Business Strategy … In Layman Terms

Business strategy is defined as a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal or set of goals and objectives. In other words, strategy is a management’s game plan for strengthening the performance of an enterprise. It affirms how businesses should be conducted to achieve the desired goals.

It is important to keep revisiting and reshuffling the strategy because only with a right strategy in place organizations would be ready to take risks and embrace the changing trends just so as to stay ahead of the competition.

Now let’s understand why a business strategy is important for startups.

Startups’ Strategies — The Questions You Need to Ask?

Before you venture into the market, it is imperative that you study it thoroughly and then ask yourself these questions — do you want to collaborate or compete? Should you storm a hill or build a moat?

A business strategy professional can help you answer these questions through strategic market study and competition.

Joshua Gans, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, revealed that every new venture must answer the above two mentioned questions, because only then they will be able to choose any of the four generic strategies (Intellectual Property Strategy, Architectural strategy, Value chain and Disruption strategy) depicted in the Entrepreneurial Strategy Compass.

Once you have selected your strategy you can surge ahead with your business plan.

A word of advice here… keep evaluating your business strategies as your business grows, else you would be left behind in the competition!

In addition, I am sharing nine must-have strategies for startups — seeking to enter the market, staying afloat and also scaling up in the future.

1.Leverage free or inexpensive marketing and advertising strategies or tools
2.Relevancy is the key here
3.Don’t ever comprise on your customer service
4.Be ready to embrace technology
5.Be a calculative risk-taker
6.Remember failures are the stepping stones to success
7.Pick your team with utmost care
8.Repeat the practice that seems to be working, but do tweak it a bit
9.Identify and stop the practice that has not been yielding results

But before you go on the floor with your new business plan ensure to think through all the key aspects. You can also hire business strategists to help you with these aspects.

1.Right customer segment i.e. the target audience,
2.What would you offer that is unique?
3.How would you build a relationship with your customers?
4.How would you approach your clients initially?

… Along with other important areas required to succeed as a startup.

In a nutshell…

Startups, too need to understand the importance of a right strategy to not only enter the market, to sustain a business in the rapidly changing market, but also as your business grows you need to rework on your strategy to stay cash positive and keep growing.