Original submission:
Is your business a little tired, stagnant, in trouble? Perhaps it’s time to get someone to take a fresh look.
Someone other than you. You are too attached, too emotional, too concerned, too set in your ways to take an objective view of how your business fits into the big picture. In short, you are tired too!
This is where you need to turn to your ‘Board of Advisers’ - people that you can look up to and trust as successful business entrepreneurs in their own right. No business owner can afford to be without these critical ‘sounding boards’ who have felt your pain in reaching their own heights of success.
They are all around you, in your community, in your church, in your local business forum, in your accounting firm… successful people doing their little bit to put something back into the lives of others. Get to meet them. Get to know them. See how you can help them! One day you’ll need their advice… and they’ll be there for you.
Or, then again, you can call on a business turnaround specialist - a professional consultant who brings fresh analysis and ideas to your business for a fee or for an equity stake in your business recovery. But don’t leave this step to the last minute because even a team of 30 of the world’s best professional divers can’t save a sinking ‘Titanic’ when it is on its way to the bottom.
Regardless of whom you choose, there are 10 simple strategic questions that an adviser should ask and formulate into a turnaround solution.
1. What motivated you to start your business? Recapture the initial excitement, motivation, underlying factors and drive that led you to opening the doors of your business on your first day.
2. How did you attract your first customers? Revisit your initial marketing and sales processes. Review your original messages on your original advertising and brochure material.
3. Why did these customers buy from you then? Reflect back to your perception and excitement of those first sales and support your reasoning with testimonials from satisfied clients.
4. Why do customers buy from you today? Review the perception and feelings you have on current sales and support with current testimonials or comments. Conduct some basic market research questioning of your last 20 to 300 customers.
5. What marketing methods do you currently utilize? List the different methods being used and allocate the percentage of business being derived from each.
6. What is your personal contribution to sales? Compare your current sales activities to your original personal sales contribution at start-up.
7. What is truly UNIQUE about your product or service? Analyse what makes you proudest of your business, product or service and what differentiates it from your competitors.
8. Describe your KEY Target Consumer? Explain who they are, the lifestyle they lead, and what makes them your key target consumer.
9. Where is your KEY Target Consumer located (i.e. Demographics)? Identify the specific local, regional, and/or national locations of your current and potential consumers.
10. Where would you prefer to generate increased revenue - from new customers or existing customers - and why? This will help identify your understanding, approach and attitude to marketing strategies for recovery and growth.
Ends. (Word Count 539)
Trevor Nel: INNER Circle Business Forum – www.innercircleforum.com - 011- 705-2790
Possible Headline Copy:
1. Refresh Your Entrepreneurial Mind
2. Turnaround Business Strategies
3. Key Questions To Help Fire Up Your Business
Regards
Trevor Nel - 011 - 705-2790 - http://www.innercircleforum.com/ trevor@innercircleforum.com
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