What can we be doing differently this year to solidify our position?

Hey Aunty B,

We are a B2B company and we are surprised by the first few weeks of January. We are on target to have a ‘normal’ month in sales and it seems like things are looking a lot better this year. We are only small but last year was a good year as well and this is our third year of operation.

We have noticed enquiries are as high as ever, which is weird because at the beginning of January everyone is on holidays.

Did the GFC really restrain us in the last couple of years from having even more revenue? Or is it a combination of our strategy and value proposition really sinking through?

What can we be doing this year a little differently to what we were doing during the GFC to really solidify our position?

Thanks,
Surprised

Dear Surprised,

Hooley Dooley. Nothing presses my buttons like a man talking value proposition.

Look, entrepreneurs are afflicted with a number of peculiar conditions. One of them is the “Dare I believe it is going so well?” syndrome. This syndrome only afflicts successful entrepreneurs and first symptoms come on slowly – a growing sense of disbelief that the “bloody thing” might actually work.

Usually this is followed quickly by a crisis at work such as a key employee leaving or you discover your bookkeeper stealing, that brings back the normal feelings of panic and alarm that characterise a start up entrepreneur’s emotional make up.

But then guess what? These uncomfortable “success” feelings grow even though you do your best to vanquish them with questions such as: what on earth can we be doing right? Why are we going so well? What if it all vanishes in a puff of smoke?

And then the miracle cure occurs! You suddenly realise that the business is more solid than you think. You have come further than you realised. In other words, the bloody thing HAS worked. You are now running a successful, established business!

Now I have even better news for you.

I forecast for you a great year and here is why. You are one of a lucky group that started your business at the start of the recession. You don’t know this yet but it was tough. Now all business start ups are tough. When we ask entrepreneurs to look back and identify the toughest period, they inevitably say the first two years. But your first two years coincided with really bad economic times. So the disciplines you put in place to manage your business will stand you in good stead. As I have said before – and I have been around the block a few times – the best class of entrepreneurs I have ever met started their businesses in the depressed conditions of 1992 and ’93.

It is obvious why. You keep your costs exceptionally low, you work very hard and you provide excellent customer service.

And you do all this at a time when your established competitors are pulling back, laying off staff and are distracted by falling profits and structural market change.

What can you do this year to solidify your position?

The first thing is to realise – and celebrate – your success and understand that your repeat customers and word-of-mouth referrals will keep providing you with new business. Now you need to look at how you can sell more and add more value to your existing customers. What new technology can help you do things better, faster, quicker cheaper and delight your clients and will also act as a barrier to entry for new players?

What key skills can you bring in to strengthen your management team? What is your long-term plan and how are you going to get there? What new revenue stream can you develop that is low cost but very profitable?

What processes need to be strengthened so that your excellent customer service continues?

This type of strategic thinking and planning will not only solidify your position but it will grow your business and build barriers to entry to stop the new start ups that will come nipping at your heels.

Good luck,
Your Aunty B

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