How is it possible to transform a small business into a successful company?
75% of MIPYMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) go bankrupt because expenses may exceed income. Furthermore, the story is much the same in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe as it is in the business world as a whole.
Many fail due to lack of planning, excessive expense responsibility, and ultimately a lack of financial return on sales. More important than statistics and once and for all, these three dilemmas need to be visually addressed to reduce risk.
The business development template, called, “The 9 stages to becoming a successful entrepreneur”, is referenced to differentiate the most popular and the most complete stages.
To be an entrepreneur, you have to be careful not to fall into the shortcut shown in red. With an employee mindset, this translates to:
- A great idea”,
- “Create” that great idea,
- “Turn” that great idea into sales.
With a lack of planning, excessive costs, and insufficient sales, it can be seen that the required success formula is incomplete.
The template shows all the stages that could apply to many types of small businesses at three different levels with three steps at each level. At the first level, the entrepreneur must initiate and evaluate the feasibility of that “Big Idea” with the public, keeping costs and risks to a minimum.
Only when you have some evidence of market buying interest is it safer to incur the higher second-tier costs with business implementation and a marketing arm that includes an online activity.
Finally, with greater security, compared to the red route, at the third level, it is time to launch and grow the product or service in the open market.
The employee’s mind may say, “My business is different and you can’t change the way sales are made.” The entrepreneur’s mind will look at how things are and ask, “How can things be done better?” Instead of following the competition, the entrepreneur adds value and constantly reviews how to reach and convert new leads, regardless of the business.
While briefly visiting these stages, the biggest question should be, “Why do so many take the popular shortcuts that end up costing more and causing so many failures?”
Here are the 9 stages to transform a small business into a successful company
1. Who? – If you can’t identify the ideal customer, you won’t be able to create an effective post-launch marketing campaign. Your ideal customer will have specific interests and behaviors that you need to be aware of.
2. Which one? – Whose big idea is it and what specifically are its benefits? Many great ideas never make it to market. What qualities do you bring that differentiate your great idea from the competition? Can you explain it clearly and concisely with your elevator speech, that is, in less than 30 seconds?
3. Why? – This stage is critical. You’ve identified your ideal customer and their great idea, but if it’s not a great idea in the customer’s mind, then it’s not a great idea at all. Therefore, he has to find out in the market if he is going to buy the idea from him. Fortunately, the Internet can help a lot to check with a large sample of the public if the idea would be accepted.
4. How? – With a foundation and understanding of the market, there is more confidence to move to the next level, where costs and commitment will be higher. This stage defines how to progressively attract and identify the most qualified potential customers. This can come from physical and virtual traffic sources.
5. Create – This stage is usually the most expensive, when in reality it shouldn’t be the second step, based on the fast path in red on the chart. This involves the physical site setup and processes, documents, sequence of events, and any online interactions. At this point in the development cycle, previous efforts are appreciated.
6. Check – As the last stage before launching your business, it shouldn’t be unusual or unexpected for you to check your procedures before going public. Even small problems can be magnified many times over when dealing with the outside world of customers and supply chains.
7. Target – As a result of researching at level one and creating filters and systems at level two, you have advanced knowledge on how to target the audience you expect. However you have chosen to market your product or service, you can expect to be continually testing and measuring the effectiveness of your activities.
8. Convert – This is the stage that can make or break your business. Not only making sales is the lifeblood of the business, but also understanding why customers bought and why others didn’t. You must know them as well as you know yourself, the staff, and the company’s operations.
9. Grow – Level three is a repetitive circular activity to grow your business and your income. Periodically review what works and what doesn’t. You must constantly anticipate how to uniquely package and identify yourself to become the only logical choice in the eyes of consumers.
When presented with this business model and its explanation, entrepreneurs suddenly realize what they could have done differently when they started. They recognize their trajectory on the red alternate route highlighted in the center. Each stage tells a story and in turn, this tells many more stories from the business world.
