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We’re sure you’ve heard the cliché that 90% of startups fail. But whether that statistic is accurate or not, it does get something right - running a successful business is challenging.
It doesn’t matter which industry you’re in, how big your business is, or how long you’ve been an entrepreneur. New challenges always present themselves.
However, if it weren’t possible to overcome these challenges, we wouldn’t hear about all the successful companies making a difference in the world.
But how can you join the ranks of thriving companies?
While you can use tons of different strategies, we’ve picked out three that we believe can move the needle for your business.
1. Have the Most Valuable Product or Service in Your Niche
Value is determined by a product's price divided by its perceived value.
For example, a basic unbranded bottle of water may cost $2.00 or less. But branded water like Voss may cost $3.00 or even $4.00 because of the way it’s marketed.
Is Voss water that much better than a basic bottle of water? It might be. But if you think about it based on the cost of production—probably not.
Instead, this price jump happens because Voss water has a higher perceived value.
So how can you use this for your business?
Get into the habit of asking yourself: “What will my clients gain from my business?” You’ll be able to skip unimportant features and focus on those with the most impact.
You can add value in a ton of different ways, for example:
● Decreasing the time it takes for customer service to respond to clients.
● Selling larger products for a similar price to your competitors. Selling smaller products can also be considered a value-add since it gives customers more flexibility in their purchasing choices.
● Offering industry-leading warranties and refund policies.
● Creating a more effective product or solution than your competitors.
But always remember, your customer has to value what you offer. If they don’t value something, don’t add it to your offer.
It’s easy to get wrapped up by industry trends or copy competitors blindly. Instead, shift your focus towards the most crucial person in your business—your customer.
2. Find Your Weakest Link
The Theory of Constraints suggests that businesses are limited by their weakest link. Sometimes that link refers to a business process, knowledge gap, or any number of factors that prevent your business from thriving.
For example, if you analyze your business and determine that you don’t have enough customers. Then you need to break down your sales process into its steps to see where the limiting factor is.
Maybe your outreach isn’t effective, or your marketing campaigns aren’t resonating with your ideal client.
Once you identify the genuine issue, you can find a solution. And after you fix the first link, continue repeating the process to improve every aspect of your business.
Here’s how you can do it:
1. Identify the true constraint
For example, if you aren’t making enough sales, this doesn’t automatically mean that you need to improve your closing, nor does it always mean you need more leads. Instead, the constraint could be the types of customers you’re targeting.
2. Test quick strategies to see if there’s an improvement
Constraint improvement doesn’t always rely on significant changes. Instead, look at some immediate low-cost changes you can make that may remove the constraint. For example, incorporating an additional step into your sales process or using professional interpreting services to overcome language barriers. You can also download an interpreting app for free to this and.
3. Analyze related activities
Sometimes other activities in your business process can stop the constraint from improving. For example, if salespeople have a quota for the number of leads they generate rather than the quality, this will cause the wrong customers to move down the sales funnel.
First, the quota needs to be fixed so that the salespeople can focus on improving the constraint.
4. Look for more complex solutions
If immediate solutions aren’t working, you need to look at the bigger picture. Sometimes the solution requires new equipment, a software investment, or business process outsourcing (BPO).
5. Repeat 1 - 4
As mentioned above, this process doesn’t end after solving a single constraint. Building a thriving business is all about continuous improvement because as your company becomes more successful, other constraints will begin to hamper your success.
3. Expand your target market through localization
Statistics show that there were 4.66 billion active internet users in the world.
What does this mean for you? It means that there is a ton of untapped potential for your business. Naturally, the more customers you serve, the more revenue your company will generate.
So how can you connect with these customers? You have options like:
● Google Search
● TikTok
And the many other platforms available today.
Right now, you could start targeting customers from around the globe the same way that you’d target local ones.
But this isn’t the best way to do it.
A global target market becomes a mesh of languages and cultures, so you need to modify your brand to succeed. Here’s where a localization service can help.
Localization services ensure that your product, marketing, and overall business image suit a specific audience.
They do this by:
● Ensuring your content abides by legal requirements.
● Incorporating region-specific slang, expressions, and idioms so that your brand can better connect with people.
● Removing culturally sensitive material—what’s okay for one country may be unacceptable for another.
● Ensuring your content fits within the constraints of your marketing materials and product.
But make sure you use professional localization services to globalize your brand. Otherwise, you risk having poorly localized content that can do more harm than good for your business.
Which strategy will you implement in your business?
Running a successful company is all about continuous, slow improvement. The entrepreneur who stays in the game the longest has the best chance of success.
And the way to do that is to continually look for ways to improve your business.
So start with providing the best value in your niche, fixing your constraints, and when you’re ready to go global, make sure to localize your brand.