Month: January 2021

As an entrepreneur, you are working every day to manage and grow your business.  The day-to-day operations of your business can be overwhelming, making it possible for you to lose sight of your long-term business goals. This where strategic planning comes in. Strategic business planning maps out your goals for the next couple of years.

While your marketing plan (hyperlink to Marketing Plan) will largely detail your short- to mid-term goals in the next 12 months, your strategic planning is all about everything beyond that. Do you plan to sell your business at a healthy profit in the future? Do you hope to sell your product worldwide? Your strategic business plan will help you answer these questions so they will not be forgotten amid your day-to-day responsibilities.

Why Entrepreneurs Need Strategic Planning

If you are already swamped with fulfilling orders, creating marketing campaigns and managing employees, you might feel as though you do not have time for long-term planning. However, you need to have more than a loose idea of your long-term goals to help you make decisions in your everyday operations.

While you might not buy into the whole “The Secret” and “The Law Of Attraction” hocus-pocus, having a clear vision of the future of your business really does make it more likely for you to succeed. When you have ideas about building a highly profitable business, you will have the anticipation of success to keep you going, even when the going gets rough. An even more tangible benefit is the fact that you will have these objectives in mind when solving problems during daily operations. You’ll be more likely to find solutions that work in the long-term, rather than quick fixes for immediate problems.

Your Strategic Planning Mission Statement

Begin a strategic plan with a vision statement, or mission statement. This is where you will briefly describe how you expect your business to grow in the next couple of years. You can choose the timeframe; three to five years is optimal. Aim high, and remember, you are the founder and main visionary of your business. When you’re putting all of your blood, sweat and tears into your business, it’s not unusual to start feeling more like an employee than a boss.

Creating A SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis help build your strategic business plan. What is a SWOT analysis? Well, SWOT stands for “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.”

Strengths. What are your businesses’ strengths in relation to the goals outlined in your mission statement? Your unique product features and up-to-date equipment technologies are strengths that will help you become an industry leader.

Weaknesses. Do you have high overhead costs? Maybe your competitors offer a wider selection of services. Fill out your “weaknesses” section with honesty and completeness. Recognizing your business’ real weaknesses, instead of only focusing on your strengths, will allow you to think critically to overcome them.

Opportunities. Are you releasing a new, premium product? Do you know of a fast-growing market in another country? Go over any opportunities you’re planning to take advantage of in the next few years.

Threats. What could be threatening to your profits and the future of your business? Maybe you only have one supplier, making your business vulnerable to their rising prices or changes in operations.

If you have employees or business partners, make sure to hold a brainstorming session and get them involved in your strategic planning process. Now is the time to bring up new ideas and opportunities, as well as create a realistic understanding of upcoming challenges to overcome.

Starting an online business is very appealing to entrepreneurs. You can start reaching out to customers in just hours with no financial investment – as well you should. Even if you plan to serve local customers, creating a website will help you get the word out and put your business on the map.

Entrepreneur Online Business Ideas To Get You Started

The internet has opened countless doors for making money. But, as an entrepreneur, it’s important that you look for more than just ways to make money. Aim to birth a business that will hire employees, become a leader in its industry and persevere and adapt, even in hard economic times.

Here are some ideas:

• Monetized blogging
• Online storefront/E-commerce
• Information products or consulting
• Life coaching
• A dating site or app for a specific group of people
• Web design agency
• Software development agency
• Resume writing service
• Current events website

Creating A New Website For Your Startup

If you’re even slightly tech-savvy, you can create your website without any hired help. All it takes is a domain name, a host and some content. As your business evolves, you’ll want to have a professional logo and theme designed to ensure you create a great first impression. But for now, let’s start with the basics.

Your domain name should be simple and easy to remember. You’ll have many options to choose from for a top-level domain (TLD), or the .com, .net, .org or .gov portion of your domain name. Choose .com as often as possible. It’s easiest for your customers to recognize and remember.

Choose the best web-hosting plan you can afford. Look for services that offer security and data backups. A poor choice in web-hosting can mean downtime and spammy Viagra links popping up all over your front page.

If you do not know how to design a website, the easiest way to start adding content is to install WordPress. From there, you can choose a theme and begin writing content right away. WordPress is not just for blogs; you can create a static page website, or even use a plugin for e-commerce capabilities so your customers can shop.

Using Social Media To Promote Your Business

Social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all good ways to access millions of consumers and broadcast your brand and foster personal relationships with your customers.  LinkedIn and Google Plus can help you connect with business owners and professionals. Social media is a great source of traffic and “shares” that link to your website help you gain exposure.

With that said, setting up and maintaining these profiles takes a lot of time away from running your business, especially if you’re working towards better time management. If possible, hire a professional social media manager to look after your profiles. Or, you can use Hootsuite to coordinate your postings so you won’t need to update statuses automatically at all times of day.

Getting Paid Online

Because you can’t simply have your online customers hand you a wad of cash, and mailing a check takes too long, you’ll need to become familiar with payment options on the internet.

PayPal is the most prominent name in online payment processing. Many consumers prefer it because it does not require them to dig their wallet out of their purse and scrounge up a credit card, copy the numbers, and so on. Instead, users just log-in to Paypal and pay you with just a few clicks.

The downsides? Just Google “PayPal horror stories.” Or don’t, if you want to get any sleep tonight. The site has a reputation of locking users out of their accounts with no explanation, often with tens of thousands of dollars in their account balance. Even so, you should be safe if you withdraw funds to your bank account regularly. It’s worth checking out alternative payment methods such as Amazon Webpay, Dwolla and Paydivvy.

Starting a business online is a powerful venture for entrepreneurs of all ages and funding levels. It’s the easiest way to find out if your idea is really profitable. While making contacts and selling to customers face-to-face is invaluable, introducing yourself online will put your foot in the door to making those connections and learning about your market. 

If you need help with your business taxes for your online business, contact us for a free quote.