June 12, 2013
Want to grow your business faster?
Want to grow your business faster?
– Reverse assumptions. Because some things are done in a certain way we often think that they cannot be done in other ways, but that is false most of the time. One good example of a successful reverse assumption is found in banks. Banks thought that tellers and branch locations are absolutely necessary until someone asked the key question: How can a bank offer its services without branch locations and tellers? And the answer to the question was ATMs which are now widespread. Challenge assumptions and reverse them in order to find new ideas.
Read these important business guidelines and important tips for running a more efficient enterprise and use them in your daily activity:
1. In order to increase revenue and sales find out what is the lifetime value of an average customer. You will also need to know how much you need to spend on average in order to get a new customer (you can find out this number by dividing your monthly promotional costs to the customers acquired that month). Once you have that number determine how much you are willing to pay to acquire a customer and revise your marketing methods. Find new ways to promote yourself at lower costs. Find new marketing channels that will bring down the cost of acquiring a new customer. Once you have found a successful channel focus on that one and increase the spending only in that effective area.
2. Be careful how much money you raise. If you want to raise too much too soon you will need to give up a lot of equity and even control in the company and you might not know yet where the money would be spent better. Raise a maximum of 1x of your annual revenue and know for sure how much money you need to invest in order to get the expected revenue. Think in accurate and specific numbers.
Do you want a complete list of successful strategies used by famous entrepreneurs and a guide to replicating them?
3. When you raise money think more than just money. Choose an investor that can be a strategic partner, one that you like and you get along with well. You will have a close relationship with the investors as you will spend a lot of time with them in the next 2-5 years. Make sure they don`t get on your nerves.
4. You can`t do everything. Your success will come from your ability to hire excellent people, especially in the first years of business. Hire people that are even more skilled, more experienced and even smarter. They will push the company forward.
5. The members of your first team and even people you hire later should have a part of their income based on the success of the company or at least of the success of their specific department. You should set clear ways to assess success which you need to communicate in advance and motivate people to achieve the goals in order to increase their revenues.
6. Your job is not to get on people`s nerves and micromanage. This will take a lot of time and will be utterly inefficient. Hire good and experienced people who only need the general guidelines and are perfectly capable of doing the work on their own. Set numerical and specific goals, assess their progress individually and as a team and give constructive feedback.
7. In the startup phase you are responsible for everything, but later on, as a CEO, you have different roles. You will need to 1) Create the strategy and the vision, 2) Manage the core team, 3) Keep stakeholders in the loop, 4) Manage and allocate resources and 5) Create and Build a company culture.
8. A profitable Green business is not just a dream. You can find ways to increase revenue and become socially and environmentally responsible at the same time.
9. One excellent way to attract better people is to create a fun working environment, a great company culture and bring together people who are high performers, who care about what they do and want to impact the world. This way the staff you hire will be more productive and the company will become more successful.
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