Success in a business largely depends on how much effort you invest. However, there are certain factors that you cannot control. It’s no wonder external factors such as the economic, demographic, ecological, technological, and legal factors affect the profitability of your business. You cannot control these things as an entrepreneur. However, following these steps can help you to regrow the business if your external environment is stable and healthy.

Make a goal that inspires you

It’s easier to make an ordinary goal. But creating a goal that motivates you is decisive. The goal should be object-oriented. When you see the goal, you should identify what you need to do to achieve that goal. It’s why the goal should be specific and achievable. You can’t set a goal that makes you feel demotivated and stressed. The goal should be within your capacity. You should be able to convert the goal into numbers. It would be easier for you to compare with your actual performance.

Another attribute of an inspiring goal is that it has timeliness. The goal can’t be vague. When you know you have to achieve certain things within a particular period, it motivates you.

Here is another thing, you can make different sorts of goals based on time. For instance, what you want to do today can be your typical daily goal. It could be a month or yearly wise. The other most important thing would be your long time direction. We can call it strategy. Your strategy to achieve long-term objectives should be SMART.

You must be wondering how to get a quantified plan. It’s pretty easier. Start to make a budget, a monetary plan! You may know how much you earned or spent last months or years (yearly or monthly budget), right? Get those papers and use them as a basis. Prepare forecasted financial statements. Don’t worry! There is free accounting software like Wave Accounting,  ZipBooks, Akaunting, SlickPie, Zoho Invoice that helps you to prepare accounting information.

The budgets help you to monitor the expenditures and sales revenue. When you maintain proper accounting books, you can understand what items cause the increase or decrease of your profitability.

Find the best features of your products by which you can outperform

It may be almost impossible to be perfect in every way. You don’t need to have that impossible expectation. Rather you should find out what you are good at or which product feature gives you the advantage that your competitors lack.

Here comes the important point. Know your product and your competitor’s ones. If you find out what your product is best at, you can decorate your marketing campaign more efficiently. Speaking of the marketing campaign, you have to identify who your nearest competitors are. Suppose, you are operating a small eCommerce site. You can’t follow every footstep of Amazon. It is impossible. You can’t acquire the economic scale Amazon is having right now. Rather you can follow on what your nearest competitors do.

Hire good people and give them the best workplace

Hiring a guy who loves his job and cares for your company is an essential task. There are certain positions where you need expertise. Sometimes you just need enthusiastic people. It depends on the job responsibilities. Sometimes entrepreneurs hire family members and friends who may not have expert knowledge or may not care what you do. It cost your effectiveness.

However, to get the best output from employees, you need to train them. Motivation is much needed. Sometimes, the motivation could be financial. Sometimes, it could be non-financial. As a matter of fact, the environment and the work itself can motivate the employees. So creating a healthy workplace is significant.

Deal with your risk

Thinking about risks gives entrepreneurs risk. We cannot ignore risk. It is a part of the business. But we can manage. We can minimize it through the risk management process.

Firstly, you have to identify what your risks are. Make a list of it. For example, you run a factory. So there are certain equipment and activities that are risky. Take note. You can collect information information

Then, start to assess how much unplanned and unexpected events may cost you. You start to realize that you can avoid certain activities. Some of them can’t be avoided but minimized. However, you can share those risks by taking the insurance policy.

Select the best pricing

Pricing influences the buying behavior of customers. Good pricing is essential. It influences your revenue growth. You have to analyze your pricing strategy. A good pricing strategy can bring loyal customers. Set your profitability. Consider the expectation of your customers. Add good payment methods.

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Make an Integrated Supply Chain Management

The chain starts from collecting raw materials to providing goods to the customers. Maintaining this long chain is time-consuming and tough. However, good collaboration can minimize the time length substantially. But the expansion of business makes you work with a huge number of suppliers, distributors, and customers. Handling the huge number of suppliers and customers may cause poor performance if you don’t have the resource.

However, you can cut back on these numbers. Identify those suppliers who matter the most. Reducing the huge number of suppliers allows you to make close relationships with the selected ones. It gives you better coordination since you don’t have to focus on large numbers. Collaborate with your suppliers on what should be the inventory policy.

Distributors are essential. You have to rely on their performance. Find the ones who believe in time management. If you’re in an eCommerce business, find good delivery partners. Nobody likes to wait. The fastest delivery adds value to the product. Cheapest delivery partners may lack the time-management principle.

Now, it’s time to talk about the customers. Find out who is your loyal customers. Going for everyone may not be a good idea if you don’t have the adequate resource to serve them properly. Focusing on niches may create more loyal customers. It makes sustainable growth.

“Happy customers are your biggest advocates and can become your most successful sales team.” –Lisa Masiello

Create a space for continual improvement

Always seek continual improvement. It creates a healthy and stable environment. You will make fewer errors. Day by day you will get expected results.  It creates an opportunity to obtain sustainable growth. World’s best companies follow these practices. These practices help them to attain the best customer service and customer-oriented products. Moreover, it reduces a substantial amount of product defection. And, it talks about waste management. Thus, it satisfies the customer’s needs. Ultimately a happy customer means a happy business. Many principles are being practiced around the world to get continuous development. However, the widely popular ones are Six Sigma, the Kaizen philosophy, 5S, Total Quality Management.

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These quality assurance techniques create a space for improvement. When you practice these kinds of philosophies, innovation happens. It motivates you and your employees to be better at what you do. So select any of the philosophies that are suitable for your organization.

Take negotiation skills seriously

Negotiation would be part of your life more than ever when you’re in a business. Yes, we normal people have to negotiate. But for business, it’s different. In a business world, people’s objective is to earn profit. Thus, it makes them a bit tenacious. And most importantly, you are dealing with the experienced ones. Your suppliers, customers, investors may be way more experienced and will try to be speculative. So the more you know how to negotiate, the more you get out of the deals you make for the business. Learn from the experience and develop negotiation skills. If you can’t, don’t worry. It’s not the end of the world. You will learn from the experience. But you have to open up about your previous negotiations. Take notes and use them to get better. 

Compare the reality and expectation 

You set your goals. It’s time to compare. Check whether you have fulfilled the task. If you do, then you don’t require corrective action. If you don’t, find out the root cause and solve the problem.

Benchmarking can be an ideal approach to start with. You can compare your performance with the best practices of your industry. It will create a space for improvement.

We have talked about financial measures. Financial metrics are vital. It makes it easier to compare the performance. However, financial measures may not take into account the idea of customer satisfaction, product failure rates, employees satisfaction.

Create a platform for customer reviews. Check the satisfaction ratings from time to time. Check your credit notes. Do you receive a lot? Then fix the faulty products. Reengineer the process if you need to. Take appraisal meetings and exit meetings properly.

Read a lot

To be a successful entrepreneur, leadership is essential. To become a leader, you have to be a good reader. The world’s most successful entrepreneurs read a lot. The list includes Warran Buffett, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Phil Knight, Elon Musk, and many more.

“Not All Readers Are Leaders, but All Leaders Are Readers”– Harry S. Truman

Reading habits give you a different perspective about the world. When you know more, you start to be humble. When you’re humble, you are open-minded. You start to listen to what others say. You respect others’ opinions. Innovation comes when the leader is courageous enough to take the risk. Books motivate you to do these things.