As an entrepreneur, what you want to do with your business is to grow it to its full potential so that you can make a profit and achieve the lifestyle you want.
Or maybe even exit and go into something else.
But sometimes you get so caught up in the details of the day-to-day work that the big picture escapes you.
There are opportunities that remain hidden because you focus on pieces of the picture.
The good news is, if you take a small step back, you can always reorganize your strategy to unlock this potential.
For today we have prepared another useful article from which you can learn 6 top tips that will help you make the most of the full potential of your business. Are you ready?
Contents How to unlock the hidden potential of your business
- Make an analysis of your market and identify the opportunities you have missed
- Think of a strategy to do innovative things
- Optimize internal company procedures
- Hire talented people and cultivate the skills of your colleagues
- Expand your network of partners constantly
1. Do an analysis of your market and identify the opportunities you have missed
When you want to improve something, you look at internal and external factors. Even if you can’t control the latter, it’s vital to know what’s going on around you.
Only then can you identify the right direction in which to take the business and whether you need to adapt internal policies.
Not more than 3 years ago I noticed the impact of the pandemic. Businesses that adapted early won, while others that acted late closed.
So what does your market look like and what hidden opportunities do you see there?
- What changes are there in the macro environment? – Look monthly, or even weekly at what is happening around you and how it may affect your business.
- Who are you creating value for – which segments and which customer avatars?
- Who are your most important customers?
- Who is the end user of your product? What about the one who does the transaction?
- Who are the customers most willing to accept your products quickly?
- What do reviews and testimonials (from you and your competitors) say? Pay attention to the forms, because there you might find new ideas.
Constantly look for ways to expand your customer base.
When you answer questions to identify more customers, you access new opportunities in extra markets and find new competitors.
- What do competing firms do and how do they sell their products?
- What gaps do competitors have that you can fill: like experience, products, extra services, target audience, etc.?
- And if there are gaps or things they don’t do, although they are accessible, WHY they don’t do them? (be careful not to dive in without thinking it through).
- What do communities say about your niche or audience interests?
Tip!
Some examples of people’s ultimate needs to think about when analyzing your market and customers:
- People want a picture on the wall. Not a wall mural.
- People want entertainment. Not a television.
- People want to look good. Not a scale.
- Businesses want their products transported safely to their destination. Not a truck.
- Parents want a financially secure future for their children. Not a university.
- People want a profitable online store. Not a platform.
In other words, people buy things that complete a task that needs to be done.
It’s vital to understand what your customer’s real need is, not to simply tie yourself to the specific niche of your products.
Read also: SWOT analysis – when and how to do it to grow your online store
2. Think of a strategy to do innovative things
Market demand will control many of your innovation initiatives.
But innovation strategy is often a chaotic process, in which you have to prioritize to choose the decisions that win for you – the ones that give you the maximum in results.
Here’s one way to approach this strategy for innovation:
Find the WHY behind this strategy. What do you want to achieve by bringing or doing innovative things: be it products, services, experiences, etc.?
Consider your overall long-term business goals to discover the innovation goal with the most potential to bring you closer to them.
Think about your business model – what do you want to do with it?
- To grow your business accelerated to the point of exit
- To transform the core business model
- Grow outside the business model
- Defend yourself against the transformation or decline of your industry
Consider your answer to these questions in setting your goal for innovation.
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Know your market: customers and competitors
To be able to innovate and respond to customer needs, you should listen carefully and understand what customers really want. Then eliminate the rest.
Follow the advice in point 1 to have the right data at hand to rely on when innovating.
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Define your unique value proposition
This is also the most important step in developing your strategy, when you define the unique value proposition of your business.
How will you win? What kind of innovations enable your company to capture that value and gain a competitive advantage?
You should focus on creating value that:
- Either saves customers money and time.
- Either convince them to pay more for your offer.
- Either it creates benefits for a broad category of society.
- Either make your product more powerful or more convenient than others.
- Either make your product more durable and affordable than a predecessor product or others on the market.
One tip for reaching a hard-to-demolish UVP is to try to clarify which customer segments your competition is targeting and how they overlap with the segments your new offering would target.
Is it possible to tailor any of your products to differentiate them in the locations or for the segments that are under the most pressure?
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Estimate and develop your core capabilities
We’re talking about organizational culture, business research and development skills, behaviors, values, knowledge and skills.
For example, if you want to innovate by developing an extraordinary technology, you need internal skills and specific knowledge to develop such an application or technology.
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Implement the necessary innovation systems and techniques
You need applications, systems and techniques to implement innovation and monitor its results. This can be training and education, management, marketing, financial or even production systems.
The important thing is to know what you need and to use it when innovating, researching and testing for your business.
3. Optimise your company’s internal procedures
The procedure is must have in the process of scaling a business. It replaces chaos and creates order in the internal workflow. Automatically, time management becomes easier to do and gaps that can be filled or opportunities come to light.
Internal procedures help you map activity in your company, down to the detail, so that everyone knows at all times what they have to do.
Avoid downtime, avoid mistakes and delays in communication and gain resources you can invest back into your business.
I discussed more about procedures in the article on scaling, so I recommend you read it and follow the ideas for optimizing your own processes.
Read: What does scaling a business actually entail?
4. Hire talented people and cultivate the skills of your colleagues
Another component of the strategy for unlocking the hidden potential of your business is about your team and how you engage employees in the growth of your business.
More often than not, people on your team interact directly with customers and the people who, based on those interactions, form an image of your brand.
On the other hand, employees can discover opportunities from these discussions, because they can form opinions and ideas in the heat of the moment, which they can then communicate to you.
Every piece of information that comes to you shapes the decisions you make in your business, in your innovation strategy, in the way you adjust communication.
So it’s important to have people who are engaged, talented and open to learning, so that they can help you practically in creating a great business. Don’t forget to nurture their talents by giving them opportunities to learn or access the things that interest them.
Read also: How to grow your team – the hiring and retention process [Podcast]
5. Constantly expand your network of partners
We said above that expanding into new markets and customers opens the door to hidden business growth opportunities.
And an easy way for you to do that is through partners, who will at least mediate the first point of contact between you and the new audience.
You’ll borrow from their public image and authority to more easily gain their trust. And vice versa, when they gain access to your audience, they borrow from your brand influence.
If you consistently strive to build partnerships, you’ll also consistently grow your consumer base. You can find new partners at events, networking sessions, in clubs and communities, etc.
You just have to want to 🙂 .
Read also: How to provide a safe and reliable shopping experience for your customers
Originally on the list was one more item: Monitor customer experience and make seasonal optimizations.
On the brand awareness side, this idea helps you give customers good reasons to recommend you, for free, further.
For example, you can change the surprise gift in your parcels according to the season, and your customers will be stimulated to order again and again, with the excitement of getting something else next time.
In addition to giving your customers a storytelling experience, you should always share content from people who have already received new gifts.
Because that’s how the referral wheel turns and your messages reach customers with brand ambassador potential – potential to bring you new customers and new opportunities.
Now’s the time to test at least one of the tips. See what works for you and get more out of your business – because it can definitely bring you more.
PS. Grow your sales and business with a solid platform ready to support you from 0 to millions in turnover.
Test unosoft free for 15 days and enjoy exclusive benefits – did you know that subscriptions start at 7 euros per month?
Passionate about entrepreneurship and eCommerce, I started my online activity in 2000.
Together with my team I have helped over 3,000 companies grow their business on the unosoft platform.
