Although there are numerous elements involved in making a business successful, it’s not necessary to identify and implement them all. In fact, all you need to determine are a just a few primary ones that will create a solid foundation for your business.
Since these elements have been discovered through the experience of previous businesses over time, business schools have categorized and organized them, so that it’s now possible to learn from the business blueprints of many companies.
Here are four business elements that will greatly improve the performance of your business:
Business Element #1: Pick the best business model.
In today’s world, business models fall into three broad classifications: virtual businesses, or online businesses; brick-and-mortar businesses, or offline businesses; and integrated or blended businesses, which are brick-and-mortar businesses that also have a virtual presence. Since most businesses that don’t have an online aspect are considered somewhat rudimentary because they have limited the marketing reach possible through the Internet, if you have a brick-and-mortar business, it’s advisable to add a virtual component to it.
Business Element #2: Develop robust marketing campaigns.
Since you’ll have either a virtual business or a blended business, it’s always a good idea to work with internet marketing experts. Usually, it’s far more economical to outsource online marketing work to businesses like Elevated.com, which can draw upon a wide range of diverse talents to set up marketing campaigns, than it is to set up your own in-house internet marketing team.
Business Element #3: Use the best technology that you can afford.
If there is one thing that distinguishes one business from another, it’s the quality of their technology. All things being equal between two similar businesses within the same niche, the one with the superior technology will be able to gain the lion’s share of the marketplace. Fortunately, the gap between a cash-strapped small or medium sized business against a large business that can afford to buy the best hardware and software has been narrowed through cloud computing.
Before the advent of cloud computing, only large, prosperous businesses could afford expensive on-premise computer infrastructure, bankrolling an IT department, and getting the most robust software in the industry. All this has changed because any size of business can now pay for cloud services at an affordable subscription price. What’s more, the cloud computer provider takes care of all the maintenance issues, ranging from providing security software to updating the latest software version.
Besides accessing top-level servers, businesses that use cloud computing services can also rent premium software through Software as a Service (SaaS), which is a network-based subscription model for applications.
Business Element #4: Develop a dynamic corporate culture.
Having the right people on board will make all the difference to the success of your business. It doesn’t matter if you have an excellent business model, launch well-thought out marketing campaigns, and take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing, without the right people at the helm of your ship of enterprise as well as an enthusiastic crew, you’ll gradually veer off course.
Briefly, the way to develop a dynamic corporate culture is to take the following four steps:
- 1. Create a company vision and identify its core values. For instance, one core value might be for everyone in the business to adopt a growth-mindset rather than seeing everything in black-and-white terms of right and wrong, wins and losses, or success and failure.
- 2. Recruit the best talent; people who are enthused by your vision and can get behind your company’s core values.
- 3. Maintain open communication between all levels, rather than use a hierarchical structure that leans towards creating silos within the corporation.
- 4. Make the business more than just about money. While, of course, everyone in a company is interested in earning as much as possible, extensive research over many year has discovered a curious fact. People are not motivated by money alone. Intrinsic motivation factors also play a large role in how engaged people feel at their jobs. Google, for instance, invites famous authors from all over the world for in-house seminars. Many of these authors are not even involved in technology. For instance, Salman Rushdie, the British novelist, has spoken at their Google author seminars.
While these four business elements are by no means the only ones you should use when you start your business, having them in place will create a solid foundation for your business after you custom-fit them to best suit your unique business.
