Why It’s Important to Lay a Foundation for Everything in Your Business
What is a foundation? A dictionary definition would describe it as an underlying basis or principle. If you wanted to learn how to be a great tennis player, then you would need a solid foundation in fitness. If you wanted to be a great pianist, then you’d need a foundation in music. In other words, to learn something more complicated, you need to break it down into smaller steps and focus on learning the basic principles before you move on.
Laying a foundation is the key to maintaining and growing a successful business. Every single component of your business needs to have a solid basis on which your company is based on. For instance, your business could be built on the pillars of solid customer satisfaction and communication. Your ethos could be based around advancing technology, or maybe you prefer to go the value route and promise your customers to provide the best prices for your products. Whatever you chose, it all needs to have a solid foundation on which you build.
Employee culture
Of all the challenges that your business can face, managing employees is one of the toughest. This is because your employees can be incredibly unpredictable and their motives and interests will always clash, creating a lot of problems within the workplace. However, if you have a solid foundation on how you treat your employees and how you expect them to treat each other, managing your business becomes much easier.
For starters, establish how you want to treat your employees. Some companies, such as Amazon, are known for their poor treatment of employees because they push their workers to the extremes in the name of productivity. They want the most from their employees, meaning they’ll monitor them from the moment they step foot into the workplace till the moment they leave. This can put a lot of stress on the staff, but this undoubtedly works for Amazon due to their immaculate reputation in terms of customer satisfaction.
However, if you prefer to maintain a good relationship with your staff because you’re a small company, then make sure you treat them with respect. Understand that everyone has their role to play in the office, but also consider what their situation is at home as well. Let them take breaks after stressful periods at work, give them more time with their families, and take the time to understand their problems and work out a solution to them together.
Structural foundations
If we’re talking about foundations, we can’t forget the physical foundation that our business sits on. If you’ve rented an office or business premises then you’re probably fine. However, if you plan to expand in the future, then you’re going to need a materials testing service to give you a hand. This is because when you buy a plot of land to construct something on, it needs to best thoroughly tested for health and safety purposes. The soil might be unstable, you might find nasty surprises after digging a foundation, and it’s generally not a good idea to build on a surface that won’t last.
If you neglect these safety measures, then not only are you putting your business at risk if it collapses, you’re also putting the health and safety of your employees at risk. The last thing you want is to end up in an accident that seriously injures your workers because you neglected to perform a routine safety check before building, so always keep your foundations in mind.
Promotional campaigns
Some companies can be known for the most ridiculous and silly promotions. However, switching gears too often is a bad idea, and you need to have a solid foundation on which to engage with your customers. For instance, if you could be known for having fantastic social media skills that both promote engagement among customers and also give the media a lot of material which they can use to report on your everyday activities.
But before you decide on how you can spin your campaign with your personality, there are some core components that every good promotional campaign needs. First, you need to establish your goals. Are you trying to get more people to buy a specific product, are you trying to generate excitement for an upcoming product, or are you just trying to raise awareness around the website you have? Next, you need to decide who you are targeting. For example, if you have a new product in your range that aims at children, then not only are you targeting teenagers, but you also need to subtly target parents in order to convince them to buy it for their children. Without a solid promotional foundation, you’ll get nowhere with your flashy adverts and expensive campaigns.