Running your business is one thing, building sustainable value in your business requires planning and strategy. You need to ensure your hard work is captured in the value of the business for any potential future exit. So we want to make sure our business accumulates value for when the time is right.
There are four main drivers that you can control:
- Innovation: Utilising technology, processes or new thinking allows your business to operate at a lower cost, with more efficiency. Using fewer resources leads to increased profits that drive value. This process can be achieved by questioning everything you do and seeking new thinking and solutions to create a competitive advantage over competitors.
- Intellectual Property (IP): Allows you to identify and capture the value drivers of your business, a focus on creating IP and protecting these assets creates value across the business that can be substantiated and commercialised;
- Branding: The single biggest driver of value for any business is the building of a trusted and recognisable Brand that customers are prepared to pay a premium for based on your value proposition. Brand value creates greater profits and value for the business over time.
- Trusted relationships: Are critical across all stakeholders in the business, from maintaining a stable and happy workforce to creating a reliable supply chain to maintaining a loyal customer base who will support your business during any economic fluctuations.
So adding progressive value to your business is a logical process and does not happen by itself proactively. You need to spend time on it, plan it and nurture it for an extended period of time while offering a unique product or service in your niche market. That is what we call a golden rule of raising a brand from zero to hero.
