Within friction, lies opportunity or demise. If products are products, which they mostly are, and service is service, which it mostly is, where is the next edge of competition? Friction holds the key to unlock your advantage. As it does for your competitors too.
It’s fair to say that the world has never been so noisy, competitive, impatient and uncertain. Customers and clients are harder to reach than ever before and all services and products are becoming commoditised offers, draining margins whilst operating costs relentlessly increase.
Positioning to win in this environment requires a complete rethink about your business and how you present it to your market. Getting this right will help you to land your message and offer more simply; to reach your target market more affordably; and to generate greater engagement and sales.
You build your business within the context of your business environment. When your business environment changes more rapidly than your growing business, the only way to build your business is to break to rebuild. On The Money Show with Bruce Whitfield, Pavlo Phitidis outlines why:
People power or hinder a business’s growth. And the people suited to your business today, might not be the right people tomorrow. What should lead and shape your people strategy and how you get it right is a complex problem. It’s one that is made a lot simpler if you have a clear strategy, know your business well, operate good systems and have time to source and select the right talent.
As a body grows and develops it also slows down. The years of life and living bear down on it and lying in bed for an extra 5 minutes rather than springing into action the moment the alarm sounds becomes tempting. An extra slice of cheese or a spoonful of ice-cream after dinner and a hard day also feels like a well-deserved reward. Cholesterol builds and if not checked, it’s the death knell that you often regret most when it’s too late.
It’s a terrible analogy to contemplate when building and growing a business, especially if you plan to exit it one day for a capital profit as your just reward for all the risk and sacrifice it took to build.
Scaling is less about technology and more about strategy. Led by strategy, scaling is about business design and discipline. Its measure is found in the yawn between rising turnover and stabilising costs. It is a journey more than a destination. Getting it right reaps great rewards. Getting it wrong yields a life of grind and sweat.
Many pundits are preaching about the 4th industrial revolution. What does it mean, is it relevant to you and how do you embrace it in your business?
Why and how you start your business is deeply personal and specific to your circumstances and opportunities at that time. There are many right ways which often turn out to be wrong ways simply because plans seldom work out. Just start. But, always do so with the end in mind.
Listen to the podcast HERE
Pavlo Phitidis announced the launch of Aurik Capital, a S12J Fund to back the growth of established businesses with annual revenues between R15m to R150m.
Pricing sensitivity has driven innovation for years. Because the economy is a massive, complex ecosystem, everything in it is linked and poor growth drives pricing pressures on us all. Yet, the fundamentals of pricing are static. How then do you deal with pricing in this economy when you face the challenges stated in the message below?
This is a Twitter message from a listener “The pricing game is emotional…Suppliers raise prices and you are forced to decide:
1. Do you segment and risk alienating the very people you want to be serving or,
2. Run at a loss until economies of scale kick-in and you can negotiate better bulk cost price. HELP”