Strategies for sustaining your business

Strategies for sustaining your business

Adaptability, strategic planning, and a deep understanding of the market are crucial for sustaining a business, JOSEPHINE OGUNDEJI, writes

About 80 per cent of Small and Medium Enterprises fail before their fifth anniversary due to harsh economic environments, lack of access to capital, and poor business practices, which have stunted the growth and transition of micro-businesses, a report by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has stated

To It advised, “By collecting and analysing customer and industry data, your business can gain valuable insights to stay ahead of market trends, understand customer preferences, design new revenue streams and track performance metrics.

“These data points can provide the information you need as a business owner to make well-informed and growth-focused decisions about the future of your business.”

Networking

Alley added that leveraging one’s network was crucial to survival and business success.

According to her, be a part of a community, because sometimes you can have all the information at your fingertips and still lose out on the opportunities that exist.

She asserted, “So we all want to do tech, but we all cannot be developers. However, there are other opportunities in that space that we are not talking about, for example, a tech Human resource person, or tech fitness expert and you are just catering to people in that industry. Try to explore as well and be open-minded.”

Business KPI

Just like jobs have a key performance index, businesses also have measuring tools to gauge viability.

“There are instruments to check if a business is viable to solve a problem,” The founder of Fruity Life, Samuel Jegede, explained.

“People will pay you a million dollars to solve COVID issues. I know someone who bought houses with basic knowledge of diagnostics or something. And so he did a mixture and everybody treated and they were paying about N550,000 and they kept referring to people. That was urgent, there was urgency. We are talking about the market size, nothing can reveal a bad market. You may be very smart with the best team but a bad market is a bad market.”

Jegede highlighted the cost of value delivery, customer attribution, price potential and uniqueness as core metrics to run your businesses.

He said, “These are some of the things to ask yourself. What is the pricing potential, what is my uniqueness? What is the upfront investment? What is your vision about the business? Those are some of the things to measure in the business before you say it is viable or not viable. And to declare profit, Amazon did not declare profit because it kept reflowing back.”

He cautioned on business comparison, stating that it was not a yardstick to measure viability.

He added, “If you do not have the opportunity to ball like your friends, it does not mean that your business is not profitable. So, it is not about saying your business is not viable, what instruments do you use to measure its viability? Are we pragmatic enough?”

Measuring business viability fundamentally revolves around the inherent value your product or service provides in addressing customer problems or challenges. When a business consistently offers solutions that meet customer needs effectively, it stands a strong chance of achieving greatness and long-term sustainability, irrespective of failure rate statistics. The key is to focus on delivering genuine value, as this is the cornerstone of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Instead of being discouraged by daunting failure rates, leverage the wealth of information available online to build robust and resilient business models. This proactive approach involves continuous learning, adapting to market trends, and refining strategies based on real-time insights. By doing so, businesses can strengthen their foundation, enhance their adaptability, and increase their chances of sustained success in a competitive marketplace.

In addition, fosters a forward-thinking culture because growing a business in a rapidly changing environment can be challenging. It will require effort from everyone on your team to identify emerging opportunities for growth and stay ahead of industry disruptors.

Future-proofing your agency relies on business owners and entrepreneurs to embrace change, innovation, and forward-thinking strategies.

Delivering growth will require thinking outside of the box. Having a business coach in your corner is a great resource to help your business navigate the complexities of change in the dynamic marketplace. Of course, this is just one way to get and stay ahead.