In our Blog on Monday, we asked if the business climate has changed for you post recession (or, nearly post recession). We challenged you with specific questions to ask yourself or to discuss with your executive team. In today’s Quick Tips we present examples and ideas on how to better understand your marketplace.

One of the most damaging things you can do to your business is to build your strategy based on the generalities you read about in the business and commercial press. For example, Fox Business posted an article yesterday that read: Small Business Owners Not Optimistic Just Yet. And reading the first sentence may get you to agree with them that “small business owners aren’t seeing the glass half-full just yet.” But read further and you will see that 13% of those surveyed reported unfilled job openings and 10% planned to hire (and 9% plan to reduce staff). What does this say? It says that individual businesses are different in their current position in the marketplace, operations and potential to grow business. And the operant word is “individual” businesses.

So our first recommendation is: get the facts straight. Before you start concluding what is or is not happening to/for your business in this market – understand what impacts your business.

Three ideas on how to do this are:

1. Read about issues impacting your marketplace (positive and negative industry trends) and from more than one source. Don’t make assumptions off the headline only; look a bit deeper for information that truly impacts your business or organization and that reflects or resonates with you on the reality of what is happening in your business.
   1. Look for facts that validate your day to day reality (and not just opinions)
   2. Read about what successful businesses in your market are doing today (specifically strategies and actions taken) and determine how this applies to your business (ideally for replication)
   3. Talk with clients and customers about their business; ask them what they are interested in, what’s working or not working for them and what has changed for them in the current economy as a result of market changes. In other words, learn about their market. It will give you ideas on how to serve them better so you accelerate your responsiveness and competitive edge.
   4. Be a healthy skeptic and look at how trends can impact your business, both positively as enablers, and negatively as a disabler, such as:
      1. Social trends – demographics and psychodemographics
      2. Competition – current, businesses exiting the market and new entrants
      3. Economics – macroeconomic, microeconomic and behavioral
      4. Environmental – the green movement is building momentum
      5. Political – new legislation and regulations
      6. Technology and social media as a key driver

The point remains – get and use data to understand your marketplace and how your business is doing in it. Just think about Michael J. Saylor, President and CEO of MicroStrategy (a business intelligence company). He is in the process of giving iPads to his employees. The reason – to put information at the fingertips of his employees so as to improve decision-making.

Generalities can be dangerous – avoid reacting to them and take the time to “dig into the details” enough to make a valid and justifiable decision for your business/organization–then make your decision.

Copyright 2011 Kubica and LaForest

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 13th, 2011 at 6:05 am and is filed under Business Growth & Entrepreneurial Strategy, Professional Growth & Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.