You need a plan and a strategy in place if you want your business to succeed. It’s a concept that many small businesses understand, but it’s easy to lose sight of those things as time goes on. It’s easy to get sucked into dealing with the daily tasks on your list, focusing on solving the immediate issues you may be facing, and generally being busy in your business.
But your overall business success depends on you taking the time to step back and focus on your business foundations. Without these critical areas, your business cannot grow and evolve as needed. When you have these elements covered, you gain the clarity and focus to achieve your goals and have your business running as smoothly and efficiently as possible. You can monitor and track each element individually and as a whole to help you understand and implement changes as needed to improve your results.
Your 6 Key business foundations
So what are the business foundations you need to be focusing on? Here’s a brief rundown of the six main ones.
#1: Customer service – The most crucial of all business foundations
You need good customer service if you want to stay in business. Word of mouth spreads fast, so it’s in your best interests to deal with complaints, issues, and customer communications fast and efficiently.
If you need a little help improving customer service within your business, check out 5 simple ways to improve customer experience.
Foundation #2: Sales
If you want to stay in business, you need sales! They help you build loyalty and trust, as well as increase your bottom line. If you’re looking to improve the number of sales you get, start by understanding your competition, your products and services, and what makes you different.
You also need to have a simple plan in place for making more sales, increasing customer spend and creating upsell opportunities.
Foundation #3: Marketing – This business foundation needs a strategy and plan
Social media is one of the main ways online businesses are marketing their products and services. But it isn’t the only option available to you. Know what systems and processes you’re going to use to help you sell your products.
Use your marketing to help raise product awareness and build brand credibility, and ensure you’re clear on what promotions and strategies you need in place to consistently and efficiently market your business and drive more sales. [Also, check out How to drop the overwhelm around social media.]
Foundation #4: Finance
You need to know your numbers. This isn’t just about income and expenditures. You need to be setting realistic long and short term goals, as well as tracking performance. It also pays to know what products and services provide the best client satisfaction and bring in the most profit so that you can build effective marketing campaigns around them.
#5: Technology – Can help you with all other business foundations
Technology is one of those business foundations that can stress business owners out! But tech doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s all about ensuring you’re using the right tools and automations to create the right processes to maintain efficiency within your business.
But also know that tech can help you improve your visibility online and provide you with the security and protection your business needs too.
If tech isn’t your strong suit, check out How to get started using automation in your business for some additional tips.
Foundation #6: Productivity
Finally, look into the productivity of your business. You want to ensure the processes and systems you use are effective – and that’s why you need to monitor the results you get regularly. This helps you to improve and streamline as required.
Productivity also includes managing and nurturing your team. You need to ensure that everyone is working as a team and living up to their potential as an individual, especially if you want a happy and productive work environment.
If you’re looking to get started with growing your team or need some support with your task list and business foundations, why not get in touch? We can help provide you with the support you need to free up your time and help take your business to the next level. So get in touch, and let’s discuss available solutions.
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