Marcus Richards
Starting a new business is one thing, ensuring its survival is another. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics approximately 20% of new businesses fail in their first year. This is mainly due to reasons such as a lack of research, ineffective marketing, no clear business plan, and running out of money. For those that do survive, the competition is fierce and short of strategies to dominate the market, most businesses simply need to stand out from the crowd and attract a loyal customer base at a cost that achieves a profitable return on their investment. In this article, we have outlined three specific strategies to help your business gain a competitive advantage, helping it thrive in these uncertain times.
Get Your Finances in Order
When your finances are in order, you will have a clearer picture of the financial health of your business enabling you to make more accurate projections for the future and keep track of your spending.
Accurate financial information will ensure you have a healthy cash flow to keep you afloat at all times while maintaining enough liquidity to take advantage of opportunities for growth and investment. Clear insights into your financial records will also assist with decision-making regarding your marketing campaigns, the timing of launches and how to optimize your marketing efforts. Geekbooks can help small and medium-sized companies gain a competitive advantage by outsourcing their accounting needs.
Review the Competition
While this is a must when starting a new business, it also pays to keep tabs on your competition at regular intervals once you have launched. Being aware of your competitors and what they are doing will enable you to discover your strengths and weaknesses relative to other players in the market, helping you to innovate and develop strategies that will keep your business current with its customers.
Review their products or services, online content, marketing strategies and prices to gain an understanding of their business. Conduct a competitor analysis by comparing metrics such as sales revenues, customer reviews, search engine rankings, website traffic, and number of customers along with the number of followers and content on social media channels. This exercise will help your business keep track of its competition, helping it to stay on its toes, unearth new opportunities and ward off any unexpected threats.
Leverage Technology
In this digital age we live in, technology is one of the best ways to help your business gain a competitive advantage. By streamlining your operations and increasing your efficiency, you can cut down your costs and free up your time to focus on growing your business. In order to manage and track business finance, you can use employee expense reimbursement software, this can also increase employee productivity and make faster business processes.
According to analysis by Deloitte, businesses that have high levels of digital engagement earn twice as much revenue per employee, experience four times as much revenue growth, and create three times as many jobs compared to businesses with low levels of digital engagement.
From customer relation management (CRM) software and digital marketing tools to inventory management systems and payment processing software, there are a whole host of technological tools that can take the burden off your business and increase its productivity.
By incorporating the tips in this article, you can help your business maintain its competitive advantage long into the future.
