Developing Effective Business Portfolio in Your Business Plan.

At last, you have decided to start your business, money, or no money you need to have a business plan. Many times we think that business is about having capital, which is actually true. The first step of having a successful business is actually the concept. The concept is the idea of what your business is all about. It's the core, the heart, the essence as well as the soul. Without it, it doesn't matter how much money you have, how great you think your product is, you will go far but in the wrong direction.

The concept clearly needs to clearly show the following:

1. What will you sell (the product); This is the WHAT. You may be wondering if the services are also products. Yes, they are.
2. Who you will you sell to (the target customer); This is the WHO.
3. What is the value you will provide to your customers (The price); this is HOW MUCH.
4. How will people know about your business (Promotion).
5. Where will you sell your Product (Place)

The five above are called 5 Ps. Today they are more than five but for this specific case, five will work. The five Ps are entrepreneurs like you and me call the marketing mix?

Looking at them they look simplistic, but I can assure they are not.

When you are able to answer the five questions above with clarity, then you are good to go.

On the other hand, if you cannot answer each one of them succinctly, then you have no business to talk about. Now that we know what is expected to come up with a good business concept its time to craft our business plan. Wait a minute. we must develop something that will make us different.

I am sure we are not about to start something the world has never seen. So we need to differentiate ourselves with the completion out there. This will be our Unique Selling Proposition. It has to be unique, part of our business DNA. Additionally, it's something no one can copy. It must be true and achievable.

Now we can confidently say that we have a business opportunity.

For us to have reached this point, one thing is clear. We have a business or marketing opportunity because we are bright enough to identify a gap. This gap needs to be filled. That is where you come in. The gap exists because of a combination of factors.

Furthermore, the gap creates a market that we will serve with our five Ps.

We keep on saying a market. But what exactly is a market? A market is not a building or a place. It's actually an environment where you find two types of people. One type is a willing buyer and the other side is a willing seller. You are the willing seller. Therefore for you to make any money, then you need to identify and make contact with the willing buyer. In our five Ps, this is the target market or the who.

Many times we think we have a viable business idea, we talk about it with our friends, relatives or even neighbors and we spend time writing business plans but fail in our business execution despite how religiously we follow those business plans. Many times this happens because we have not asked ourselves the above questions and if we have then we cannot answer the above questions truthfully.. If we have not answered the above questions then it means we have not identified a business or marketing opportunity. With no marketing mix, then we cannot have a market to sell to and without the marketing mix, then it means we do not have a marketing strategy which means we will run our business like headless chickens. Many would be successful business never see the light of the 5th birthday because the owners lack the necessary skills to identify a marketing opportunity, as well as create and implement a marketing strategy. Marketing strategy is basically a plan of any business on how to sell anything in this world. It is the core of sales and profits. It is what gives our business the bottom line as well as, maintain a healthy cash flow. Marketing plan creates our business competitive edge, which differentiate us from other businesses and make us grow. For you to identify a marketing opportunity, the first thing to do is to carry an environmental scanning. This scans both the business’s macro and micro environments. I have talked before on how to carry out environmental scanning, you can get write ups on PEST and SWOT analysis by visiting this blogs archives. The tool for analyzing your macro environment is SWOT analysis while the tool for analyzing the micro environment is PEST analysis. Therefore as you are planning a new business, scan the environment and your business will succeed and grow.

We have talked about business plans what makes and breaks business plans. I want add something to your business toolkit; a business portfolio. A business portfolio has been defined as a collection of products that make up your business. A business portfolio is a sum of what your business need to sell to make it in the marketplace. It is the entire line of your products and with each products contribution and role defined strategically. Each of your products must play a critical role in the growth and profitability of the business, now and in future. In a business portfolio development, each product must be described in its current and future role to your business. Your business portfolio must be in line with your business SWOT and your entire business mission and vision. To come up with an effective business portfolio that will serve your business on a long term, you must start by scanning your current business portfolio and ask yourself what role each of your product is playing currently as well as its future role in the entire business. Scanning your business environment gives a clear picture of how your business environment will be today and the future and therefore you will be able to determine the lifespan of each of your products and assigning them a more strategic role as well as allocate the right amount of resources on a long term basis. Scanning the environment will enable you to create the right strategy for your business product line. Your business portfolio must be in line with your business strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. In your business portfolio creation, you must decide on resources allocation and how that will be maintained currently and in the future, the resource allocation will be based on current and future role of your products. The relationship between your business portfolio and the strategy is that your business strategy borrows a lot from your business portfolio. Your business portfolio is the map of what products need to be killed, replaced and which products needs to be maintained and for how long and any products extension your business might need in future. I always say that a business portfolio is your entire marketing strategy. I would like you to start by doing the following: Start by scanning your business environment, and develop your long term product strategy. But all the above are tied to carrying out a market segmentation.

Now you you see how important it is for you to take time to develop and grow a great business. Always remember that no one said that starting a business was going to be a walk in the park. Developing and growing a business is never for the weak, neither is it for the lazy, its for those of us who are dedicated and willing to take that extra mile, that is why we are known as entrepreneurs. Are you like us? are you an entrepreneur? If yes go out there and start a business