Creating a Business Strategy and booming with $1m domain
By: Moazam Ali Awan
Tags: Startup

On a scale of one to ten, having a good business strategy rates about a fifteen!

No matter what kind of business you have — whether you sell products or service, as the saying goes, “if you fail to plan, then you’re really planning to fail.”

Creating a strategy can mean the difference between you working 60 to 80 hours a week all year long — and then breaking even, or worse, losing money.

On the other hand, many successful entrepreneurs who have a strategy work fewer hours and make piles of money — and they usually attribute their success to having a strategic plan and following it.

So what is strategic business management? Very simply, it’s the process of defining the goals and objectives for your business, creating an action plan so you can reach them and then following the plan.

How do you create a strategic plan for your business?

First, know what your vision for your company is. If there were no barriers, nothing stopping you from taking your company as far as you could — what would that look like? Next, what are your company’s core operating values? What are its guiding principles? In other words, why are you in business and how do you do business? Now create a 3 to 5-year plan. Your long-term plan is based on the broad objectives that will help you get from where you are now, to where you want to be. Develop a plan for this year. These are the specific objectives you plan to accomplish this year that will lead you closer to your long-term goals. Remember to be “SMART” when setting your annual goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-oriented). Include a list of the barriers that are stopping you from getting where you want to go. Figure out what resources you’ve already got, and what resources you need to get you past those barriers. And then create an action plan that clearly lays out how you will achieve your goals. Involve key employees with this part of the planning process. Create a set of milestones or benchmarks. This is very important so that you can measure your progress. Share the plan with your employees, and anyone else who will be involved in the process. Your annual strategy is the roadmap that will make sure everyone ends up at the same destination — but to be effective, everyone needs the same map! Put the plan into action. Now that you have the roadmap, it’s time to begin the journey. Check your progress. Just like any trip, you need to check the map every now and then; to be sure you’re still on the right road. If something isn’t working, the sooner you figure it out and make the necessary adjustments, the sooner you’ll be back on track. Follow the same cycle next year. (Dream, Plan, Act, Check).

Creating a business strategy and following it will ensure that you enjoy the journey as much as getting to your final destination.

Dreams do come true! What you put your attention on does become a reality — the dream of a business created by you is no exception. The dream of owning one’s own business subtly grows within until a person finds a way to let it sprout into fruition. As you look up and down any business street, or on the internet, you can see the truth of this. Few, if any, of these businesses, were there forty years ago. Someone’s dreams came true.

Unfortunately, not all of these businesses are as fulfilling as the original dream. While working long hours for someone else as a technician, for an hourly wage, and possibly few benefits or holidays, people often think, “Boy, someday I’ll have a business of my own, and I won’t have to do this.” Then by some means, they do acquire their own business and, without some careful guidance, they find they are now working even longer hours and making less money and have fewer vacations. They have developed into being their own technician.

There is no one to relieve them of the consequences of their decisions and obligations now that they are the boss.

How can one avoid this dilemma? By building a business that functions as efficiently as a franchise. By creating a model business that someone else could duplicate, which means putting each step of each process in writing. By building a prototype. The product itself takes second place to the process of how the business itself functions. The process rules the business, not the product.

Build an image that stays in the customer’s mind. Dudu’s stands out as the prime example of the above. The image is consistent: they know exactly how many ounces of each item can be sold in one day, and which hours are the most productive. The turnover of employees boggles the mind yet the service is identical.

The new entrepreneurial business with only one or two employees can be developed with the same precision. If it isn’t, the person playing the combined role of owner/boss/janitor will probably remain a technician with a shattered dream.

Following the success of his IT business, Alibek Issaev sought to expand and diversify his business interests, amongst others the monetized, multi-lingual social media platform.

When an opportunity arose, the alliance was a good fit and the transaction was the next logical step also having regard to the significant upward demand for low and medium carbon ferrochrome globally.

Dubai-based businessman and Chairman of Dudu Communications Alibek Issaev purchased the domain dudu.com for $1m which shows how much diversity he has and wants to explore more and more horizons.