How to Know Your People Can Success Your Business?

Could you identify which level are you? Do you know the challenges to move to each level?

[HOW 1.1]

Your business would go through various stages of development, facing different challenges throughout its life cycle. What you focus on today may not be of importance tomorrow as your challenges will change from time to time and require different approaches to be successful. You need to anticipate the upcoming challenges and source finances effectively to be able to succeed at each stage of the business life cycle. So, how do you tackle these challenges to ensure you are on the right track of your business?

Level 1

Challenge: Most seed-stage companies will have to overcome the challenge of market acceptance and pursue one niche opportunity. Do not spread money and time resources too thin.

Focus: At this stage of the business, the focus is on matching the business opportunity with your skills, experience, and passion. Other focal points include deciding on a business ownership structure, finding professional advisors, and business planning.

Level 2 

Challenge: If your business is in the startup life cycle stage, it is likely you may overestimate money needs and time to market. The main challenge is not to burn through the little cash you have. You need to learn what profitable needs your clients have and do a reality check to see if your business is on the right track.

Focus: Startups require establishing a customer base and market presence along with tracking and conserving cash flow.

Level 3 

Challenge: The biggest challenge growing companies face is dealing with the constant range of issues bidding for more time and money. Effective management is required, as well as a possible new business plan. Learn how to train and delegate to conquer this stage of development.

Focus: Businesses in the growth life cycle are focused on running the business in a more formal fashion to deal with increased sales and customers. Better accounting and management systems will have to be set up. New employees will have to be hired to deal with the influx of business.

Level 4

Challenge: It is far too easy to rest on your laurels during this life stage; the marketplace is relentless and competitive. Stay focused on the bigger picture. Issues like the economy, competitors, or changing customer tastes are able to put an end all you have worked for in a blink of an eye.

Focus: An established life cycle company will be focused on improvement and productivity. To compete in an established market, you will require better business practices along with automation and outsourcing to improve productivity.

Level 5 

Challenge: Moving into new markets requires planning and research. Your focus should be on businesses that complement your existing experience and capabilities. Moving into unrelated areas can be disastrous.

Focus: Add new products or services to existing markets or expand the existing business into new markets and customer types.

Level 6

Challenge: Businesses in the decline stage of the life cycle will be challenged by dropping sales, profits, and negative cash flows. The biggest issue will be determining how long the business can support negative cash flows. Consider if it may be time to move on to the final life cycle stage — exit.

Focus: Search for new opportunities and business ventures. Cutting costs and finding ways to sustain cash flow is vital for the declining stage.

Level 7

Challenge: Selling a business requires a realistic valuation. It may have been years of hard work to build the company, but think about the real value in the current marketplace. If you decide to close your business, the challenge is to deal with the financial and psychological aspects of a business loss.

Focus: Get a proper valuation of your company. Look at your business operations, management, and competitive barriers to make the company worth more to the buyer. Set up legal buy-sell agreements along with a business transition plan.

Level 8

Challenge: The life after a company is being listed on the stock market, you’re no longer a SME, and you have a bunch of stakeholders under your responsibility. The challenges you face include culture, communication, management systems, etc., that spread wide across various countries or regions. With the dramatic changes of global trade, regulation and financial environment, as well as increased experience and enhanced capabilities of listed companies, the outbound mergers and acquisitions (M&A) practices evolve and the challenges are shifted.

Focus: Target search and screening of small and medium-sized, mature or fast-growing companies that are preferred as your strategic partner of M&A. Corporate governance is undoubtedly the focus of after company being listed or integrated with the parent company of a listed stock market.

[WHAT IF 1.1]

In essence, each stage of the business life cycle may not occur in chronological order. Some businesses will be “built to flip,” quickly going from startup to exit. Others will choose to avoid expansion and stay in the established stage, just like David who has never liked Level 8 – he is the new rich that enjoys his success at Level 6.

Whether your business is a glowing success or a dismal failure depends on your ability to adapt to its changing life cycles. What you focus on and overcome today will change in the future. Thus, understanding where your business fits in the life cycle will help you foresee upcoming challenges and help you in making the best business decisions.

Section 1.2: Who is Successful People

[WHY 1.2 you need people to succeed in business]

Do you remember the day you managed to earn so much commission, you could actually start your own business? You stated your purpose and the absolute support from suppliers, friends, and family members turned out unexpectedly positive! Being in the business industry is good for you, as are able to train various salesmen to sell word-for-word, like you. With a clear marketing strategy, it is not impossible for you to finally witness your business boom.

But there is a catch! Yes, you pay the best in the industry, but you wonder why some people still leave? Worst case scenario is that old and underperformed staff trying their very best to remain in the company and there is nothing you could do about it. 

<Story 1.2>

Eric, being a top salesman in his company for years, saw potential in his market and believed that the company’s product could generate a high fortune for him and his friends. Therefore, he initiated sourcing and eventually started up his own company with friends. With the support from his existing customers and the trust from suppliers, Eric’s business exploded to the point where he had insufficient time to handle it and the profit was excellent. Over the years, he even achieved creating his own line of products. As his business was good, Eric could afford luxury cars and landed houses, and even invested in condominiums and shophouses. 

One fine day, Eric’s friend, a business partner who took care of the company’s operations, went into major dispute with him that both parties could not see eye-to-eye, where they finally decided to go separate ways. Eric’s company market shares were broken to half and he had to rebuild his team. He was no longer able to hire a salesman that was as good as his partner, which in result, he had to execute all the work by himself. He was also concerned of possibilities that his new staff would steal his customers and become his rival in the future.

Despite Eric being good with customers and his authorised dealership, Eric could not manage and trust his own employees regardless in the departments of finance, human resources, or sales. Sales staff would normally work less than a year and he would have the difficulties to re-hire and retrain new staff. In addition to this hurdle, after his friend left him, his finance department was taken care by a new inexperienced staff, who did not know which reports to request for nor what do the figures imply – all he knew were only cash collection and sales. His company’s account was in a major mess, he was having troubles trying to achieve tax savings, and he had to bring in a CFO to sort things out 

[WHAT 1.2: Success People]

So, what are the key PEOPLE you need for your business to bring it to the next level?

Persistent in learning: You and your people must have the ability to learn new things and take feedback positively from one another, as well as from others.

Excellent attitude: Having the right skill but lacking the will to use them is not going to solve business challenges and achieve success.

Organisational value: Important for your people to uphold your organisation’s standard of behaviours, and what are acceptable business practices. From a customer’s viewpoint, good values are the kind of service they can expect to get when they deal with your business.

Perform when asked: You feel irritated when you ask someone to do the job but the person does not want to. People who can perform will never hurt productivity and morale, because you will interfere less with their duties.  

Leader material: Everyone is a leader, because leadership is an action, not a position, it is about the action of influencing. Influence is the power to change, or the power to affect someone or something.

Exceed expectation: You and your people’s expectations to your customers are strong and believe something good will happen if you go the extra mile and put quality as your priority, with speed being second.