I personally believe the last one – “Focus on the road to success” has the greatest opportunity for reality, and the other top three, then have a better chance of becoming true.
We have discussed in many articles that the keys to success are FACTS, PLANS, EXECUTION, and SUPERVISION, but understand, this is only a guideline.
There are many ways to approach building a business, but I break it down into two basic approaches as follows:
- The Shot Gun approach or
- The Straight Shot at your target approach
The Shot Gun affect is trying to take advantage of all the potential opportunities that is presented, or comes your way. On the other hand the Straight Shot is zeroing in on a specific target, and staying on track.
Both of these methods have their problems, and both have their failures vs. successes!
The Shot Gun method usually is risky and takes you into areas where the unknown obstacles can eat up your finances quickly, and the return on invested time for positive business success is not worth all the efforts. I call this my (Laundry List) or is there a “Return on Investment”.
Though this method looks more opportunistic because it has a larger area coverage of multi buck shot on a target, it leaves a lot of unknown data that can cost you big monies.
The Straight Shot approach definitely gives you an opportunity to hit your target, but without consistent market research, and updates, by the time you have sighted the target it has either disappeared or is not worth the cost of hitting it, again “Return on Investment”.
I myself choose the “Focus on the Road to Success” method, because I either have the skills or can readily find the professional expertise to direct my plan, and hold on to a time action calendar, so that I am not “Chasing Rainbows, or Looking for worms”, but using research/development, and actual facts to make it all happen.
Markets change, and one must spend time and money to not only understand the marketplace you wish to be part of, but also be able to make sure the sales you need to make profits are in place, once you have put all into a focused presentation to your target market.
The textile/apparel industry covers a multitude of specialized markets, and to be profitable for your part, the focus must remain in your sight at all times. To complete the full focused business plan, you must put into place the following:
The Sales Plan, (if marketing is required, it must be in the plan also); Merchandising/Design/Engineering, are keys to building an acceptable product line, but this area can be very costly, and can easily miss the target without constant research and development; Production is a matter of control, which is the correct cost, capability of producing to the specifications, and On-Time Delivery, this will make or break your sales revenue plans. Financing is the fuel needed to run the total program, and no matter how excellent your product is, if you do not have the finances to allow for both mistakes and change, you will have worked very hard for NOTHING!
Each season stands on its own, and if you are in the export of product in an international business, you have to close the link between you, and the customer selling the product to the consumer. By closing this link will allow you to focus on their needs, so you can plan product for you both to make money.
You must not only study your customers’ needs, but learn about your competition “know your enemy”, and keep them close to you, by doing this you can stay focused on the target, and hopefully remain profitably focused for success.
