The best part of living in the digital age is having an abundance of information right at your fingertips. We love it don’t we? Except that sometimes it’s the sheer volume, abundance and accessibility of this same information that will come crashing down on us like an avalanche if we’re not careful.
When starting a new business, you can be provided with, or you can source, a huge amount of information. You can start asking about one thing, and end up talking or reading about something completely different hours later. And at the end of it, you can find that you don’t really have a solid direction or straight answer about anything at all. I see this happen all of the time!
My very clear advice to you here is this, do not overwhelm yourself with research. Just because it’s there, that doesn’t mean that you need to climb up through all of it and somehow force it to fit into your business plans.
Follow instead some of these key steps. Ask yourself ‘What is my product/service?’, ‘Who is my client and what are they thinking?’, and finally ‘What problems does my business solve or provide a solution for?’. Now start planning from that platform. You’ll be amazed at the clarity you start to achieve and how strong your planning can be from this angle!
It’s at this point that you start to pull together your Business Plan which will determine your target market, your marketing strategies, your cash flow, where you’ll find your clients and how you might communicate with them be it via social media, brochures or emails, etc. What you’ll find is that you’ll start to see your lead generation, how you get those clients and how you can keep them; and what you need to do to keep on reinventing yourself to maintain and grow. You plan, you market, you generate. This is your new cycle! How much easier is that?!
So don’t succumb to the overwhelm. You know your product/service best and so that’s exactly where you should start your research and planning from. Advice is always handy, but you certainly don’t need all of it – nobody does. Don’t give in to the mountainous avalanche, take what you need and keep on trekking the path you know is best for your business! This is the best way to end up exactly where you want to be!
I am a passionate Career Coach who works with individuals in the explore and search phase of their career journey, helping you realise your strengths through my career coaching and training programs. I enjoy showing people the path to greater career satisfaction and providing insight and tools to help you make your next career move.
