How to minimise risk and improve planning in a mid-sized business

by Startacus Admin

When it comes to business, thinking everything through thoroughly and putting well-formed plans into place will help to minimise risk and increase company successes. All too often, organisations rush decision making and end up losing money in the process, so here’s how to ensure you don’t make the same mistakes.

1.     Align your objectives

With plugins such as Upraise available these days, it’s easier than ever to align your objectives digitally to ensure everyone’s on the same page. Running a mid-sized business isn’t always easy, but by being transparent about what you want to achieve and maintaining continuous communication with colleagues, there is ultimately less room for misunderstandings and errors.

Platforms such as Upraise also allow you to connect your company’s strategic plan with goals of individual team members. This allows everyone to play up to their personal strengths without going off on an egotistical tangent and ensures the entire workforce knows who’s doing what at all times.

What’s more, automated progress tracking in real-time also makes it a lot easier to make accurate predictions about your team’s behaviour meaning you won’t over or underestimate what can be achieved in any given time frame. Knowing the speed at which your team meets objectives not only helps you to provide accurate quotes to clients but it also enables you set realistic goals for the future.

2.     Embrace strategic planning

As a mid-sized business, you’ve already got your main ideas up and running but are always look forward and never stop thinking about your next move. Strategic planning involves looking at your business model and deciding how it can be improved in the short term. For this to be successful you must set goals and objectives based on accurately generated reports, identify all the options available to help you achieve these goals and lay down a very strict budget. When planning, don’t forget to research and incorporate specific industry trends where possible, as this will ensure your company stays fresh and modern – even if you’ve been operating for some time.



3.     Think carefully about marketing

Marketing plays a significant role in business. Get it right and you could give your business a boost, get it wrong and the reputation of your brand may be ruined. Creating a solid marketing plan will help you achieve gross income and sales, so whatever you do, don’t throw money around without developing a coherent strategy that’s been agreed by the rest of the management team.

Carrying out a SWOT analysis of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is one of the most effective ways to create a marketing strategy that works, but you’ll need recently generated figures of your past performance as well as a thorough knowledge of the industry you operate in. Identifying opportunities to excel is crucial but make sure you keep a close eye on competitors to ensure your ideas are original, unique and miles apart from what similar companies are doing.

All businesses carry an element of risk, but with careful planning and risk-management procedures and knowledge of the points above, your mid-sized company should be able to thrive.

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Published on: 16th November 2016