- The products and/or services your offer or intend to offer in your business and how these relate to those of your competitors in the marketplace - in terms of quality, presentation and price;
- The market for your products and services including your unique selling proposition - that is, those aspects of what you offer that distinguishes you from others offering similar products or services - and how you can best market your business to your intended audience;
- The business systems that you have or intend to establish to manage your business and how the inputs, processes and outputs of these systems will assist you in managing the business;
- The financial foundations of your business - including the initial investment funding, assets, liabilities, income and expenses that determine whether your business is likely to be sustainable into the future;
- The legal and regulatory frameworks within which your business is operating and how these may impose certain conditions on the way you run your business;
- The people and resources you need to run your business - including the skills, abilities and talents of those who you need to support you in this enterprise and how you can best work with others either as employees, contractors, alliance partners, associates or referrals;
- Timeframes - what you want to achieve by when and what strategy and plans are in place or need to be created to turn your ideas into achievements.
Getting Started
Whether you're a commercial or community enterprise, we start by looking at your vision and/or mission and the values you want to apply in your organisation.
Vision, Mission and Values
Leading business authors and researchers agree that organisations can benefit greatly from a clear sense of vision, mission and values. So it is in personal and professional life. The key lies in understanding the difference between a vision and mission and knowing when it's appropriate to focus on one or the other. One of the first steps in business coaching is to clarify your personal, professional and organisational visions or missions and assess the levels of alignment and congruence between each of these.
Organisation Structure
Having clarified your vision, mission and values, we can now consider the most appropriate structure for your business - as a sole trader, a proprietary limited company, a partnership or a combination of these, possible using a discretionary trust.
There are many factors that come into play in this decision and its unique to each person, their particular tax position, likely profitability in the early and succeeding years, their other personal and business income sources as well as person preferences. This matter requires careful consideration of the options and the pros and cons of each.
Products and Services
Design / Development
Have you figured out how best to package and present your products and services? This stage of the process requires you to think like your customers - what do they want, how do they like to be served, what are their needs? All these issues and more determine how best to design, develop and present the products and services you're offering.
Product Pricing
Every product and service has various 'price points' which attract or repel particular customer groups. By undertaking some simple market research, you'll be able to assess how to price your products and services in ways that will attract your target audience - who we define simultaneously through the Sales and Marketing steps below.
Quality & Standards
Every business - particularly businesses in the service industry - need to pay attention to the quality of what's being provided to their customers. There are many ways to do this and usually a combination of approaches works best. Your customers will talk to one another and share their experiences of your services and your products. The messages they give to one another can determine the success or failure of your business. The aim of this part of the process is to ensure that the messages they give are positive and reinforcing - not negative and damaging to your credibility.
Sales and Marketing
Target Markets
One of the key issues for any new business is identifying the audience for their products and services. Who's going to be attracted to what you have to offer? What are the demographics of people who'll like what you've got? Young people, older people, particular socio-economic groups, singles or couples - whatever! Your job is to get to know your existing and potential customers so well that you can understand their world from their perspective. With that understanding, you'll be able to really connect with them through your advertising and marketing and all that you do for them in your business.
Branding
What differentiates your products or services from all the others in the marketplace? What's your USP - your Unique Selling Proposition' - that combination of factors that makes you stand out from the rest? Understanding what's important about you and your products and services is the key to good marketing - without this understanding you can waste a lot of time and money going nowhere!
Promotions
Advertising and promotions can take many forms across many different media. The question is - which form and media is right for you and your budget? For many businesses, their best advertisements are happy customers. Why? Because they tell other people how good it was for them and this creates additional business for you. So, before you spend anything on advertising - you need to think how every customer can network your business to people they know. Then you can identify the best way to bring customers through the door using advertising media and other promotions.
Business Systems
Finance Systems
Running a business can be a it like driving a car - sometimes you need to check the dashboard to see how fast you're going, how much fuel you've got left or whether the engine is overheating. Financial systems are there to tell you how your business is travelling. The problem is, most entrepreneurs don't get the information they need in time to address problems BEFORE they become chronic. Establishing a quick and easy system for your finances is critical to the health of your business. If you're only getting financial information every month, it could be too late! And, if you haven't set out your financial route in your business plan, you may just end up somewhere you didn't plan to go. A finance system is a must for any business - and a financial plan that's regularly reviewed and updated is the key to success.
Operational Systems
Every business needs operational systems that guide who does what by when and records what happened so that appropriate action is taken. These systems will depend upon the nature of your business and can include - formal procedures, filing systems, ordering systems, supplier systems, contracts and agreements, customer forms, EFTPOS systems, cash handling systems and many more. If these processes and systems aren't quickly established and bedded down, your business dream is likely to turn into a business nightmare pretty quickly.
Research & Development (R&D) Systems
The better you understand your products and services, the better quality of service you'll be able to deliver to your customers. If you're making coffee, research ways of making the BEST coffee. If you're providing personal services to customers and clients, undertake regular professional development in the technical aspects of your professional and how best to deliver your services. Innovation and development are critical to the sustainability of your business - but innovation requires you to invest - in yourself, your products, your services and everything to do with the quality of what you provide to customers. If you're not genuinely interested in your products or services, you're in the wrong business. So check - how much research and development work have you done already and which areas of R&D do you need to work on to make your business succeed?
Finance & Legal
Budgets & Projections
Every business needs a plan - particularly a financial plan - that sets out where it's heading over the coming period. Whether this period is 3 months or 6 months or a year depends on the nature of the business - either way, you need to know your upcoming investment, expenses and income from all sources in order to determine the initial capital and working capital requirements for your business.
Tax & BAS Returns
Once you obtain your Australian Business Number (ABN) and become a bone fide business, you'll be subject to the laws and regulations of the Australian taxation system, as administered by the ATO (Australian Taxation Office). This will require you to submit a quarterly (or monthly) Business Activity Statement (BAS) and based on the information you enter into the statement, you'll be required to pay various taxes. Understanding these regulations is critical for your business as failing to adhere to them can have drastic results.
Superannuation
Wages and salaries paid to you and other employees require you to pay a 9% contribution to a nominated superannuation fund for each person. This superannuation guarantee contribution is mandated by law and is required to be paid quarterly into the respective funds.
Other considerations
Legal and financial requirements such as Goods and Services Tax and Fringe Benefits Tax regulations also need to be considered at the outset of your business.
People & Resources
Defining your needs
What skills and abilities do you and your staff need to run your business? How many people are required - including people to undertake occasional work such as bookkeepers, tax agents, legal advisors etc? Defining your needs upfront is critical to getting off to the right start.
People options
Employing people is not always the best option - many people prefer to work on a contractual basis as it gives them the freedom to work for mutliple clients. The question is - how do you want to work with others and how do you want them to work for you?
Business Resources
People and technology and the two most common elements of any business. Whether the technology is a coffee machine, a PC, a telephone system or whatever depends on the nature of your business. The key is to define upfront what technological resources you need to get your business off the ground and keep it flying. Of course, this may require a financial investment on your part, so determining the actual cost of this is important so you can budget accordingly.
The principles of running an organisation remain the same, whether you're in a commercial enterprise or a community enterprise. It's all about connecting with your clients in ways that add value to them and to your operations - and doing so in a sustainable manner.
That's why we offer discounted coaching and mentoring fees to individuals and organsations that who want to put back into their community either by building on an existing program or developing one that meets the needs of individuals in their locality.
At Reflective Space, we have experience in assisting social, community and learning organisations governed by the various Associations Incorporation Acts across Australia. We can help you establish a new association, including setting up the rules of incorporation, or take an existing one to new levels of sustainability in keeping with the guidelines issued by organisations such as ACFE - the Adult Community Further Education Board.
Vision, Mission and