Crucial Questions for Small Business Owners... #40
- Adrian Dionisio - business737 owner
- Oct 21, 2021
- 7 min read
Updated: Apr 11, 2024
As a business owner there are questions you must continually ask yourself. Self reflection will always help you to improve. Finding answers to certain questions will help you develop your business where it really matters. So, without delay, let's get started.
1. What problem does your business solve?
The best businesses solve the biggest problems in the most efficient and effective way. Be clear on who you helping and exactly how you are helping them. This is how will provide more focus to your customer (read more here).
The harsh reality is that no one cares what you do as a business, they only care about what it means to them. If you don’t understand this you will not attract customers. You will lose the customer. It's all about the customer, it has to be about the customer. How can you help them by solving their problems (click here)?
2. How do you solve this problem better than your competitors?
What gives you the edge over your competitors? This is what is often referred to as your USP ( Unique Selling Proposition) or market dominating position. Most markets are highly competitive and many other businesses will be trying to do what you do. So you must ask yourself, what sets you apart from the rest? What will make you attract and keep customers? It all comes down to value and putting your customer first in each and every aspect.
3. What are your biggest drivers of revenue?
This is the same as asking what are your biggest sources of income? Where do the majority of your sales come from? You must be aware and focus on these areas because they are crucial drivers of your business.
Analyse why these are so successful. How can this success be replicated in other areas? Can it be improved and tweaked? It is always important to enhance your strengths. Before you enhance them, you have to recognise exactly what they are. This is why you need to know your numbers, because they tell you all about your business.
4. What parts of your business are not profitable?
These can be a massive drain on your business. You must recognise and assess these areas of your business. They require immediate attention. Remember expenses have a way of creeping up to revenues so mitigate this by resolving areas of your business that are proving not to be productive.
Your income statement and balance sheet will help you to quickly assess your biggest expenses and help you recognise what is the biggest drain on profits.
5. What is your lead generation strategy?
How are you attracting attention to your business? How do you make your business stand out from the crowd and get noticed?
Lead generation and marketing is all about getting noticed. It is about finding a way to attract the attention of the right people and making them interested in what is offered. If no ones knows or cares what you are offering, they will not purchase. That means less money for you and your business.
Apply the marketing formula to enhance your lead generation activities. Remember; interrupt - engage - educate - offer. With Digital Marketing you can reach a much larger audience and target specific prospects who are most likely to use and purchase your product or service. It is often more cost-effective and easily measurable meaning you can make informed decisions and pivot when necessary. When done properly, digital marketing is precise, specific, cost effective, measurable and accurate.
6. What is your conversion strategy?
Once you have got the attention and interest of a prospect how do you turn them into a paying customer? Do you have a tried and tested process?
A successful conversion strategy revolves around communication, influence and ultimately helping people. Trust and confidence is the lubricant of relationships, rapport, conversions and sales.
People don’t buy if;
· They don’t understand you
· They don’t like you
· They don’t believe you
· If it’s not the right time
People buy from you if they;
· Believe you
· Trust you
· Like you
Make sure people understand you in so far as what are you going to do for them and how are you going to do it. You cannot just assume that they know! Good conversion strategies will be focused around honesty, understanding and reducing the anxiety of the person spending the money (read more). Other factors to consider are pricing techniques (click here to read more), knowing how to deal with objections (read more) and having the correct mindset for successful conversions (click here).
7. What is your customer experience strategy?
Creating a great experience impresses purchasers and ensures they will keep doing business with you in the future. A superior experience becomes a valued and unique asset for any type of business
Your business will grow when you pay close attention to your customers and their needs. The more you can provide a unique valuable experience for your customer, the better for your business.
If you make people happy to do business with you, they will want to do business with you regularly. A memorable and pleasant experience will generate customer loyalty, appreciation and gratitude. Click here to read all about how to create a winning customer experience strategy.
8. How often do you analyse your business scoreboard and statistics?
One of the most important things to do with your business is to continually keep an eye on your business scoreboard and statistics. These numbers can be used to determine if your business is operating as you intended and if the outcomes are sufficient. Ultimately your business must be profitable and bring in enough money to justify the time and energy you are investing.
Business is all about numbers, and the numbers are telling you a story. Learn more about the language of your business here. Focus and track these numbers, especially revenue, costs and profit.
9. What is your pricing strategy?
The natural default is for small business owners to compete on price. In a world, where most businesses compete on price, it is natural for owners to be worried about their pricing strategies. Many owners are do not want to increase their prices because they are worried it will turn potential clients away, and that they will lose current clients. However, pricing yourself too low can serious repercussions on cash flow, revenues, profits and of course business growth.
Do not compete on price. Compete on value. Value is everything that your customer is willing to pay for. Value is a measure of the benefit of a good or service. The purpose of a business is to create value and then to sell or trade it to customers, while capturing some of that value as profit. It is quite straightforward but it is an essential concept to understand. Read about pricing strategies here.
10. What do you envisage on the path ahead?
It is important to think about what your core business could and should become. Do not simply focus on putting out the fires, think about all the new opportunities and possibilities in these unprecedented times. As business owners we must move away from survival mode of thinking and embrace change and the future in order to achieve growth and profitability.
Thinking of the long term is often overlooked as we deal with our immediate problems and issues of the short term. However businesses must think in a 5 -10 year horizon whilst dealing with immediate challenges. The best way to do this is to look to the future and vision growth and profit
11. How do you approach innovation?
Life is a process of continuous learning as we move into the unknown. Innovative business models that look out into the future represent this reality. Such models and strategies are expansive and learning based systems that continually involve:
Exploring
Debate
Discussion
Testing
Learning
Adjusting
Cancelling
These will all be part of this long term vision and focus approach to your business. This flowing and constantly changing process will allow businesses to identify new opportunities and threats and stay a few steps ahead of the game.
12. What is your business development strategy?
Business Development strategies will highlight viable opportunities for growth and profitability. It is necessary to reflect upon the past and present, with a clear vision of where you want to be in the future.
Recognise and address the transformations within your business sector and industry. Make sure you are aware and up to date with what is happening in your sector and area of expertise, so you can make informed and relevant business decisions.
Reflect upon the impact and opportunities of future technologies. Ask yourself how you can expand and diversify to put you in a new space. Developing this mindset will give you a large portfolio of innovation initiatives which will ultimately lead to growth and increased profits. It will provide you with a set of consecutive short term strategies which will provide a means to achieve your long term goals. This process will continually highlight adjacent and new opportunities for growth and profitability.
11. Are your feedback mechanisms sufficient?
Measuring, feedback and quantifying will give valuable information. It’s on the basis of this information that you make informed decisions. This is how your business will grow, improve and become more successful.
Extract and accumulate info from day to day activities. This will enable you to see patterns, learn, and make informed decisions. Feedback mechanisms will tell you many things and it will be enlightening with respect to your business. It will tell you thing s that you need to know! Thing that you don’t now. Things that you need to know so that you can make the necessary decisions and improve processes. This is how the feedback system works.
13. What tasks should be outsourced?
Do what you do best and outsource the rest. As your business grows you will naturally need to involve other expert skillsets. Your ambition will reflect when you want to outsource and to whom. You cannot do everything yourself. You must be aware of your strengths and also your weaknesses. Concentrate on the areas where you can really make your business excel. There are areas where you are not as strong, and here is where you must make your outsourcing decisions. In a similar way you must be aware when it is time to create new positions and also have a strategy to attract the best fit and talent for your business.
14.What is your client retention rate?
It is easier and more cost effective to retain a customer than to attract a new customer. The true value of a business is repeat custom. It is paramount to retain your customer and this is why you must keep an eye on client retention rates.
Always think how to please the customer so that they remain loyal. Go through your business plan and put a strategy together so that your customers are left feeling happy and amazed after doing business with you! By focusing on your customer you will create an advocate out them and also improve your retention rate.
Comments