In the world today, there are businesses everywhere. There are small, big, unsuccessful, and successful businesses. Many business owners planning affect the success of their business. As said “A man can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm” (Schwab). Although some people may think the purpose of having a business is to make money and supply jobs to workers, it is not. The purpose of a business, a successful business, is to supply goods and services to customers.
In order to supply commodities and quality service to customers, business owners have to plan a successful business. Everyone knows that with a successful business comes a great business plan. A business plan is a documentation that states the purpose of the business and its goals and goes on to show how the owner will realize those goals, including the marketing strategy. The plan also includes a break-even analysis, a profit-and-loss projection, and a cash-flow analysis designed to show if the business develops as expected, then it would make money.
Not only is a business plan important, training, the location of the business, and the growth of the business are also important. Training equals education, and education equals a successful business or unsuccessful business. It is important for a business owner to have an education on how to create and run a business. Getting the proper training helps the owner gain knowledge on what he or she needs to know based upon starting a business around other businesses.
When future business owners go to school, they get the proper training on how to control their business. Some people take a class and get a certificate and others attend a 4+ year college/university to get a degree in business. Some entrepreneurs believe that a Master of Business Administration (MBA) is not necessary to a successful small business, but it is. Getting the proper training and receiving a MBA means having knowledge of running a small business, including economic analysis, marketing knowledge, strategic planning, and negotiating skills.
A business education also means that business owners are able to broaden their viewpoints and recognize trends in their business or industry. With more entrepreneurs pursuing their MBA, there are more businesses becoming successful. Remember “You’ve got to seize the opportunity if it is presented to you” (Davis) in order to have a successful business. One of the most important parts of planning a successful business is the location of the business. Choosing a location comes with “push and pull factors” (Griffin, chron). The “push factors” are factors that push a business away from the location.
The factors include increasing cost, more competition, and a reduction in demand or poor communication and transportation systems. Therefore, it is important to have pull factors for the location of a business. The “pull factors” are lower labor costs, a growing consumer base, government incentives, and improved transportation and communication systems. Within the location of the business, the cliental is very important. The business owner has to do their research on the demographics in the community where they want to start their business.
For example, if your business appeals towards young adults, the community your business is in does not need to be where there are people over 50 living in the community. Before opening a business, it is best to check the United Sates Census information about the demographics for the location you would like to open your business in. There is also competition to worry about when shopping around for a perfect location. Due to the choice of location, competition can be helpful and sometimes not so helpful while planning a business.
Competition is the battle between businesses to win consumer acceptance and loyalty. Competition is a premise for the free-enterprise system because it is believed that having more than one business competing for the same consumers will cause the products and services to be provided at a better quality and a lower cost than if there were no competitors. The “free-enterprise” system is to ensure that businesses make decisions about what to produce, how to produce it, and what price to charge the product or service.
It is important for businesses to be aware of what their competitors are doing and to find a way to compete by matching or improving on the competitors’ product or service. By making an improvement on the competitors’ product or service the business gets more business. While paying attention to the competitors’ product and service, it is also important to pay attention the changing of consumers’ wants, needs and values and to make the changes before the competitors does. Sometimes being the first business to discover a new product can give another business a competitive advantage. Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people” (Sarnoff). A competitive advantage means that a company does something better than its competition. Once consumers purchase a product or service and are satisfied with it, they will continue to purchase the product. It is best to find different locations before opening a business where it might have a competitive advantage. Along with the competition of other businesses comes the competition with the economy. The economic growth of a business is important to research before creating a business because it helps the business grow and prosper.
When the economy is doing well there are more people able to purchase from businesses. If the economy is not doing so great, people do not have enough money to spend on products and services that are brought to them. The prosperity of a business all depends on if the U. S. is in a depression or a recession. A recession is a period of an economic contraction, sometimes limited in scope or duration. Recessions can also be defined as the time when business activity has reached its peak and starts to fall until the time when business activity bottoms out.
But during a recession there are no changes in unemployment rate or consumer confidence. A depression is a period during which business, employment, and stock-market values decline severely or remain at a very low level of activity. During a depression the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declines by more than 10 percent. The Gross Domestic Product is the total value of all goods and services produced domestically by a nation during a year. It is equivalent to gross national product minus net investment incomes from foreign nations. In the new economy, information, education, and motivation are everything” (Clinton). The economic growth of your business also depends on the planning of how the community will affect the growth of the business. The growth of your business all depends on customer service, professionalism, and service provided in the workplace and it is important to be prepared in case something goes wrong. When hiring employees to work in your business, it is important to hire someone that has the education and good people skills.
As a business owner you do not want to hire someone that has an attitude most of the time and acts like they do not want to work. For instance, when hiring someone, it is important to evaluate them. If there are two people applying for the job, one has a quality education and an attitude and the other has an education and a good attitude; which one would you hire? Most owners would take the quality education first because they would think it is what’s best for the business at the time until they see their cliental declining, due to the employees’ attitude.
Therefore, the professionalism of the employee is important. Professionalism is the professional character, spirit, or methods of that person. You have to “show class, have pride, and display character” (Bryant). The employee has to present themselves through their hygiene, appearance, and manners in a workplace. This shows the customers that the business is a professional place and there to provide them with the services and products that are needed. Quality of service is also important in a business’ success. The service provided all depends on the employee and employer.
It starts with the employer because they have to give the employee the proper training before they begin working. Then, it falls on the employee because they have to take what they learned and use it effectively in the workplace. If the employee does not provide quality service, the employer risks of losing customers. By losing one customer means losing multiple customers. For example, a costumer can go into the business and get terrible service and go tell someone about the bad service, and then that results in that person to stop attending the business as well and there is a chain reaction.
One does not want this to happen to ones business; therefore, customer service and professionalism play big roles in planning a successful business. Essentially, there are small, big, unsuccessful, and successful businesses, and the success of a business all depends on the planning that takes place before creating one. People may think the purpose of having a business is to make money and supply jobs to workers, but the purpose is to supply goods and services to customers. In order to supply commodities and quality service to customers, business owners have to plan a successful business.
With a successful business comes a great business plan. A business plan is presented to an investor or a bank to get a loan and start your business. The plan includes the purpose, goals and goes on to show how the owner will realize those, marketing strategy, a break-even analysis, a profit-and-loss projection, and a cash-flow analysis designed to show if the business develops as expected. Not only is a business plan important, training, location, and growth all play a huge role in the success of a business, thus it is important to remember “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail! ” (Franklin 49)
