Put your business in the best possible position to succeed by taking heed of these ten tips for entrepreneurs:
- Create, use and maintain an up- to-date Business Plan – i.e. if you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there.
- Raise the necessary capital to give your venture a good start – running out of money is the number one reasons for new business failures.
- Take advantage of core marketing tools to grow revenue – i.e. lead generation, lead conversion, repeat business, brand advocates etc.
- Leverage technology to automate your business – the rapidly changing digital landscape contains a wealth of tools and opportunities to grow and ensure efficient operation of your organisation including social media, document management systems, cloud computing, search engine optimisation, search engine marketing, remarketing, pay per click campaigns, sponsored links/tweets and posts just to name a few.
- Plan your exit strategy – as the business owner make sure you don’t become ”irreplaceable” – if you are to critical to the business’ success no one will want to buy it.
- Be as productive as you can be – ensure your limited time is used effectively, for example delegate well, avoid spending your day ”putting out fires” and prioritise tasks.
- Systemise your business processes and procedures – ensure you are working on the business and not in it!
- Use proven sales and sales management techniques – don’t sell products and services but instead offers solutions and be an effective problem solver.
- Skillfully build and lead your team – hire the best talent.
- Brainstorm, select and implement on new ideas – invest time, money and energy into knowledge acquisition as good ideas often flow from new concepts learned and discovered.
