How successful is your business? How can you grow the profitability of your business? What is the basis of success in your company?
These are the questions I asked myself a few years ago. I was successful in my business as a freelance accountant and made an annual turnover of more than € 100K. To make that on an hourly-based model, was very hard work. But I wanted better results and more balance in my life: work SMARTER.
What makes the one entrepreneur successful and the other not?
If you look at successful entrepreneurs, there is not always a correlation between education, intelligence, hard work and business success.
There are many entrepreneurs who do not work hard, who did not finish their education but have managed to build up a successful business. And there are also many intelligent, well-educated and hardworking entrepreneurs who are not managing to convert their qualities into a successful company.
I also wrestled with this: well-educated, with a lot of experience and talent but I struggled to bring my hourly-rate based company to the next level and have more success.
So, if hard work, intelligence and education are not the basis for success, what is?
The answer is: your BUSINESS MODEL
Education, intelligence and hard work come together in a business model. The power of a strong business model is the basis for business success. A business model turns a good idea into a profitable enterprise. Without the basis of a good business model, you are wasting your time and energy.
But what is a business model?
A business model is the framework for your business, describing how your organisation creates, delivers and maintains value for your clients. It is your profit formula: the path from an idea to a profitable business. It is the basic structure of your company with the services/products that you create in order, at the end of the day, to be profitable.
How do you build a successful business model?
A structured approach is the best approach. A successful business model is composed of a number of components, which form the foundation of your business. Mapping out these components will provide you with the basis of a good business model.
A business model is just like the market you work in, continuously in movement. Working on your business model is a process, and it starts with trying. To find out what works, and what doesn’t. You keep on planning and adjusting.
The best business models listen to the market (the client) and connect seamlessly with the mission and vision of the companies (think of Apple).
Easy to say, but harder to carry out.
Imagine you launch a new product/service and the market doesn’t react immediately. Do you persist and modify your offer or do you give up straight away? Use your business instinct to decide.
If you are not sure if your product is catching on, try the simple 80/20 method. Put 80% of your time in the product/service and launch it, even if it is not perfect. And if the market reacts, only then you invest the other 20% of your time to make the product perfect.
I use a visual model to (further) work out my business model. This tool helps me to visualise and describe WHO, WHAT and HOW.
Therefor the harder you work on your business model, formulating & visualising and in perfecting it, the more prosperity you will attract.
How do you work on your business model to attract wealth?
Please put your comment in the response under this blog. This will help other entrepreneurs to succeed, so thank you so much for your help!
