There are six fundamental business goals and objectives necessary for success. The first thing to keep in mind is that any online business or conventional business needs six fundamentals to be in place to ultimately be successful:
- A product or service that provides a solution to a problem or a physical or emotional benefit (obviously important);
- Lawsuit – If there is no existing lawsuit, you are fighting a losing battle;
- Traffic: A steady stream of prospects who eventually become customers;
- Real estate – a place to conduct business (Internet URL, storefront, street corner, etc.);
- An element of uniqueness or personality (if you’re selling the exact same thing in the same way as everyone else, it’s going to be very difficult to be successful for long).
- An intellectual team of two or more people with a common goal for the business. This does not necessarily mean that you have to have employees or a partnership business. Joint Venture Partners or Affiliate Partners, where there is mutual benefit to growing your business can lead to tremendous success
The first two fundamentals, product and demand, are obvious because no one will take out their wallet or purse if you don’t provide them with a benefit (other than theft or charity). Likewise, you would have to engage in heavy-handed (robbery) or governmental tactics to create demand where there is none.
Once again, the next two factors are an obvious necessity that speak for themselves.
However, business factors 5 and 6 are the most ignored fundamentals of any business.
Even large corporations go bankrupt because they misunderstand the last two factors on the list that don’t seem so important. However, I will give a couple of examples of why the last two basic success principles can outperform more well-known business needs.
Most startups fail, not because they’re missing out on a product that’s in demand or a good location where potential customers exist. Businesses often fail when the owner doesn’t have the support network or team to handle growth and becomes overwhelmed with all the little details of running a business, giving up because the cost to their health, marriage or happiness outweighs the reward. .
Another major cause of business failure occurs when a business owner mistakenly tries to copy the business model of a larger company that is failing in that niche market. Large companies often buy out potential smaller competitors to avoid future competition and then spend large sums of money to shore up the business for the appearance of the larger company, when the market does not justify the investment. Then, when others think there is a big profit based on the false outside impression, they want to jump on the gang bandwagon for profit motives alone without doing their own market research.
It is very important to create your own unique identity in whatever business you are in. It’s also important to remember that your success depends on your ability to serve your customer, not the other way around.
Many years ago, when I had an hourly job and used to buy beer after work to relax, there was a liquor store a block from where I worked. It was a big store that had a lot of investors. They spent a lot of money on advertising and employees and always had some kind of sale to get more traffic. They also had the best location imaginable at the main intersection of the two highways that run through town. His closest competitor was a small place on the outskirts of town.
From the first time I went to the store, I found the manager somewhat arrogant. As it turned out, it was more than that. One day they ran out of the type of beer I liked and I asked if there was anything in the back. His response was incredible. He said, “If it’s not in the fridge, we don’t have it. It’s not like we stock up on that kind of (expletive) beer.”
I felt insulted, because the beer I was ordering was a budget brand and he made it sound like my needs or wants were less important than someone who spent more money. That’s not a good idea if you want to keep a customer. Needless to say I didn’t go back for a while. The next time I went back, he made sure to remove any future wishes I might have to return. When I asked him for a beer bag, he replied, “What’s wrong with the handle on the 12-pack?”
I have never been back to that business and the friendly little shop on the outskirts of town has a full parking lot at times. I wonder why. The only other time I’ve come across a business that seemed to be trying to weed out future business was from a manager at a chicken franchise restaurant that had a 1/2 price deal on specific dinners right out the front of the store. I ordered one of those dinners and was charged full price. I asked him to correct the billing and he told me he couldn’t because he had entered it on the register as a dinner and it was my fault for not ordering the ‘special’ so he could push the correct button. Now you can’t change it or you’ll ruin your books. He refused to give me my change and I filed a complaint with his corporate office. I have no idea if he’s still there because I won’t be back.
I don’t understand what the goals of these two managers were, however I am pretty sure they are not in tune with the investors of those companies. That type of scenario is just as undesirable for a business owner or investor as an uncooperative spouse who disregards the business but demands access to bank accounts. It is a recipe for failure.
It’s best to have a competitor as part of your brainpower, when possible, to work as a team to generate business for both companies and share the rewards. That scenario is always more profitable than internal competition tearing each other down. Competitive Internet companies often take turns promoting each other’s products as joint venture partners, benefiting both companies far more than they would themselves.
It is also extremely important if you are just starting out to find a mentor who is established in the field of business you want to enter. Their experience and knowledge can literally save you years of trial and error, and if you can create a business that is mutually beneficial, the sky is the limit for your success.
It seems obvious to an outside observer that a company’s success would depend on its ability to stand out from the crowd and be unique in serving its customers. However, in today’s franchise society, where large corporations have thousands of exactly duplicate small businesses owned by different franchisees, small business owners and investors often mistakenly look to these large entities as an example to follow. , when in fact, many of these franchise giants are crumbling under their own weight.
One of the biggest problems facing large corporations today is that they have become so diversified within themselves, as they were buying out competitors, to own various market shares, that they no longer have the intellectual team that originally led them. to this point of Success in the business.
If they have diversified too far from the original goal as they have grown, they begin to compete with themselves within the company. As a result, to show profitability in one branch of the company, an average executive must compete with an executive in another branch of the company to prosper and continue to get investors to lend money to his branch of the company. This type of competition can be detrimental if the bureaucracy and diversification are too great.
In today’s market, large corporations are riddled with debt, have huge bureaucracies, and only seem to be in business for profit and the investor. The time is right and the low hanging fruit is there if you want to build a business with the customer in mind.
By Brian Fowler