Key business strategies that you should be following in 2020 (Top List)

Want to ensure that your business stays successful for a long period of time, and is doing everything it can in 2020 to be the best and most healthy machine that it can be? Take a look at this short list of key business strategies that you should be following in 2020 if you want to be in with the best chance of success.

Forging an online strategy

Businesses in the modern day need more than ever to make the most of the online space, and the amount of customers that come directly from there. For small startups the opportunity that it affords is invaluable, as not only can they open up shop and get going with practically little to no beginning cost, but they can get international reach potential instantaneously. This is a benefit that many young people and entrepreneurs take for granted nowadays, but 20 years ago when the internet was still in its infancy, the ability to do this wasn’t there. With trends like dropshipping and digital storefronts, people don’t even need to have their own stock, and can simply source it from somewhere else on the fly, acting as some sort of middle man. This, of course, is a specific example of one particular practice, but it shows the potential of the internet as an invaluable tool.

A company with over 15 years of experience, Truckcraft Bodies are a perfect example of a company that has integrated an online presence and profile into their existing, customer-focused business strategy. With a concise company message that gets across their values, and a sleek site with a blog section providing genuine value and information to visitors, it again works as a prime company site benchmark.

Another company with impeccable ideals, goals, and thick online presence is Shiply. Shiply exists online as a shipping and shippers resource to resolve global shipping, global and local house moving and pet transport challenges for millions of people, via their load board method, in a bid to settle every customer’s needs, whether company or individual.

Here companies bid for work from the load board, placed by individuals who want stuff shipped or moved, or are seeking employment in the shipping industry.

This, again, is about genuine value. Taking some inspiration from this, if you’re a company or startup that wants to make a website, look at what you could offer in terms of informational value to your site, aside from just the products or services themselves. 

You might decide to include informational, blog style content that gives people surrounding information on the field that your company is prevalent in, or even a guide to getting started, so that they naturally need your product and service down the line. If you make the initial site value less about selling the customer something and more about providing them with something free of charge, they’re more likely to identify with your brand and align with it in the future.

Tip – Making and maintaining a competent website is the first step in staying relevant online, but you should also try and make sure that you spread out across as many different platforms as possible – such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The reasoning behind this is not only will you likely reach a lot more people and a lot faster, but you’ll also find new people on different platforms, too. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram have wildly different content norms, and so get creative where possible rather than just re-hashing over the same boring thing. Otherwise, your followers will get sick of seeing the same messaging repurposed for different platforms, and either unfollow you on the one you’re not making the most of, or even just stop paying attention to your brand altogether.

Having a solid plan in place

It might sound like an obvious and straight-forward concept, but you’d be surprised how many young startups jump headfirst into a business venture without first considering some of the different costs and decisions involved, and confronting the realities of your idea head on can be a difficult but ultimately enlightening experience – in some cases giving you an inclination as to whether or not what you’re pursuing or thinking of pursuing is actually worth it at all.

Having a solid financial plan is a major component of success in business, and must be kept in mind if you are to be successful in whatever venture you set out upon. For many independent small business founders, or entrepreneurs backing their own personal projects, small moments of clarity and initial excitement is enough to springboard them into a slippery slope, and it can be dangerous if you don’t have costs/expenses laid out, for example.

Top-Tip – If you’re a small business thinking of your own long-term plan with goals and aims, it might be a good idea to analyse some of your competition, and see what they’re doing right or wrong. Look at their social media strategy, their products themselves, and see what you could do but better. You should also make sure that what you’re offering is unique enough to stand apart from the competition, as otherwise it brings into question whether there’s a point in doing it in the first place.

You also might be as well looking at their sales volume, and the amount of customers, clients and general followers they attract with what they offer. You might feel strongly about your product of service if you’ve nursed it for a long time, but this research will help you to contextualise your product against something that exists and is tried and tested, and then whether or not it’s something that people will actually have a use for.

Streamlining your product

As much as doing things differently from your competitors and offering something wholly unique is important, you should also make sure when starting out that you’re not getting carried away and trying to do too much at once. This will just make things a hell of a lot harder for yourself from the get go, and confuse potential customers or clients who won’t really understand what the core thing you want to offer is. 

Once you’ve found your niche – something that no one else on the market offers – streamline it, strip it back and perfect it before you start trying to move onto anything else. Moving slowly but surely and building up is a much better strategy than taking on multiple different projects at once, as you might get burned out too quickly without reaching a major success.