Making a Business Successful
Introduction
Entrepreneurs must continue to review their business
plan, evaluate their business, and look for ways
to improve.
Improvement often means change. A business must
be able to adapt to changes in the environment.
Entrepreneurs help their business adapt to change by
following a change process:
1.
Define the change.
2.
Plan how to introduce the change.
3.
Communicate with everyone who will be affected
by the change.
4.
Implement the change.
5.
Evaluate what happened after the change was
made.
6.
Make adjustments if the change is not achieving
the expected results.
Making a Business Successful
Section 1
Review the Business Plan
A regular assessment of the company’s progress can
identify mistakes in the original forecast, reveal ways to
expand the business, and increase the company’s
profit.
A review begins with the core business:
•Do the customers match the target market?
•Do the products match the plan?
•Are sales matching expectations?
•Are costs matching expectations?
Making a Business Successful
Section 2
Customer and Market Analysis
It is important to implement change carefully. Changes
are intended to enhance the business, to keep
current customers, and attract new customers.
Entrepreneurs must understand their customers, both
current and future, before deciding on change.
They understand their customers by researching and
communicating with them. This communication is
called “marketing.”
Making a Business Successful
Section 3
Implement, Evaluate, and Anticipate Change
Businesses must constantly adapt and grow to remain
successful.
There are risks to change. Stakeholders have often
become comfortable with the old environment.
Effective communication helps stakeholders overcome
their resistance to change.
Entrepreneurs usually create a formal plan for growth.
This plan shows how the company will continue to
explore new opportunities for the benefit of the
stakeholder.
Making a Business Successful
Section 4
Revise the Business Plan
A Business Plan organizes and explains the decisions
the entrepreneur has made.
Smaller companies usually do not prepare a separate
document for their growth plans. They revise their
original business plan to include the new
opportunities.
Passport21
to
Entrepreneurship
The case study characters adventure outside their
normal routine to discover new opportunities in
entrepreneurship.
Along the way they:
Recognize new business ideas
Learn new business terms
Use the decision-making process to reduce risk
Research and evaluate options to decide on the best
opportunities.
We hope you enjoy their journeys.
You can interact with the characters through the Aspire
interactive game. There is a link to the game on
your student home page.
Have fun!