Does the plan consider all potential natural or man-made emergencies that could disrupt your workplace? Common sources of emergencies identified in emergency action plans include - fires, explosions, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, toxic material releases, radiological and biological accidents, civil disturbances and workplace violence.
The statistics are grim. An even more microscopic group, just 0. In other words, most businesses start small and stay there. But if that's not good enough for you—or if you recognize that staying small doesn't necessarily guarantee your business's survival— there are examples of companies out there that have successfully made the transition from start-up to small business to fully-thriving large business.
That's the premise behind the search Keith McFarland, an entrepreneur and former Inc. So I studied the companies who had done it to learn their lessons. Developing a Growth Strategy: Intensive Growth Part of getting from A to B, then, is to put together a growth strategy that, McFarland says, "brings you the most results from the least amount of risk and effort.
The bottom line for small businesses, especially start-ups, is to focus on those strategies that are at the lowest rungs of the ladder and then gradually move your way up as needed. As you go about developing your growth strategy, you should first consider the lower rungs of what are known as Intensive Growth Strategies.
Each new rung brings more opportunities for fast growth, but also more risk. The least risky growth strategy for any business is to simply sell more of its current product to its current customers—a strategy perfected by large consumer goods companies, says McFarland. Think of how you might buy a six-pack of beverages, then a pack, and then a case.
Finding new ways for your customers to use your product—like turning baking soda into a deodorizer for your refrigerator—is another form of market penetration. The next rung up the ladder is to devise a way to sell more of your current product to an adjacent market—offering your product or service to customers in another city or state, for example.
McFarland points out that many of the great fast-growing companies of the past few decades relied on Market Development as their main growth strategy. For example, Express Personnel now called Express Employment Professionalsa staffing business that began in Oklahoma City quickly opened offices around the country via a franchising model.
Eventually, the company offered employment staffing services in some different locations, and the company became the fifth-largest staffing business in the U. This growth strategy involves pursuing customers in a different way such as, for example, selling your products online.
When Apple added its retail division, it was also adopting an Alternative Channel strategy. Using the Internet as a means for your customers to access your products or services in a new way, such as by adopting a rental model or software as a service, is another Alternative Channel strategy.
A classic strategy, it involves developing new products to sell to your existing customers as well as to new ones. If you have a choice, you would ideally like to sell your new products to existing customers.
That's because selling products to your existing customers is far less risky than "having to learn a new product and market at the same time," McFarland says. New Products for New Customers.
Sometimes, market conditions dictate that you must create new products for new customers, as Polaristhe recreational vehicle manufacturer in Minneapolis found out. For years, the company produced only snowmobiles. Then, after several mild winters, the company was in dire straits. Fortunately, it developed a wildly-successful series of four-wheel all-terrain vehicles, opening up an entirely new market.
Similarly, Apple pulled off this strategy when it introduced the iPod. What made the iPod such a breakthrough product was that it could be sold alone, independent of an Apple computer, but, at the same time, it also helped expose more new customers to the computers Apple offered.
McFarland says the iPhone has had a similar impact; once customers began to enjoy the look and feel of the product's interface, they opened themselves up to buying other Apple products. If you choose to follow one of the Intensive Growth Strategies, you should ideally take only one step up the ladder at a time, since each step brings risk, uncertainty, and effort.
The rub is that sometimes, the market forces you to take action as a means of self-preservation, as it did with Polaris. Sometimes, you have no choice but to take more risk, says McFarland.
Integrative Growth Strategies If you've exhausted all steps along the Intensive Growth Strategy path, you can then consider growth through acquisition or Integrative Growth Strategies.
The problem is that some 75 percent of all acquisitions fail to deliver on the value or efficiencies that were predicted for them. Nevertheless, there are three viable alternatives when it comes to an implementing an Integrative Growth Strategy. This growth strategy would involve buying a competing business or businesses.
Employing such a strategy not only adds to your company's growth, it also eliminates another barrier standing in your way of future growth—namely, a real or potential competitor.
McFarland says that many of breakthrough companies such as Paychexthe payroll processing company, and Intuitthe maker of personal and small business tax and accounting software, acquired key competitors over the years as both a shortcut to product development and as a way to increase their share of the market.Learn how to transform your business plan from a static document to a dynamic model that will help your business survive and prosper.
Disaster recovery plan template, business continuity planning template and other resources available online at regardbouddhiste.com How to Develop a Business Growth Strategy.
Too often, companies take a year to develop a strategy and, by the time they're ready to implement it, the market has changed on them, says McFarland. The above video was presented during the Strategic Business Plan FY Public Open House.
A transcript of this video is available here. BSBMGTa:develop and implement a business plan Specification Deliverable specification Submission of written report Quality specification Question 1 After completing a comparison of current performance against desired performance levels, identify the corrective actions required to achieve the business plan goal of improving warehouse productivity by 10%.
Dayne Landscaping, Inc. I. The Organizational Plan Summary Description of the Business Dayne Landscaping, Inc., established in January as a corporation, handles landscaping, lawn.