In today’s fiercely competitive market of time-strapped audiences, businesses must be able to clearly articulate why their product is a superior choice. A strong value proposition answers these three questions: What do you offer? Who will benefit from it? How are your services distinct or advantageous compared with other potential solutions? 

A good understanding of your customers and their needs is the key to providing them better product/services, which leads to  strong customer relationships and new sales through positive word-of-mouth recommendation (and repeat business). It also helps you to maximize your time and resources.

Clearly defining your target market is important because businesses cannot afford to target everyone, so with a well defined target market, it is much easier to determine where and how to market your product or service.

A business model is a strategic plan of how your business will make money. The model describes the way your business will take its products/services and offer them to the market to drive sales. Your business model determines what products/services your company will sell, how it will promote its products/services, which customers it will target, and what revenue streams to expect. 

As the founder and leader of your company it is your responsibility to set and drive forward its strategic vision. When speaking internally to team members or externally to customers, partners, or potential funders, it’s important to share aspirational goals, articulating a vision for the future that perhaps feels a bit out of reach at the moment. This helps stakeholders to see that you are dreaming big and planning to grow.

As a business owner, revenue and profit are both very strong indicators of your company’s financial status. While these numbers are interrelated, they are two separate, distinctive measures of your business’s health and growth. However, people often mistakenly use them interchangeably. It is important to understand the difference between revenue and profit in order to speak knowledgeably about your business and to know which levers you can pull to increase your business’s bottom line.

When entrepreneurs are asked to share their biggest business challenges,  access to capital is the most frequently cited challenge. While an influx of cash may seem useful, capital is not the solution to every business problem. If you decide to explore fundraising to address your business needs, it’s important to understand the different types of capital that are available (or not available) to you and how to pursue them. 

This applies to how you share challenges with your stakeholders - whether it’s your teammates, clients, investors, or partners, stakeholders expect transparency, but only to a certain degree. As the leader of your organization, you’re expected to be open about the challenges you’re addressing, but in a way that conveys confidence and competence. Stakeholders want to know that you have the situation under control. 

Every business faces the danger of unforeseen events that might disrupt its operations, have a negative impact on its finances or even lead to a total shutdown of the business. To mitigate the effect of such unforeseen events, business owners must understand business risk.