Building the Foundation for a Successful Business

Building the Foundation for a Successful Business

If I knew then what I know now...


Table of Contents “If Only I Knew Then What I Know Now...” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Planning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Sales & Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Employees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Laying the Foundation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 About TAB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

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“If Only I Knew Then What I Know Now...” When it comes to building your business, there are so many things you need to know that it is impossible to get everything right the first time. What inspired you to start your business? Did you have a “light bulb” moment when you hit on that golden idea? Perhaps you took over the family business from the previous generation. Maybe you were just tired of working all those hours for someone else’s vision and wanted to become your own boss. You’re not alone! Our recent survey found that the top motivations for launching a business are:

• Wanted To Be My Own Boss (43%) • Had A Great Idea/Plan For A Product/Service (18%) • Wanted To Make More Money (12%) • Took Over The Family Business (10%) • Wasn’t Interested In A Corporate Position (10%) Do Any Of Those Sound Familiar To You? One of the most difficult things about building the foundation for a successful business is simply knowing what areas you should invest your time, energy, and funds to ensure the highest rate of return. If you do not have a support network of trusted, experienced business advisors, making these investment decisions can be risky business. Often, you simply need to make a “best guess” decision and evaluate the benefit of that decision down the road. Because business ownership is a lonely position to be in, The Alternative Board (TAB) conducts quarterly surveys to gain insights from other business owners to share with the greater business community. The information gathered from our survey focuses on the key lessons business owners have learned over the years.... “If only I knew then what I know now.” Perhaps not surprisingly, 60% of business owners surveyed said that they would have invested more money in the early stages of building their business. 40% said they would have invested more time. It’s also important to note that respondents were evenly split between the importance of focusing on the big picture (52%) and focusing on the details (48%), reflecting the importance of both skills.

Let’s dig into the top four areas that all business owners surveyed would have invested more time and money.


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Planning Many business owners agree that, if they could go back in time, they would spend more time on planning for their business. They also agree that the most important personal skill for business owners is the ability to think strategically; with time management skills coming in second and communication third. It’s never too late to begin! Whether you’re in the earliest stages of starting up or you’ve been in business forever, developing a written strategic plan will help you become successful in achieving your goals.

What do I need to include in my strategic plan? At TAB, we developed Strategic Business Leadership® (SBL), a very effective strategic planning process specifically for business owners of privately-held businesses. The key difference with SBL is that it requires you to include your personal vision and goals in your strategic plan. After all, you didn’t start your business to be working 60+ hours per week, right? You started your business because you wanted to achieve something in your personal life. Maybe you want to be able to retire and travel around the world, or maybe you want to be able to put your kids through college.

Whatever your personal vision, your business should be working toward achieving it. Our member business owners’ Strategic Business Leadership® plans include:

• Company and Personal Visions: These are two separate documents, each is an approximately 100-word statement of where you want to see yourself and your company in the future.

• SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Everyone in business has heard

of a SWOT analysis, but have you sat down to write one for your business? Strengths and weaknesses refer to internal company forces; such as ‘What does my company do best?’ and ‘In what areas does my company need improvement?’ Opportunities and threats refer to external forces, such as competition and market awareness.

• Company and Personal Plans: These plans are what keep your company moving forward toward achieving your vision statements. Strategic Business Leadership® helps business owners identify critical success factors, goals (short-term), strategies (long-term), and action plans.

• Making It Happen: This section provides three key elements to maximize the likelihood that your Strategic Business Leadership® plan will be successful. These elements are results-driven communication, weekly review and modification of your plan, and self-accountability.

• Turning The Wheel: This section helps you review your plan and identify goals that are being achieved,

those that are not, and how to stay on track. It also acknowledges the fact that plans require a level of flexibility to navigate effectively through internal and external changes.

To learn more about the SBL planning process, download our Strategic Business Leadership® white paper or contact a certified SBL coach in your area.


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Sales & Marketing Just about every business owner wants to improve their sales and marketing programs in some way. Like so many other things in business, having a written marketing plan is going to help you immensely. People often forget that marketing is more than just advertising and promotion—there are five Ps in marketing.

• Product (or Service): What are you selling and how is it different from other products or services in

the market? 78% of business owners in our survey found that solving a problem for a known market is significantly more important than developing a product or service for a new market.

• People: Also commonly known as target market, who will benefit from and be most willing and able to purchase your product or service?

• Price: How much will your target market be willing and able to pay for your product or service? Is the price point high enough for you to make the profit margin you require?

• Place: Or distribution, where will your product or service be available? Online? In a brick-and-mortar location? In a luxury boutique or a big box store? Will you ship domestically or internationally?

• Promotion: The most commonly considered “P” in marketing. How will you communicate your value message to your “People” or target market?

Once you have determined these elements of you marketing plan, you’ll be better equipped to develop your company brand and establish a lead generation system, which are both incredibly important to the longterm success of your business. 32% of business owners surveyed, in hindsight, would have improved their company’s brand development when launching their business. 35% of them recognized that they should have established a lead generation system earlier in the launch of their business as well. This may seem like a “no-brainer”, but it is easy to get caught up in other functional areas of providing a product or service and let lead generation activities take the backseat, particularly when this is not already skill set. Get more marketing on a tight budget ideas by downloading our Marketing for the Minimum white paper.


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Don’t forget about sales! Having in-house sales expertise is critically important to the growth and success of your business, so consider your sales and business development acumen. Are you the most qualified person to develop sales growth, or should you really consider hiring someone, or bringing in a business development partner? Think about your sales funnel and how leads will move through it. The specifics will be very different depending on your industry and offering, but the basics include:

• Prospects: These are those people about whom you know nothing or little. They are just beginning to

research alternative solutions to a pain point. They may have visited your website or blog, but have not made the step toward interacting with your company. They are in the information-gathering stage.

• Leads: A prospect is converted to a lead when they make direct action to contact your company, or fill

out a form to learn more or view your content. They are still gathering information, but they have moved toward evaluating their options and identifying the best solution.

• Opportunities: These are leads that you have identified as fitting your ideal client profile and started

nurturing a relationship with. They are aware of you and your solution, but they are still evaluating other solutions. This is where you are working directly with this individual’s specific needs to demonstrate the value of your solution to their pain point.

• Customers: Your prospect has completed their evaluation and your company has come out on top. Rejoice! But don’t forget to deliver the value you promised.

Depending on your business, this process may take minutes, or it may take months and include more steps. This basic structure is the process that every customer goes through for every buying decision they make. Moreover, 80% of our business owner survey respondents discovered that client development is significantly more important than product/service development. So take the time to think about the messaging and materials you can provide at each step in order to best demonstrate value and develop a trusting relationship with your prospective customers. Learn more about sales management by watching our Sales Management for Private Business Owners webinar recording.


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Employees When we asked the question, “If you could have done one thing more often with your business, what would it be” the top response, from 38% of business owners, was “delegate to others.” That means, if you haven’t already, at some point you’ll need to bring in employees to help you achieve your growth goals. The majority of business owners in our survey said they now wish they had spent more money on hiring and, perhaps more importantly, training employees in the early stages of their business. Hiring and training the right employees is a time-consuming, stressful part of business ownership. In fact, employee issues are the most commonly discussed topic at TAB board meetings! The basic process includes four steps:

• Job Preparation: Take the time to think about, and write down, what your business needs and the

functions of the position. Once you’ve done this, write the job description and benchmarks that will help you and your new employee understand the company goals that will make the person, and the employee, successful.

• Recruitment: Place the job posting were the ideal candidate will be most likely to find it. Examples include LinkedIn, CareerBuilder, and Craigslist. You may also want to reach out to your current network for referrals.

• Assessing Your Candidates: Resumes are rolling in; now what? For most businesses, we recommend using

assessment tests, such as TTI Trimetric’s DISC® assessment, to screen the top eight to ten applicants. This assessment will help you determine which of the top candidates with the technical skills and experience you are looking for also possess the behavioral attitudes and motivators you need on your team.

• On-Boarding: Awesome, you found the perfect candidate. You make the offer, they accept, everyone is

happy. Don’t neglect the on-boarding step! Proper training of new employees in the skills, expectations, and culture of the company will be critical in ensuring a happy work environment for you and your employees. It will also help make sure you can retain this valuable employee and make them as productive as possible.

Contact a TTI-Certified DISC coach in your area to learn more about employee behaviors and motivators.


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Operations Operations management is not the most glamorous function of your business, but having an operations plan is critical to the success of a well-structured business organization. Whether you’re a one-person show or an organization of thousands of employees, your plan will ensure that your business is operating at peak productivity. Think of it as the “nuts and bolts” of your business structure. Operations plans vary greatly depending on your business and industry. Examples of operations you may need to include in your plan are:

• Inventory: How will you track, store, ship, and acquire inventory? Your inventory needs to be stocked

enough to feed the other functions of your business, but not overstocked where you’ve tied up cash flow and are risking the loss of assets.

• Distribution: How will products or services be delivered to your clients? Depending on your business, you

may need a warehouse and shipping partner account or you might need an online interactive platform. Whatever your distribution needs, your plan should help identify the most effective means of distribution that will minimize cost and maximize customer value.

• On-boarding New Clients: The sales team is bringing them in, but do you have the operational plan

to deliver on their promises? Flip the coin and make sure that your sales and marketing teams are knowledgeable of the on-boarding and product or service distribution protocols so they can effectively communicate key elements to your sales and marketing funnel.

Laying the Foundation While starting and owning a business may be the most risky, challenging, and stressful thing you can do in your life...

86% of business owners surveyed say they would do it all again! The functional areas discussed in this white paper are all critical in building the foundation for a successful business. We’ve created this white paper from surveying and interviewing successful business owners, and through our 25 years of experience helping thousands of business owners achieve their personal vision of success. Though you have the information, how do you acquire the knowledge needed to structure a successful business?

The majority of business owners surveyed agree they would have benefitted most from a business coach or mentor. Who do you turn to when you have questions about your business?


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About TAB TAB helps forward-thinking business owners grow their businesses, increase profitability and improve their lives by leveraging local business advisory boards, private business coaching and proprietary strategic services. Learn more about TAB by visiting us at www.TheAlternativeBoard.com. Was Building the Foundation for a Successful Business helpful to you? Help someone else out by forwarding to a colleague.


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