Making Your 

Business Stand Out!

What is it about your business that sets you apart from your competitors?

Unique Selling Proposition

What is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?  Your USP identifies what makes your business unique and what makes it distinct from other businesses of its type.  Your USP is your competitive edge; it is the reason people should deal with you rather than someone else.

Coming up with the perfect USP 

The possibilities are endless!  The best thing to do is to adopt a USP that fills an obvious need in the marketplace.  Focus on a gap in the market or create your own niche.

Creating Your USP

Write down all the positive aspects of your business, such as good service, quality products, reasonably priced.  Also list the benefits your business could bring to customers.  These could be things like family friendly, free delivery, after-hours service, fast turnaround time, locally produced, convenient location.  Make sure that the benefits you list are things you can achieve and deliver. 

Check out your competition.  If a competitor is offering one or more of the benefits that you have written down, cross it off the list.  Narrow down your list until you find a benefit that is truly exclusive.

It’s not always easy to come up with a new concept.  So take your time, look closely at your business and think about:

• what it is you really want to offer
• who you want to target
• why you want people to come to you
• how you propose to help them

Here’s a good example

Josie wants to open a hair salon in an inner city suburb where there are already several other well-established salons.  Why should people go to Josie’s salon instead of the others?

Josie lists her business strengths as being welcoming, competitively priced, excellent service by stylists with years of experience.  However, Josie soon learns that not only do all of the other salons have experienced stylists charging competitive rates, most of them offer beauty services too.  Josie knows she needs something unique. 

Based on her market research, Josie discovers an untapped niche in the market – she decides to ‘go organic’.  Josie sources organic hair products and colour treatments.  She even decides to serve organic coffee, tea and chocolates! 

Josie’s USP is that her salon is totally organic.  Therefore, she can focus her marketing towards people who are sensitive to harsh chemicals or people who are environmentally conscious.   She can then advertise in places such as health food shops or pharmacists where she is likely to find interested customers.

YOUR ACTION PLAN

•  Develop your own USP.
•  Keep your USP in mind when planning advertising campaigns and include it in all your marketing material.

Contact the team today at MKS Group on 1300 XERO MKS  or 9374 8400 for assistance with this Action Plan!

It may sound like a daunting assignment, but evidence suggests a well-written business plan contributes to a successful business.

 Why?

Building a business from scratch can be challenging, therefore, creating a business plan compels you to systematically think through every aspect of your business and develop a solid blueprint to follow.

A business plan will help you map your business strategy for the future and motivate you to reach your goals.  It will help you anticipate obstacles and work out solutions for overcoming them, thereby reducing anxiety and stress.

Additionally, the process of writing a business plan will likely reveal the level of commitment you need to devote to your business.

What a business plan should include

Your plan should have a professional appearance and be clear and concise.  Some of the essential elements to cover in a business plan are:

Executive summary – an overview

• Description of the business
• Product/service design & development
• Industry analysis
• Market analysis
• Marketing plan
• Management team & business structure
• Operations plan
• Legal and risk management plan
• Financial projections

Writing a plan covering all these areas may take substantial time and effort, but when your plan is complete, how much will you have learned in the process?  How thoroughly will you know your business?  How much more confidence will you have when you actually launch your business?

For these reasons, it is best to write the business plan yourself (or at least make an attempt), rather than employ someone to write it for you.  Besides, you’ll feel a sense of excitement and fulfilment when you actually put your ideas and visions down in writing.  Of course, assistance in the form of books, websites and consultants is always available.

Other benefits

A business plan is usually required by banks and lenders when considering an application for a business loan.  Approaching a lender without a plan, or with one that has been thrown together in haste, will likely make a poor impression.

A business plan also serves as a reference for monitoring the progress of your business against your objectives and performance standards.

Preparing a plan may reveal that your idea is not feasible.  While this may be unfortunate, it is better to fail on paper rather than to start your business and realise the same thing!

YOUR ACTION PLAN

Collate your information and have a go at writing a business plan!  If you run into trouble, look online for helpful websites, speak to a consultant or ask other business owners for ideas.

Contact us today on  1300 XERO MKS or on 03 9374 8400 for assistance with this Action Plan!