How To Find the Right Partner For Your Business – 8 Things to look out for

Your business has the potential to benefit from the many available options for growth. In my last two blog posts I share the 7 Ways To Grow Successful Business Part 1 & 2, which you can refer to, for more growth strategies.

All such options means we have little excuse in not taking advantage of the strategies to grow our business. One of the strategies identified is to form quality strategic partnerships.

Partnerships can be sought with

  - complimentary businesses
  - customers
  - suppliers
  - agents or
  - competitors.

You might be wondering, ‘what do you mean by partnering with a competitor?’ Business in the 21st century has evolved and organisations are always seeking for strategic ways to compete effectively on the global platform, even if it means partnering with competitors to compete effectively elsewhere. A lot of such partnerships helps a business to potentially compete more effectively with other bigger players in the industry, sector or global market.

Any good partnership should essentially result in a win-win situation for both parties. It is a MUST, however, to clearly set out the object of the partnership and have a written agreement in place. Which should also include understanding and agreeing on whether the partnership is for a specific product line, service, project, time frame, geographical region or for the working together of two whole businesses for the foreseeable future.

Finding the right partner is a make or break for any business, thus the need to do your best to land the best partner. Some pointers to look out for in considering who your partner should be.

1. Both parties must be seeking for such partnership - Although it may not always be the case, that both partners may be on the look out at the same time. It is important to consider the potential partners desire for such a venture and the value they place on the potential benefits of coming together. When a partner is not wholly committed to the venture, they will potentially back out at the least hurdle.
2. A good partner must share in your values, vision and drive - Often times we get excited about the coming together and overlook what the core drivers are, for the parties and how they want to get ‘there’ – the ultimate goal or vision. Conflicting values are recipe for disaster before the word ‘go.’ Every business has or must have its core values or set of principles by which it operates. Barring that, it is set for distractions and a sense of lack of purpose. A partnership stands to thrive if the partners share in the same core values and principles for growth and business success.
3. Right skill set and experience - It is important that the potential partner has the skill set and experience that will complement your skills. Because, the more skills both can bring to the business the easier it will be to grow the business and achieve your goals. For instance, if you are a good designer (clothes, software, etc) and weak at marketing. You could look for a marketing company (clothing retailer or software marketing company, respectively) to partner with. This will potentially enable you to focus on what you are good at and concentrate on improving on your work, whilst your partner concentrate on the marketing aspect of the business.
4. Synergy - You must seek for a partnership that the resultant synergy will far more outweigh the two businesses put together. A good partnership should potentially yield more returns or benefits exceeding the individual outputs put together. What am I saying? To use turnover and profits as an example to illustrate this point. Lets assume company A with turnover of £2.5 million and profits of £1 million, is to partner with company B with turnover of £1.5 million and profit of £400,000. On coming together, all things being equal, they should be potentially turning over £5 million+ with profits of about £2.6 million+ annually.

In the next post I will share the rest of the pointers to help you land the right partnership in growing a successful business.

Share this post with your network and leave your comments. If you haven’t yet got your copy, check out our books - “The Business You Can Start” and “You’ve Been Fired! Now What?” (Ebook edition – Itunes, Kindle, Nooks, Kobo). These books offers you 40 businesses you can start, 30 ways to identify business opportunities, 33 business principles, business systems, strategies, and many more to start and grow a successful business.

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7 Ways To Grow Successful Business Part 2

Business owners without an exception, when asked, express the desire and need to grow their business, irrespective of its current size. This is almost certain to be the normal expectation of any person in business.

Following the previous post, let me introduce you to the next set of tips that can help you on the path to significant growth in your business.

4. Target other markets – This can be approached in different ways.

• You could consider redesigning your current product or service to meet the needs of a new set of clients or customers completely outside your core target market.
• You could also consider expanding into different cities, regions or nations, making your products available to potential clients in these new markets.
• Alternatively, you could potentially develop complete new set of products for this new market.

5. Form quality partnerships – It also helps to form partnerships that results in a win-win situation for both parties. However, it is important to clearly set out the object of the partnership and have a written agreement in place.

• It is important to also note that a partnership does not always have to result in merging up the businesses involved. Partnerships can always be created for the sole purpose of a single project or product range or service.
• Partnerships helps you to take advantage of the synergistic effects from two people or businesses working together.
• Partnerships could potentially expose you to a whole new client/customer base you may never have been able to access by your own efforts. It could also give you the added advantage of sharing creative ideas and quality research information that could help the business to grow and expand significantly.

6. Diversify – Setting up and operating by the right business systems (refer to Chapter 9 – Successful Systems – of our book,“You’ve Been Fired! Now What?”), can help you grow your business significantly. The experience and confidence gained in operating your current business, assuming you have the right structure and systems in place, can help you diversify into other businesses.

Most businesses offering different products and services today started with only one product or service line. They however took advantage of the established systems, experience and confidence to branch out into other product lines, industries and sectors.

7. Network – It is a MUST for the 21st Century business or entrepreneur to actively network. In networks, seek to build good and professional business relationships. Build these relationships based on merit, integrity and excellence. Always look for ways to help others. In the words of Jack Welch, “Everyone knows that to succeed in today’s competitive global marketplace, you also have to be smart, curious, and highly collaborative.”

I hope the above has been helpful in your quest to grow and expand your business successfully.

You can share this post with all your networks, leave your comment and share with us any others ways you used in expanding your business. Don’t forget to check out our books “The Business You Can Start” and “You’ve Been Fired! Now What?” (Ebook edition – Itunes, Kindle, Nooks, Kobo) for 40 businesses you can start, 30 ways to identify business opportunities, 33 business principles, business systems, strategies, and many more to start and grow a successful business.

Connect with us via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for daily share of business ideas and articles and sign up to our monthly newsletter for inner circle business tips.

7 Ways To Grow Successful Business Part 1

Every business owner without an exception, when asked, expresses the desire and need to grow their business, irrespective of its current size. Which I think is perfectly understandable given that no business, at least, the once I have come across is set up with the intent to fail.

However, as in any living thing, such as a business, growth means taking certain calculated steps or measures to ensure the process of growth becomes a reality with practical and deliberate effort to make it happen.

In all purpose and intent, I believe that any significant growth is dependent on what I call the “Seven Pillars of Business Growth”, namely:

1.You 2.Your Customers 3.Your product or Services 4.Your strategies 5.Your Systems 6.Your networks 7.Your Plan

We will look at each of the pillars in due course. In this post however, I will talk about 3 basic ways to grow your business especially in the current state of heightened uncertainties in local and national economies around the world. I will talk about a few more in subsequent posts.

1.Plan to grow – You must start by realistically planning to grow the business. Its not enough to just be talking about or wishing to grow. A deliberate effort is needed in planning towards it. Prioritize by establishing specific areas of the business to focus on for a given time period. It could be three major areas or departments for the next 6, 12 or 18 months. Examples include:

• Improving and adopting a new marketing strategy for the next 6 months 
• Focus on building relationship with existing clients in the next 3 months 
• Invest in a new technology withing the next 12 months 

Note: Don’t forget to review the plan. The frequency of which will be largely dependent on the pace of the industry you operate in.

2. Improve on your products and services - To be in business and last in business largely depends on what you are offering – products and services – and how you do it. It is very important to constantly look for ways to improve on them to ensure a meaningful growth in your business . You simply CANNOT compromise on “Quality Products” and/or “Excellent Service”. Because these two always win in the end, in the battle to survive in business. In this age where building of a brand is so essential, lack of quality will kill a brand in no time.
Someone once said, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.”

3. Seek ways to increase sales - Although this might sound as the objective of most businesses, how to effectively do it needs to be appropriately considered to ensure maximum returns. Some of the seemingly insignificant but basic issues to address are:

Treat the customer right. Because if you do you stand to gain a lot from them.
Get rid of your personal prejudices and any attitude issues. (This goes for most single managed businesses which forms a significant percentage of existing businesses in most economies). Because even if you offer the best products or services you don’t want personal (or that of your employees) prejudices and negative attitudes to interfere with your image. It can have great consequences.

Getting the above right will put you on track for successful growth. Because often times all it takes is good testimony of a customer by ‘word of mouth’, to inspire other customers and clients to call you or come through your doors, and guess what its usually FREE. You can equally take advantage of this to device referral schemes to encourage and solicit referrals from existing clients. This can significantly help you grow your business.

Look out for more strategies in my next post.

You can leave your comment and share any others ways with readers. Check out our books “The Business You Can Start”and “You’ve Been Fired! Now What?” (Ebook edition – Itunes, Kindle, Nooks, Kobo) for 40 businesses you can start, 30 ways to identify business opportunities, 33 business principles, business systems, strategies, and many more to start and grow a successful business.

Connect with us via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for daily share of business ideas and articles and sign up to our monthly newsletter for inner circle business tips.

Foundational Principles For Successful Businesses

"Principles and rules are intended to provide a thinking man with a frame of reference." Karl Von Clausewitz 

Businesses are started everyday around the world. Some get the rare privilege of 'hitting the ground running' bagging sales almost immediately. Others take quite a while to sell any product or service to potential customers and clients. Some grow and become profitable and successful, others merely exist, whilst quite a sizable proportion, if not the largest, fail along the line.

Among those that fail, some go back to the drawing table and resurrect the vision again taken into consideration the experience gained in the previous attempt(s). Others completely allow the one failure to completely cripple the idea demoralising them forever.

Others keep starting again, trying irrespective of how many times they might have failed. Interestingly most business owners out there are honest to tell you how familiar they are with such experiences.

However, one important factor I find very interesting among those who have the courage to start it over and over again until they establish themselves, is their wish or desire of not haven to learn only by experience, which has proven to be slow and quite painful and quite costly often times. Most will confess to you if they had taken a bit more time and invested in some basic quality principles they would have been able to avoid the costly mistakes they made.

I want to share with you some of the basic principles very necessary for a solid foundation on which you can build a profitable and successful business. I will discuss more of these principles and delve into them in more details in the second edition of my book “The Business You Can Start”. Here are some of the principles.

•  The first principle is a resolve to make NO provision to QUIT. Be determined to succeed and ready to pay the price and the sacrifices required to start up, establish yourself, become profitable and succeed.
• Whatever you intend to sell have personal VALUE for it. That is simply because you can only convince others and sell what you believe in.
• Closely related to the above is the principle of striving to establish a reputation for EXCELLENCE. Be passionate about your product or service, and offer it at the highest quality and deliver it with excellence.
• Settle it in your mind and heart that business is COMPETITIVE. You will have to compete with other businesses both directly or indirectly for the same clients. And more importantly for the customers income which will be competing for other needs in their lives.
• Make every effort to develop or build a SYSTEM in the running and operation of the business. That way your business can function and succeed with or without the hands on involvement of you, the owner.
• Identify those who NEED your product and make them WANT it enough to spend their cash on your business.
• Work SMART not just hard. Do everything to get as much information as possible in order to have total understanding of your business, market, right processes and best practices to succeed.
• Every business must have a stated, unique and well-understood PURPOSE. In business circles, purpose should be seen as a fundamental proposition upon which the organization rests. This also means that, when employees of a business know the purpose of the organization, they know how their jobs contribute to its success, and as such, more likely to work together to achieve the organisations stated goals. When an organisation has this fundamental principle right, it invokes a kind of “these people know what they are doing” from customers, clients, suppliers, regulators and even visitors, who interacts with such an organization.

Be on the lookout for the second edition of “The business you can start” for the rest of the sound foundational principles that will guarantee your total success in any line of business. 

You can always order copies of the current edition of "The Business You Can Start" via www.vikebusinessservices.com, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, BarnesandNobles.com, Amazon Kindle (eBook edition) and bookstores around the world. 

Make Money, & Save Money in Recession

It has been a while since I last posted some quality information for you all.  I have received a significant number of queries on ‘how a business can keep its head above the current tide’.

There is a generally belief that things are kind of taking gradual turn, even though very slowly, for the better. There is the temptation to disbelieve such positive turns, given that the changes seem to be largely insignificant to the naked eye.

What’s my take on this? I believe economies around the world will bounce back one way or the other. However, the uncertainties need to find a level of settling before it can boldly take the upward turn.

For a small business or an aspiring entrepreneur, what does this mean to you?

If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, get hold of a copy of my book (“THE BUSINESS YOU CAN START – SPOTTING THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITIES IN THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN”, available via my website, Amazon and eBook edition on Amazon Kindle).  This book will adequately open your eyes to great money making business ideas and small business opportunities which you can take advantage of, in the current economic climate.

For the existing business, there is a lot for you in the above-mentioned book in taking advantage of the current economic climate. Some have greatly managed to soar against the current tide, others are managing to survive, and some of you may have been swallowed up by the tide. Whatever your current situation, this is an opportune time to access your condition, make some good decisions and take another leap.

Haven said that, I would like to highlight a few things you should consider in growing your way out of this season. By them, you can save money and make money for your business.

1. Consider the current downturn economic season as an opportune time to test your systems and strategies. In the boom period it is almost impossible to have the time and reason to ever want to test how effective your strategies and systems are performing. However, when you need to tighten up to be able to stick your head above the waters, it is time to sit back, especially as business slows down, to make that object assessment which you have been postponing for some time.

It is a great time to evaluate your marketing, advertising and sales strategies. Strategies should keep changing to reflect changing environment and customer needs. A particular advertising method may not be as effective as it used to be. This is the time to put an end to such expenditure. A better approach might be needed or available to market your goods or services to your potential customers.

For instance, you may want to know how many of your customers, who effectively patronised your service or product was as a result of seeing that advert, be it on a newspaper, bill board, through affiliate programme, etc.

A few other cost cutting ways include:

i.                     Taking advantage of Voice over IP telephony systems, such as Skype via the internet to handle your local, national and international phone calls, whilst ending your landline phone contract altogether or opting for a far cheaper plan.

ii.                   Find ways to cut down on variable cost (advertising, stationery, etc) before or rather than fixed cost (equipment, etc). You want to do everything possible to ensure the highest quality output.

iii.                  Take advantage of emails, electronic invoices, receipts etc to help you cut down on postage and stationery.

iv.                 Carefully planning your daily routine, business trips, seminars etc can help you cut down drastically on your travel expenses. Using webinars, Skype for video calls etc, can dramatically cut down on the need to travel over distances for business meetings, seminars etc, thus saving precious cost and time.

v.                   You may have to adjust your purchasing cycle to take advantage of offers from trade shows and seasonal promotional discounts, which most suppliers and businesses have on offer. With a little extra storage capacity, you could buy in larger quantities to take advantage of greater discounts.

2. The extra time on hand due to less business activity is a great time to research more about your product or service. A little research may help you identify effective or more efficient ways of delivery a service or producing a product. It could open your eyes to better ways of taking advantage of a new technology in helping you deliver better service.

3. It is also a great time to enrol yourself for upgrade or new short courses that could help expand your knowledge and equip you with new ways of doing business.

4. It might possibly be the time to look beyond traditional sources of supplies for better options. A little research might end you in a new partnership that can provide you with great value for money. We all tend to rather become dependent on a source just because that is the only source we have been familiar with.

5. You may also think of cross training staff allowing for such things as staff ‘job shadowing’ each other, especially in less busier times. That way, there will always be other staff who can take up roles in case of sickness, family emergencies, absences etc.

6. You could also monitor your receivables to ensure payments are made on time. Adopt strategies and rules that can help recover debts owed your business as quickly as possible. Offering more incentives to buyers to pay more quickly and investing in financial management software’s can greatly help with this.

The above are some essential strategies businesses can consider in the face of the current economic climate. A lot more can be found in my book (“THE BUSINESS YOU CAN START – SPOTTING THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITIES IN THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN”), available via my website http://www.vikebusinessservices.com/Book.php , www.Amazon.com,  www.Amazon.co.uk and the eBook edition on Amazon Kindle. You may also ask your nearest book store to help you order your copies.

You can drop me your comments and visit my website www.vikebusinessservices.com.

Developing An Idea Into A Viable Business

“If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn’t any limit to what you can do with your business and your life. Ideas are any man’s greatest assets.” – Harvey S. Firestone.
A good new idea is often the basis for starting up a business. It usually starts with spotting a gap in the market and start a business that provides a product or service to fill it or come up with ways to improve an existing product.

Identifying an opportunity or spotting an idea is a great start.
However, developing the idea into a viable product or service is a critical part of the process.
Unfortunately, there are those who become so consumed by their passionate desire to start a business that it clouds their judgement in making an informed decision on the idea worth pursuing.
It is not enough to fall in love with an idea and pursue it. Rather, it is necessary to assess how viable this business idea is. A viable business simply must be able to grow and be or become profitable over time and must also be able to transform itself, adapting to changing times and customer needs over its lifetime or for the foreseeable future.
Asking yourself few simple questions can make all the difference between succeeding and failing. For a business to be viable, it must have positive answers to the following basic questions:

• Does my business idea meet a specific need?
• Is it an answer to a specific question?
• Is it a solution to a specific problem?
• Can I offer something different from what may already be in existence?
• Is what I want to offer going out of fashion, trend, or being taken over by new technology?
• Is it a regulated business, and can I meet the requirements in a cost-effective way? 
• Can I produce the item or provide the service at a reasonable cost?
• Can I put a price on my products or services?
• Are people willing to pay for it?
• Can I make a profit at the acceptable price or price people are willing to pay for my products or services?

Understanding the market and needs of customers and tailoring your products and services in meeting these needs is a great way forward.

With the subject of viability in mind, it is important to identify which business you want to start. You may start as a retail business, a wholesale business, a manufacturing business, or a service provider.

You will need to also define the subject of the business. That is, what you will sell. The final question to answer should be how you will sell the product or service.
The above is just an excerpt of my new book that addresses - How Anyone Can Take Advantage Of The Current Economic Downturn.

 Title: “THE BUSINESS YOU CAN START”.

Sub-Title:  “SPOTTING THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITIES IN THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN".

You may please visit my website via the link below to preview the book, read more on the books description and ORDER your copy and also introduce it to your subscribers.   

http://www.vikebusinessservices.com/Published-Book.php. 

I hope the above has been help. You may please comment or ask a question. Thank you.

Starting A Business In An Economic Downturn

Starting A Business In An Economic Downturn

Some of you might be saying, “I understand what the benefits are; however, we are in a period of economic downturn with even threats of double-dip recession, according to some analysts, with almost all economic theories having been defied in the last few years.” Both governments and businesses are scrambling for the little piece of business out there. Apart from such countries in Asia like China and India and others like Brazil and Uruguay in

South America, most economies are caught up in great levels of economic uncertainties.

This is my simple answer to you. History has taught us that it is in such crises that fresh innovative ideas are born as a solution to the challenging times. Most of the billion-dollar businesses out there today were established during the Great Depression and some recessionary years of the 1950s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s.

A few more interesting facts from a USA Today article affirm this point. According to the article:

• Sixteen out of the thirty corporations that make up the current Dow Jones Industrial Average started during a recession.

• Walt Disney Corporation began during the recession in 1923-24.

• Hewlett-Packard Corporation began in 1938 during the Great Depression.

• Microsoft Corporation began during the 1974-75 recession.

This article also notes that in the recession of the early ’90s, 25 percent of the over-forty executives who were made redundant went ahead to start their own businesses.

To further emphasise the point:

• Two of the oldest globally recognized firms, Proctor & Gamble Co. and General Electric Co., were founded during the panic and recessionary times of 1837 and 1873, respectively.

• Burger King was founded as a franchise restaurant chain during the ten-month recession in 1953.

• Cable News Network (CNN) was founded in 1980 during a twenty-two-month recession.

“Challenging economic times can serve as a motivational boost to individuals who have been laid-off to become their own employers and future job creators,” said Carl Schramm, president and CEO at Kauffman.

To Preview the book and ORDER your copy of "THE BUSINESS YOU CAN START - SPOTTING THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITIES IN THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN" visit  http://www.vikebusinessservices.com/Published-Book.php

Thank you.