Today's guest post is by Brian Tracy. Brian Tracy is a leading authority on personal and business success. He is the best-selling author of 16 books and over 300 audio and video learning programs. Brian addresses more than 250,000 people each year, has spoken in 23 countries, and speaks 4 languages.
Three Reasons for Business Growth
By: Brian Tracy
What to Look For
There are three reasons for business growth. Look at where you work right now and see if these three reasons apply there. Number one, the product or service is well-suited to the needs of the current market. That means that people want it and need it and can use it and can afford it and are willing to buy it now. Number two, careful market analysis is completed before commencing business operations. In other words, considerable thought goes into whether or not there's a market before the product was offered.
Do Your Market Analysis
Here are some of the questions that you have to ask with regard to market analysis. Number one, with regard to this new product or service, is there a market? This is a very important question. Is there a market? Will people buy it? Now here's the second question. Is the market large enough? Is the market large enough and concentrated enough so that you can sell enough of the product or service at a high enough price to make a living out of it?
Is the Market Concentrated Enough?
For example, there may be a market for 100,000 units of a particular product in the
Who Exactly is Your Potential Customer?
Another question is, who is the customer and why will he or she buy from you? Why does he or she buy? What benefits does he or she seek? And an important question is why will he or she switch from their current supplier to buy from you? Many small companies go broke because they do not have a pressing enough reason for a person to switch from their current supplier to the new product or service.
What Are The Alternatives?
And here's another question with regard to marketing analysis. What else is available? What other products or services are available to the same customer that you're going after and how is your product superior in a meaningful way, to the other product or service?
Control Your Finances
The third reason for business success is tight financial controls. Good budgeting. Accurate bookkeeping and accounting. Remember, practice frugality. Be cheap, cheap, cheap.
Hold on to your cash. Cash is the lifeblood of a business. All successful businesses have very careful financial controls. They very carefully consider every expenditure. They do an analysis of it. They work from very careful budgets, week by week, month by month, quarter by quarter.
Consider Every Expenditure
Carefully consider every expenditure, in advance, before you make it. Never buy new when you can get it used. Never buy it at all if you can rent it. Never rent it if you can borrow it. Make it a game to conserve your cash and keep your costs as low as possible in everything you do.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to assure that your business continues to grow profitably month after month.
First, be perfectly honest with yourself and your product or service offerings. Be sure that there is a big enough market that you can sell to profitably, and if there isn't, find a different product or a different market.
Second, think about your customer all the time and why your customer would or should buy from you. Inaccurate customer analysis is a major reason for business failure while accurate customer identification is a major reason for business success.
Post a Comment