Starting a company regardless of size is no easy task because of the numerous process you have to undergo and the stiff competition in the market. To become successful in your endeavor, there is a need for you to study and to understand the services and products you sell. You have to assess if your products and services rightfully suit the target niche you have chosen. Apart from these factors, you must also define your objectives and goals and your set of dynamic actions clearly. These are important to assess what factors that influences your market niche.

Listed below are seven great tricks to create an innovative business strategy:

1. Come up with a strategic plan.

You need to formulate and to establish your profit figures and break-even analysis as your first step. As you know, these two factors are vital for majority of small business enterprises because it affects their business plan and their revenue as well. Creating a business plan enables you to know what your forecasted start-up costs are and what are your marketing tactics. If you fail to create the projected figures, you will not be able to work and to achieve them in reality.

2. Research before you buy.

Before you buy anything or before you decide to launch any products or services, you have to do your share of research to know its feasibility in your target market. Be sure to assess well the demographics so you will find the right product or services for your company.

3. Obtaining proper training.

Before you create your own business plan, it is vital for you to ask training or coaching from experts to avoid flaws and errors. Remember that your business plan is your compass, thus it is important for you to have one which is free from errors and any form of blunders. You can always hire a business consultant to teach you ways on how to create an effective business plan.

4. Find a niche market.

You must determine your customer base or your market niche. Failure to do so will result to failure and business losses. If you are selling a women’s cosmetics, then your target market will be women of different age brackets. If you sell these products to men, for sure, it will fail and will not achieve your desire profit figures.

5. Constant improvement.

You need to very carefully monitor business performance when it comes to revenue, profit, customer satisfaction and many more. Remember that the industry is full of competitors, thus it is important that you continuously improve and enhance your products and services to achieve an edge over rivals.

6. Marketing and advertising.

After you have establish a feasible product and services and located your target market. It is time for you to formulate and to plan an effective advertising and marketing strategies. You also have to establish you much money you can afford for this purpose. Assess what medium to use in promoting your products and services. Do you want to use the radio, television or newspapers in your marketing efforts? Remember to use every opportunity and to use different medias when advertising your products and services.

7. Put clients first.

Take care of your customer very well. Make customers feel that they are well cared for and important to you. Bear in mind that majority of consumer preferred companies who value them most.

There you have the seven suggestions for a business strategy. It is a never-ending learning experience but it comes easier along the way.

Before entering into any business I recommend you always prepare a business plan so you have a roadmap to get you on the right path. Here are five areas to consider before going into business:

1. Something You Are Passionate About
The starting point of any ideal business is, was, and will ever be passion. What are you truly passionate about? What do you love so much that you’d do it for free?

2. Specific Market ‘Super Niche”
Find a super niche in which your business can be exclusive to your target audience. The difference between a niche and super niche is further defining the needs of your target audience. For example a niche is: A eco friendly clothing company. An example of a super niche is an eco friendly clothing company just for new born babies.

3. Low Start-Up Cost
Having a low start-up cost means you can use your own money to start the business and then bootstrap business growth out of business income. You won’t have the cost of financing weighing you down, plus you don’t have to worry about pleasing investors.

4. Low Fixed Costs
There are two types of costs in a business: direct (or cost of goods) and indirect (fixed costs). Direct costs are the type of costs that occur when you sell the product or service. If you didn’t have any customers, you wouldn’t have this cost.

5. Deep Funnel
Picture a vertical funnel-wide at the top, narrow at the bottom. The top of your funnel is where your prospective clients enter. They get a great taste of your business (information, special introductory offer, trial period, etc.) for free or very inexpensively. Once they’ve experienced the value you deliver they can buy from you an increasingly richer and richer selection of products or services.

In the last recession of the 1990s thousands of people, many of whom were made redundant successfully set up their own businesses.

If you are in this situation and you decide to start up your own business perseverance and determination are absolutely critical. In the early days you can not allow yourself to be swayed by negativity or failure to secure business after many repeated attempts.

It is essential to always keep motivated and to imagine success and the feeling that you will have when you secure your first client. You need to focus on tailoring each opportunity to suit your clients needs, don’t be afraid to ask for feedback as to why you did not secure the deal and adapt appropriately to secure future deals.

One of the major hurdles often facing start up businesses in a recession is how to secure funding from banks at a time when they are cutting back on offering loans. The only way to ensure success here is to invest a considerable amount of time in writing a rock solid business plan.

The other advantage one has if you start up in a recession is that you are already used to being more frugal and questioning everything to ensure that you make the best and most informed decisions. You are also more likely to develop the intense vision and commitment to ensure business success. Don’t forget how better placed you will be when you come out the other side after the recession.

If you can set up in a tough market look what wonders you will be able to achieve in a more receptive market place.

Don’t forget that success also depends on your own personal enthusiasm and your ability to build relationships and offer excellent products and services to all potential clients. If you achieve this you are also more likely to keep these clients when the good times begin.

So where do you start?

1. Think of an appropriate business name
2. Write a robust business plan
3. Investigate sources to get initial financial funding
4. Build a website (note – the DIY versions on the internet are not only cost effective they can also look extremely professional)
5. Develop a Marketing plan: Define the product/service that you are planning to offer, where you are going to sell it, the price you are going to charge and what incentives you plan to offer to clinch your first deal
6. Develop an advertising plan to build awareness of your product/service, for example: Ring up all potential clients to introduce your new business, send out flyers and business cards to potential clients with appropriate covering letters and get on the internet and start driving traffic to generate free media

If you decide to go ahead you must remember to hold the VISION and imagine SUCCESS.

These are ten tips that I have used myself to start a number of online businesses over the past decade.

1.) Like a boyscout, be honest, trustworthy, and professional in all business dealings. In a small business your reputation counts for a lot. Customers will either think well of you and spread the word, or think poorly of you and trash your business – which would you rather have?

2.) While still at your original job and before you quit to go full-time at your new business you should be finding as many customers and potential customers as possible. Get going on all marketing efforts because this is what will dictate the success or failure of your business assuming you have a viable business to start with.

3.) Business research. Ideally you will run almost every important part of your business through Google to see what everyone else in the same situation is doing with their business. When you are piloting your own small business you will need to be an expert at everything after a fast period of time where you’re learning everything you need to know. Joining business groups in your niche can be a big help. Online forums covering your niche is also a great place to get free information from people that want to help as they’re probably not in direct competition with you.

4.) Follow passions. I’m talking in this case about doing business in a niche that you love. This may well be the prime determinant of whether your business succeeds or not. If you love what you do you are more likely to put the required effort into it and make it a winner because it is the ideal business for you!

5.) Don’t break the bank! A clue that you’re not going to make it and your business will fail is that you have already spent most or all of the money by the time you are ready to open to the public. That’s a very bad sign. It’s a sign that you need to keep working at your ‘other job’ too. Don’t quit too soon.

6.) Don’t walk alone. You, and every small business owner I have met – including myself, needs help. If, during all my website development over the last 12 years I was responsible for doing everything – I wouldn’t have enjoyed the success I have. In fact, I’d probably not have been a web developer at all. Find help. You need it. We all do.

7.) Business plans are not optional. They are necessary whether you are going to a lender for funds or not. You’ll need it to guide your business and to bring others on-board. Your business plan will be the in your face reality that you may need confronted with because many businesses are started on dreams. The business plan can help lead you to the place where dreams and reality mesh.

8.) Outsource tasks and entire projects you don’t want to do, and that you’re not competent doing. Outsource trivial tasks that take your time. Your time should be spent keeping an eye on product development, sales, and marketing, and managing customer service.

9.) Locate more funding resources than you think you need. Have some backups you can use if you reach a place where you cannot continue without more funding. Many businesses that would pull through the hard-times get stuck in a place where the funding dries up and the entire business dies. Don’t get caught in that place.

10.) Find a good accountant, lawyer, and business advisor. Stay up on taxes and other legal points that could sink your business. Lawyers are good for advice on certain things, and business advisors like at the Small Business Administration are good for general advice.

So let’s break this down. Remember that the main aim of any business should be to create and sell products for a profit. Contrary to what some artists/bands say; they actually need money. Making music should not be ONLY for the love of it but it should be about using your skills in a profitable business manner so that you can live on your gift.

Back to writing a business plan that works; In essence, a business must be penned around the 3 ways to grow a business mentioned earlier and the successful workable business plan must be primarily focused on these 3 elements including a few other essentials.

The next question you may ask is, “How do these 3 ways to grow a business relate to writing a workable business plan?” Here is the answer:

1. Increase the number of customers buying your products. No music business can survive only on a handful of fans unless your price points are £1000’s. It is therefore crucial that the business plan outlines all the means and methods through which the business plans to grow its’ fan base. This is not just listing a few ideas but flesh out in detail how you, as a music entrepreneur, plan to bring in the necessary number of fans to make the business profitable.

2. Sell More to the Same Customers. The customers that buy your first album can also buy your T-Shirt and pay for tickets to the gig. Later on the same clients can also buy the DVD of the event. Your business plan should detail the process through which products can be created as well as means of making the clients purchase these products. The business plan should also be focused on why people will buy the products and the likely quantity of purchase.

3. Increasing The Sale Value of Each Product. I believe Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails made the process of selling different priced products to fans very popular. He gave away 9 tracks as a free download, sold 36 tracks for a few dollars, with the top products selling for $300 a piece, making nearly $1m in just a few days. For any independent artist/band, the business plan must be persuasive in the manner it presents the way it plans to sell products of different values to the same customer. It could be that you create different sets of products that can be sold to the same person. This could range from the download, to the physical CD, then a box set, a leather jacket with your branding, and so on.

Remember that writing a business plan that works must be focused on creating a business that works, so time must be taken to research the industry and bring together the right ingredients to ensure success.