Changes you can make today that will help your business to succeed

Running your own business can be stressful. Not only does the success of your business determine your own personal success, but you also feel the responsibility for everyone that works for you.

No matter what industry or sector you are competing in, there are certain things that you can be doing to help your business to succeed. Some of these things may require investment, and it is down to you to determine whether the return is worth the investment.

There are some things, however, that don’t cost money that can really help your business to grown and to thrive and these are definitely actions you should be taking as soon as possible.

Here are some of the things that you can be doing to help your business to succeed.

Identify your target audience
Many businesses fail because they don’t understand their audience and therefore can’t relate to them. Businesses that take a ‘one size fits all’ approach to marketing activity are the ones that typically fail. So much budget is wasted on targeting people that have no interest in your product or service.

In a recent post about eCommerce Essentials, we looked at the need to identify (and identify with) your customers, “If you already have some customers and have collected some data about them, then use this to your advantage. Explore this data to determine some trends about your customer base and what type of person is interested in your company.”

Writing for Forbes, Mark Evans says, “The reality is a product can appeal to a variety of buyers who may have different needs and goals. It means a one-size-fits-all marketing and sales approach may not work because it’s not focused enough.”

Make sure you take a granular approach and identify the people who are making buying decisions or influencing those decisions – those are the people you want to target in order to drive sales and revenue.

Focus on productivity
Small businesses are often limited by the number of resources they have at their disposal, and in many cases, this means staff. Startups can often be driven by just one person: you. That means you need to maximise your productivity in order to make the most of the limited time you have in a day. When you expand and bring other people on board, you also need to put systems in place to help them to be more productive.

In a recent article, we provided some great advice on ways to boost your productivity. These included:

• Changing the way you email
• Saying no to notifications
• Ditching multitasking
• Adjusting your environment
• Outsourcing to create more time

Writing for Life Hack, Certified Life and Productivity Coach, Kirstin O’Donovan says, “It is not only about applying the best practices but also applying yourself more and in different ways.” Identify things that drain your time and look at changing them.

Start with just one thing and build from there – it’s amazing how much time you spend doing tasks that add little to no value and once you eliminate these tasks, you will find you have a lot more time to be productive.

Keep things clean and simple
Today, a high-quality website is essential for almost every business. High-quality doesn’t mean high-cost. It simply means you need to design and build a website that is easy to use, easy to navigate, and importantly, tells your customers everything they need to know about what you do, who you are, and what you sell.

Think about some of the leading brands out there. Whilst they may have huge budgets for creating fancy websites, many of them choose to keep things simple. At the end of the day, people are coming to your website to find out information about you and your products.

Whilst fancy features may look nice, they often get in the way of the task at hand and can be distracting. Look at sites like Amazon, Netflix, and Betway. All of these sites keep things simple – clean backgrounds, bright colours on their call to action buttons and above all, they provide all the information you need to make an informed decision.

Focus on delivering high-quality content that adds value to your customer and presents it in a way that is clear and easy to understand. Don’t overcomplicate your design – include images and videos if they add to the experience and add value to the customer and importantly, link off to other areas which will help them to find out more.

Summary
There is no magic formula when it comes to success in business. All you can do is continue to deliver your best every day and follow some of these best practices to give yourself the best possible chance of success. There are so many contributing factors to the overall success of your business, however, if you identify the right audience, and work more productively, as well as focusing your online efforts on delivering a clear and clean experience for customers, you will be well on your way to increasing sales and revenue. From there, it is important to successfully manage your cash flow in order to keep on investing in your business so you can grow and thrive. With a little luck and a lot of hard work, your business will succeed.