WHAT IS BUSINESS AND HOW DO WE RUN IT?
When you think of business, the concept, the goal. What do you think about it? Making sales, money, or being better than your competitor? Well, you need to know that it is more than those things.
Businesses are about making people comfortable, it’s about creating good things for customers, it’s about satisfying our customers.
Business is about making money but you can’t make money without customers that’s why you’ve got to satisfy your customers.
To be successful you need to understand people, what a customer wants and how do they want it.
WHAT IS BUSINESS?
According to Prof. Norman Richard Owens “A Business is an enterprise engaged in the production and distribution of goods for sale in the market or rendering of services for a price”
A business is an organization that sells goods and services in an attempt to make a profit. To be a business by definition the organization has to sell goods or services. These goods are referred to as tangible products like books, laptops, cars, etc. And service is something intangible I.e. it can’t be held, it’s often produced and consumed at the same time e.g. when you go to the salon to get a haircut you pay for the service.
CHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESSES
- Businesses must satisfy societal needs.
- A Business must seek to make a profit.
- Businesses must be the result of individuals working together in an organized way.
- Business is to produce and purchase and sell products and services to the consumers.
HOW TO RUN A BUSINESS
If you’re planning to run a business, you must put in efforts for it to be successful. All successful businesses did not become what it is overnight. You need to research, study, learn from your mistakes, and be strategic.
These tips will help you run businesses successfully even though you don’t have one yet.
- Have a business plan; This is an important tool for all businesses. A business plan is a written document that guides businesses on how to achieve their goals.
- Identify your customer base; As a business owner, you need to identify who your product or service is meant for. This can be done when you have a customer Avatar. A customer avatar helps you to know your customer better, it contains useful information about your customer I.e. demographics and psychographics of your customer.
- Be organized; Organisation of your time, finances, inventory, and employees is one of the keys to running a successful business.
- Delegate responsibilities; it’s not possible for only you to do the work that’s why you need to delegate responsibilities to qualified employees.
- Hire a financial professional; you would need the service of a financial professional who will handle the financial affairs of your business.
- Manage inventory; inventory management is the way by which you control your goods and products including the raw materials and finished products. Inventory management can make or break a business, so carefully manage your goods and products to ensure you’re making good use of any money spent.
- Employ targeted and promotional marketing campaigns; Marketing is a key component in running successful businesses. You need to make your business known to people. Marketing helps to make sales, sets better goals for the businesses, helps promote your brand to the right people, etc.
- Be accessible; make sure your potential clients and customer can get in touch with you and your business whenever they want to.
- Deliver what you promised; Never deceive your customers if you don’t wanna lose them. To run successful businesses you will have to give your customers not only what they want but what you promised them.
- Stay focused; You need to stay focused on the goals you have for your businesses, whether long-term or short-term goals. Never give up till you achieve those goals.
Hope you learned a lot from reading this article.
Let me leave you with this; The success or failure of an enterprise depends on the efficiency of the entrepreneur. (Proverbs 27:23, Proverbs 22:29).
Thanks for reading.