Is there some special, secret recipe to business success? Okay, so in the case of KFC, there literally is one of sorts – but for most of us, no, there’s nothing we can simply throw at a company to generate instant results. Still, there are ways to tip the odds more in your favour.

If you’ve got an idea of where you would like your company to be in so-and-so years’ time, make a note of that and then make sure you’ve sorted out the following essentials.



You – yes, you 

You might not exactly “forget” that talented, dedicated staff make for a thriving company. However, assembling a winning team is like building a Lego set: it’s about putting together the “right” pieces, not simply “good” pieces. The most fundamental of those is you, the business owner.

The Helpful Academy notes that this particular revelation “can often surprise people”, but there’s a very good reason why you should assess yourself before any other aspect of your business. Habits, positive or negative, start at the top before trickling down your workforce. Therefore, if you’re chaotic or disorganised with your work, the rest of your team might not fare much differently.

The people you recruit 

Yes, you might be the conductor – but, to fulfil your responsibilities well in this area, you need an orchestra, and a good one at that. It’s worth referring back to the Lego analogy, as you need the right mix of personalities who can, ahem, click together and each serve a clear purpose.

“With a small business looking to grow, it’s important to have the right players at the table,” April Davis, who founded the online dating service Cupid’s Cronies, explained to Business News Daily. “They need to be people who aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves.”

“Hiring the absolute best people you can is a surefire way to ensure fast growth,” Christian Lanng, CEO of business software provider Tradeshift, has similarly commented. 

Customer experience

Tempting existing customers to buy more from your company is easier than winning over a whole new customer. Therefore, you need to nurture the relationship you have with the established customer base; otherwise, its faith in your business could falter.

Key to looking after these customers would be responding promptly and efficiently to their concerns. Naturally, then, you wouldn’t want your wait times to start collapsing. If you invest in voice, data and mobile services by Gamma, a business-focused telecoms provider, you can enable your customers to reach you through various channels dedicated to businesses like yours.

Flexibility

If your company is a startup, it’s obviously got lots of room to grow – but can you tap into that growth potential? Fortunately, your firm has, compared to larger, more established companies, more agility to act on trends just as they arrive.

“By allowing yourself to adapt and change quickly, you’re able to test different approaches to business and find out what works best,” Lanng enthuses. “It allows you to fail, pick yourself back up and keep going.”