What are the most basic factors for success of any small business ?

Hello Team,

There are 5-Step Process For Determining Critical Success Factors

Step 1: Pull together the team that will be working with the CSFs.

Before you do anything else, it is critical to pull together a team that will be working on critical success factors. This should start at the top level of the organization, as it’s extremely important to have senior-level buy-in. Some organizations choose to bring in a consultant to facilitate the process, but you can lead the discussion internally as well.

Step 2: Have employees submit their ideas or give feedback.

It’s important that employees around the organization are able to provide their feedback in some form when you are determining your 10-15 high-level CSFs. But, this step could come into play after step three, depending on your preferences. You could either have input from other departments play a role from the get-go, or you could come up with your CSFs with a smaller group and then shop those around to get interoffice feedback. Regardless of what you choose, make sure ideas from across the board are taken into consideration.

Step 3: Use multiple frameworks to examine the key elements of your long-term goals.

Further understanding the key elements of your goals—through one of these frameworks—will take some time. But, they are vitally important in helping you define and determine your business’s critical success factors, so don’t skip this step:

·         OAS statement: OAS is an acronym for “Objective, Advantage, Scope.” This method—further described in this article—helps you describe your strategy with full confidence, and acts as a starting point for you to be able to drill down into the critical goals your business needs in order to execute this strategy.

·         SWOT analysis: SWOT is an acronym for “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.” Form Swift has a great example of how to put together a comprehensive SWOT analysis to help your organization “optimize performance, maximize potential, manage competition, and minimize risk.”

·         Strategic plan: This article outlines the six important steps you’ll need to take before you can get to a clear, understandable strategic plan.

·         Change agenda: A “change agenda” is exactly as it sounds—it answers what an organization needs to change in order to achieve their goals. (You can read all about how to create a change agenda in this strategy execution toolkit.)

Step 4: Determine which factors are key in achieving your long-term organizational plan.

In order to achieve a strategic plan and overcome challenges in any of the aforementioned frameworks, you’ll need to understand what the key factors are in achieving a long-term plan. Essentially, you’ll combine the key elements you’ve gleaned from your OAS statement, SWOT analysis, strategic plan, and change agenda, and then determine what your top CSFs are. (This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process you should take to align your critical success factors and your projects.)

But you can’t simply lump any high-level organizational goals together and hope that it works out. You need to take all of your CSFs and divide them out by what the Balanced Scorecard framework calls “perspectives.” Traditional strategic frameworks would only examine a financial perspective, but that system is flawed. There are several more important aspects that can impact strategy that can’t properly be lumped into the category of finance. The four we suggest using are Financial, Customer, Process, and People.  These may be aligned in a different order if you are a nonprofit or government organization.

When you group each of your 10-15 high-level goals under one of these four perspectives, you are setting yourself up for greater success and better measurability.

If you’re looking to get started with some examples, here are a number of KPI libraries you can download:

·         68 Financial KPIs

·         53 Customer KPIs

·         33 HR KPIs

·         143 Local Government KPIs

·         108 Healthcare KPIs

Step 5: Implement your company-wide strategic plan with your critical success factors in mind.

Don’t think that identifying your critical success factors, grouping them under a perspective, and then leaving them on a shelf to collect dust is going to help you succeed. You need to take action to get CSFs implemented throughout the organization.

One of the best ways to accomplish this is by creating a Balanced Scorecard (BSC), a strategic management framework that allows you achieve your critical success factors in a more effective way. Score carding allows you to take your critical success factors (often called objectives when used to discuss the BSC) and use measures to help you understand if you’re achieving them. Initiatives allow you to understand if you’re taking the right actions to accomplish your CSFs, and action items are the small (but important) tasks delegated to help your team complete the initiatives.

Regards,

Saiyid

As a small-business owner, achieving success can be a struggle, especially during the formative years. You're likely to face intense competition from other small businesses like yours while trying to keep the larger companies from pricing you out of the marketplace. To improve your odds of success, there are several key factors that you need to be aware of.

As a small business, you can't be all things to all people, so you need to carve out your own niche in the market. Determine what makes your business unique so you can capitalize on this feature through your marketing efforts. For example, do you offer products that differ from the competition or do you offer a unique shopping experience? Do you offer expertise that is not available in your local market?

You may be forced to operate on a shoestring budget, especially when first starting out, so keep expenses to a minimum by reducing your overhead. Rent the cheapest building that suits your needs and shop around for items , such as insurance. Learn as much as you can about basic computer maintenance to keep service costs down. Even simple things like, such as turning off your computers at the end of the day, can reduce your energy bills.

You may not be able to compete with the larger companies when it comes to pricing, which magnifies the need to deliver superior customer service. Go the extra mile by providing additional services, including free delivery or offering extended hours. Build a database of customer email addresses so you can send them a newsletter filled with useful tips and regular promotional offers.

If you operate a brick-and-mortar business as opposed to one that's Internet based, your location will play a big role in determining your success. According to the Business know-how website, factors to consider when choosing your location include proximity to your customer base, the location of your business in relation to your competitors and your building's accessibility.

Poor planning can cause your business to fail before it has a chance to succeed. That's why a carefully crafted business plan is an essential component to your success. A business plan is a written document covering items, such as your business' purpose, your marketing strategy, capital requirements and any potential problems you might face.

vision

good planing

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