8 rules to follow to grow your business

Many entrepreneurs have managed to develop their business in competitive areas of activity. Although it was not always easy to implement, their approach made it possible to revitalize an existing market, develop differently or improve somewhat outdated management.

What are the keys to their success?

Knowing your sector of activity is an asset!

For many managers who have managed to develop their business, knowing your sector well is an asset. Ways of doing things differ from one sector to another and are not always transferable or adaptable. The experience acquired while exercising a profession makes it possible to identify the habits and codes linked to the sector concerned.

When you master the sector in which you operate, you can work on a new concept, revolutionize uses, adapt certain operating modes (disrupt to use a fashionable word) without breaking the basic codes linked to the ‘activity. Ideas and projections fit more easily into the mold, they are imbued with a professional realism which contributes to their credibility.

Sometimes, when a new concept or an innovation is the basis of the reflection, knowing the sector allows you to spread the risks thanks to your address book. Some customers agree to wipe plasters to benefit from an attractive price or be the first to observe productivity gains. Sometimes it is the suppliers who play the game to secure new outlets

However, we sometimes encounter exceptions. Many creators have left a salaried job in a specific sector to start or resume a business in another completely different sector and have done well. It is less common and requires a certain capacity to adapt. Most of the time this decision reflects a strong and particzlar motivation (desire to undertake, return to nature, childhood dream, etc.).

Rely on a rigorous business plan

The success of a project generally relies on significant preparation and management work. Often, creators who create a precise business plan at the same time prepare for the launch of the future business.

Refining a business plan allows you to prepare for future project management. For example, this offers the opportunity to negotiate with future customers and/or partners, which facilitates the launch. Thus, when it is created, the company already has customers and a certain turnover. Better yet, it has already benefited from certain feedback and has been able to adapt its products, services or certain features accordingly.

A well-worked business plan reveals the qualities of the project, it allows its reader to precisely identify the added value that the project will bring to customers. It helps to build an intelligent and adapted business model that will help convince investors. Because to succeed, you must be able to support and defend the project at each stage it must go through.

All economic sectors are affected by the digital revolution; preparing your project allows you to have time to observe the structural changes taking place in the target sector of activity. Good observation makes it possible, for example, to optimize certain procedures to ultimately gain competitiveness.

Finally, making a rigorous business plan often requires support by preparing your project within an incubator or by finding an effective coach (CCI, BGE, etc.). This is often beneficial help that allows creators to work on approaches different from their native skills. For example, a less technical and more functional approach for a developer, a focus more on the profession than on the product for an engieer.

Knowing how to take measured financial risks

Taking risks boosts the will to succeed. Thus, creators who have invested their savings or the proceeds from the sale of a property know what risk means. They also know that to win you have to move forward and that procrastination does not help move decisions forward. Mistakes and errors are part of the learning process. Who could boast of having learned to walk without falling or bumping? Although it is unpleasant (baby cries remind us of this), error has its importance; it is even essential in the sense that it gives value to things (success, effort, will, savings…). It even influences the future values ​​of the company that the manager will instill.

Developing a business while remaining comfortably seated in your armchair is a contradiction in terms, as is developing it by proxy. Many managers invest large sums (in view of their possibilities), pay themselves a modest or even zero salary and work enormously for the success of their project, without any guarantee of success. This often beneficial risk-taking deserves to be recognized and respected, whatever the outcome of the project.

But be careful, a risk can be identified, measured and evaluated. It’s not a question of attacking the new market head on…

Aim for rapid profitability and fundraising

For small businesses and creators alike, growing and developing requires cash. There is no secret, working on your business model to have a profitable project is essential. If some companies manage to find profitability from the first financial year following the launch, others take several years to establish an activity allowing them to exit the red zone.

How to do ? It depends on the project, the opportunities and the talent of the manager or entrepreneur. Focusing only on activities with a high margin is one solution. Getting support from a business, group or mentor is another. The key most often lies in the manager’s ability to generate a minimum of activity very quickly thanks to the project. When there is activity, it is because there is a market in which we can enter. The first step has been taken, it remains to size this market and find suitable financing to develop this activity until it is profitable.

The financial resources of young companies are often provided by Business Angels, because many successful companies have developed from losing money. The only solution often lies in convincing investment funds to finance the project. And for this two main axes the quality of the management team and the profitability of the project.