As part of our business support paradigm, we start all of clients out with an assessment. Sometimes it’s informal; just
a few questions because they aren’t asking us to do too much. Other times, we
will encourage our clients to do thorough assessments of their business, their
competition, and where they need to go to achieve their goals.
An Example of the
Assessment Process
One of our clients, a psychic services provider, has been in
business for years, but never had a formal plan for growing her business. When
we asked about her competition, she had a vague sense of who they were, but not
much more. When asked about her marketing efforts, she admitted that she had
none.
We started a competitive analysis for her. This involved
finding every psychic and alternative healer within about 50 miles. We used
information from their websites to understand what they do, how successful they
might be, and some more basic information.
 |
| Picking your ideal customer our of crowd shouldn't be guesswork |
She also had us do a market analysis. This took information
that she knew (age, gender, etc.) from her clientele and exploded it. We were
able to learn more about her target market including likely favorite TV shows,
marital status, and income.
Assessments to
Eliminate a Bad Business Model
Another client, a security firm in Toronto, Ontario, asked
us to do a market assessment for them. They wanted to be a traditional security
firm, offering security guards, etc. in the Toronto market.
Apparently the Toronto area is the most secure place on the planet,
because they have hundreds of security. Approximately one security firm for
every 150 people in the city.
We told them that a straight-on approach wasn’t likely to
work. The five biggest firms held over 60% of the business and they weren’t
likely to lose ground. We discovered a weakness in the market, though. There
were no firms that would come in and do an independent security audit of a firm’s
existing security contractor and equipment. That was the ‘in’ that they needed.
Know Where You Are to
Plan Where You are Going
An assessment of your business is the only way to figure out
what to plan for.
Assessments, in and of themselves, are only a gauge of where
you are, not a plan of how to get where you want to be.
 |
| Assessing your business is the key to planning your success. |
A perfect example is using a map. Knowing where you are,
without knowing your destination, is pretty useless. “You are Here” is fine if
someone know where they want to go. Unfortunately, in business, there is almost
never a clear map that you can run your finger over to figure out what to do
next.
Start any new business, business growth, or attempt to
salvage an ill business with an assessment of where it is at. From there, you
can lay out a positive and strong plan that will get you to your goals.
