In the almost 30 years that I’ve worked as a CPA, I’ve had the opportunity to see businesses go on to achieve amazing results in the marketplace and for their community and for the owners. While a consultants hourly rate may be higher than you’re comfortable with a deal can be put together much faster by a professional than someone trying for the first time to structure a business partnership. If you’re the typical small business starting, growing or even just surviving in a tough economic market with little or no credit, you also need business development strategies that don’t eat up your cash flow.
Another dynamic of this is that it can be difficult to admit that sometimes we need help, or it could be that upper management would take a dim view of our abilities if we asked for outside help with our internal processes. Incubators often employ a selective screening process assessing the feasibility and workability of the business plan of incubatee prospects before letting hem join the program.
Large management consulting firms are able to draw from massive reservoirs of overlapping knowledge and expertise in contrast to the more narrowly focused boutique consulting firms, and can offer a single client support on IT, strategy, operational, human capital, and financial issues.
Consultants often will require an hourly rate or fixed salary as well as some kind of bonus structure for placing deals together which may be a single payout for each business deal that is signed or a revenue share that is paid out over a period of time based on the amount of business that is ultimately generated from the relationships.
Self Improvement
A correct strategy can simplify the complexity of business equations. There are a plethora of activities, conceptualizations, methodologies, tools, frameworks, models, subfields, and buzzwords employed across industries and geographies when implementing growth opportunities for firms. Business growth strategy formulation is an intense process of studying the firm’s strengths and weaknesses, that are used to exploit growth opportunities if and when they present themselves.
The business accelerator’s emphasis is on accelerated and sustainable growth, and to eliminate organizational, operational, and strategic bottlenecks that prevent the client firm from growing. Lately, the internet and social media has created a huge number of marketing job opportunities.
They come in the form of governmental institutions providing funding and support to entrepreneurs, and private institutions in the form of business angels and venture capitalists, business incubators and seed accelerators, second stage business accelerators, boutique consultancy firms, and large management consulting houses.
What Are The Stages Of Business Development
Business development requires a multi-disciplinary approach and there is no ‘one size fits all’ strategy. We must first look at the business development process itself. During this phase of its existence, businesses experience expansion of its activities and enhancement of its customer base. Large management consulting firms offer a more diverse set of services compared to boutique consulting firms and are often international in scope.
This is an extract from my FREE eBook – “How to Construct an Effective Business Development Strategy” which is available for download – please see details below. Business Process Management (BPM) is an all-round management approach that aims at aligning all the business processes with its core vision and consumer demands.
Marketing – Your marketing strategy will have a direct impact on your success. Just as when buying any service, when contracting for professional business development services it is important to have clear deliverables. This is the third stage of a business development.
Topics
The Business Development Strategy is used to underpin your main Business Plan and essentially it sets out a standard approach for developing new opportunities, either from within existing accounts or by proactively targeting brand new potential accounts and then working to close them. Fast growth can cripple a small business if there isn’t enough cash flow to fulfill on the sales. Marketing involves all activities such as planning and strategy, marketing research, pricing, advertising, branding, communication, customer service and other important functions, that finally make selling possible.
Managing a business development team member is similar to a sales team member in many respects. Hiring a business development person is different than finding a sales person for your team. Overall, boutique consulting firms focus on a limited scope of industries, and resolve business issues quicker than large management consulting firms that require more time for a specific project.
The Taxonomy Of Business Development
So many professional service firms we meet bemoan the track record of most of their folk in developing new work and new clients in attractive niches. Ironically, it’s the most expensive option, with ‘front of the line’ service and unlimited consulting with partners in the firm that sells the most. Moreover, the job of a business developer is highly cross functional, as it requires collaboration with various internal and partner-company teams such as sales, engineering, and marketing to ensure that a deal is consummated.
In such instances boutique consultancy firms come in handy to for example support a particular project or give advice on matters related to a specific topic such as law, finance or HR. Larger corporations often make use of larger management consultancy firms to identify existing organizational problems and development of plans for improvement.
While a business development expert can always play the role as sales person the opposite is not always true. It might be hard to decide if and when to use various business development services.