Business development strategy that can grow your small business into a mega one might sound too good to be true but they definitely exist and if you are just thinking of getting your business off the launch pad and need secret hacks to quickly achieve the feat, then you are welcome on board as I planned to share with you 5 business development strategy you can apply to boost your startup in 2019 and grow your business like a pro.
Getting your startup business to the top has never been an easy task anytime and even in 2019, the task is probably going to be an uphill one. You wonder how I know this? Check the statistics! 99 percent of startup business failed to survive their first five years and there are several reasons for this raging from inadequate financial and human resources to lack of right business strategies. But you don’t have to lose sleep over this, I am writing this article to demystify the weird mysteries in business world, help you avoid the pitfall and provide you with business development strategy that’ll help you boost your startup business along your journey to the top.
No successful entrepreneurs were bone with understanding of business operations. There are learning process they all went through and master before they are referred to as being successful. So here are five business development strategy you can apply to boost your startup in 2019.
1. Shelve your pride and learn current industry working techniques
Yeah I know your business ideas are supper cool but some business ideas have outlived their commercial values. The earlier you understand this, the better. As you get your startup business off the Launchpad in 2019, remember that trending business doesn’t necessarily translate into profitable business. So, shelve your pride. It will only destroy your business ambition.
You’ll do better to strictly screen your identified business ideas and rate those, following very harsh but realistic yard sticks. Why would I do that you say? You need to because you ain’t planning to all your investment down the drain. This is one of the business development strategies that every startup investors who planned to realize absolute return on investment in the long run apply every now and then.
2. You don’t know it all, get a mentor to tag you along the rough business terrain
Having great degree in business administration, finance or economics is never a guaranty of success when it comes to the practical business world and certainly not in Nigeria where business environment has never been as volatile as it is currently. Those you call old cargoes understand business development strategy that get them through the rough business terrain more than you do, they have accomplished what you are just setting out to achieve and tapping from their accumulated experience will get you on a success path.
“I have always been a huge believer in the inestimable value good mentoring can contribute to any nascent business. Ask any successful businessperson and, if they are honest about it, they will almost certainly admit to having benefited from the advice of a mentor at some point along the way.” Sir Richard Branson, Founder Virgin Group.
That word of advice was coming from the billionaire founder of one of the multinational companies in UK. Although, in order to make this hack pays better, you need a mentor that has an in-depth understanding of how your industry works.
3. Improve on your competitors business development strategy
Ask every successful entrepreneur how they survive in their business and they will tell you their success was greatly influenced by their competitors. You think that sounds impossible? I know, but every startup business growth partially relies on the business ability to dominate its competitors and retain that much coveted top seat in the industry. How could this be done? You need to understand methods and tricks that can help you improve on your competitors business development strategy.
Researching your competitors is a must do task for every startup business in order to help fine-tune the business strategies to be adopted and learning to do this at the early stage of the business will get your business on the right footing.
Among business development strategies that you need to employ in order to have an edge over your competitor are: Identify Your SEO Competitors are: identify your industry competitors, use your competitor’s think tanks, Check their existing referrals and analyze their business structure etc.
4. Strengthen your customer service skills
Since you ain’t planning to sell to robots that are artificial intelligence, then your customers should be adequately care for and the best way to reflect that is in your customer care policies.
Whether you are just planning to get your business off the launch pad or you’ve been up and running and just now starting to analyze your competitor strategies, polishing up your customer care policy will go a long way in determining your customer retention.
We hope 2019 brings great days in our businesses but currently the country’s economic states affect almost every business one way or the other. Caring enough for clients and customers might be one of the business development strategies that your business need to leverage on in order to survive in the long run whether your business is a startup or big corporation.
“There is only one boss; the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company, from chairman down simply by spending his money somewhere else.” Sam Walton
Now that we know who the boss is, then satisfying him should be our top priority and the best way to do that is to match your business operations with the customers’ needs, offer them value for their money, respect their precious time and humbly ask them for referrals. The below are things you can package in your business development strategy to improve your customer service skills:
- Attitude
- Interest
- Action
- Verbal Language
- Body Language
- Tone of Voice
If you follow these simple hacks, I promise you they’ll gladly give you more than you expected.
5. Don’t start bigger than necessary
As an aspiring entrepreneur, we are often filled with dreams to one day start a successful business. In fact, the ideas of growing such business into a multinational corporation is exiting but the wise one understand the wisdom in the saying “One step at a time”
It’s a known fact that business world is ever dynamic so, any startup entrepreneur would do better to avoid business failure by playing it down a little while learning the business terrain in his industry. This particular hack is one of the top business development strategies that can save you the time, energy as well as improves business operational efficiency.
Besides, you will be able to respond quicker to the changing market conditions in terms of coming up with something creative, new and different.