By Jansen Banez
FCM welcomes the latest addition to our family of columnists – Jansen Banez. Jansen has over 25 years of business distribution experience and currently holds a position of Western Canadian Business Development Manager with Pratts Canada Food Service. Here are his insights on mistakes new business owners make.
Not Doing The Homework – Lack of Planning
The first issue is not knowing their business. They need to know it from the ground up. They need to understand the business they are going to get into. Understand the cost implications. There are business owners who don’t do their homework. There are a lot more moving pieces to starting an operation. Businesses fail because of the lack of short-term and long-term planning which should include short and long-term goals.
I have to be cautious sometimes when I hear a colleague or a friend who wants to start a business. You have to ask questions from negotiating a lease agreement with the landlord, to identifying fixed and the variable expenses, to creating a sales forecasting, to marketing, staffing, and labor.
When potential business owners come to me, one of the questions I ask is, “Are you truly ready for the business?” Location is a big part of this too. I’ll give you an example of a business owner who wanted to open up a store in Calgary. I asked the question, “Why is the location vacant for the last six months?” And he said the area wasn’t busy enough and that there was no traffic. So then I asked, “Why do you want to open in this location then?”
I think sometimes people jump into the idea of having a business for the sake of just having a business. They need to do their homework. They need to connect with the right people and right business partners with clear roles and expectations. They need to get coaching. And always look for opportunities to connect with the right people with the right skill sets to run, assist and manage the business, which could lead to either great or poor management, and will affect sales, operations, finances and cash flow and people management, You need to be unique and differentiate yourself from the rest – “what makes you different”? And always, always stick to your core values. There are smart owners out there who have done their homework, but there are also those who are eager to start something without fully educating themselves….always be curious.
More importantly, you need Capital.
Not Clear On The Target Audience/ Customer
You need to research your market, your competition, the financial feasibility of your concept, and more importantly your customers.
I think the target audience sometimes becomes very clouded. You can’t be everything for everyone. One of the main purposes of starting a business is to become profitable and be successful at it. More often than not, not knowing who you want to target is one of the most important things of all. Your customer need be clearly defined
Going back to the location, if you’re going to open up a store that is three times the size of what your sales are going to be, it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Moreover, if the location is situated in a most obscure, low traffic area. You’re not doing yourself, your customer nor the business any favors.
For me, it’s really doing homework and the due diligence. And if they don’t know, then do research. Be SMART. Be insightful and be intuitive. Learn as much as you can about the business you want to get into, and most importantly the customers you are wanting to capture Once you have a following of loyal customers, it’s up to you to make sure you are at ground level listening and hearing their comments and feedback every step of the way. The last thing you want to do when you’re starting something new is failing at it. But at the end of the day, that’s just part of life. But don’t take on projects or business to fail. You need to do the right things to be successful. Your customers will help boost or fire you.
Lack of Marketing Know How
Your personality is the single most important and cheapest way to market. There needs to be a mixture of confidence and humility.
If talking about technical terms, you have to put funds behind marketing. That needs to be part of the budget. Whether that’s media or paper or signage. The biggest part of creating some buzz and excitement about your business is you go to market it. You have to exhaust every possible avenue to market. And that’s where some of the connections can help. Your colleagues can help with putting the word out there. It doesn’t matter if it’s carwash or a restaurant, or a store or dentistry office. Marketing is a big part and there has to be a marketing component in the budget. Whether it is used or not. It can always be a slush fund at some period. But always keep a marketing budget. I’m A firm believer in marketing. I think marketing is the number one missed opportunity to increase brand recognition.
I believe in marketing. Some companies do great marketing. I shy away from paper marketing. I find that one of the most effective ways to market is through LinkedIn. This is a professional forum. Instagram is the number one source of traffic when it comes to social media. Twitter and Facebook are also avenues.
If I can stress, you need to have a very clear definition of the services you offer. Without a clear definition, you will be unable to effectively develop, market, and sell your services.
About Jansen Banez:
He currently holds the role of Western Canadian Business Development Manager with Pratts Food Service (www.pratts.ca), with primary function of prospecting, maintaining and retaining multi-unit business in foodservice segment. With 25 + years in sales, and former capacities as Senior Leader in the Foodservice and Retail industries, he oversaw departmental operations, yet considered customer service as his core responsibility. To this end, he has achieved numerous objectives to build a strong customer base and loyalty through programs promoting quality assurance. He has demonstrated proven leadership and in the past developed several systems, methods, and procedures conducive to effective and efficient operation. He thrives on driving results and a track record of achieving and demonstrating success in multi-million sales companies while providing continuous leadership in the fast-paced and competitive industry. His main objective is securing and building customer satisfaction and service level requirements and dedication to company standards and philosophy. He is tenacious in strengthening and building existing and new business, securing customer trust, networking and collaborating with external colleagues and business partners. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jansen-banez-54386069/)
Leave a Reply