Development and Growth

Small business success: -
Obviously people start a new venture to make money and gain success, but there are different ways of gain this success blow are ten basic steps to gain the best route.

10 tips to succeed: -
Knowing yourself and knowing what you are good at.
Planning your business wisely.
Finance for the long term and not looking for sort term solutions.
Balancing your books and financial records and transactions.
Practicing good management skills and techniques, which will also motivate you and people around you.
Some of the more common mistakes managers make include: -
Hiring the wrong people.
Inadequate employee training.
Trying to do too much.
Bad time management.
Absentee ownership.
Knowing your market is important part of gaining success sound market research is the key.
Delivering the best quality the business can achieve; a terrific marketing strategy might bring a customer to your door.
Hire the right people; many consultants agree that good employees can play a major role in your business's success. Very often the image and reputation of your company depend on how customers view your employees. An employee's attitude, appearance and skills can make or break your business.
Choose the right location; just as your product or service and your employees are crucial to your business's success, so is your location. Where you want to set up shop is a decision that should be made early.
Do not be afraid to ask for help; when considering the assistance of professional consultants, many owners of small business ask themselves: Is it necessary? Can I afford one? Can I afford not to get the help of outside experts?


What can you get out of your business: -
Saving Money and Accumulating Wealth: -The share price of a business is related to its financial strength and its prospects for the future. Can you imagine how someone might evaluate your present financial situation and your prospects for the future? Would you be a value oriented investment or a blue chip? It all depends on what the investors deem the merits and the liabilities of the way you conduct yourself in the business of life.

Business Growth/Expansion: -
Your business’ focus changes as it moves beyond the start-up phase. Identifying opportunities for growth becomes a priority to ensure the enterprise’s sustainability.
You can measure growth by looking at numbers such as your: -
· turnover
· market share
· profits
· sales
· staff numbers
However, determining which measure delivers the most accurate picture of your business’ performance depends on both your type of business and what stage it has reached.
For example, a retail business may have a high sales volume, but narrow margins on stock. These could mean low profits that undermine the business’ viability.
In general, a combination of sales and profits is the preferred way of measuring growth.




Exiting your Market: -
When you're setting up your business it is essential to think about how you'll ultimately end your involvement with it.
A well thought-out exit strategy can help you to maximise the value you get from your business, successfully market your business to potential buyers or investors and ensure you end your involvement with as little disruption to the business as possible.
Regardless of whether your exit occurs to a planned schedule or you are forced to make a move for unexpected reasons, the decisions you make when setting up can affect how easy it is for you to eventually exit your business.

Exit options: -There are a number of ways of exiting or disposing of a business. You should consider the best option for them in line with their personal objectives.
The different options available are: -
Trade sale
Management buyout
Family succession
Management buy-in
Stock market flotation
Merger
Liquidation


We here at ‘Galaxy of Success’ have carefully selected the following case study from the U.S. (to give you a global insight) for your perusal to help guide you through the first tentative year:

Starting a business is somewhat like preparing for a final exam. There's organising test information, managing study time, and then taking the actual test. But sometimes, despite taking careful steps before opening shop, the first year can still be a learning process. Ebele Mora, the 18-year-old president of Imprint Design Services, a graphic design and printing company in Columbus, Ohio, did lots of groundwork before forming her company in May 2000. Even with laying a foundation, Ebele learned that a big part of running a business is trial and error.

DEVELOPING THE IDEA: -
Ebele had the right idea when she decided to enter an NAACP ACT-SO Entrepreneurship competition in her state in April 2000. Prior to entering, she studied concepts such as defining her business and its services, learning basic business vocabulary, and marketing and management. She had to write a 20-page business plan and make a five-minute presentation in front of six judges. Needless to say, Ebele's efforts won Imprint Designs the competition. She also took second place in the ACT-SO nationals in July of that year. In all, Ebele has participated in few business competitions. "Those competitions help me define my ideas." she explains, "Each year when I compete. I write a new business plan. In 2001, I called it A Plan for Success ... a Plan for Improvement and Development for My Business in its Next Year.

FINDING THE CUSTOMERS: -
Ebele's business, which creates materials such as flyers, invitations, business cards, bookmarks, and program booklets, made $3,000 after its first year. For three years prior to starting Imprint Design Services, she volunteered to design the printed materials for a women's arts and community organisation. Once Ebele decided to start a company, she had 12 clients waiting in the wings from referrals from the women's organisation. Soon, hairstylists and ether self-employed individuals were calling for her services. "Once the word got out about the business," Ebele says. "I began to connect with several mentors." One of those mentors was a graphic designer who owned a software business. Because she used the family's Gateway desktop computer, printer, and paper, Ebele was able to start her company without any money. Within the first month of doing graphic designs, she made $100. Thinking smart, she reinvested the money and bought paper and ink cartridges.

CHARGING THE RIGHT PRICE: -
Even though Ebele had a fair share of work coming in, there were several things she hadn't completely figured out before starting some of the projects. She was very excited, for instance when a local salon asked her to create business cards for 14 of its stylist. But Ebele didn't figure out what the project would cost her before giving the customer a price. "I hadn't figured out how many pages I could print per ink cartridge," she says. "And even though I printed the cards at home. I also hadn't factored in the cost of having to get them cut at Kinkos." When done, the job cost about $220, barely leaving $25 in profit for all of the hard work. She raised the cost of the business cards several times before coming up with a price that would give her a larger profit.

Ebele decided to change a few other things too;
For starters, she began buying ink to fill the prissier cartridges instead of purchasing a new cartridge every time. She also found a supplier that sold paper at a much cheaper rate. In addition, Ebele decided she wouldn't print less than 400 cards per customer. After determining that, it would cost her $14 to produce that many cards, she set her, cost at $28 per order, leaving her with a $14 profit. "The price I arrived at was cost-effective for the customers and profitable for me," she says.
Ebele also stresses that, at times, she didn't put enough value on her work. In the beginning, no matter how complex or time-consuming the job was, she charged every customer $10 for doing design work on flyers. After realising she wasn't making much per hour for her efforts, she increased her rate to $15 for a simple flyer and $30 for a more complex one.

EXPANDING THE COMPANY: -
Another lesson Ebele learned early on was realising her company's potential to grow. When her business first started, she didn't provide printing services because she didn't know it could be profitable. But after getting a $500 grant in April 200 2001 from the Institute for Entrepreneurship and the Kaufman Foundation, she bought two more printers and expanded her operation. She now prints the flyers and other orders and is able to offer customers smaller print quantities for a good price. As a result of this expansion, 50% of Imprint Design's revenues comes from printing services now. Other services the company provides are cutting, folding, and lamination.
A senior at Bishop Hartley High School, Ebele plans to attend college this fall. While she'll still play a part in operating the business, she'll leave the hands-on work to her younger sister, who often helps with large printing jobs. She wants to major in accounting and plans to learn Web design while in college. "For now," she says, "I want to keep my business going while learning as much in other areas as I can."


NLP and the new business venturer
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) – truly helps you realise, reach and maintain your true potential.
Knowledge of NLP will be of great advantage to any new business venturer a summary of what this is follows with several very useful & relevant web sites/links.
Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is based on the idea that with our senses we are only able to perceive a small part of the world. Our view of the world is filtered by our experience, beliefs, values and assumptions. We act and feel based on our perception of the world rather than the real world. NLP teaches that language and behaviors (whether functional or dysfunctional) are highly structured, and that this structure can be 'modeled' or copied into a reproducible form Using NLP a person can 'model' the more successful parts of their own behavior in order to reproduce it in areas where they are less successful or 'model' another person to effect belief and behavior changes to improve functioning. If someone excels in some activity, it can be learned how specifically they do it by observing certain important details of their behavior. NLP embodies several techniques, including hypnotic techniques, which proponents claim can affect changes in the way people think, learn and communicate.
NLP has given rise to a trail of techniques that can be used both personally and professionally. They are used internationally in various business areas and enable you not only to reach and influence others, but also to reach and perfect the different parts of yourself.
NLP can also help managers analyse success secrets of their best employees applied by intuition and teach others these secrets, thus "cloning" success without cloning people.

Essential to any new business venturer: NLP Model: www.1000ventures.com


Useful NLP websites:

www.helford2000.co.uk

www.nlp.com

www.nlpacademy.co.uk

www.nlpconference.co.uk

www.ppdlearning.co.uk