Building relationships with customers results in security.
The failure rate for small businesses is incredibly high. Many small businesses rely on "good products," "good ideas" or "good services," rather than on proper preparation, business structure, funding and marketingstrategy. While having a sound product and/or service is also a must, a business with a great product or service that is not supported by strong, fundamental business concepts will not be successful in the long run.
Plan for the worst. Businesses that are prepared for financial and public relations crises can handle them in a proactive, rather than retroactive, fashion, which will be beneficial in the long run.
Know your strengths and weaknesses. When businesses are aware of their strengths, they can capitalize on them and sell the company better to customers and clients. Additionally, knowing weaknesses is equally important so improvements can be made.
Build a relationship with your customers or clients. Establishing a relationship with customers and clients is essential. Especially during times of economic hardship, loyal customers help keep businesses afloat.
Don't try to grow/expand too fast. Growing too fast can also be detrimental for a small businesses. Prior to running a huge advertising campaign (or other marketing tactic), businesses must ensure that they have the man power to support the company's efforts if there is a surge in demand.
Know your competition. Keeping an eye on competitors is beneficial because businesses can not only see what other businesses are doing successfully, but also what tactics other businesses have tried that have been unsuccessful, so they can avoid going down the same path.
The end of the fiscal year is a primary time for organizational evaluation. Whether you have a start-up operation and have been in business less than a year, or are a veteran; annual evaluations are not only beneficial to all organizations, they are a necessity.
During an annual evaluation, you want to assess your entire operation. First, start by examining your annual revenue against your cost of doing business. Were your profits as high as you had expected or hoped they would be? If not, why didn’t you make as much as you wanted to? Was it due to a lack of or faulty marketing efforts? Did you lose customers or clients? Did you spend too much time and money training employees with a high turn-over rate? If profits were higher than expected, first take a moment to celebrate your good fortune; then get back to business. Why were profits so high? Did you gain an unexpected amount of customers or clients? Did you efficiently train employees, and therefore had a low turn-over rate? Did you increase free publicity through effective public relations efforts?
After examining your revenue, move onto your organizational structure. If you planned well from the beginning, your structure should be fairly flexible to meet the current needs of your business, while having room to grow as your business matures. Do you have enough employees to meet current demand? Do you have too many employees? Are the current positions meeting organizational needs? For instance, a company may have a Human Resource Director and a Human Resource Assistant. As the company expands and begins to receive more business, it may be necessary to incorporate a Project Coordinator. Rather than hiring someone new, the Human Resource Assistant can probably make a very good Project Coordinator (during the annual review the company discovered that the Human Resource Assistant did not have a lot of work to do). Moving employees rather than hiring new ones can help your organization save time and money. Sometimes a change in title and scope of duties for one employee is all an organization needs to do to substantially increase productivity for the entire operation. This is also a great time to conduct individual employee evaluations.
At the end of the day, most businesses have the end-goal of growth. What did you company do in the last year to expand? How are you staying in touch with new and loyal customers and clients? How are you reaching people who may have never heard about your business? What is your current publicity/marketing strategy? How much time are you spending executing it? Based on your answers, should you consider outsourcing?
While product quality and assurance should be an on-going process, a year-end evaluation should also include an assessment of your company’s products and services. How do your products and services match up to the competitions’?
It is important to take note that whether the news is good or bad, you must always search for the reason why in your annual evaluation. If your company performed poorly, you will need to understand what went wrong so you can fix the problem. If your company had a stellar year, you will also want to have a thorough understanding of why so you can repeat and improve on those results for the next fiscal year. Once you discover what your company did right, and what went wrong, take the time to make a new plan for the upcoming fiscal year. This is a great time to bring out your business plan as well and make any necessary revisions.
To learn more about how Writings by Design can help your business connect with customers, clients and other key stakeholders, please visit us at www.writingsbydesign.com, email your question to inquiry@writingsbydesign.com or call us at (866) 937-2361.
Providing lenders with a sound, well-constructed funding request letter is a critical step in the business funding process. Your funding request package should contain a letter of inquiry, a proposal cover letter and the actual proposal. See the following examples of key components in a funding request package:
Letter of Inquiry
Busy executives do not always have the time to read your full proposal. To increase your chances that your proposal is read in a timely manner, write a strong letter of inquiry to peak the reader’s interest.
Sample Letter of Inquiry
Proposal Cover Letter
The proposal cover letter will further demonstrate why your company’s venture is of value to the lender. Leave the extensive details for the proposal. Use the letter as a brief outline of what the lender can expect in the proposal, as well as a very brief overview of your company and vision.
Sample Cover Letter
Proposal
In the initial stages of the proposal review, it is likely that executives will “browse” through your proposal. Since you do not have control over what is viewed first, it is critical to make sure all aspects of your proposal are equal in strength and effectiveness. Include the following information in your proposal:
