Two Interrelated Dimensions of Entrepreneurship

 

Build A Right Perspective

The two interrelated dimensions of entrepreneurship are the purpose and the problem being solved.

The description of both these dimensions add to the entrepreneurial fuel. An important condition is to build a strong sense of  self awareness to know and accept reality. Integrity is a big subject and the basic trait that defines leadership quotient. It is so subtle that objectivity regarding its awareness assumes critical importance. Understanding integrity and knowing that it is being practiced the right way can pose challenges leading to dilemmas caused by illusions. That is the reason things still go wrong when everything seems to be going fine. To build a right perspective it is important to develop principle based approach and practice. 

Preparing For Entrepreneurship?

Critical Activities Before Final Launch

Preparation for transitioning from job to entrepreneurship starts with an honest attempt aimed at understanding the basic differences between the two worlds of doing business and a job. After careful evaluation if the decision is still to don the entrepreneurial hat. It is important that  certain critical activities, not necessarily in the same chronology, must be undertaken before taking the first step towards entrepreneurship. 

These activities are:

1. Developing Right Entrepreneurial Mindset: The main challenge is getting ready for entrepreneurship. This starting point concerns with developing the right entrepreneurial mindset before taking the plunge.
2. Identifying a calling that resonates with worthwhile purpose : This is somewhat the simplest and yet the most difficult step in entrepreneurship. Identifying the basic reason for being in business defines the level of passion that would provide the drive for building the business in the face of potential  challenges.
3. Defining a product or service: That satisfies a need for which a set of users is willing to pay a price. Here it is important that the size of the market is big enough to ensure economic viability.
4. Preparing business model canvas: This is the detailed project report spelling out important components of business such as 
• Product/Service cost
• Market size estimation
• Pricing 
• Profitability
• Break even point
• Quantum of finance required, its source and cost 
• Competition if any and strategy for addressing it
• Team building 
• Organization development
• Business model that is considered as the best approach for taking the product/service to the market
• Technology
• Infrastructure , its maintenance and cost
• Market feedback, customer satisfaction and product/service development
• Technology
5. Getting Funded: Preparing the Pitch Dec detaining the business plan in terms of expected growth trajectory and future projections. Making presentations to prospective investors for obtaining funding for the venture. 
6. Carrying out a pilot project: Before going full steam it is prudent to check the waters for ascertaining critical parameters before going on a large scale mode. This is done to minimize the risks and learning costs , for ensuring smoother run with the final launch of the final large scale project.

Understanding Entrepreneurship

 

Entrepreneurship! Are You Prepared For The Game?

If you are considering to start your business then you are at the right place at the right time. The journey of an entrepreneur is exciting and yet filled with challenges. These challenges are to make you stronger. The problem happens when you get bogged down with these challenges and tend to give up. Let me reassure you there is a proper check list to assess your preparedness before you jump the fence. But in the past if you have ever tried to shift gears and experienced some setback, it is only a welcome gesture to the entrepreneurship club.

Now it is a proven fact that no matter what your background is you can learn the art and science of entrepreneurship. It is a science because there are mandatory musts and an art because the balance & poise during practical application of these underlying scientific principles is an enjoyable craft.

Keep looking for more because preparation is the key to success. Remember that there are no shortcuts and if you sometimes forget this caution and crash land on a shortcut, this shortcut eventually leads you to the gift of learning in the form of failure. So there are in reality no failures only lessons to be learnt and applied.

If you have any questions or if you need any support in getting started on your entrepreneurial journey , you are invited to connect(Learn More About Our Entrepreneurship Development Program) with the author of this post for more. Author is a business coach with a passion to bring out the best in people and is keenly looking forward to support you in your entrepreneurial journey.

God Bless

Sanjay V Sharma

 

Happy Republic Day

Seven Tips For Better Decision Making

Gut Feel May Not Always Be The Right Decision

1. Validate Underlying Assumptions; Broadly classify the types of decisions made by you into critical,  important but not critical, tactical but not important and routine decisions, put the information required for decision making under each of these broad categories for re-validating the assumptions with the factual situation on the basis of the present ground realities attaching a review periodicity to each one of them. The theory of relativity propounded by Einstein , holds good for modern day management practices as well.The environment in which we operate keeps changing on a continuous basis, therefore it is important to understand that with each passing moment the reality around us is in a continuous state of change and the world as it stands now in this moment is unique and has never been like this before and will never be like this again. This continuous change adds a dynamic element of uncertainty to our lives and the decision making whether personal or professional is no exception.Make a note of all the assumptions underlying your decision making process. Note even the most insignificant assumption and revisit the facts to ascertain the validity of these assumptions, certain assumptions when challenged have the potential to bring about a paradigm shift in the approach towards the decision making process and its impact on the status quo.
2. Align Values & Goals; Is the decision in line with your deeply held values that are close to your heart? One of the simplest ways of answering this question is through visualization of the possible outcomes of the decision that you are about to take. In your visualization if this decision is helping you move towards your goals then it appears to be a desirable one. The litmus test of your decision lies in its congruity with your value system. Chose the most appropriate of the available options that would facilitate optimization on these twin parameters of goal accomplishment and value alignment. Visualize the possible consequences that may arise as an outcome of the decision that you want to take. Answer these two questions, 1. Are these consequences in line with MY deeply revered values? and 2.Would they be taking ME a step closer towards the accomplishment of MY goals?. If the answer to both these questions is yes, then go ahead with your decision or else think of some other better alternatives and repeat the process.
3. Review Motive & Trigger Events ;Take time to empathize with the people or external agencies around you to have a deeper look on the effect your decision will have on them. Review the underlying motivation to take the decision as well as the events which are acting as the trigger for your decision. Having a detached view of the scenario will lend an air of credibility to your decision making process as your decision would be well thought of and not taken at the drop of a hat. This approach will help you stick to your decision confidently in the face of difficulties or opposition.Your confidence would be even higher if your values are in sync with the universally applicable natural principles.
4. Evaluate Opportunity Cost ; When you take a decision it is eventually at the cost of some other decision that is foregone, therefore it is a great idea to evaluate the effectiveness of your chosen decision, before hand, in terms of the cost of the lost opportunity as you decide in favor of one decision over the other. 
5. Connect with Cosmos ; Practice daily meditation and develop your sixth sense to give you directions for drawing conclusions & inferences which are based on the holistic integration of the universal understanding that is far greater than the best possible information available on paper or your processing devices. That also explains the well known fact that why the sages have the power to know the truth in the present moment for its relation to the past and the future. This is generally termed as intuition which defies all the past experiences, logic & expert knowledge to arrive at a perfect decision that till date remains a mystery to the modern proponents of the super computers and the scientific decision making systems. Therefore it is important to take out time from your busy schedule and connect regularly with the cosmos through meditation.
6. Optimize Time Lag ; In view of  the above , it is absolutely critical to optimize the time lag between information gathering/ compilation , decision making, implementation and next re-validation.To what ever extent the human mind may try but it wouldn't ever be able to completely comprehend the present situation as in the present moment due to the time lag between the various stages of the decision making process, for example if there is barely a gap of just of a few seconds between the information gathered, decision taken and its dissemination to those concerned, lets say in case of the aviation traffic control, it may possibly lead to disastrous consequences.At the same time consider the instances where the mishaps are averted by the unusual offbeat decisions which otherwise could have been fatal, had these decisions been not taken in that split fraction of a second The business world and our personal lives are no exceptions as these gaps generally go up to a period of a few days before another validation is effected. Therefore decisions thus taken are illusive as there are many factors that may have changed and continue to change, rendering these decisions not only ineffective and out of place but may also prove to be counterproductive by working against the very system they are supposed to support. Reducing the time lag between information collection ,decision making and its implementation is the key for remaining relevant to the changing times.To put it more aptly this may mean development and implementation of real time decision making systems, as used by aviation traffic control and other sophisticated public transport systems used by the developed economies, where the day to day decisions and  reviews are made on real time basis based on precise just in time availability of factual information.
7. Delay Decision ;Last but not the least , at times delaying a decision may also be an effective decision as the timing or inadequacy of available information or over dependence on gut feel may not always be the right decision.

Sanjay Sharma

Importance of SOPs for Organizations

"SOPs Facilitate Better Planning".

There are many advantages of having SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) for various operational aspects of an organization. Lets look at the ground realities that make SOPs completely indispensable for any progressive organization aspiring to be a leader in its category. 

Advantages of SOPs for Organizations 

1. Standardized Processes Lead to Predictable Quality:  An organization may hire highly competent professionals.These professionals may be capable of working out a large number of ways for carrying out various operations of the organization. If individuals are allowed to conduct operations based on their comfort , intelligence and style then it can possibly lead to unwanted and often unexpected consequences.These outcomes might be in stark contrast to the desired ones. All organizations are responsible for maintaining a specific quality standard at every stage of the organizational functioning.This quality standard may be in the form of recording accurate information , maintaining hygiene , delivering time bound service , final appearance of the product or its packaging at the time of delivery,etc.What ever may be the need to have a quality framework there is only one answer and that is standardization.Any call for standardization is possible only if quality benchmarks are defined in specific terms.Having defined the product/service delivery standards is just the beginning.This spirals up into a chain reaction leading to a host of activities that need to be standardized for guaranteeing desired quality outcome meeting predefined standards. 
2. Meet Ongoing Need to Reflect Brand DNA ;  Any brand is recognized by its DNA. Brand DNA must be reflected in its products/ services.Then only it can fulfill its quality promise. The market has expectations of the brand.These expectations must be met if the organization wishes to continue enjoying good reputation and recall. Moreover these expectations are set by the organization in question and must better be met.
3. Transparency in Processes: Through SOPs the domain knowledge is made open to the authorized actors within the organization. This openness lends clarity to the process input output cycle, including process management and implementation. Transparency  eliminates ambiguity, fosters trust & facilitates teamwork to carry out the process with optimum efficiency and effectiveness. Widely known SOPs lead to  greater transparency and accountability in the conduct of day to day operations.
4. Effective Knowledge Management ; Standardized processes get documented, systematic record is maintained with each improvement in the process.This facilitates creation of knowledge repository in the organization. It becomes more logical and scientific to raise the quality bar for different processes being followed in the organization. Documented SOP manuals lead to effective knowledge management by facilitating in-depth study of the processes and initiating improvements on the go.
5. Organization Wide Training and Communication ; Orientation & Process training gets more organized, ensuring that participating employees gain clarity regarding the steps involved, their multi dimensional interface and dynamic relationships among various constituents.SOP manuals become handy tools for organization wide communication & training.Standardized training formats thus evolved, lead to adoption of sophisticated training management system in the organization. 
6. Objective Process Audits ; Process audits become objective and free from personal bias. Healthy environment paves the way for a professional work culture geared towards meritocracy. The criteria for identifying quality performers gets objectively defined and the evaluation standards get communicated in advance to the employees.Such professional approach generates enthusiasm, healthy teamwork and win win for all concerned. 
7. Improved Planning; Documented SOPs facilitate better planning by imparting clarity on the process flow, steps,  human resources involved, estimated time frame to complete different steps to decide on the optimized turnaround time  , capacity optimization during peak and lean hours,etc. All these factors put together throw light on process optimization through cost benefit analysis of maintaining or not maintaining predefined quality standards. These insights may lead to simplification of the complex management decisions. 
8. Process Automation; Study of documented SOPs provides, process automation team, indications regarding the level of automation that can be achieved and the steps which can be optimized to help improve the efficiency of the operations by enhancing the productivity of responsible employees. Management may use the series of written SOP manuals in conjunction with the process M.I.S for evaluating the pros and cons of the applicable options while contemplating process automation.

Sanjay V Sharma

Innovation & Survival: Two Sides of the Same Coin

                                                 CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO FOR INNOVATION                      Photo CreditDabra Larson

Business is a Two Way Street, Either Innovate or Perish

Any business organization is a highly complex system that is comparable to advanced machinery. Like a machine it has multiple components, interacts with the environment in which it operates, needs to be operated by skilled people, exists for a specific purpose and consists of intertwined internal processes culminating into intricate input-output cycles. It must be observed here that any machine needs to be upgraded to an improved version over a period of time. This is necessitated by a variety of factors including but not limited to emergence of a better technology, enhanced ease of operation, wider service objectives, increased competition, changes in the user tastes & preferences, etc. This up-gradation is necessary for the machine to remain relevant to the users it is designed to serve or there is a clearly defined path to oblivion by being labelled as obsolete. And the business world is no different, as we have numerous examples of huge businesses with highly successful product categories which were doing very well at one point in time but they failed to adapt themselves to the dynamic environmental changes over a period of time. Today these businesses stand relegated to the annals of business history as their glory has diminished with time.

“One Best Way” Becomes Ineffective with Onslaught of Time

The businesses must take a cue from this point that if they have been successful during the past years or decades the credit goes to their struggle which led to the winning innovation responsible for their success during their start-up phase, where they could come out with an effective strategy which worked very well for them in addressing the specific set of environmental forces prevailing at that point in time. As the time passes by, changes happen in the market, competition, technology, customer preferences, etc, which render the erstwhile success strategy redundant, it ceases to add any value in the changed circumstances, on the contrary it gets in the way of the progress of the business, because the executive team is overtly obsessed by the "one best way" of doing the things as that had always worked in the past. The real problem is the obsession of the executive team with the "one best way" of doing things. But they miss out on re-validating their set of assumptions which were deeply embedded into the development of that "one best way". The “one best way” which earlier worked for the business loses its relevance in the context of the changing business realities where the earlier assumptions do not hold any ground, as these assumptions need to be questioned on a continuous basis to successfully address the challenges posed by the dynamic environmental uncertainties.

Businesses Must Innovate to Safeguard against Extinction

As there is a continuous need to carry out maintenance of a machine, similarly an organization must also be continuously monitored for any ailing divisions that may be requiring surgery or some other treatment. The emphasis must be laid on innovation, as the executive team needs to conduct in depth research to decipher the prevailing business trends and generate improved solutions to create value for their business organization. A very critical point to be noted here is the concept of preventive maintenance, where the catch is to proactively maintain the machine through continuous inspection and ensuring that the machine is kept in an efficient working state by carrying out proactive repairs before any actual work loss or breakdown occurs. Here if any complacency sets into the approach chosen by the executive team of the business organization, it necessarily overlooks the highly critical innovation through preventive maintenance resulting in guaranteed inefficiencies in conducting its business leading towards the impending organizational failure. As compared to the proactive preventive maintenance adopted for up-keeping the machines, the business organizations must also prevent the organizational break down by converting the challenges faced by them into opportunities through proactive preventive maintenance leading towards effective innovation. If the proactive preventive maintenance is not adopted by the business organizations then sooner or later an epidemic or a catastrophe hits them, putting them in a distressful situation, where getting into the fire-fighting mode is the only option left with them. In such a state of distress, it is quite natural for the business organization to shift its complete focus & energy from its core business objectives towards the fight against extinction, but with little chances of survival.

Innovative Mind Set: Key to Business Survival

Innovation is not necessarily a paradigm shift bringing about business disruption as it may come in multiple forms. For a marketing division it may be an act of identifying new uses its products can serve with an entirely untouched market segment, for the production team it may be an equivalent of a more efficient production process capable of delivering better quality in lesser time & cost, for a chip design organization it may be introduction of a more compact sophisticated design capable of delivering better value, reliability & speed as compared to the previous versions, etc. So a progressive organization needs to continuously challenge the status quo. Its executive team must be intelligently obsessed with the idea of innovation by identifying organizational challenges and converting them into opportunities. This innovative approach needs to be an organization wide culture for an exponential impact on the overall functioning and well being of the organization under consideration. It is a very widely known fact that the organizations which were considered very successful for a series of decades eventually became obsolete because they could not adapt themselves to their changing realities. The real challenge for the progressive businesses lies in continuously reinventing themselves through an innovative mindset to ensure that they remain relevant to the changing business landscape by re-validating their assumptions and redefining their new set of values, beliefs & assumptions on which their complete organizational competencies, strategies, effectiveness, success and long term survival are based.

Sanjay Sharma

EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE MODEL FOR BUILDING ETHICAL ORGANIZATIONS

Many Large Organizations Suffer from Rampage Unethical Practices

The problem with our world starts when people with vested interests get into positions of authority. Many large organizations suffer from rampage unethical practices conspired by a very small number of people in influential & authoritative positions. There are obvious undesirable fall-outs, for the stake holders, of not being able to check this menace before it manifests into volcanic eruptions causing shock-waves leading to ripples of panic & devastation right through the organization and beyond

Symptoms Exhibited by Suffering Organizations

Organizations suffering from the impact of unethical practices may exhibit symptoms including but not limited to clandestine predetermined customary commissions, nepotism, favoritism and unhealthy politics aimed at promoting the vested interests of few favorites at the expense of the organization as well as the other interest groups including all ethical actors putting them in a strongly disadvantageous position. Work cultures marred by this evil strangle creativity, innovation, justice, growth, motivation and prosperity. In all likely-hood such a trend plummet the organization towards a downward spiral of hopelessness, destitution & complete loss of focus on the organizational values and objectives

Recipe for an Ethical Organizations?

Solution lies in whole hearted adoption of these rich practices within the governance framework of your organization

1.       Unwavering commitment of the stake holders towards building an ethical organization

2.       Keeping aside a budget towards accomplishing “Ethics and Compliance”

3.       Organization wide dissemination of the code of conduct manual, detailing the definition of integrity violation for identification & prevention of corrupt practices

4.       Building complete transparency around the processes and systems of your organization

5.       Carefully structuring the whistle blower policy

6.       Conducting surprise inspections of the individual work stations 

7.       Benchmarking organizational costs with contemporary market practices & scenario through real time studies and researches

8.       Ensuring optimum frequency of intra organizational employee transfers in case of a single business entity and inter organizational employee transfers in case of a multiple business entity. This also takes care of the critical business areas such as business continuity planning by lining up future business leaders capable of shouldering bigger responsibilities of your organization.

9.       Making contribution towards Knowledge Management system an integral component of the employee KPI (key Performance Indicators) matrix

10.   Developing significant overlaps in the employee KPI matrices as a proactive measure towards implementing a strong checks & balances mechanism.

11.   Carrying out unexpected audits of the organizational processes

12.   Zero tolerance policy for integrity violation
13.   Continuous reviewing and updating of the  governance framework to keep it effective and relevant to the changing times

Sanjay Sharma

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT - TIMELESS & ALL PERVASIVE PARADIGM

Assume Complete Responsibility for Your Present Situation

Whenever you happen to experience an urge for challenging the status quo for reasons ranging from modifications in the personal goals to the observed deviations in the execution of your business plan, it is only wise to assume complete responsibility for your present situation, without even the faintest impression of any lesion to the external environment, people or factors around you. It is a great idea to assume 100% responsibility for your present situation, to be able to effectively handle these challenges. Hiding behind any person, circumstances or justifications is no solution. Instead getting in the middle and handling the bull by its horns by taking complete responsibility for the debacle is the only way out. As most of the people, you may like to trust with the responsibility of solving your problems, may not match the quality of self service solution that you are capable of producing for your pressing priorities

Focus On Continuous Improvement in Your Action Zone

Total quality management teaches us the importance of exploring new horizons by focusing on continuous improvement in our action zone. Please note that the emphasis here is not on being perfect, but on the contrary this is a system which believes in the capability of humans to learn from their mistakes leading towards continuous improvement. The other important tenet is the belief that whatever may be the level of excellence accomplished by you , it can always be improved further by identifying some flaw somewhere which can be rectified  to move from good to better , where best is yet to come. The beauty of this paradigm is that it is timeless and all pervasive with no exceptions

Generate a Win-Win Situation for All Concerned

For you to know that whether you have worked out the right solution, the basic test lies in generating a win-win situation for all concerned. The simple format for achieving this is to list down the systems that your solution is going to affect, then empathize with each element to understand weather the solution provided by you would be acceptable to you if you were in their shoes. All affirmative answers are an indication of your awesome solution which has the capacity of propelling you, in the right direction, from good to better.

Sanjay Sharma

SPIRIT OF NATIONALISM - SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, 360 DEGREE LEADERSHIP & PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS

  

Show The Path and Lead The Way

As a business do you realize the importance of your day to day conduct, in motivating and inspiring people, who come in your direct or indirect contact. There is no better way than modelling when it comes to showing the path and leading the way. In a scenario where technology, GDP, economy, innovation, education standard, living standard, industrial growth rate and most of the tangible parameters seem to be doing well, still we know that there is some-thing more that is needed to move the nation to a point where it can keep its head high and be self reliant in taking its own decisions rather than depending on others to support its cause. This is the time to redefine the concept of social responsibility as linked to the spirit of nationalism and 360 degree leadership through accomplishment of personal effectiveness

Align Your Own Work With That Of The Nation

Whether you may be in a job or business, it always pays to be effective in your role by being helpful to those around you. You must constantly focus your energy on the effectiveness with which you are contributing towards the goals of your department, organization or business. Healthy competition or complementing, the strengths of your co-worker – countrymen, must be the key word to watch for.  Delving deeper into this concept will make you align your own work with that of the nation as a whole. You need to understand that for your country to be stronger, it needs to possess more wealth, for the country to possess more wealth the countrymen must be productively employed to generate that wealth for your nation

Strengthen  The Society & Culture by Contributing Towards The True Spirit of Nationalism

The social responsibility must not be looked upon as a mere tool , only for gaining appreciation and meeting mandatory compliance norms, but this must also be a measure of setting up of right example and promoting brotherhood, harmony and nationalism amongst the people as and when they come in contact of your business. This is the only way to bear the torch of nationalism to a level where each torch in-turn ignites a multiple number, this continued process has the potential to transform the business landscape and strengthen the society & culture by contributing towards the true spirit of nationalism through personal effectiveness

Sanjay Sharma

CORRECT VALUE SYSTEM, PREREQUISITE TO ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Is Incorrect Value System Affecting Your Business Performance?

Many a times the problems and difficulties faced by an organization are on account of not living its correct values. This anomaly could emanate from any of these causes

• ·           There are no clearly spelt-out organizational values.· 
•          The values are clearly written down but the behavior of your organization is not consistent with these values.·         
•      Value statement is flawed as it doesn’t reflect the correct values of the organization, thereby rendering all further implementation or evaluation efforts, an exercise in futility

All  Successful Businesses Live Their Correct Values 

Let’s look at the proactive solution to facilitate accomplishment of optimum organizational effectiveness, through identification, crystallization and implementation of the correct values by your organization. Being aware of the correct values of your organization is a very critical component and a key driver of the strategic, tactical or operational decisions made in your organization. Which means every worker on the shop floor, every field sales officer, every manager, every board member is aware of the organizational priorities. This facilitates uniformity in organization wide responses across different geographies, departments, hierarchies, business conditions, etc, leading towards the predictable service or product quality delivered to the vendors, suppliers and the internal as well as the external customers.

This clearly explains why the best of the organizations across the globe have a consistent track of the way in which they conduct their business. Implementation of clearly defined values lies at the heart of all successful organizations, whether local or global.

Check-list to Evaluate Whether Your Business Is Suffering From This Anomaly

1.     Do you receive frequent customer complaints regarding quality of the product/ service   delivered?
2.    Do you find that motivating your employees towards higher productivity levels is a big challenge?
3.    Have you noticed a lack of coordination between different departments/ teams in your organization      for even simplest activities?
4.        Despite your continued efforts you are not able to build a healthy brand image in the eyes of your customers?

If the answer to one or more of these questions is yes, then your organization needs to revise its value statement by identifying its correct values and ensuring that its behavior is consistent with these values for accomplishing organizational effectiveness.

For any assistance, you may write to us at  admin@successnsynergy.com  or visit our website  www.successnsynergy.com . It shall be our pleasure to assist you..

Sanjay Sharma

7 Tips for Setting-Up Successful Retail Business

1. Know the Buying Preferences of your Target Segment

The customers are continuously looking at the innovative ways, best suited to them, for satisfying their needs. The real test lies in finding out what are they looking for. The next step is to see whether you are already doing it or not. If you are already following that practice you just need to go deeper into it to find the new depth of that practice, if this is not already happening in your organization try conducting a pilot test to learn if it really has the promise to warrant an organization wide initiative. If the pilot runs well, this is the time to see if it can either open a new insight for the marketers or it can be used to strengthen the existing offer to the market.  

2. Ensure Competitive Positioning of  Your Brand

Let the customers know what they can expect from your brand. It is not always a good idea to take competition head on, either in terms of the features or the pricing. A better option could be to work a little extra to highlight a niche feature where sufficient market exists for it and price it at a reasonable level so as to match the buying capacity of the target market, as well as leave substantial surplus on the table, for the business to fuel its motivation to carry out the project in the long run.

3. Use Footfalls Criteria to Choose your Retail Location

Where to locate your retail outlet? This is a very import and complex question. The answer to this question can be obtained either by finding a location where your target customers flock in large numbers, numbers large enough to be a true representative of the sample size capable of replicating the major characteristics of your target segment or by analyzing the presence of other retail businesses, focusing on similar target segment, indicative of successfully verifying the footfall criteria. The latter approach can prove to be a glittering death trap for your business, if such outlets are struggling to achieve their vital numbers including requisite footfall & profitability. Thus conducting first hand primary research, which may seem to be a time consuming-painstaking affair, is always a better option because it can provide you the extra dose of much needed confidence, in case the business goes through a rough patch during the initial phase.       

4. Deploy Attractive Promotion Strategy & EffectiveCommunication Tools

The customers are actively searching for special deals, promotions, clearance sales & bundled offers. This aspect of consumer behavior offers a great opportunity for retail businesses to proactively design promotions, capable of creating a favorable perception in the minds of the customers, thereby grabbing the attention of customers with a fair possibility of getting a share of their wallet.

It is seen that many a great promotions fail to create the desired customer response due to the ineffective communication tools deployed by the retailers. It is important to note that to create a promotion that can work is only one part of the story whereas to deploy the right communication tools for effectively delivering the message to the customers is a totally different ball game. For a promotion to be effective it needs to simultaneously address both these concern areas.    

5.Train your Sales Staff for Achieving  Customer Satisfaction

Customers are very demanding and they expect correct & timely resolution of their queries by the attending retail staff. The focus should not be just on closing the sales but on closing the sales through customer satisfaction because the statistics reveal that in the long run a satisfied customer would good mouth your retail business to at least three people whereas a dissatisfied customer would bad mouth your retail business to at least nine people. So decide for yourself if you can possibly afford to take the risk of creating dissatisfied customers by not having adequately trained sales staff.

Most retail organizations confuse employee training with the tons of organizational processes & product knowledge provided to their sales staff in the garb of training, resulting in information overload to which the retail employees are generally subjected. Whereas training here refers to   building the capability of the retail employees to take informed decisions in the light of the organizational process & the product manuals, in conjunction with a judicious mix of correct ettiquettes, respectful communication & customer friendly attitude ,creating a magnetic effect on the customer, resulting in repeated purchases & good mouthing to others thereby building healthy brand perception, customer loyalty & last but not the least ,the long term profitability of your retail business.  

6. Proactively Look for Customer Feedback

Customer is the most important link in the entire retail chain. If you have any doubts please review any piece of available marketing literature which keeps referring that it all starts (with identifying customer needs) and ends (with taking post consumption/usage customer feedback) with listening to the customer.

The success of most retail organizations hinges on their capability of engaging with their customers in the complete decision making cycle of the customers to foster a greater understanding of the needs and buying preferences of the customers and to know how well your retail business is succeeding in matching these needs & preferences. So if you have not yet designed  a strong customer engagement & feedback mechanism , ensure it is up & working at the lightening speed lest should you lose your hard earned customers to the other retailers , who have already put their effective customer engagement & feedback systems in place.    

7. Use Cost Effectiveness as a Measure to Evaluate Business Success.

When looking at their massive advertising spends and the mammoth customer pulls created by them, it seemed that most businesses were doing exceptionally well. In the end they came down as huge loss making businesses of all times, the magnitude of their losses defying all the justifiable proportions. It all happens when the key decision makers are overtly possessed with only any one single parameter such as market share, top line growth, geographical presence or unit sales volume at the cost of considering the whole business as a large system comprising smaller interdependent subsystems.

Before your project goes off the mark and even at all times thereafter prudence in financial management is one of the best ways towards building and sustaining a robust retail business through the crests & troughs of the business cycle.

For more information please visit our website www.successnsynergy.com. You may also contact us at admin@successnsynergy.com. The services offered by us include entrepreneurship development, project feasibility study, systems & process design, organization development, investment options and business partnerships. It shall be our pleasure to be assisting you.

Sanjay Sharma