Every business, regardless of its industry or size, needs a set of good management practices. These aren’t hidden business secretes of executives or startup hacks that you will read about in Forbes, but rather a set of good habits that can help almost anyone move their company forward. As you start to establish your supplement business, think about the company infrastructure that you are developing. Keep these business management best practices in mind as your brand grows.
Establish standard operating procedures for vendors.
Your business is going to need to work closely with different vendors in order to grow. You will likely partner with a marketing agency, accounting group, law firm, and other teams to help you achieve your goals. Before you work with these vendors, create a process for vetting their quality and negotiating contracts.
For example, if you’re going to be selling CBD products you will want to work with expert CBD oil manufacturers to offer top-shelf CBD supplements with the highest levels of purity from the best cannabis plants, whether you’re talking about edibles, oils, tinctures, gummies, or other hemp plant products. You only want the best CBD for your consumers, right? That being said, you will want to make sure you are getting a fair price for the items and have an opportunity to end your contract if you find a better CBD provider. Having this process in place will help you as your company matures.
Set goals for growth.
If you want to be successful, consider where your business currently is and where you want it to go in the next year. What are your sales goals for the next quarter and next year? What part of the industry market share do you want to command? These are your big picture plans to work toward.
Once you have your big picture mapped out, develop quarterly objectives and key results that can help you toward those organizational goals. For example, if you want 1,000 more customers this year, this is an ambitious goal, but it’s not impossible. Consider how you will reach these potential customers and incorporate these OKR goals into your business strategy. This might mean bringing 100,000 people to your website through your marketing efforts or attending six conferences each year to sell to customers directly. These smaller OKR metrics can help you achieve your bigger plans and stretch goals. If you’re worried about how to develop individual OKRs and OKRs for your entire company, consider looking into OKR software that can help you with goal setting and staying focussed on meeting your company objectives. OKR software helps keep your whole team aligned on the company objectives and makes sure you meet your aims, regardless of the ambitious goals you set for yourself.
Focus on company culture.
The people who work for you are the biggest assets within your organization. Their hard work can push your business forward and help you overcome seemingly impossible challenges. However, if you want your team to invest in your business, then you need to invest in them first.
For example, a study by Gallup found that employees who feel like their voice is heard are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to do their best work. These team members are going to come up with creative solutions and share them to help your brand.
Consider developed an agreement with your team for maintaining positive company culture. Make sure everyone is passionate about the team objectives and feels comfortable on a personal level. This can include topics related to transparency and respect, along with tangible agreements related to work-life-balance. These guidelines will help managers and employees work better together.
Encourage risk-taking.
Every business owner has different levels of risk-aversion. You want your business to succeed, but need to put yourself out there. However, letting team members take risks (calculated, educated risks) might be your secret sauce to success.
“Every decision you make carries some small risk — your new hire might leave in a month, your lead generation strategy might fail…and so on,” Larry Alton writes at Entrepreneur. “Accepting risk as a part of the deal, and you need to be ready for that as you enter the entrepreneurial world.”
When you empower your employees to take healthy risks and encourage employee engagement, then you can try new things and move your supplement business forward.
Many business owners try to seek out the best way to manage their brands. The reality is that your company needs a strong foundation of good business operations before it can tap into “life hacks” and quick tips. Keep these best practices in mind as you work toward your business goals.