Director of Operations at Data Security Inc., leading strategic decisions & management of all departments including R&D, production & sales.
Today’s world can seem scary. The debate over whether or not we are headed into a recession continues. As I recently shared at the i-SIGMA Conference, during times of economic change such as a recession, many businesses take a defensive approach and often end up treading water or worse, failing. Instead, like in many other areas, the best defense is always a good offense.
One offensive strategy involves taking purposeful steps in order to gain a competitive advantage and secure a new market. Here are some steps that I have found to be effective:
1. Know your business.
Knowing your business means ensuring that you are working both in and on your business. Working in your business is anything that’s a job or part of regular duties as well as the management of those jobs and duties.
These things are necessary, but sometimes working on your business should take a higher priority. Working on your business involves anything strategic: business strategy, marketing strategy, sales strategy, research and the vision and decisions associated.
I recommend that leaders dive into a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. According to mindtools.com, a SWOT analysis is a technique for evaluating these four aspects of your business; you can use it to analyze what your business is currently doing as well as devise a strategy for a successful future.
2. Research the market potential.
I find that researching the market potential is the most critical step in this process. To be successful, you need to thoroughly understand any new market you are interested in.
Some great places to research include trade associations, government information, third-party sites, online tools and industry benchmark data, all of which can be found through our good friend Google.
3. Determine the direction your business will take.
When deciding your business’s direction, prioritize and select the new target market. This is essentially the time to write a business plan.
How do you write a business plan? I suggest you focus on the five C’s of a solid business plan: customer, concept, cash flow, competition and cake. Yep, cake.
Customer
Based on the research you just did in step two, identify and define the target market you want to go after.
Concept
Define the problem the target market has that your business solves.
• Focus on why this concept will work.
• Keep service, especially customer service, as your focus.
• Evaluate your internal capabilities such as assets and equipment: Which assets do you own that you can leverage to service this market’s data destruction needs? What products or assets might you need, and how do you figure that out?
Cash Flow
Next, do a profit analysis. What can you charge versus your costs? What will the cash flow look like? Does it make sense to provide this service to this new market?
Competition
It’s important to include a competitor analysis in your plan.
• Write down your competitors: Who are they and what do you already know about them?
• Investigate their pricing methods, target market and marketing strategy.
• Define your competitive advantage.
Cake
It’s important to celebrate the completion of a business plan. It’s a lot of hard work to put one together, but it is a major step in helping you successfully win new business. I think you can have your cake and eat it too.
4. Take action.
Decide how you want to enter the market and present your capabilities. Based on a global survey conducted by Deloitte, investing in marketing and expanding into new markets during a downturn can contribute to future business growth.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a crystal ball. While the U.S. isn’t in a recession at the moment, the World Economic Forum found that nearly two-thirds of economists believe there will be a recession in 2023.
The best thing to do is prepare to wade through any economic uncertainty and succeed with an offensive approach. I urge you to take the time to work on your business through these easy steps and determine how to gain competitive advantages by securing a new market.
The best defense is a stellar offense. You won’t score—and you certainly won’t win—if you don’t put some skin in the game.
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