The Next 12 Months: Where Your Business Needs To Focus For The Next Wave Of Attacks
The first 12 months of your business is the most challenging time you will ever face in your entrepreneurial life. Regardless of where you are or how much profit you’ve already made there are always going to be things that you will need to learn to keep everything afloat. Numerous industries experience their own individual problems and they may not become apparent until later on but after those first 12 months has finished, you could very well breathe a sigh of relief but now is the time to start focusing on the next wave of attack. What do you need to focus on to ensure the next business year improves on what you’ve already achieved?
Addressing Your Weakest Components
If you’ve been working hard to put your business firmly in the consciousness of the public you’ve done your job but this also means you are leaving yourself open to a lot of attacks. Even if you are a small scale company, you are never exempt from something like cyber attacks. At this point, addressing your weakest technical components can give you the foundation to progress. As a company begins to improve its processes you must remember to find the bits that have been inherent failures so far and turn them around. From the perspective of technology, there are companies like EvolvTec that can provide outsourced managed IT services (you can read more about them at this link). By looking at your weaknesses at this point, you may either choose to outsource them or apply a SWOT analysis for the next stage.
Focus On The Right Audience
Growing your audience is about nurturing the relationships with your customers and your clients. By getting an appreciation of who your audience is and building a specific business profile towards them, you will be addressing their needs. The first year of the business is all about finding your feet. Getting into the swing of operating a company is a massive challenge but now you’ve got to optimize your ability to sell your product to the right market. Once you understand who the right people are you can build an intimate relationship with them.
Automating Your Sales Process
Focusing on the processes means learning to streamline key domains so you don’t have to focus on too many different areas. When you start to automate your sales process you can benefit your workers so they don’t always have to be in “sales pitching” mode. There are so many different ways that you can do this. You could fix your marketing funnel or set up a webinar, or even hire a specific salesperson. When you are operating a small scale business generating leads is about making it work for you while you sleep. Automating processes can be a lifesaver for smaller sized companies.
The first 12 months, no doubt, was you flying by the seat of your pants. Now it’s time to truly drill into the things that make your business what it is. The first year is about learning your own abilities but now it’s time to transfer what you’ve learned for the benefit of the business and now generate profit.
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