Business ownership enables people to determine where and when they’ll work—and this includes being able to control their day-to-day tasks and being able to work in the industry of their choice. For instance, entrepreneurs can choose to become realtors, launch fashion businesses, or create online organizations, among many other things. Simply launching a business isn’t enough, though. It takes hard work, patience, and passion to keep a business running. If you’re new to the entrepreneur world, here are a few ways to do just that.
1. Create a plan for sustainable growth.
A successful startup is a growing startup. Of course, growth is a good thing, but scaling too fast could cause irreparable damage. To avoid going under, create one or more strategic plans for scaling. That way, when the demand for your specific services or goods is popping, your business will be too. This means planning for resources and having enough monetary runway.
2. Rebalance your portfolio.
Hiring a skilled accountant or financial advisor can be an asset to your business. Advisors can assist business owners with paying taxes, drafting budgets, partnering with investors, and tracking expenses.
A crucial aspect of keeping up a business’ finances is rebalancing the portfolio. Your portfolio may drift from its asset allocation. Rebalancing refers to the purchasing and selling portions of a portfolio to get the weight of each asset class to achieve its original state. An investment that succeeded once may not continue to thrive; mutual funds typically disclose the fact that past performance doesn’t always indicate future performance.
Investors who change their investment strategy can utilize rebalancing to readjust each asset class’s weight in the portfolio, fulfilling new asset allocations. Regularly rebalancing a portfolio is essential, as doing so can automate investment strategies and decisions. By rebalancing, one can sell assets that increased in value and purchase those that decreased in value, lowering the risk of the portfolio.
A portfolio rebalancing tool helps a business owner keep their investment portfolio within the desired asset allocation. A robust rebalancing tool can help business owners seamlessly manage several accounts and efficiently build a personalized index. Business owners can let the tool calculate and execute the trades necessary for achieving a balanced portfolio, and notify them when the portfolio is out of alignment and when there are new cash and dividend payments. Such technology helps business owners with portfolio management and adhering to investment plans, benefitting the bottom line.
3. Monitor your company’s performance and goal accomplishment.
An essential business term you should be very familiar with is called “OKR.” OKRs, refer to objectives and key results. Objectives are goals that companies desire to achieve in a set amount of time. Key results are metrics that indicate how the company is progressing toward achieving said goals. OKRs are metrics that can measure entire teams and help businesses guide team members on identifying goals, focusing on measurable outcomes, and learning about more impactful workplace solutions. Organizations can benefit from utilizing good OKRs and OKR technology, as it can help manage quarterly performance and progress in a transparent way that encourages team members to give the organization their best work, collaboration, and communication.
Key results per quarter can help teams determine where the business creates value, and therefore make beneficial, efficient decisions. Business owners can use technology to generate OKR graphics such as trend line graphs and charts, regarding key results, KPIs, and operating metrics, to review and compare progress, and efficiently update team members. Professional OKR technology can sustain organization speed and focus and promote growth.
4. Enhance your marketing campaigns.
Keeping customers’ needs at the forefront of a company is the best practice for preventing business failure. A surefire way to know what customers want is to ask them. Successful and struggling businesses alike should check in with customers.
Engaging with new and returning customers gives business owners an idea of which products buyers think are practical and actually want.
Traditional advertising methods like business cards, flyers, and ads in magazines and newspapers, and on TV and the radio can increase a business’ visibility. Digital marketing through social networking sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and email marketing campaigns can enhance a brand’s online visibility and attract new and returning customers, encouraging increases in sales.
