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Diversify and Grow – Solidify Your Business by Growing Up and/or Out!. Douglas J. Zogby, CPCU Got Game Consulting www.gotgameconsulting.com. What Do These Organizations Have In Common?. Oldsmobile & Pontiac Borders Books Blockbuster Video. What do these Entities have in Common!.
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Diversify and Grow – Solidify Your Business by Growing Up and/or Out! Douglas J. Zogby, CPCU Got Game Consulting www.gotgameconsulting.com www.gotgameconsulting.com
What Do These Organizations Have In Common? • Oldsmobile & Pontiac • Borders Books • Blockbuster Video www.gotgameconsulting.com
What do these Entities have in Common! Toyota/Scion Amazon Panera Bread www.gotgameconsulting.com
Diversifying Your Business It starts with defining yourself as what you do, not what you make www.gotgameconsulting.com
International Marketing Guru Seth Godin Said… “In most interactions, we take a defensive posture. We try to defend the brand, or our turf or our job. The problem with defense is that it’s static. The best way to get smarter, to embrace and to cause change and to triumph in times of market turmoil is to adopt the scientific method. Ask yourself, ‘what do I believe that’s wrong? How can I change the way I do things? What works? What doesn’t?’ If you enter a conversation looking for something to test, measure and ultimately change, it’s likely you’ll find it. That change makes you more competitive, and you continue to cycle past your competitors. On the other hand, if you enter a conversation concerned about maintaining the status quo, it’s likely that this is exactly what you’re going to do… create a culture of testing and inquiry that can’t help but push you forward.” www.gotgameconsulting.com
Expand Your Horizons Maintain your core proposition if that is what you have built your reputation around, but think about taking on suitable additional products and services so you can deliver additional income to your business and help guarantee its survival. Every time you broaden your scope and do it well, you will empower yourself and your staff as well as your customers. www.gotgameconsulting.com
Why Diversify? Seems Very Risky……. • Diversifying your business can cut your risk or raise it. • The most risky time for any new business is the start-up phase. • Approx 75% of new businesses fail in the first year and about half that do survive will fail within the first 5 years. www.gotgameconsulting.com
Diversify Your Business to Defy the Downturn There are three very important benefits of diversification that you must first be aware of: • It broadens your offering, making your services more attractive to more customers; • It mitigates lost revenue streams and allows continued involvement in business; and • It creates annuity streams and provides you with an asset that you can capitalize on when selling your business. www.gotgameconsulting.com
Types of Diversification • Vertical – Look at the entire process of what the buyer needs and bring it all in-house. • Horizontal – This can provide organizations with an increased market share by diversifying its appeal to layers of consumers. www.gotgameconsulting.com
So Grow Up? Grow Out? Or Both? How can you grow your business? Should you diversify your business What does diversify mean? Direct areas of diversification Indirect areas of diversification Is Multiplicity the way to go? www.gotgameconsulting.com
How Do You Diversify your Business? Why do I need a business plan? Start with a Business Plan What are the 7 elements of a good business plan? www.gotgameconsulting.com
Element #1 Executive Summary www.gotgameconsulting.com
Element #2 The Business Description www.gotgameconsulting.com
Element #3 Market Strategies www.gotgameconsulting.com
Element #4 Competitive Analysis www.gotgameconsulting.com
Element #5 Design and Development Plan www.gotgameconsulting.com
Element #6 Operations and Management Plan www.gotgameconsulting.com
Element #7 Financial Component www.gotgameconsulting.com
More Wisdom from Seth “You’ve probably seen it. The fish monger sees a decline in business, so they have less money to spend on upkeep and inventory, so they keep the fish a bit longer and don’t clean up as often, so of course, business declines and then they have even less money. Eventually, you have an empty, smelly fish store that’s out of business. www.gotgameconsulting.com
As Tom Peters say’s ‘You can’t shrink your way to greatness,’ and yet that’s what so many dying businesses try to do. They hunker down and wait for things to get better, but they don’t.” www.gotgameconsulting.com
OK, So Where Does the Money Come From? • Public Financing • Banks • Private Financing • Do you give up equity? • Do you need an exit strategy? www.gotgameconsulting.com
So…Do I Practice what I Preach? www.gotgameconsulting.com