How To Build A Business

Puneet Teja

First of all to start of with this article I would like to highlight the basic difference between a business and a product…

●  A product is something that you can build and sell, directly or indirectly. It is the "thing" (or a service) that you could make money from via a business. By itself, though, it won't make money, typically.

●  Whereas, a business is a set of people, processes and tools that have been structured around a product to enable it to make money. Ideally, a business is profitable, but it may not always be the case.

There is a difference between job development for yourself and building a real business. With job development around your product, you are  just a mere craftsman. Someone who is the only person that can produce a product or service. In such a case, once you stop producing your product, the business will disappear. When you want to retire, or sell your business, it will have little value.

Such a company, without you, is not a business in the real meaning of the word.
On the other side, when you build a business, your company can survive without your everyday inputs

WHY BUILD A BUSINESS AND NOT A PRODUCT?

Every other person wants to build a startup, but how many of those actually ended up with a finished product?

The problem is that the way most prople approach entrepreneurship is flawed. They try to be disruptors, build the new *put-successful-company-name-here* and end up with a unicorn. Unfortunately, though, not many of those actually have the vigor and genius needed to do that.

1. SET UP YOUR BUSINESS GOALS:

Let’s say one of your goals is to expand your business to a new international market. The goals don’t have a meaning to you if you don’t put all your efforts to achieve them. You need to take more steps instead of only setting up your goals. You will need to dig deeply into what they mean for you and your company.

2. FOCUS ON YOUR BUSINESS STRATEGY AND PLANS:

You need to translate your goals into strategy and plans if you want to achieve them.Do you know where you want your company to be in two, five, or 10 years? Do you want to take the company public? Maybe you want to sell it in the future.

Next thing you will need to do is to make the business plan. The plan will need to answer the following question: what you will need to do to achieve your goals and put in place the strategy.

3. DEVELOP A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODEL:

This is one of the most important steps in building your business, as without a model, there is no structure given to the business and will ultimately result in failure.

Check your business model to see if you need to make some changes related to your goals, strategy, and plan. Can you add extra revenue streams? Can your cash flow support your plans? Do you need to change something in your business model to support achievement of your goals? Can you allow yourself new employments? Do you need to change something in your business model to allow growing human resources?

4. BUILD YOUR BUSINESS SYSTEMS TO BUILD THE BUSINESS: 

Having a business means that everyone in the company will know when and how to do important things for your business.

Business systems and processes are the essential constituents of business. Everything depends on them, with or without your presence at the company.

Without business systems, strategies and plans exist, but nothing is accomplished or is accomplished later than expected. The quality of the results of each work is on a very low level. Customers complain. Employees complain. Managers complain. One word to describe such a business is ‘chaos’.

Basically, the matter of fact is that many startup companies chase a product or completion of the product, which will (if finished successfully) sustain them for a small time after which they are exhausted of most resources.

As the market is fertile enough for innovation, the companies are revamping the business of invention and democratizing the way we monetize new ideas. It is important to build a business instead of chasing a product.
What are your thoughts on how a business should be built? How should it be maintained? Do you have an experience to share? Let us know in the comments section below!