This document provides guidance on starting, growing, and sustaining a business. It discusses developing a vision and mission statement to guide business decisions. It emphasizes determining customer needs and defining the business's core competencies. The document advises segmenting the market and evaluating strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It recommends setting goals and strategic options to achieve key success factors. Finally, it stresses the importance of developing a strategic plan and turning strategies into actionable projects.

1. Starting, Growing
& Sustaining Your Business
Bashir Abolore Muse 08033623996

2. Starting Your
Business

3. How Do I Come up with A Winning
Business Idea
Create a vision
 Close your eyes for a few minutes and
conjure up a detailed image of what you
want your life to look like in 5 years. Be as
specific as possible.
 Where do you live?
 How do you spend your days?
 What kind of work do you do?
 Do you work alone or with other people?
 Who are you surrounded by?
 What do you do when you aren't working?
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4. How Do I Come up with A Winning Business Idea
 Don't limit yourself to these questions; create a
vivid vision of yourself, touching on things that are
important to you. These are all personal issues
that will impact the type of business you pursue -
being a city or country person; wanting to travel
or sit at your computer; liking to meet people or
work on the phone. This activity will help you
create a foundation for choosing from small
business ideas, making business decisions, and
setting clear goals.
 It is best to do this exercise with someone else
and share your vision. If you can't, write it down to
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make your vision more concrete.

5. (How Do I Come up with A Winning Business
Idea)
Determine what you're good at and
what you like to do
 It's often useful to look inside yourself to
figure out what you like and dislike, and
where your talents lie. It's one thing to
come up with a winning business idea.
It's another to come up with one that fits
your skill set and interests you. Your
business has to keep you excited so you
can thrive over the long haul.
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 One of the best ways to do this is to

6. (How Do I Come up with A Winning Business Idea)
Inward Search
List 1: What you're good at
Everyone is good at something and
many skills can be the foundation for a
business. You might be naturally
organized or have a knack for fixing
things. You may be so used to your skills
that they don't immediately come to
mind, so assemble this list by observing
yourself for a few weeks with an eye out
for your aptitudes and by asking people
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who know you well for their impressions

7. (How Do I Come up with A Winning Business Idea)
Inward Search
List 2: Skills you've acquired over the
years
Whether or not you've worked in a
conventional environment, you no doubt
have accumulated many. Write down all
the work responsibilities you've had;
think about the varied tasks you know
how to complete. Make sure this list is
complete -- there should be at least 10
distinct items
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8. (How Do I Come up with A Winning Business Idea)
Inward Search
List 3: Things you like to do
List the things you enjoy doing. This
may not be as easy as it sounds. This
list should be at least 10 items long.
Stretch beyond your hobbies and
interests that spring to mind
immediately. If you're stymied, ask
people who have known you for a long
time -- particularly people who knew you
as a kid -- what they have seen you
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doing when you're happiest.

9. (How Do I Come up with A Winning Business Idea)
Inward Search
Keep these three lists in an accessible
place (for instance on your desk) for
several weeks, and when small
business ideas come to you, jot them
down in the proper category. Ask people
who know you well for their input or to
help you jog your memory.
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10. (How Do I Come up with A Winning Business Idea)
Outward Search
Figure out what the market needs
 So far, you've been looking inward to come up
with your business idea. Now its time to look
outward to discover an unfilled need that you
can meet with your product or service.
 There are plenty of "Top 10" or "Hot New"
business lists out there. These may stimulate
some ideas, but the best business ideas will
come from you and will be based on who you
are and what the market is looking for. So
while you're doing your soul searching and list
10 making, put up your antenna and look out for

11. (How Do I Come up with A Winning Business Idea)
Outward Search
Figure out what the market needs
 When you are contemplating business
possibilities, keep in mind that you don't have to
stay in the business you start forever. You can run
a business for a few years until you come up with
an off-shoot idea or are in a position to start a
more capital-intensive business.
 Keep your business antenna up, with an eye
out for unfilled opportunities Research the
market by:
 Reading the newspaper and magazines
11  Watching television
 Talking to people

12. (How Do I Come up with A Winning Business Idea)
Outward Search
 What products or services would you want that you
haven't been able to find?
 Is there something that everybody hates to do that you
can do for them?
 Is there a product or service that would make life
easier for people you know?
 What business trends are happening that you want to
participate in...that really light your fire?
 Are there gaps in the market that you can fill with your
talents? What are they? (For example, corporate
downsizing has opened up the market for services like
consulting, desktop publishing, graphic
design, staffing services, and computer
maintenance).Now...
Write down some potential business ideas. Be
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specific.... don't list something like 'import/export';

13. Growing Your
Business

14. Strategic Planning for Small Business
Growth
This session will help you:
 Keep your business on the right track
(Focus)
 Allocate your resources appropriately
 Evaluate and re-align business
objectives with outcomes
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15. Getting started!
Provide answers to the following questions:
 What is your vision?
 What is your Mission?
 What are your values?
 What does your product/service promise?
15  What segment of the market is your target?

16. Self Assessment?
 Do you have a vision statement?
 Do you have a mission statement?
 Do you have the values written down?
 Do you have a product/service promise?
 Do you know the segment of the market you
want to play?
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17. Vision, Mission and Values
 Vision: Who we want to be!
 Mission: what we want to do!
 Values: what we stand for!
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18. The Mission Statement
The Mission statement should answer the following
questions:
 What do we stand for?
 Who are our target customers?
 What are our products/services that will satisfy their needs?
 Why should they do business with us?
 What is our competitive advantage?
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19. Define your core competencies
 What is unique about our product/services
 What added value service can we provide?
 How skillful are our staff/workers?
 How would we respond to changes in the economic
environment?
 What is our management capabilities?
 What affiliations/alliances can we leverage on?
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20. Segment the Market
 Define basis for segmentation
 Ensure segments are large enough and with enough
purchasing power to generate profits
 Ensure the segment is accessible
 Use your natural competitive advantage for
positioning
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21. Evaluate your SWOT
 Prepare a “Balance Sheet” of strengths and
weaknesses
 Include all key performance areas: human
resources, financial control, systems
control, marketing, legal etc.
 Narrow your option initially to your areas of
strengths.
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22. Opportunities and Threats
 Opportunities:
 Look for new potential market
 Look for niches that competitors are overlooking
 Threats:
 Look for new competitors, Government policy
changes, economic recession, technological
improvements/advancements
 Look for substitute products/services
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23. Examine key success factors
 These are critical factors influencing a company’s
ability to compete in the market, such as:
 Cost factors
 Services offered
 Location
 Availability of Capital
 Access to Technical support
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24. Set Goals & Objectives
 Goals: the Broad long range attributes we
seek to accomplish
 Objectives: Specific Targets of
performance
 They should be SMART
(specific, measurable, attainable, realizable, time
bound)
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25. Strategic Options
 Strategy is the means to the end.
 It must focus on achieving the key success
factors and generally revolves around
 Cost Leadership
 Differentiation
 Focus
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26. Strategy to Action
 Strategy must be turned into projects by defining
 Purpose
 Scope
 Contribution
 Resource requirements
 Timing
 Deploy committed people to the project
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27. Summary
 The following should be considered:
 The consumer perception
 Evaluation of the important attributes for the product
class
 Judgment of the existing brands
 Rating of the Ideal brand
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28. Sustaining Your
Business

29. Succession Planning
This session will help you:
 Understand the dynamics of
 Business continuity (management and leadership)
 Vision preservation
 Mission enhancement
 Value protection
 Product/service improvement/diversification
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30. Getting started!
 Why do want your business to continue?
 Why do you want to preserve your vision?
 Why do want to enhance your mission?
 Why do want to protect your value/s?
 Why do want to continue to improve and/or diversify
your product/service base?
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31. Self assessment?
 Are you aware that you must plan and
prepare for transition?
 Are you preparing anyone to take over from
you
 Are you deliberately developing internal
competence (showing your workforce how it is
done, should be done and done very well)
 Do you trust your workforce?
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32. What is succession?
 It is the process of
identifying and preparing
suitable employees through
mentoring, training, and
job rotation to replace key
players
(such as the CEO/MD)
within an organisation
as their term expire.
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33. Succession planning = Practice
continuity
It safeguards:
 Management style/orientation
 Leadership frameworks/competence
 Vision (who we are)
 Mission (what we want to be)
 Products/service delivery
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34. Benefits of succession planning
 Helps to develop a diverse workforce
 Promotes and improves internal competence
 Promotes workforce/brand Loyalty
 Helps retain skillful and qualified staff
 Institutionalize management and leadership
frameworks
 Ensures openness and empathy
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35. Summary
Succession planning helps internalize a
process of systematic review of the
potential successors prior to the CEO/MD’s
(or other key management staff) retirement
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36. Business – Investment Triangle
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