2022 has certainly thrown a few curve balls to our business community so far! In the face of challenges and impacts, it may be timely to get back to basics, refocus and review how your business is performing and identify areas where improvements can be made and opportunities developed.
Paring your business operations back to basics and taking time to assess what is and what is not working effectively, will help you focus on plans and strategies for future growth.
The following steps can help you prepare to review and refocus if necessary:
1) Review your business focus. What is your offer?
This is so much more than the product or service you supply. Your offering includes elements such as the availability of your products or services, after-sales support, quality of service, customer service, and more.
2) Identify the value are your customers seeking.
Review your call to action and identify whether you are promoting the benefits your business provides.
Do you know what influences your customers’ purchasing decisions? Remember, purchase decisions are not only influenced by price alone!
3) Find out what ‘problem’ your business is solving for your customers.
Sometimes your customers do not even know what they are seeking from your business. They have expectations about your products or services and when you meet or exceed those expectations, your customers are delighted!
However, a problem may not be immediately apparent. For example, if you are running a café, customers may not be just wanting a nice cup of coffee, they may be seeking social interaction and the opportunity to relax in a nice environment. Unless you can meet these needs and solve their ‘problem’, you may be targeting the wrong customers or marketing your business without a purpose.
4) Set realistic and achievable goals for your business. Remember to include your personal goals as well.
We all know that goal setting will help keep you on track and accountable, however, if you find goal setting daunting, try breaking your goals into smaller blocks of time to allow you to stay in tune with changes in your business and the environment you are operating in.
90-day goal setting is a good baseline to work to. You can use this to track your short-term progress and have a more agile response if something is not working. You can address the problem and change tack quickly without worrying that it will affect your longer-term plans.
Staying in tune with the changes happening in your business environment while focusing on your master goals will help keep your business on track and open to new opportunities for productivity and growth.
Of course, these are starting points so for help further developing your business, contact our team on 1300 249 482 or click here for more information on our mentoring services.
