When venturing into a business you want to identify the most essential factors that will make you business succeed. These critical factors are usually thought out by you when you are envisioning your business and mapping out your business plan. Chances are you have probably thought of these factors and its best to think about them deeper and outline these factors. These factors will enable you to implement an action plan to carry out when starting up your business.
I am consistently asked how do you define your critical success factors to your business. The answer is simple and it really comes down to What matters to your business? This could include sales, customers, people and/or even the product developed on your part. In the end your success factors come down to the very core values of why you are in business in the first place.
Below are some ideas (in no particular order)
-Product Creation / Development and Branding
-Product Research, Supply and Demand / Knowing your market audience
-Competition Research.
-Investment Capital and Cost of daily Operation / Overhead costs
-Product Distribution – Includes all kinds of sales – offline/online/telemarketing/third party sales/ affiliate sale etc
-Lead Generation and Database Management
-Customer Satisfaction and Lifetime Value of your customer
-Production and cost efficiency
support – Online / Offline IT, Customer and Technical Support – Turn around times and metrics
-Quality Assurance / Sales Funnel and Departmental Hierarchy
-Sales Compensation, Employee Benefits and Compensation / Employee Perks
-Customer Education and knowledge
-Recruiting and Retention Funnels, Employee Growth Paths
-Accounting and Financing
-Training Development and Coaching
-Marketing 101- Offline Online Direct Advertising and all communications
-Logistics and Inventory
-Profit Sharing and Equity
-Executive Hierarchy, Management and leadership
-Corporate Goals, Quarterly Goals and Annual Quotas
-Core Values and Mission Statement
-Accountability
-Productivity and Performance Management
-Data Analysis and Metrics
-Internal Communications and messaging
-Board of Directors/ Advisers and panel
-Strategical Planning and Market Tactics
-Business Development Funnel
-Joint Ventures and Affiliate Relations and Alliances
-Outsourcing
These are just a few of the many different business success factors that you need to focus on to accelerate your business rapidly. My advice is to focus on a few of these factors per quarter. Some companies work on 4-7 factors a fiscal year. You can’t take on every single business funnel right away and need time to work on each factor thoroughly.
At the end of the day get into the nitty gritty vessels that make the muscle of your business. Break down the core components. This will enable you to get a better understanding of what factors needs attention or a game plan and where your key strengths lie.