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Business motivation

3 Key Tips To Create Ideal Buyer Personas For Your Brand

Summary: Want to connect with customers who are genuinely looking for your products?

Is it Ramesh who is the marketing manager in an MNC, Ravi from the sales department in a small store, Neeraj, who is a student, or Laxmi, who has just started her dream venture and looking for products and services to expand her business?

Do you know who your customers are? And if so, how well do you know them?

For any business, it is essential to know its target audience. If you don’t know who your customer is, you can’t expect your business to grow and sustain in the market. This is why making buyer personas are important.

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on data and research. It not just gives you time to focus on qualified prospects but also guides product development according to your customers’ requirements.

A buyer’s persona just like a business coach helps you to understand your customers better.

This will help you to attract high-value visitors, leads, and customers to your businesses that are going to stay with you for a longer time.

“Okay, so personas are really important for my business. But……from where should I begin and how do I make one?”

Well, this is a million-dollar question. The good news is that it is not difficult to create one. It depends on your market research and customer data.

Here are some tips you must keep in your mind while creating an effective customer persona to grow your business:

1. Narrow Your List

The first thing when you are creating a buyer’s persona is to understand that only a small  niche of people represents a portion of your audience instead of everyone. Understanding this will give you a clear view and a good start. Once you acknowledge that there are distinct customers with unique requirements and goals, it will be easier for you to develop personas to match your visitors. Narrowing your list will help you understand who visits your website and why.

E.g. if you own an online pet store, you should only consider that segment of your audience who either are pet owners or live animals. They can be further divided into two groups- cat lovers and dog lovers.

If you are working with a business coach, you can take his guidance and support to create an actionable buyer’s persona.

2. Practice Social Observation

Social listening or observing is the process of observing what people are saying about your brand. This can give great insights inside a consumer’s mind to business owners and marketing teams. Read their responses on various platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Track hashtags, mentions, and industry-related tags across all social media platforms. Use this information to get a glimpse into the mind of your customers. For instance, you get lots of appreciation on social media for fast delivery and great pricing. But they also mention that you do not have a great product that they would like to buy.

So if the request is within your territory, you can consider finding a way to resolve this challenge. Also, there is one thing you must remember—when building personas through social listening, you will have to learn to cut through some noise.

3. Review Feedback & Customer Support Tickets

Did you know that feedback, reviews, and even customer support tickets have the power to create customer identities? These days almost every business creates a feedback form that they present to new and old customers or website visitors. These forms cover various topics related to products or something broad, like the design and appearance of your website.

These forms can be a great way to learn about how customers feel about your brand. If someone takes the time to submit a feedback form, they are interested in seeing your business grow and succeed.

These tips can help you to understand your customer and build a persona based on their demographics. It will help you learn more about your target audience and improve your marketing efforts. You can hire a best business coach to help you navigate the challenges that many entrepreneurs face in the initial stage of their startups.

However, it’s worth noting that creating a buyer’s effective persona will take time and not happen. So, spend a considerable amount of time on social media, reviewing comments and forms on your site, and gathering information through emails and newsletters.

The idea of managing a business is easier said than done and we completely agree with you. This is why to help you move forward with your business goals, we at Bada Business offer an exclusive Business Coaching Program that comes with Foundation courses, specialized courses, and value-added courses.  To know more about these courses, visit: www.badabusiness.com

Categories
Business motivation

5 Tips To Write A Great Business Plan

Summary: Having a strong business plan can lead to plenty of opportunities. If you are planning to start a business, here is how to write the best one.

An idea can only give birth to a business, but an excellent business plan ensures that it grows into a successful one. An idea is often what garners attention from the investors however a business plan is definitely what is required to get financial support from them.

What exactly is a business plan?

A business plan is a written document defining your vision, goals, and objectives of starting a startup business. It outlines the goals, direction, team, finances, and future planning of your venture. It is created for investors, in a bid to raise capital, or used as an internal document to align with teams and provide direction.

It also exhibits financial documentation, and an overview of your business strategies and marketing strategy which requires extensive market research, and competitor analysis.

Why is it crucial?

Writing down a business plan provides a structure to your startup idea. It also gives you a blueprint of how your business will be operated. A business plan is also necessary to get support for your vision and to communicate it. It also helps you benchmark and checks your progress as the company grows.

So how your business plan should look like?

Your business plan should be crisp, clear, and concise, free from any naïve goals and visions. It should include key tactics, key strategy points, tasks, metrics, important milestones, and essential projections such as expenses, sales, and cash flow.

A business plan for a startup business can be 10 pages or less, depending on the nature of your idea and how complicated or simple it is. Your business plan can be written as a document or designed as a slideshow, or a PowerPoint presentation. Depending on the investors, it may be beneficial to create both versions.

Here are five tips that will help you to write a winning business plan:

1. Steer Clear from Gray Area

When writing a business plan, always be as concise as possible. Remove any filler language as despite sounding nice, it gets you nowhere and wastes space. Keep it short, clear, and simple because no investor would want to read a long business plan. Get to the point quickly.

2. Determine Your Purpose

One piece of advice that the best business coach of India Dr. Vivek Bindra gives is that entrepreneurs must focus on what they are going to do. For instance, they must answer ‘why’, and ‘how’, as it answers various crucial points like what makes employees get up every morning, and what are the values of a business.

Being an entrepreneur, you must take the time to identify and articulate your business`s core values and purpose. This will give direction to your business for all the decision-making processes.

3. Build Your Vision

The key to business success is having a clear vision of what you want to accomplish as an organization. But before you decide to pen down your idea and conception to write your business plan, you should come up with three to five key strategies that will help you to achieve that vision.

Another thing that is vital when writing down a business plan is the mission statement. The mission statement defines why you are doing a certain thing and what drives you to do it. It should begin with why you are in this specific business. Once, you fully understand the why then you need to define ‘what’ you are going to do, and ‘how’ you will achieve it.

The final part of the mission statement should be the ‘who’ your target customer is and how you are going to treat them. If you have any confusion and questions regarding the business plan, you can attend our free Masterclass on Bada Business Community App to know from the experts.

4. Be Realistic

Be honest with yourself in your business plan, which is why it is important to consider challenges and opportunities.

5. Be Creative

When writing down a business plan include a creative element in your business plan to stand out and grab someone`s attention. You can inspiration from various templates, but do not forget to give your personal touch to it. Do something out-of-the-box.

If you need help to write a business plan, you can take expert guidance in our Masterclass. You can also take our exclusive problem solving courses.

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Startup

5 Essential Things Entrepreneurs Must Know Before Starting a Startup Business!

Starting a small startup business online of your sounds cool, but it might be overwhelming too! At first glance, the entire process might seem like a thrilling roller-coaster where you will be your boss and earn your own money, but growing a business does require a lot of work.

But as with anything, all you need to do is to take the first step towards your dream and continue moving forward. An idea without an effort remains just a dream and many entrepreneurs understand this basic reality. They understand that it will take effort to create their dream business and starting it off might seem scary.

Tasks like naming the business and creating the logo are the initial steps. But there are many other gigantic tasks like structure that are critical and contribute hugely to the growth of your business. Here are five tips that will help you to build a strong foundation for your business to make it successful:

1. Start by Conducting Market Research

Market research can help you understand your target customers. It will also allow you to know if it will be a successful business. Not only that, but it will also help you to refine your startup business idea.

When things become overwhelming, it is always best to start with ‘why’. It is an amazing place to go back and understand why you are developing your business.

2.  Business Plan

According to a report published in Forbes, “there have been many types of research that have shown that preparing a business plan can increase your growth by 30%. Also, around 71% of fast-growing companies have a business plan.”

Though there have been many businesses that started without a plan and are doing great in the market. But they are very few in numbers. Having a business plan allows you as a business owner to create budgets, set goals, and build frameworks and marketing strategies. Having a well-thought small startup business plan can help entrepreneurs with setting long-term and short-term goals.

3.  Finances are Vital!

Starting any business has a price, however, it is essential to be aware of the price. Finances are important and many startups fail because they run out of money before making a profit. Hence, before starting a startup business in India, you must determine how expenses will be covered until your business starts making profits.

4. Build a Business Website

Any business needs to reach out to its target customers. Earlier, businesses used to distribute pamphlets to let people know about their new startups. Now the times have changed. A customer today would most likely visit your business website to determine if it is genuine.

Your website is like a marketing toolbox and an excellent way for your customers to know more about you and your business. However, while creating a business website, there are several things to consider, like picking up a hosting platform, user-friendly interface, design, and a customer journey.

If you are not good with technical aspects, you can take help from a professional to create an amazing business website.

5.  Ensure all the legalities are in place

Whether it is an online business or a small brick-and-mortar startup business the laws and legal formalities are the same, with few exceptions. Hence, you must ensure that your business is abiding by all the local laws and guidelines to avoid any legal conflicts at a later stage.

Starting a startup business is like beginning a physical storefront. You will have to validate your idea, draft a business plan, contemplate your finances, build a business website, and decide your legal framework.

This might seem daunting at first, but do not feel like you will have to do it all alone. You can take help from our Business Coaching Program from where you can gain in-depth knowledge of distinct business operations and their departments.

Categories
Startup

5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting Your Own Business

Mumbai, October 16: Often people want to start their own business because they feel they have a great idea. We don’t want to discourage anyone but would like to remind that starting a business is not a cakewalk it requires a lot of crucial planning in the backend.

Here are five questions which you need to ask yourself before starting your own business.

Try to Have a Unique Idea

The first and the foremost to any business is to have a plan for your business. Your idea should be unique and something which the customers want. Don’t try and launch something where already 10 players are fighting with each other. If you have an idea, keep your customer in the centre of it and think aloud that how will they be benefitted.

Do Adequate Market Research 

It is very important to do market research before you think of launching your product in the market. Understand if there is a demand for your product and then analyse your competition. Try and find out how will your product be different from the others and why should customers choose you.

Compare the Risks Vs Rewards

It is very important to analyse the risks associated with starting a business in comparison to the rewards which you may get to see if the business becomes successful. For e.g you may have a lucrative career, earning a handsome salary and thinking of quitting your full-time job to start your business. There are no doubt huge challenges and risks associated in the initial few years, so are you ready for it?

There can be two sides to your wanting to start a business. One being your idea may not kickstart and second, it may become huge and a successful venture.

Strategise a Plan

It is very important to plan and plan well if you want to start your own venture. Remember everything is new and will be in limited resources. Right from the budget to the people whom you will be able to hire to run your team. You need to spend every penny wisely. Crisis doesn’t come knocking at the door, for e.g. no one knew at the start of this year that the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to several businesses getting shut and people losing their jobs. Therefore, it is very important to plan for a time when things will not run smoothly.

Do you have the money?

Finally, do you have the money to start a business? Are your finances in place? According to a Forbes report, most startup founders use their personal savings to fund their businesses. It is therefore very important to not remember not to drain your bank account to raise funds for your business. Entrepreneurs should set aside enough living expenses to last them for a year. Most startups are not profitable for months after opening