Joy of Six: the six secrets to running a successful business

Introduction: Joy of Six: the six secrets to running a successful business

At a recent event I attended that Ellevate Network, Toronto hosted, Marg Hachey presented the six secrets to running a successful business. She is qualified to speak about successful businesses because she has ranked in the top 10 of the Top 100 Women Business Owners in Canada eleven years in a row, and she used her personal advisory board to accelerate her company’s growth 1100% in six years.

Six Secrets to Running a Successful Business

1.    Compelling Business Model

Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers

To operate a successful business requires having a compelling business model, which includes understanding your target market and hiring the right people to work in the company. We are living in interesting times, and some of the models that once worked, that business owners are familiar with, no longer work – they are broken. If you are in that situation with a broken business model, there is no need for you to worry. Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur in their exceptional book, Business Model Generation, outline several disruptive models, some of which will work for any organization.

The book is based on nine building blocks that you have to master before moving forward.

9 Building Blocks of the Business Generation Model Canvas

1. Customer Segments (CS): Who are your customers and why will they buy from you? What are your customer archetype? Know and understand your customers in detail.
2. Value Proposition (VP): What product/service are you creating and for whom? What need are you filling? What problem are you solving? What pain, are you addressing?
3. Channels (CH): How will your product/service get from you to your customers? Is your distribution channel virtual or physical?
4. Customer Relationships (CR): How do you plan to acquire and retain customers? How will you get traffic to a website or to a physical location? How do you plan to grow your customer base?
5. Revenue Streams (RS): How do you plan to make money? What value are customers buying?
6. Key Resources (KR): What do you need to make the business work? What key assets do you need? People? Financing? Warehousing? Customer list?
7. Key Activities (KA): What actions will you have to take to operate the business? What are the most important things to do to make the business work?
8. Key Partnerships (KP): What activities will partners be performing? What are you acquiring from partners?
9. Cost Structure (CS): What are the fixed and variable costs to operate the business? What are the most expensive activities? Are there economies of scales?

Have you read?

Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur

2.    Strong Management Team

To run a successful business, a strong management team has to be in place to ensure that all critical function are covered. The team has to have the skills to cover financials, sales and marketing, operations, technology, service and product delivery and so on. If the team doesn’t have the critical skills needed to run the business, it can outsource the functions.

3.    Profitable Business Model

Business owners cannot successfully run a business unless they use a business model that allows them to make money. And it’s isn’t just about making money, they have to know where the money is coming from and how they are spending it. They also have to be able to read financial statements.

4.    Effective Marketing Strategy

Who are your prospective clients and customers? What are their unique needs – what are their pain points? What does the buyer journey look like? How do you convert a prospect into a customer? How are you going to initiate conversations with your target customers? An effective marketing strategy includes the answer to these questions and more, and must include both online and offline tactics. In Marg Hachey’s case, she partnered with a supplier to pay for trade shows. How can you think differently, and mobilize your suppliers and other service providers to help you market and sell your products?

5.    Use Robust Technology

Robust technology does not mean the latest technology. What it means is having adequate technology to run your business smoothly. This also means that you easily and efficiently generate all the critical reports required.

6.    Have Huge Market Potential

The last secret to running a successful business is having huge market potential. That means there are other players making a profit in the market and not just your business. To capitalize on a market that has huge potential requires an understanding of ideal customers and clients, knowing and growing your market.

Business Model GenerationInfluence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised EditionCrossing the Chasm