It all starts with a need and ends with the happy customer who has the interest and desire to purchase from you and keep interacting with you. You’ve heard the expression that “necessity is the mother of invention. It can be said that necessity is the mother of businesses as well. In most businesses, there are five basic steps that help to overcome most of the challenges that one faces when starting a new business. I call them 5 Steps to Business Success.
Look for things that go wrong regularly
If you have an idea that solves a problem for people, and there are things that you and others complain about on a regular basis, this is a wonderful indicator that you may have a winner on your hands. Look around you and see all the products and services that have come and gone over the last 500 years. No matter what the product, no matter what the service, each product or services fulfills some kind of need. Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid refers to these needs as FEPS: financial, emotional, physical or spiritual. If there is a connection with one or more of these needs, you may just have something that the world is longing to consume or embrace.
Pick a solution and create a product or service for it
A true entrepreneur doesn’t just see a problem or a situation to complain about. With every discontent there lies the seed for a new product or service. If there was not a need to be driven to the airport so that you don’t have to pay for parking fees, you would not have the thriving taxi businesses you find in most large cities. When people have an ache, they are longing for it to be resolved. When people have a joy, they are longing for it to be preserved. I believe that all challenges exist so that a solution can be found.
Target your market and zero in on your ideal client
My biggest advice to anyone starting a business is to really know who you will be selling to. Get to know what your target market is and then look for that subset called your ideal client. As Michael Port says, life as a business owner can be great when you work with people with whom you will feel energized and inspired. This helps you to keep going and helps you to do your best work.
Set 12-month marketing and sales goals
Even if you don’t have all the details in place, you can create your 12-month marketing and sales goals. This will give you a direction for steering your enterprise to success. Without a plan, you will find yourself changing as the wind blows or chasing new technology. Worst of all, you can find yourself spinning your wheels with the look of being busy. Have a direction and only make changes if they make you get closer to your goal and increase your profitability while not draining you of your vision.
Take consistent action and track your results
By taking consistent action on your plan and tracking our results you’ll know what you are doing and you’ll see how well it works. In addition, by keeping a record of you activities, you will notice if there is a trend in your business. A trend can be that business always increases in the fall and slumps around the winter holidays. Next year, you may increase your service packages with great savings to your loyal customers during the fall. You may change to increasing your public speaking in order to lay the foundation for a prosperous spring. Unless you are aware of the trends of your own business by keeping track of them, you will not be able to make decisions about what your best course of action will be.
Following these five steps will ensure that you have a plan to deliver the right solution that your ideal client is longing for. As long as there are customers who are interested in your product or service and are interested in you and are thrilled with what you have to offer, you will find that you get to continue to do business. While the lifeblood of business is the income that you generate, the spirit of the entrepreneur is fed by success. When you feel successful, you feel inspired and when you feel inspired you want to market your business so that you can create even m
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