Is Your Business Designed with Your Goals in Mind?
People start businesses for personal reasons. They have dreams, goals and expectations, but often make decisions that contradict them. If you want a specific culture, then you need to design your business with your goals in mind. After all, it affects your brand and positioning.
Dreaming about a business is wonderful; it’s like dreaming about what your future marriage will be like. You have all these perfect ideas and goals, but you soon realize life can be harsh; therefore, you start to compromise. If you want your business to survive, you may have no choice. But, if you planned accordingly, you can design your business how you envisioned it, avoiding the hassles that come with compromise. So is your business designed with your goals in mind?
Choosing Your Customers
Let’s take one decision for example; who do you want for a customer? Now this may sound like a duh! question, but it truly is not. You see, you can choose those who understand and appreciate what you do, or you can market to everyone.
What’s the difference? The former will bring you quality clients who understand what you’re worth; hence they will pay the premium price. The latter will bicker for a discount. You will also find that many who are price minded are easily dissatisfied; hence the cost for customer service becomes a drain on a smaller profit margin.
When you accept the premise of price, you will always be discounting your services. Sure, you can probably find more clients, but at what cost? Consider this:
- The time it takes to deliver your product is the same.
- The cost of material’s the same (excluding economies of scale).
- Wages and salaries are the same.
So if you earned 10 customers this week at half price, but would only earn five at regular price; which is the better deal?
While all the hard costs and income do not change, what price do you put on peace of mind and a happy workforce? Would employee retention increase? Would quality increase, because a happy employee works better? Would customer-service costs decrease, because you have happier customers, due to higher quality? Would morale be high, because it’s a joy to come to work?
How much money did your company save?
- Not having to hire new employees;
- Not advertising for them;
- Not having to take time interviewing;
- No training expense;
- Lower customer service costs;
- Higher sales, due to a great reputation.
The reality is while all the hard costs and profit margin remain the same, your bottom line and peace of mind are greatly enhanced.
What are Your Expectations for Your Business?
Therefore, ask yourself, “What do I want from my business?” Follow that up with, “What would it take to accomplish that?” Consider not only the product and service you want to offer, but how you wish to offer it, what atmosphere and environment you want to spend long days in and what kind of people you want to surround yourself with. These are often aspects not considered that determine the substance of your brand.