Business Articles by Author - Mark Smock |
|
|
Mark
Smock
Business Buyers Directory
Mark
Smock is President of www.business-buyer-directory.com,
the FIRST
international business buyer directory
of its kind. Business Buyer Directory
provides a non-traditional means for proactive
business buyers to locate businesses for
sale worldwide that meet their exact registered
purchase criteria. |
| :::
Home> Business
Articles> Mark
Smock> Business growth article |
|
|
10 Cardinal Rules to Business Growth - Mark Smock |
After
over 30 years of participating in hundreds
of businesses, competing in at least as
many different industries, with companies
marketing both products and services, you
begin to develop and accumulate some fundamental
businesses axioms or “rules of thumb” that
seem to make more sense everyday and gain
more value in business practice as your
career continues to advance and evolve.
You like to think what you have learned
and the business knowledge you have retained
along your long and varied career path is
unique, proprietary, or even “original”,
but somewhere deep inside you know that
most of the things you hold near and dear
to your own business self identity probably
were already developed, practiced, and taught
way before you ever entered your first business
conference room.
You sincerely hope that attempting to document
your “Cardinal Rules for Business Growth”
in an article of this nature will somehow
make sense to other business people, or
better yet, your written contributions get
added to other’s own personal list of business
do’s and don’ts.
Ultimately a business must sustain itself
with profits to continue its legacy. Without
consistent sales revenues and reasonable
expense control it eventually makes little
difference what else you may attempt do
to continue to advance the future of the
enterprise. Businesses need to grow because
those that are risking their hard earned
investment in the business logically expect
a reasonable return on that capital.
The simple reality of business is, if there
is not a reasonable return on money invested
in a company, it makes more financial sense
to put that same money in a fixed, guaranteed
return paper investment. Never again would
you have to worry that your competition
is about to make your entire product line
obsolete!
Before we get into my list of Cardinal Rules
of Business Growth, it is most appropriate
to acknowledge two fundamental business
assumptions that relate to this list: 1)
businesses are made up of people, working
together for a common cause, existing by
focusing on solving other people’s problems,
namely “the customer” 2) No matter how “good”
you think you are, how effective your team
is and how much of the targeted markets
you have cornered, there is, and always
will be, another company attempting to do
what you do “better”, cheaper, and more
consistently than you ever thought. Your
ultimate goal is to delay that from happening!
A “for profit” company must have a plan
and a clearly defined strategy, made up
of tactics to achieve desired results. This
article will focus on tactical efforts one
should consider, in one form or another,
to maximize the probability of continued,
profitable growth.
A very successful business mentor of mine
once told me, “If it is important enough
to throw money at, it is important enough
to write down in black and white”… so if
you have a business plan, a business strategy
and a few tactics to pull it off, be sure
to write them down! At least you have a
fighting chance to improve upon the matter
at hand if it is written. Thoughts, concepts
and ideas are difficult to improve upon
otherwise!
Proven Tactics for Business Growth:
Give priority to
new product or service development
Always seek ways to improve what you have
to offer and develop means to obsolete your
own products or services before someone
else does
Find new applications
for existing products or services
Be sure to establish a communication means
between your company and your product /
service users to determine how they really
use your products. Offering a financial
incentive to “surface” news applications
helps too!
The “easiest” sale
of them all
You have already spent the money to acquire
your customers and build a relationships
with them, why not ask what else can we
make or provide for them?
Know where to get
all the answers
ALL the answers about how your company is
doing, where it should go and what it should
stop doing, reside within your own customer
base. Just ask!
“Buy” rather than
“Build”
Take a good look at your targeted industry.
There usually is a resourced limited company
who offers viable products and services
that relate to yours. Consider buying them
versus investing the same money in an “organic”
growth alternative.
Think “out of boundaries”!
If you just focus on US markets, someday
you will find your company can no longer
effectively compete because someone else
beat you to the global market game board,
the board the business game of tomorrow
will be played on
Go “E Commerce”!
Establish an effective means, via the Internet,
for your customers to educate and update
themselves, solve their own problems and
order your products with a few clicks of
a computer mouse
Know when to say
“No” and “Stop”!
The most effective business leaders know
when to say “no” and when to say “stop”!
Making or doing something that no longer
makes financial sense needs to be dealt
with decisively, no matter the, “We have
always made those” , “We have always sold
those” or “We have always done it that way”
commentary.
Measure and publish
everything
Business practices can only be improved
upon if they are written, measured, tracked
and periodically audited for effectiveness.
All results justify being shared with all
employees, good or bad. Always celebrate
success publicly, criticize poor performance
privately.
There is always a price to pay for business
growth. The process is always laden with
mistakes, unexpected surprises, opportunities
to learn new things, always offering “another
chance” for future growth opportunities.
There is no clear roadmap on how to best
grow your company, each company has its
own growth challenges.
Hopefully these “Cardinal Rules for Business
Growth ” stimulated some creative thought
to make your business growth tactics that
much more effective. In today’s global business
environment the competitive edge we strive
for gets thinner every day, growth is the
price we pay to maintain that edge.
:::
by Mark Smock |
|
|
Related Business Resources at Woopidoo.com |
|
|
|
|
|
Subscribe |
|
|
|
Business
Success |
|
|
Mark Smock |
Business buyers Directory worldwide
|
|
|
|
|
|
