Rules To Follow To Grow Your Business

Many entrepreneurs have managed to grow your business in competitive fields of activity. Although it was not always easy to implement, their approach made it possible to revitalize an existing market, to develop differently or to improve somewhat outdated management.

What are the keys to their success? What are the difficulties they encountered during the development of their company? And above all, what advice can they provide to managers, buyers and creators? 

Knowing Your Sector Of Activity Is An Asset!

For many leaders who have managed to grow your business, knowing their sector well is an asset. Ways of doing things differ from one sector to another and are not always transferable or adaptable. The experience acquired while exercising a profession makes it possible to identify the habits and codes linked to the sector concerned.

When you master the sector in which you operate, you can work on a new concept, revolutionize uses, adopt certain modes of operation (disrupt to use a fashionable word) without breaking the basic codes related to the ‘activity. The ideas, and the projections fit more easily into the mold, they are stamped with a professional realism which contributes to their credibility.

Sometimes, when a new concept or an innovation is the basis of the reflection, knowing the sector makes it possible to spread the risks thanks to its address book. Some customers agree to wipe the plaster to benefit from an attractive price or be the first to observe productivity gains. Sometimes it is the suppliers who play the game to ensure new outlets

However, there are sometimes exceptions. Many creators have left a salaried job in a specific sector to create or take over activity in another completely different sector and have been successful. It is less common and requires a certain ability to adapt. Most of the time this decision reflects a strong and particular motivation (desire to undertake, return to nature, childhood dream…).

Rely On A Rigorous Business Plan

The success of a project is generally based on significant preparation and management work. Often, the creators who carry out a precise grow your  business plan prepare at the same time the launch of the future company.

Refining a grow your business  plan allows you to prepare for the future management of the project. For example, it offers the opportunity to negotiate with future customers and/or partners, which facilitates the launch. Thus, at the time of its creation, the company already has a client and a certain turnover. Even better, it has already benefited from some feedback and has been able to adapt its products, services or certain features accordingly.

A well-worked grow your business plan reveals the qualities of the project, it allows its reader to identify precisely the added value that the project will bring to customers. It helps to build an intelligent and adapted business model that will help convince investors. Because to succeed, you have to be able to support and defend the project at each of the stages it has to go through.

All economic sectors are affected by the digital revolution, and preparing your project allows you to have time to observe the structural changes taking place in the target sector of activity. A good observation allows for example to optimize certain procedures to, in the end, gain competitiveness.

Finally, making a rigorous business plan often requires being accompanied by preparing your project within an incubator or by finding an effective coach (CCI, BGE, etc.). It is an often beneficial aid that allows creators to work on different approaches to their native skills. For example, a less technical and more functional approach for a developer, more attention paid to the business than to the product for an engineer. 

Know How To Take Measured Financial Risks

Taking risks boosts the will to succeed. Thus, creators who have invested their savings or the fruit of the sale of an asset know what risk means. They also know that to win you have to move forward and that dithering does not help decisions move forward. Wanderings, and mistakes, are part of the learning process. Who could claim to have learned to walk without falling and bumping? Although it is unpleasant (baby cries know how to remind us of this), the error has its importance, it is even indispensable in the sense that it gives value to things (success, effort, will, savings). It even influences the future values ​​of the company that the leader will instill.

Developing a business while sitting comfortably in your chair is a misconception, as is developing it by proxy. Many leaders bet large sums (in view of their possibilities), pay themselves a modest salary or even zero and work a lot for the success of their project, without any guarantee of success. This often beneficial risk-taking deserves to be recognized and respected, whatever the outcome of the project.

But beware, a risk is identified, measured and evaluated. It is not a question of attacking the new market with a flower in hand.

Also Read : Strategic Management

Aim For Rapid Profitability And  Fundraising

For VSEs as for creators, growing and developing requires cash. There is no secret; working on your grow your business business model to have a profitable project is essential. While some companies manage to find profitability from the first financial year following the launch, others take several years to set up an activity allowing them to get out of the red zone.

How to do it? It depends on the project, the opportunities and the talent of the leader or entrepreneur. Focusing only on high-margin activities is one solution. Getting support from a company, group or mentor is another. The key most often lies in the manager’s ability to generate a minimum of activity very quickly thanks to the project. When there is activity, it is because there is a market in which we manage to position ourselves. The first step has been taken, it remains to size this market and find suitable financing to develop this activity until it is profitable.

The financial means of young companies are often provided by Business Angels, because many flourishing companies have developed by losing money in the beginning. The only solution often lies in convincing investment funds to finance the project. And for that two main axes are the quality of the management team and the profitability of the project.

Indeed, investors (private, public, family office, etc.) often rely more on the quality of the team and its suitability for the project than on the project itself. Why? Because a project cannot be supported by people who believe in it and who have the means to carry it out (competence, quality, charisma, etc.). But also because a badly carried out project is often static, it has to evolve. While a good team does not like compromises in the face of success. She reacts and will adapt to the project which she believes in to prevent her from struggling. 

Focus On Networks And Partners

Entrepreneurs often embark on the adventure of entrepreneurship together. This makes it possible to distribute the areas of competence, to encourage and support each other and to better understand the project. However, it is essential to choose your partners well, because joining forces is like getting married, or even worse . Some say many investors, creative professionals and project guides explain that joining forces increases the chances of success. It’s often after that things get complicated…

While it is true that relationships between partners can complicate things when the project develops, working on a project with complementary profiles certainly gives more chances of success than doing it alone. However, being a team is not enough, it must also be born of a real agreement, of usefulness and that be adapted to the project. Finally, it only makes sense when it is credible and capable of carrying it through.

The success of a creation or development project also depends on the manager’s ability to know how to surround himself with quality partners who in their own way will contribute to the development of the project in order to be able to benefit from it in the near future. Many companies are ready to help develop or create an SME when it can bring them real added value. Help can take different forms:

• Sufficient turnover to start
• Provision of premises or logistics
• A partnership in R&D

Everything is possible, it is up to the manager to find the arguments that will allow him to find the partners who will allow him to solve certain complex problems.

Also Read : Reduce Your Recruitment Costs