On the secrets and tips behind successful businesses

To own and run a successful business, you must acquire knowledge and adopt change management constantly. It has been proven that people certainly have more reasons to work harder for themselves than for others. Business owners make some sacrifices in their personal life that they will not make while working for others or in the public sector. To build a successful business, you need more than a good – or even great – idea. You have to be well organised, flexible, and creative, and develop a knack for paying close attention to details while never losing sight of the overall picture. You should also be prepared to make some trade-offs. Whatever the type of business you are into, it is certain that there are basic tips that can be used to keep it growing.

It is important to be aware of your competitors, particularly the new things they are doing that you might want to adopt or improve upon. Nurturing a successful business is hard work, and not every business starter succeeds in the end. According to 2022 data from the American Bureau of Labour Statistics, about 20 percent of new businesses fail during their first year, 50 percent fail during the first five years; and 65 percent fail during the first 10 years. Only 25 percent of new businesses make it to 15 years or beyond. To be among the 25 percent that survive for at least 15 years, you must pay attention to these ten tips.

Be well organised: To achieve success as a business owner you must be well organised. Being organised will help you to complete tasks efficiently and stay on top of the many things that need to be done. A simple way to get and stay organised is to create a to-do list each day (checklist). As you complete each item, check it off your list. Remember, too, that some tasks are more important than others. Aim to tackle the high-priority ones first. Also, remember that the priority list may change while carrying out the tasks. There are tools that you can use to organise your daily tasks and operations. They include Slack, Asana, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. Excel spreadsheet can be used for payroll, account recording and budgeting.

Understand the costs and benefits of your investment: Another key to being successful is taking calculated risks to help your business grow. Besides contemplating the potential rewards if you succeed, a good question to ask is: What are the cost and the benefit of doing what I am doing and what are the cost and benefits of close alternatives? You must learn to manage risks effectively, efficiently and economically.

Keep detailed records: No matter how busy they are, successful businesses take the time to keep financial transactions. By doing so, they know where their business stands financially and can often get a better (and earlier) grasp of any potential challenges they might be facing. Many businesses today keep two sets of records: one physical and another in the cloud through cloud computing. Through this way, businesses no longer have to worry about losing crucial data if something unfortunate happens, like a fire, computer virus, or other disaster.

Appraise your competitors: To be successful, you cannot afford to ignore your competitors. Instead, take the time to study and learn from them. Big organisations have a budget for obtaining this sort of competitive intelligence under an exercise called intelligence gathering. How you go about analysing your competitors depends on the nature of your business. A restaurant or grocery store owner may simply go to dine or shop at a competitor’s place of business, ask customers what they like or do not like about its competitor, and gain information that it may use to improve. Some use professional market research organisations.

Be innovative: Always look for ways to improve your business and make it stand out from those of your competitors. Recognize that you do not know everything and be open to new ideas and different approaches. Keep an eye on opportunities to expand your current business or develop related enterprises that will lead to additional revenues and provide the benefits of diversification. Amazon is a good example. Amazon started as an online bookseller after eBay and grew into an e-commerce giant, selling just about everything. Today it has a unit for selling properties (Realogy). Among Amazon’s many subsidiaries are Amazon Web Services, One Medical, Ring, Amazon Pharmacy, AbeBooks, Amazon Fresh, Amazon Books, Blink Homes, Woot, Amazon MGM Studios, Whole Foods Market, Amazon Games, Amazon Air, and Zappos.

Stay focused on your vision: Just because you open a business with your hard-earned money does not mean you are going to start making money immediately. It takes time to let people know who you are and what you have to offer, so stay focused on achieving your goals. Many small businesses which eventually achieved success and which grew into unicorns did not see profit for a few years and had to rely on borrowed funds or their own savings to support the business until it became profitable.

Provide great customer service: Too many businesses forget the importance of providing great customer service. Businesses are about customers. If you deliver better service to your customers, they will be ready to come back to you the next time and to recommend you to their friends and associates. High-quality service is one key to obtaining competitive advantage in business. Some businesses refer to this as taking a consumer-centric or client-centric approach. In fact, in today’s hyper-competitive business environment, good service is often the major differentiating factor between a successful business and others.

Be consistent: Consistency is a factor of success in business. You have to keep doing what is necessary to be successful, day-in-day-out. Creating a brand and cutting a niche in business takes some time. This will create long-term positive habits that will help you make money in the long run and create satisfied customers from day one.

Be ready to make some sacrifices: Having your own business often requires putting in more time than when you were working for others. That can mean spending less time on hobbies, with family and friends. The adage that there are no weekends and no vacations for business owners can be true for anyone who is committed to making their business succeed. Owning a business is not for everyone. If, after an honest self-evaluation, you decide you are not cut out for business, you will save yourself a lot of grief, and probably a lot of money, by following another career path.

Listen to feedback from customers: It is important that you have a feedback mechanism as a business owner and you listen to the feedback religiously. There are some professional organisations which can help you harvest, analyse and report, in a concise form, your feedback.