Have you just begun a new business and are looking for the right business strategy? Do you wonder if the path you are taking will lead to success? What does your competitive market look like? Are you going through a ton of decisions with a new business?
If you are just now beginning a business, you probably have a million questions that you wonder about. This article will focus on finding the right business strategy for your particular business so that you can focus on the future and achieve phenomenal success going forward!
What is the Right Business Strategy?
According to Forbes, a business strategy is a long-term plan that you create in order to reach a desired future state. That means that when you create your strategy, you need to be looking at the long-term goals for your business. What will help you achieve those objectives?
What is right for one business might not work for another. Each business has its own industry, competition, and other factors that make up its business environment. It’s important that you access your own factors and not compare yours with that of another business.
What are Different Business Strategies?
While there are too many business strategies to list, we can cover the top 5 generic competitive strategies. Each one has its pros and cons, and what works for one business may not work for another. The best course of action for your business is to examine your long-term objectives and select a strategy that will best help you accomplish your goals!
1. A Broad Differentiation Strategy
This type of strategy involves selecting products and services that are different from the competition. You might be in the same industry as your competitors, but you do not have to sell the exact same products and services. Instead, your products and services should appeal to a wide variety of customers.
2. A Low-Cost Provider Strategy
Like the first strategy, this one strives to beat the competition by appealing to a wide variety of customers, but with lower costs than the competition. To do this, you will need to understand the costs that your competition is incurring. Understand where they are spending most of their earnings.
3. A Focused Low-Cost Strategy
Unlike the first two strategies, this one strives to gain a narrow buyer segment, a more focused niche in the market. A niche is like a piece of pie; it might be a part of the whole thing, but it’s more focused and singular. This strategy also works to beat the competition by having lower costs.
4. A Focused Differentiation Strategy
Like the focused low-cost strategy, this strategy aims to reach a focused niche in the market, but it hopes to appeal to customized tastes and requirements, unlike its competition. Do a customer analysis to better understand your customer. Think about the things that make your ideal audience member tick. What motivates him or her?
5. A Best-Cost Provider Strategy
This strategy tries to give customers more value for their buck by satisfying their expectations with key features or attributes. With this strategy, you will not only need to know your customer well, but you will also want to be able to meet their needs and deepest desires. Understand what your customer really wants.
Each of these strategies is different and will only work if you understand your competition and customer. You can do this by doing an audience analysis and by understanding your competition well. It might benefit you to bring in a business consultant, someone who can assess this information for you or with you.
How to Build the Right Business Strategy for You
The first thing you need to do is to establish your long-term objectives, if you have not already done so. These will be the focus of your strategy. Once you know what your motive or objective is, you will be able to figure out which strategy is best for you.
Second, you should examine your competition. What are they doing right? Where are they scoring big? Consider going for a niche market – a smaller segment in the market that is often ignored. If you go for the areas your competition is forgetting about, you might find your golden egg!
By looking at the places your competition is missing out, you are finding opportunities in the market. Doing a SWOT analysis is not a bad idea at all. In fact, it will likely help you determine where other opportunities and threats are. A SWOT analysis also looks at your strengths and weaknesses.
Consider innovation. What areas in the market are lacking? Where could you fill the gap? Be bold and take risks to find a piece of market share that is missed! Look at what your opposition is doing, but try to do it better. This is how you will shine in your industry!
Finally, once you are well established in your business, you will need to market well. Consider the areas of the market that are untapped again. Look at places in social media that are saturated but ignored by your competition. You will easily find the areas where you can shine this way. Market yourself well so that you are well-known to your consumer!
Conclusion
You should now have a good idea of how to achieve success with the right business strategy for your company. So, what can you do if you are not ready for market fluctuations or a competitive environment? What if you’ve bitten off more than you can chew?
One suggestion is to hire a business consultant who will be able to advise you as to the best business solutions. At Borshoff Consulting, we do more than taxes; we also do business consultations, so be sure to book a free consultation today.
We’d like to learn more about how we can best help you succeed, but we can only do this if you reach out. That way, we can determine how we can best meet your individual or business needs!
