Explore your business potential
Overview
This standard is for entrepreneurs who need to explore their business potential. You are the most important asset in your business, so it is important to make sure that your business is supporting your lifestyle, business objectives and financial goals you are aiming to achieve from your business. Exploring your business potential involves comparing what you give with what you get out of your business, looking at your own role in your business, balancing your own needs with those of your business.
You might do this if you are:
just starting a business or social enterprise;
reviewing your business or a social enterprise;
reviewing your reasons for continuing to run your business or social enterprise.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
- identify the objectives and financial goals for your business
- analyse the activities in your business
- analyse what you want personally from your business
- assess the benefits you get from your business
- identify what you are prepared to risk personally for your business
- identify the advantages and disadvantages of running your own business
- define your role in your business, what parts you enjoy and your strengths
- identify aspects of your business that you may not enjoy and where you will need to develop skills
- think about your lifestyle and decide what is most important, and least important
- define what you are putting into your business and what you hope to get out of it
- collate all relevant information, including the views of customers and stakeholders about your business
- carry out market research to identify the gaps in the market, trends and insights
- explore opportunities for your business to grow
- research your competitors in the market
- identify the direction of your business in the future
- set targets for your business
- decide how you can balance your own needs with your business needs
- change what you do to improve your own and your business's performance
- ensure you are reaching your targets and create actions if these are not met
- set yourself new targets when previous targets are met
- monitor your performance to see how it is affecting the success of your business
- decide what your strengths and weaknesses are and decide if you need to develop your knowledge, skills and behaviours
- re-assess and review targets for your performance on a regular basis
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
Business focus
1. the information on the overall needs of your business
2. your business plans that may need new skills or general management support
3. the objectives and financial goals for your business
4. the sales promotional activities
5. the advantages and disadvantages of running your own business
6. the potential achievements from your business, such as financial rewards, personal achievement, independence, business success
7. the regular activities in the short, medium and long terms to run your business
Yourself
8. the types of investments into your business, such as time, money, commitment, enthusiasm, and creativity
9. how to analyse your aims in the short term, medium term and long term
10. the difference between your own personal needs and the needs and aims of your business
11. how much money you need to live per week, month or year
12. the gross income your business must make to give you the money you need to live on
13. the effect of gaining or losing any benefits or working tax credit that you may be entitled to
14. how to make business work and how this may affect your lifestyle
15. the potential risks and how much risk you feel comfortable taking
Your skills
16. your business generating skills
17. the information you require to support and develop your own business skills and abilities
18. your technical skills and experience you have in making the product or providing the service
19. your operational skills to make your business work
20. your managerial and other skills, such as marketing research, developing a business strategy, new ideas and creativity
Your performance
21. your ability to deal with opportunities and threats (for example, any changes in the market, new technologies, threats from competitors or meeting new laws and regulations)
22. how you could improve your contribution to business success (for example, delegating work to others, recruiting more staff, training yourself and others)
23. how to monitor and assess your own performance to identify changes
Consultation
24. why it is important to seek feedback from various sources, such as from family, funders, stakeholders, customers
Information and advice
25. where to find help required for assessing your performance
Scope/range
Scope Performance
Scope Knowledge
Values
Behaviours
Skills
- Managing paperwork
- Generating business
- Sales promotional activities
- Sales and marketing
- Finances
- Purchasing
- Complying with business law
- Getting supplies
- Maintaining equipment
- Monitoring quality
- Getting publicity
- Writing promotional materials
- Strategic thinking
- Communication
- Dealing with stakeholders
- Management and leadership
- Negotiation
- Decision-making
- Problem-solving and delegation