Business Fundamentals and Strategies

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Introduction
An entrepreneur starts a new venture not only to succeed but ultimately to have the venture grow. Before an entrepreneur begins a strategy of growth and building wealth for the venture, several key fundamental puzzle pieces must be in place. This paper will explore five of these fundamentals and describe the importance of each one. It will go on to compare and contrast three growth strategies available to a business.
Improvements
When an entrepreneur brings a product or service to market, it may fill a need and bring customers to the business but the product or service may still need some work. While no product or service may ever reach a perfect state, working toward that goal is one thing an entrepreneur must do before beginning a growth strategy. This ensures the entrepreneur puts the best product or service possible in place on which to base growth.
Working toward putting the best possible product or service into the marketplace may not involve changes to the product or service itself. “The key is to listen to customers and figure out what improvements they would like to see in existing products or services” (Baron & Shane, 2008). Customer feedback offers the entrepreneur the opportunity to make improvements to the products and services the organization offers. Feedback may identify what purchases they make and the value those purchases offers them. Feedback may also help to identify ways to encourage the customers to purchase more from the organization. Based on feedback, the organization could make changes to the product or service that makes it more valuable to its customers.
Feedback based on purchases is not the only feedback an entrepreneur needs to pay attention to when looking to grow. The orga...

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...trepreneur. (2013). Diversification. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/diversification
Hill, B. (2013). About business financial planning. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/business-financial-planning-2675.html
Kearns, S. (2012). How to improve your product or service. Retrieved from http://blog.intuit.com/marketing/how-to-improve-your-product-or-service/
Matthews, D. (2012). Plan for growth II: Writing a business growth plan. Retrieved from http://esellermedia.com/2012/11/27/plan-for-growth-ii-writing-a-business-growth-plan/
Odland, S. (2012). 5 ways to control costs. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveodland/2012/02/15/5-ways-to-control-costs/
Sugars, B. (2010). 10 tips for a strong start. Make sure you have a clear vision and plan--and that you stick to them. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/204982

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