Building A Sustainable Small Business

Written by on August 10, 2008
Categories: Business Growth, Business Startup, Success Thinking

Posted by: Paul Stanford

 

Building a sustainable small business

A few small businesses grow strongly and continue to develop and grow whilst sadly so many others either get stuck in a rut and stagnate or worse still just implode and die. So why is this? What makes one business able to grow and prosper whilst another withers and dies? Is it the product, the people or the service?

 

Well one thing I know having seen so many small businesses is that one common theme amongst those that survive and prosper well is that they have a clear vision and plan. So many businesses are run with the task of getting the day job done and not really developing the business as a business. All the effort is focussed on doing the tasks required to get the product or service sold and delivered. Very few small businesses have a clear vision, strategy and plan to get them where they want to be but those that do are the ones most likely to get there.

 

So how do you go about this? Well firstly you have to decide where do you want the business to get to? Try to create a picture in your mind of how you would like to see your business in the future. What does it look like? What clients does it have? When would you like it to look like this – is it 2 years, 5years or 10 years? How many staff are there?

 

The biggest single barrier I get form clients when asked about business planning is “well how can I possibly forecast what it will be?” Clearly none of us can for certain but we have to make estimates. Yes we will undoubtedly be wrong some of the time. But at least we will have set a benchmark and have set a goal to aim towards.

 

And if nothing else please remember that “any plan is better than no plan”

 

Paul Stanford is a Director of 4Momentum http://www.4momentum.co.uk. 4Momentum provides business advisory services to small businesses, charities and social enterprises primarily in Sussex. Services include advice on starting a business, growing and transforming a business and selling a business. Clients typically contract 4Momentum for short periods of an hour to long term consultancy over many months for advice on subjects such as mentoring, business planning, sales and marketing advice, bidding for contracts, raising finance and general business advice. Paul is approved by the UK Government to deliver business advice on their behalf through Business Link and is a member of the Institute of Business Consultants. Visit his blog at http://www.paulstanford.co.uk/blog

Copyright 2008 Paul Stanford

 

 

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