Growing your business

'I thought running a business would be hard to start but would get better over time. We've increased our revenue, hired more people, ..., so why am I overwhelmed?' Does this resonate with you as an entrepreneur? This is a common refrain from entrepreneurs wondering how turning their idea into an exciting venture resulted in them wanting to pull out their hair in frustration and working all hours to resolve issues.

According to Steve Blank (the father of modern entrepreneurship), there are 3 stages from startup to a large company:

Steve Blank

50% of startups fail within 5 years of inception

If your business is at this stage- the search stage- you beat the odds stacked up against you! Most startups fail here because they lack a good product/market fit, have cash flow issues, etc. You will, however, note that your organisation is agile- pivoting in response to changes in the environment- risk-taking; has few processes and does whatever it takes to get the work done. You run on adrenaline!

71% of businesses fail to make it past year 10

In this period, startups move from search to build stages, and while the reasons for failure at this stage are varied, startups tend to grow beyond the capacity of the founder to handle every aspect of the business. Also, their sources of competitive advantage in the search stage i.e. overly customised product/service, founders involvement in everyday tasks, whatever it takes mentality and one centre of power, become their Achilles heel when they progress to the build stage. 

Systems and processes

To succeed in the build stage, installation of systems and processes in a startup is vital. Systems and processes allow one to (1) understand clearly how their business operates, (2) tease out the important processes from the unimportant ones, (3) offer a consistent product/service, (4) focus on idea generation and (5) take time off work confident in the knowledge that the business will continue to run in their absence, Yay! 

If you are ready to enjoy running your business again, here are a few simple steps to instituting systems and processes in your organisation:

1. Analyse your transformation process 

Determine what your inputs are, how you source them, how you transform them into your final product, etc. Ask yourself which of the steps you are taking are working, what's not, how long does it take to move from input to output and what you would change? 

2. Evaluate your processes

Analyse your processes and (1) determine their efficacy in achieving your end goal, (2) get rid of processes that add no value to your transformation process (3) reduce the time it takes to complete a process, (4) reduce the number of people needed to complete a process and (5) identify where in the process value is created and whether that value accrues to the customer or the business.

3. Create process maps

These help you identify all the necessary steps in your transformation process and ensure that each process feeds seamlessly into the next. Starting with the desired outcome and working backwards will help in highlighting the necessary processes. When done, compare this to your current processes, look for the most efficient steps and eliminate any unnecessary ones. Write down the process; that way, everyone in the organisation has access to it and can implement it. 

4. Test your process

The only way to find out if your process makes sense is to test it and tweak it where the results are not as desired. While testing your process, also decide on which steps in your process can be automated and automate them.

5. Test-run with your employees

This goes without saying. Since your employees are at the forefront of delivering to your clients, train them on how to use the set process map and encourage them to adhere to it to avoid variances in outputs. 

6. Systems improvement

A system is a living thing and, therefore, should be adjusted in light of new information. Staff should feel free to suggest changes to the processes.

Note:

1. There is no need to wait until you are in the build stage of your business to implement systems and processes. They can be implemented as soon as you work out your product/service delivery process. 

2. The move from search, build, grow is not linear and there are no hard and fast rules about how long a business spends at any of these stages. It very much depends on the nature of the business. 

What systems/processes do you have in your business? When did you implement them? If you do not have any, consider looking at implementing them and get in touch if you need help navigating the process.

Taking businesses online

Covid-19 has come and upended the way we have been doing business. Talk to any business owner and the conversation will veer towards taking their businesses online. The global lockdown has had business owners rethinking their marketing channels and so it is not surprising that almost everyone whose business can be moved online is looking to do so.  Those still holding out on taking your businesses online because your business has not been affected by covid-19, know that you are missing out on an important constituent for your business that is online and should make plans to engage them.

But, before one thinks of taking their business online one should come up with a digital marketing strategy, and in this article, we will look at some of the issues you as an entrepreneur should consider.

1. Target market & segmentation

It is vital that you have a clear understanding of whom your target market is. To do so, you should be able to clearly break them down by demographics, geography and psychographic elements. You will also need to understand your customer buying process, i.e. how long it takes them to move from need awareness to purchase. Once you are clear on whom your target market is, you will find reaching them becomes easier and cost-effective.

2. Channel

Tied to the target market is knowing where your target market congregations online. When you sold your wares in a shop, you relied on footfall for your clients, with an online business, you have to be clear on where your target market spends its time or searches for your products. Here you could be thinking of using a website to drive sales, online shop like Shopify, e-Bay, Amazon, FB, etc or you could use social media, mobile apps to reach your target market. However, given the many social media platforms available there is a need to decide on which of these you will use- FB, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.

When thinking of the channel(s) to use and how to use them, consider what purpose that channel will fulfil. Are you using the channel for informational purposes where you share content? If you are, how engaging will your content be? Or is the purpose to convert your leads into sales? Also, consider whether you would like your channel to be interactive and how responsive will you be?

3. Reach

Determine how you are going to reach your target market. Will you do so organically or use paid ads? If you plan to use paid ads, do you have a budget for this and what outcomes would you consider as successful utilisation of your budget? If using organic growth what activities are you going to engage in that will allow you to reach your target market at the level you want? Who will be responsible for engaging with your followers- you or a hired social media manager?

4. Goals and expected outcomes

Set SMART goals that are aligned to your business objectives. This will guide your actions and ensure that you focus only on activities that lead to your expected outcomes. Once your goals and expected outcomes are set out, you will want to track your performance, so you need to decide on which metrics to measure e.g number of followers, the number of shares, engagement, post reach, mentions, conversion rate, click-through rate, bounce rate, testimonials, etc, There are many metrics out there that you could use but focus only on the ones that help to meet your marketing objectives and by extension your business objectives.

5. Payment systems

For some businesses, the payment systems they used while offline will be redundant while operating online, so it is important to device payment systems that will suit your online clients. The beauty of living in 2020, covid-19 excepting, is that there are myriad of ways that payments can be made, so select the ones that are convenient to both you and your customers from mobile money, to Paypal to stripe, credit cards, etc.

6. Returns

Selling products brings its own challenges with regards to the inability of customers to try on a product (clothes, shoes, etc) before buying and the same is true for services too. To counter this problem, some service providers offer free trial periods during which time a client decides whether or not the service meets their needs before they splash money on it. So, determine how you are going to deal with clients wanting to return products they had purchased. How you handle this will in part determine your customer's satisfaction with your service.

6. Listen to your followers

Finally, the most important point I would live you with when operating online is to listen to your customers. Client feedback has never been more important and easy to get than now. Act on their concerns.

Let me know what other strategies you would add or subtract to these in your online business.