“Do what everyone else is doing (but spend less money doing it), or do something no one else can do.”
Every successful business was built on a well-developed business strategy. Your business strategy is the choice you make in other to reach your target market. In other words, “Do what everyone else is doing (but spend less money doing it), or do something no one else can do.”
I knew a lady who started a school with little or no plan at all. It began as a lesson class for children whose parents were low-income earners or too illiterate to understand the need to enroll their wards in a school.
Although the business started well, then it quickly expanded, and she wasn’t ready for the expansion. In other words, she lacked business strategy plans.
Plus, she lacked the proper financial tools and couldn’t track her expenses.
SEE: Financial Tools for Small Businesses
My friend managed to get the right permits and converted her classes into a school. but there was a lot more she didn’t put in place.
She had a dream and she wrote it boldly on the main entrance to her school entrance. The vision was clear to have 200 pupils at the end of the year.
Sadly, she never achieved it and I’ll tell you why, as I share seven effective business strategy plan that would help you grow your business, and explain how a lack of these critical aspects could ruin your business.
Contents
What to do:
You can tell you if a business would succeed by observing its choices.
As a business owner, your goal is to reach your consumer, and this intent must show in the choices you make from the outset of setting up your business.
If you already made poor choices, you can always restructure using these business strategies.
Note that these business strategy plans are not entirely new; neither are they secret.
Top players in your industry use these tools. However, they have been broken down to help small scale business owners and start-ups with zero knowledge of business strategy, like my friend, who opened a school.
You can’t copy every business strategy; you have to match your business strategy to your business model and location and industry.
irrespective of your industry, there are key aspects in business strategy plan that are generic to all business modules.
Here are 7 Effective Business Strategy
Positioning
The first strategy is to always know where to position yourself in the market concerning the needs of the consumer. You’re not the only one in the market, but you can place yourself at a vantage point in comparison with your competitors. My friend’s competition was the government primary school which stood across the express and a private school that catered to the affluent.
Your Vantage Point
The other part of an effective business strategy should be what makes your company different or stand out from your competitors. For my friend, it was her relationship with the parents and guardians of her wards. She gave feedback directly to the parents in the communication model they understood and received feedback in the same manner. The private school had its mode of communication, but it was very formal. The government school had little to no contact with parents and guardians.
Defining your target
Next, you have to define your target. My friend in the early days of her school would walk along the road targeting families in the most wretched living conditions. She would stop scantily clad children on the street to enquire about their schooling and even escort them to their houses to meet their parents. Her target was clear and a poster or colorful flier wasn’t the best way to reach her consumers.
Think Growth
Systemic growth is an essential aspect of business strategy. The success of a business is measured by the growth rate of the business. It’s with growth that a company can improve its service. With my friend’s business model, as the number of students increased, the running cost increased, there was a need to buy more chairs better tables, educational toys, and class fittings. This was where my friend began to miss it. She couldn’t keep track of her finance.
Facts not Wishes
Fact-based decisions are also important. I told you about the bold statement on the entrance to my friend’s school. But she never achieved it. The fact was that chasing numbers wasn’t the best move for her business at the time. She couldn’t afford expansion and her current capacity could only seat 25 students. Her students were getting older and their needs became diverse. She lost sight of her priority which led to her making worse choices.
The Long Run
Think long term. I know it’s hard to effectively make long term plans due to the inconsistencies of everyday living. But planning short term is like flying blind. The biggest hit to my friend’s business was the loss of one key staff. That staff doubled as a lot of things and my friend wasn’t able to find a replacement.
Measure your result. A business strategy plan is not a one-off exercise. You have to keep going back to the drawing board to shift pieces. At the start of your business, many things may not be necessary but as you grow, your business needs changes. If your business is anything like my friends, the growth rate may spike up rapidly and if you’re not ready, the consumer demand may crush you.
These strategies are anchored on key choices.
Choices that Affect Business Strategy Plans
Your first choice should be to understand the people that you are trying to sell your products and services to.
Choose to improve your product or service; this is a choice that will help boost your success rates.
Be innovative, consider creating new brands that meet the needs of your customers. At some point your customers will grow older, change lifestyle and technologies, or even expand their family unit, you must be able to adjust your strategies to meet their needs.
Partnering with other inventors, customers, and suppliers is a choice that is necessary to the changes made to your business as your strategy evolves.
In conclusion, spend time reviewing your business strategy. The thoroughness of your planning will determine the effect of your business strategy.
