What makes a business really successful? - Some experiences

What makes a business successful?

-         Lots of people have been asking me all these years and I did not have it written all along so I thought to sum it up as a concise reference for anyone needing such information.

Let me give you some pointers to ponder upon –

•      Outstanding Product OR Service?
•      Business model?
•     Sales & Marketing?

OR

•     Sustainable Money to run all the above consistently?

You got it right! – You need to sustain all the above as well as invest in latest technologies to fuel your business model all the time. Even if you have all of the above 3 and do not have the 4th – You still stand to lose in the long run as your competitors will take over your business model as soon as it is out in the market and become better on it.

My whole point of writing this blog today is that I have myself witnessed startup entrepreneurs starting with a business idea and then leaving it in the mid or failing to be a point of non-return & some are still shying away with investors OR some even do not want to use advanced technologies and then finally fail OR Some do not get profit and some get profit but could not sustain long enough & So on.

I would like to write me and my teams experiences OR Jist of experiences we have had with startups and new businesses. Why do some fail and some are a success? This can be a short reference for some and if I can be of help to even some of the new business owners or entrepreneurs – I would consider this blog worth writing about. Some entrepreneurs sometimes ask me – How much money should one ideally start with? So some questions answered over here for the rest – give me a Buzz and I shall help whatever possible.

Most of the start-ups do not last a year and more than 90% would not last for 5 years – That’s the fact. What’s the reason they don’t? Out of our experience - Because they miss on either one of these 4 points as mentioned above and described below( in one way or the other):-

Let me give some light on all these points one by one:-

1)     Outstanding Product OR Service – Most businesses tend to lose at this point itself as they start with something that either is already a product or is already a service being done by another business and hence anything of the same type proposed by them is not taken interestingly by the market.

You need to remember that if you do not have a right product or a product that is needed – your business is not needed around it and it will not gain the right marketshare you envision it to take. If you are providing services and you think you will still survive by providing services of a low standard or a service that is already present in the market at a low price point – you better forget about making your business great.

Even if the products that you are providing in your business is ordinary and already others are providing the same but you provide an outstanding service coupled with it – you have a chance to win the market but you got to provide either an outstanding product OR an outstanding service if you want to build a long-term business around it.

2)     Business model –

If the economics of a right idea is thought and implemented well also coupled with latest in technology can make a business model that is successful. This is also a point in which most businesses fail to understand that if a business is not making a profit even after investing over on it – it probably is not fit enough to be called a business – isn’t it?

We have also seen investors sometimes are so crazy about an idea which is not built around a proper business model and even if anytime a business model is thought the entire delivery line is falling and still investors line up crazy around that idea and finally all end up losing money and time on it and then blame others for it. For god sake think about the business model – is it built around the right model – are you lacking to others in the business? These all points need to be well thought about by the business teams before and during building a business model. & if you are not confident of the business model for example at the start when the product or business is made then build it as an MVP( Minimum viable product) and then keep on adding consumer behavior and spending wise analysis and make something awesome finally. Patience is also a key ingredient of all businessmen/women who are successful or who have made successful businesses. Business success is a path – It is not a destination to cover and business success is a long-lasting path and a journey everyone should be thinking about.

If you think on this point deep enough you will get a lot of examples to emulate and they teach a very good point – what business model do you have? What makes your model different from others? These are the kind of questions you should be asking every day. like the success of Amazon for example – They have built an entire marketplace for buyers and sellers to interact together- something others may be having at that time but they did not work hard enough on the delivery side OR the logistics side OR the technology side and so did not make it big or did not have the capacity to scale it large enough. So even normal ideas you can build a business model that is successful can be made big. You also need to have funding to fund your business model to scale too.

3)     Sales & Marketing: -

This is my favorite point as I see a lack of more than 60% of the failed businesses at this very point.

Sales & marketing can be summed up by 3 main teams involved every day in your business:-

A)    Lead generation team

B)     Sales team

C)     Marketing team

Yes. You got it right. You got to have 3 teams OR for startup businesses at least 3 team members who carry out all 3 activities for your business. If you do not have any of these 3 teams – you will fail and you eventually have to get these 3 crucial teams in your business.

We totally understand that not many startups have funds to have all these 3 teams but you will succeed only when you have all these 3.

If you have an online platform for your business model – you still need all these 3 teams to sustain the business properly – YES. All these 3 teams are needed for sure. We can discuss more on each team but this space is limited hence would just finish with the names for more details give me a Buzz – call, email or msg and I can help you as per my best abilities.

Now here comes the very important aspect and probably the most important aspect of a business to become successful. 4th point.

4)     Consistent money/funding flow: Without this forget about making and winning in the business market of today. You got to have enough funds to carry on all the 3 activities listed before this point. Even if you think you have invested in your idea and making a business platform or technology with that money – you still got to invest some % of your revenue from the running business on to keep that technology advanced and better than anybody else in the market. So seed funding is crucial as well as revenue generation is crucial as well as investing that money again to make the MVP of your product is needed at every point.

If you don’t believe me – Have a look at all top businesses in the world. Everyone Apple, Tesla, Facebook, Amazon, Google & Microsoft & many others keep on investing heavily on their best platforms and business entities to be best in their market space and is a continuous process so you definitely be ready for this. You will need to be spending on the other activities out of the 3 above as well and success is what will lead you the best way out.

& if you think you can have a business success by missing any of these points – We doubt.

There might be a lot of other points which are surely important and urgent for your business success but I have tried to sum it up in these 4 important for all points. Lots of sub-points can be made in these 4 points and there might be surely other points as well and if you want to discuss – give me a call or msg me or email me anytime.

As far as my experience goes - I have even met some entrepreneur’s who think that only the sales and marketing can make it – No Buddy you got it all wrong ! With sales & marketing you may make a sale and get some money in but If you are not delivering the right value – If you don’t have the products OR services to deliver to your customers – you have got it all wrong as your business will not survive in the long run. Right deliverables meets the right references and about good businesses we say that each good word is spread over and customers come back and buy more and refer others to buy your product or services... that’s the value you should look to generate…. That’s the key.

This is the advice and conclusive advice out of all seasoned businessmen/women that I am finishing off with - If you are able to deliver the right value to your stakeholders and add value to your customers – you got the right path now and if you take it on big you will have all the success you have dreamed of.

Let me know your ideas and if my points added any value to your insight about business success – I am always ready to listen to your points and improve myself and if I can be of any help anytime – Buzz me over and I shall help my best.

I am not a top shot costly consultant/expert on all businesses but I can help you on good points and insight and guidance on the same in case of any issue/trouble in your business OR at least will show the path to the solution. I can be best reached at Whatsapp/msg at +91-9899783582 Or you can take an appointment and schedule a call at daytime IST Indian time on the same number.

Thanks for your time.