your product or service is your best marketing tool. Once you have aced this and you deliver an exceptional customer experience, you can then enhance upon it with innovative approaches to marketing. However, you cannot get the marketing right but the value all wrong.
You are still serving spam – Yes, 15 years ago if you sent someone an email that said the words “you have got mail” or something along those lines, most people would have opened it. However, times have changed. More mail ends up in the trash than it does being read. This is why you need to update your approach to email marketing if you are to have any success from it. Plus, not only is spam unsuccessful it is incredibly annoying, and it won’t do you any favours in the eyes of your consumer base. They will probably unsubscribe from your newsletters altogether, and they may look for a business that is less intrusive to purchase from.
So there you have it: some of the signs that your marketing campaign is in desperate need of an upgrade. If you have noticed one or several of the warning signs that have been mentioned there is no need to panic, but you do need to make some changes otherwise your business is at risk of being left behind the competition. Follow the advice that has been provided and you will be able to notice a difference to the success of your marketing efforts.
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There is no hiding from the fact that more people are launching their own businesses these days. It might be in terms of wanting more flexibility, a better lifestyle or money making opportunities to take advantage of. It is no longer a scary prospect for some, and can actually be one of the best moves you ame. But whether you are wanting to launch a restaurant, set up a new boutique store or run an online business, there are basic strategies you can implement into any business model to help you succeed. I wanted to share with you what some of them are.
Having everything you need to move the business forward
It may sound basic, but sometimes you need to have the basics done right before you can move forward, dn in terms of business, that can often mean the right equipment, location and ambition to move forward. Your seafood restaurant, for example, will need relevant equipment like a Pin-boning machine, descaler or filleter. Your shop or boutique store will need the right level of racking and shelving to showcase the products effectively. Your online business may require good camera equipment for photographs, a decent computer or portable device to keep you on the move like a tablet. Basic things, but important to ensure that your business runs smoothly.
The right level of marketing and branding to succeed
Having a business and everything in place is one thing, but without good branding or marketing who is going to see it or know of its existence? It is now easier than ever to get the message heard about your business. From social media advertising to having a decent and responsive website. Most of which, can be set up with a little guidance yourself. However, taking the time to consider your branding, and also your marketing outputs can be key ingredients to success. If you don’t feel comfortable doing it there are plenty of digital agencies online that will help you in terms of strategy.
Prioritising your time and skills and putting it to best use
One big strategy I think many of us could do with improving is our use of time and skills and putting them to best use. We can all be guilty of not prioritising what we need to do in the right order, spending more time than we should on needless tasks and really not making the most of what we are good at and what can be outsourced for better performance and also a saving on your time. Time blocking and working out where you can make the most difference in your business is essential.
Thinking outside of the box and for the future
Finally, while it may not necessarily be a strategy for improvement right now, everything that you do will have a poignant effect on the future. Always keep it in the back of your mind about what the next step will be?
I hope that these strategies help you move your business idea along.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/img_7713.jpg7391280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2018-04-23 11:00:172018-04-28 15:39:40Strategies To Help You Launch Your Business Idea
Tired of hiring the wrong people for your company? Improving your hiring process could allow you to find better candidates, allowing you to build a stronger team of employees. Here are five ways that you can improve your hiring process.
Fine-tune your job description
Your job description should be carefully worded to attract as many applicants as possible. Advertise the perks of the job and use a professional sounding job title. Whilst you should detail certain qualities that you’re looking for, try not to make the job sound too demanding as you may scare off applicants – the bad ones and the good ones.
Use social media
There are all kinds of places to advertise job vacancies including job listing sites, newspapers and public bulletins. Social media is fast becoming one of the best places to advertise jobs. It’s also a great means of screening applicants to check that they’re the right fit. LinkedIn is one of the best social media platforms for screening applicants as it tells you which previous job people have worked. You may also want to check someone’s Facebook profile – even if it’s set to private, an inappropriate profile picture could be enough to tell you that a certain candidate isn’t right for you.
Create an online tests and quizzes
Online tests and quizzes are great ways of deciding if people are the right fit for your job. This could be a personality test, a decision-based quiz or test of knowledge. Afterwards, you can look at the results and determine which candidates should progress forwards. Online quizzes could save you having a trial shift and could help to weed out applicants that are good blaggers.
Hire a recruiter
To save yourself time and increase the range of your search, you could hire a recruiter. This will cost you extra, but it could help you to find better candidates. Recruiters can be useful when it comes to hard-to-fill vacancies – these may require very niche skills or could simply require gruelling responsibilities.
Leave yourself enough time
The biggest mistake that employers make when hiring new staff is rushing the process. By giving yourself more time to advertise the vacancy, read CVs and interview candidates, you’re more likely to make the right decision. Manage your time effectively so that you’re keeping interviews on schedule and replying to queries from applicants promptly. If you’re struggling to find the time to do this, you may be able to get help from a senior employee of yours or use a recruiter to handle aspects such as interviews. On top of leaving yourself enough time for the hiring process, remember that you’ll also need to pour some time into training this new staff member and taking them through introductory paperwork. Many employees that leave soon after being hired do so because they haven’t been trained properly or haven’t been made to feel welcome – even if you’re hiring someone with ample experience, you company may have a different way of doing things, so help them to adjust.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/img_7690.jpg6051280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2018-04-20 16:00:412019-07-30 22:39:59You CAN Get The Staff These Days: Improving Your Hiring Process
We are not always happy in our current job, and want to make changes that will improve our lives, self-esteem, and bank balance. However, to successfully improve your career, you’ll need to adapt a new approach and attitude. Instead of waiting for the opportunity to knock, you have to get proactive and search for ways of improving your knowledge, getting extra work, promotion, or new qualifications. Below you’ll find a few tips.
Talk to Your Manager
You will never get that promotion until you ask for it. It is important that you let your employer know about your ambitions, and ask for advice. You might not want to go straight to the point and ask for a promotion, however, if you ask what type of extra work you can take on to help them out, it can help. You might want to volunteer for new projects or get advice on how to secure more qualifications.
Discover the Next Step
It is also important that you look through your strengths and limitations, so you can determine which future careers will suit you. If you cannot stand stress, working as a stock broker might not be for you. If you are not sure what career suits you, it might be a good idea to improve your self-knowledge and get a better understanding of your personality. However, if you have good people skills, you can be a direct marketing expert, customer engagement officer, or even a nursing practice leader.
Take Your Qualifications Further
When it comes to progressing your career, you can’t simply sit back and wait for your chance to train with your current or future employer. You will sometimes need to take the first step. Overcome your fears and search for online courses that will help you improve your skills and knowledge. You can find a course suitable for your plans, such as an rn-bsn online that can be completed online. Once you have the qualifications and knowledge, you can meet the expectations of your potential employers better.
Request Training
Sometimes the best approach is the direct one. If you want to get that management job, you can ask your employer for further training. Find a position that is in high demand and needs qualified workers. Offer your employer to complete the training for the unfilled position. If you present yourself in the right way, you might even get your workplace to fund a part of your course, or offer you a low interest or interest-free loan for the duration of the training. This way, you can get time off to prepare for the exams and show your commitment towards hard work and your employer.
Whether you are a nurse or an office worker, you will need to start with your own personal development before you can make a career progression plan. Learn as much as possible about yourself; your skills and limitations, and find the career path that suits your needs and your employer’s. Don’t wait for the opportunities to come across; become proactive in finding them.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/img_7689.jpg20003000StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2018-04-20 11:00:322018-04-21 14:49:38Why Career Progression Starts with Self-Improvement
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Three Important Points to Include in Your Business Plan
/in Entrepreneurship, Strategic Planning/by StrategyDrivenMarket Analysis
If you do not conduct any market analysis, you are failing yourself as a start-up. You need to know not only who your competitors are, but who your local competitors are, and more importantly what the local consumers are like. If you open up your business in an area that has very few members of your demographic you are doomed to fail from the start. There are two kinds of market analysis you need to conduct as a result. The first is into the industry itself; who are the main players, what technologies do they use, where can you fit into that market, and so on. The second market you must analyze is your customers. Know who they are and what they want so that you can market to them more effectively.
Ensure Your Practice Adheres to Applicable Laws
Every business is subject to laws and regulations, from how they work to how they manage their data. It is important that you include how your company is not only going to excel, but also how it is going to excel within the parameters of the law. With law firms, for instance, Redbrick Solutions offers consultancy to ensure your firm complies with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) if you work with or within the EU. This, in turn, will allow you to offer more security and assurance to your clients as a result.
To ensure your company does comply with the laws that regulate it, you must first ensure you know what those laws are. Contacting a consultancy law firm or hiring a specialist in your industry can help you know the laws that apply to you and teach you how to adhere to them.
Budget
When it comes to creating a business plan, budget should always make an appearance. Without accurately understanding where the money will be coming from and where it is going, you cannot make any guarantees for the success of your business. You need to do cost analysis and prove to either investors or to yourself that you can survive until you get your first few clients in through the door. Either through savings or through money-saving activities like managing the entire business by yourself until you have enough income or notoriety to hire someone else, you need to know how you will pay for your business.
Never underestimate the power of a good business plan. It can help you circumvent easily avoidable challenges and see your business succeed.
Signs Your Marketing Campaign Has ast Its Sell by Date
/in Marketing & Sales/by StrategyDrivenYou are using social media like a machine – Social media is an extremely powerful platform for businesses today. However, it is surprising how many businesses are still failing to use social media effectively. One of the most outdated and damaging approaches is to treat social media like it is a machine. This means that you simply post an endless stream of promotional content. Social media is all about engagement, so if you are not engaging, you may as well not have a social media presence at all. You should use social media to talk to your customers and potential customers about anything relating to your industry. It is also a good customer service platform, enabling you to answer questions.
You are developing your campaign in-house yet you have no expertise – Marketing is not an area whereby corners can be cut. If you do not have the expertise in-house to put together an effective campaign and to maintain it to ensure that it continues to achieve results, then you need to look for the right firm for you.
You spin articles you have found online and put them on your own blog – Spinning should never be used – ever! It produces quality of a terrible content. It is obvious that the content has been duplicated, and it is obvious it has been spun, or it looks like someone with no grasp of the English language has written it. Not only is this bad for your brand image, but it will really hurt your search engine ranking, as spinning is heavily frowned on by Google. If you do not have the capacity to produce original, engaging, and impressive content in-house, you need to hire a B2C or B2B content marketing firm to do it for you. All posts need to be scheduled on a consistent basis. They need to be unique, they need to inform the reader, and they need to show you as an expert in the field. Spun content does not achieve this.
You are promoting, not providing – This is a big one! A lot of businesses are guilty of offering a flashy and amazing marketing campaign, yet they have nothing to back it up with. Let’s get this straight your product or service is your best marketing tool. Once you have aced this and you deliver an exceptional customer experience, you can then enhance upon it with innovative approaches to marketing. However, you cannot get the marketing right but the value all wrong.
You are still serving spam – Yes, 15 years ago if you sent someone an email that said the words “you have got mail” or something along those lines, most people would have opened it. However, times have changed. More mail ends up in the trash than it does being read. This is why you need to update your approach to email marketing if you are to have any success from it. Plus, not only is spam unsuccessful it is incredibly annoying, and it won’t do you any favours in the eyes of your consumer base. They will probably unsubscribe from your newsletters altogether, and they may look for a business that is less intrusive to purchase from.
So there you have it: some of the signs that your marketing campaign is in desperate need of an upgrade. If you have noticed one or several of the warning signs that have been mentioned there is no need to panic, but you do need to make some changes otherwise your business is at risk of being left behind the competition. Follow the advice that has been provided and you will be able to notice a difference to the success of your marketing efforts.
Strategies To Help You Launch Your Business Idea
/in Entrepreneurship/by StrategyDrivenThere is no hiding from the fact that more people are launching their own businesses these days. It might be in terms of wanting more flexibility, a better lifestyle or money making opportunities to take advantage of. It is no longer a scary prospect for some, and can actually be one of the best moves you ame. But whether you are wanting to launch a restaurant, set up a new boutique store or run an online business, there are basic strategies you can implement into any business model to help you succeed. I wanted to share with you what some of them are.
Having everything you need to move the business forward
It may sound basic, but sometimes you need to have the basics done right before you can move forward, dn in terms of business, that can often mean the right equipment, location and ambition to move forward. Your seafood restaurant, for example, will need relevant equipment like a Pin-boning machine, descaler or filleter. Your shop or boutique store will need the right level of racking and shelving to showcase the products effectively. Your online business may require good camera equipment for photographs, a decent computer or portable device to keep you on the move like a tablet. Basic things, but important to ensure that your business runs smoothly.
The right level of marketing and branding to succeed
Having a business and everything in place is one thing, but without good branding or marketing who is going to see it or know of its existence? It is now easier than ever to get the message heard about your business. From social media advertising to having a decent and responsive website. Most of which, can be set up with a little guidance yourself. However, taking the time to consider your branding, and also your marketing outputs can be key ingredients to success. If you don’t feel comfortable doing it there are plenty of digital agencies online that will help you in terms of strategy.
Prioritising your time and skills and putting it to best use
One big strategy I think many of us could do with improving is our use of time and skills and putting them to best use. We can all be guilty of not prioritising what we need to do in the right order, spending more time than we should on needless tasks and really not making the most of what we are good at and what can be outsourced for better performance and also a saving on your time. Time blocking and working out where you can make the most difference in your business is essential.
Thinking outside of the box and for the future
Finally, while it may not necessarily be a strategy for improvement right now, everything that you do will have a poignant effect on the future. Always keep it in the back of your mind about what the next step will be?
I hope that these strategies help you move your business idea along.
You CAN Get The Staff These Days: Improving Your Hiring Process
/in Talent Management/by StrategyDrivenTired of hiring the wrong people for your company? Improving your hiring process could allow you to find better candidates, allowing you to build a stronger team of employees. Here are five ways that you can improve your hiring process.
Fine-tune your job description
Your job description should be carefully worded to attract as many applicants as possible. Advertise the perks of the job and use a professional sounding job title. Whilst you should detail certain qualities that you’re looking for, try not to make the job sound too demanding as you may scare off applicants – the bad ones and the good ones.
Use social media
There are all kinds of places to advertise job vacancies including job listing sites, newspapers and public bulletins. Social media is fast becoming one of the best places to advertise jobs. It’s also a great means of screening applicants to check that they’re the right fit. LinkedIn is one of the best social media platforms for screening applicants as it tells you which previous job people have worked. You may also want to check someone’s Facebook profile – even if it’s set to private, an inappropriate profile picture could be enough to tell you that a certain candidate isn’t right for you.
Create an online tests and quizzes
Online tests and quizzes are great ways of deciding if people are the right fit for your job. This could be a personality test, a decision-based quiz or test of knowledge. Afterwards, you can look at the results and determine which candidates should progress forwards. Online quizzes could save you having a trial shift and could help to weed out applicants that are good blaggers.
Hire a recruiter
To save yourself time and increase the range of your search, you could hire a recruiter. This will cost you extra, but it could help you to find better candidates. Recruiters can be useful when it comes to hard-to-fill vacancies – these may require very niche skills or could simply require gruelling responsibilities.
Leave yourself enough time
The biggest mistake that employers make when hiring new staff is rushing the process. By giving yourself more time to advertise the vacancy, read CVs and interview candidates, you’re more likely to make the right decision. Manage your time effectively so that you’re keeping interviews on schedule and replying to queries from applicants promptly. If you’re struggling to find the time to do this, you may be able to get help from a senior employee of yours or use a recruiter to handle aspects such as interviews. On top of leaving yourself enough time for the hiring process, remember that you’ll also need to pour some time into training this new staff member and taking them through introductory paperwork. Many employees that leave soon after being hired do so because they haven’t been trained properly or haven’t been made to feel welcome – even if you’re hiring someone with ample experience, you company may have a different way of doing things, so help them to adjust.
Why Career Progression Starts with Self-Improvement
/in Professional Development/by StrategyDrivenWe are not always happy in our current job, and want to make changes that will improve our lives, self-esteem, and bank balance. However, to successfully improve your career, you’ll need to adapt a new approach and attitude. Instead of waiting for the opportunity to knock, you have to get proactive and search for ways of improving your knowledge, getting extra work, promotion, or new qualifications. Below you’ll find a few tips.
Talk to Your Manager
You will never get that promotion until you ask for it. It is important that you let your employer know about your ambitions, and ask for advice. You might not want to go straight to the point and ask for a promotion, however, if you ask what type of extra work you can take on to help them out, it can help. You might want to volunteer for new projects or get advice on how to secure more qualifications.
Discover the Next Step
It is also important that you look through your strengths and limitations, so you can determine which future careers will suit you. If you cannot stand stress, working as a stock broker might not be for you. If you are not sure what career suits you, it might be a good idea to improve your self-knowledge and get a better understanding of your personality. However, if you have good people skills, you can be a direct marketing expert, customer engagement officer, or even a nursing practice leader.
Take Your Qualifications Further
When it comes to progressing your career, you can’t simply sit back and wait for your chance to train with your current or future employer. You will sometimes need to take the first step. Overcome your fears and search for online courses that will help you improve your skills and knowledge. You can find a course suitable for your plans, such as an rn-bsn online that can be completed online. Once you have the qualifications and knowledge, you can meet the expectations of your potential employers better.
Request Training
Sometimes the best approach is the direct one. If you want to get that management job, you can ask your employer for further training. Find a position that is in high demand and needs qualified workers. Offer your employer to complete the training for the unfilled position. If you present yourself in the right way, you might even get your workplace to fund a part of your course, or offer you a low interest or interest-free loan for the duration of the training. This way, you can get time off to prepare for the exams and show your commitment towards hard work and your employer.
Whether you are a nurse or an office worker, you will need to start with your own personal development before you can make a career progression plan. Learn as much as possible about yourself; your skills and limitations, and find the career path that suits your needs and your employer’s. Don’t wait for the opportunities to come across; become proactive in finding them.