How to make sure your business succeeds – is there really a magic formula, an action plan you can create a speadsheet from, a Powerpoint presentation you can follow?

Almost certainly not.

Businesses come in a huge variety of types and they succeed - or fail - for a wide variety of reasons. Yet, among the massive array of advice to be found on this - the BIG - question, there do seem to be a number of rules or guidelines that form a common thread.

Here we’ve tried to condense these down to offer some pointers. So, whether you run an office-based business, or a manufacturing business, hopefully these suggestions will help to drive your business towards success.



1. Make sure you know what you’re doing. This means it’s always best to have some experience within your chosen business sector before deciding to set up your own venture. It’s a good idea to work for someone else in the same kind of business and learn from them – especially from their mistakes.

2. Before you even start, do your homework. Planning and research can only take your business a certain distance along the road to success, but it’s vital that it’s done even so. Know what and who the competition is. Be realistic about how well you can compete, or assess how you can change your offering to complement other businesses, or fill a niche they aren’t covering. But don’t over plan to the point that everything must proceed along the route you’ve drawn up – because it wont and you must be ready to adapt and be creative.

3. Be ready to make mistakes and learn from them. Behind every business success story, there are many mistakes. The key is to make sure they aren’t catastrophic and that you learn from them. Mistakes can make your business a great deal stronger.

4. Be ruthlessly determined. This doesn’t mean that you have to be ruthless in your business dealings. What it means instead is that you must be ruthless in dealing with any self-doubts when they pop up. Listen to others’ warnings; but, once you’ve set your goals and produced your detailed plan, then go for it unswervingly.



5. Do lots of networking. This is vital, whatever business you run, to network this is how you will discover opportunities to interact with other businesses and find new potential streams of income and or help. Joining chambers of commerce and trade organisations, should be complemented these days by on-line social networking, where there are huge opportunities for sharing information and getting and offering advice. Make a list of contacts and keep it alive and updated.

6. If you’re a small or medium-sized business, and especially a manufacturing business, generally it’s best to avoid producing a product that relies on low pricing to bring you profit. Bigger manufacturers will almost always be able to undercut you. Rely on filling a niche or best quality instead. And, again, if you’re manufacturing a product, think about out-sourcing to lower production costs, but skimping on quality will probably be a false economy in the long run.

7. Learn from success. It isn’t only mistakes that provide lessons. If something is a success – and this can be either a manufactured product or a good office practice – analyse it, work out why it worked well and repeat the formula. And don’t forget to celebrate any success, even small ones. This is good for morale – yours included – and reminds you why you are in business at all.

8. If you employ others, then be positive and create a can-do environment in which innovation, ideas and enthusiasm are celebrated. Give lots of praise when it’s due. Being passionate about what you’re doing is one great way to create an infectiously positive atmosphere.

9. Decide what things you’re best at and focus on these. Don’t waste time trying to improve or develop skills you don’t have - as an entrepreneur, there’s no time and you can’t afford the luxury. Do what you do best and then do it even better. Get someone else to do what you’re not so good at. For example, if you run an office-based business and accounts are not your thing, don’t waste time trying to grapple with the numbers. Get someone else to keep an eye on accounting and budgets and you focus on selling the service you offer, if that is your area of strength.

10. Work ultra hard. Obvious, maybe. But there is no substitute. No business success book that can be read, no entrepreneur superstar who can impart THE big secret of success, there is really nothing that can replace good old- fashioned hard work. Having a vision that you keep alive, along with the self-discipline to work extremely hard, are probably the two most important ingredients for the success of any business.


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