Growing a Venture
From Entrepedia: The Entrepreneurship Wiki
In order to raise your chances of continuing a successful venture, it is important to understand your business and all of the components that factor into running it. This includes not only the major events and key components, but also the crucial daily tasks which make up your venture. For example, Staying Strong in a Recession might require a different approach to running your enterprise, such as a change in Marketing, Business Strategy or Finances and Funding.
You should not only familiarise yourself with the core activities of your venture, you should also make sure that you practice Networking and maintain connections which will lead you to success. These connections range from Venture Capital, Accountancy, and Legal Advisors all the way to the Recruitment of each employee involved in the Operations, Marketing, and distribution of your Product. Maintaining these connections involves a great deal of knowledge, motivation, and work on your part, but are essential to the success of your venture.
Strategy
Just because you have gotten your venture off of the ground does not mean that you no longer need a Business Strategy. Your strategy should be continually evolving and you should be looking to innovate continually as it is this strategy that will enable your venture to change, improve, and succeed.
Sales, Marketing & PR
The Sales, Marketing, and Public Relations aspects of your venture might seem like some of the more obvious components, unlikely to be forgotten or neglected due to their importance; however, just because they are remembered doesn't mean that they are being employed to their full potential. You should be continually involved in expanding your understanding and improving the Sales, Marketing, and Public Relations of your Product.
Human Resources
Although many entrepreneurs may start off on their own or in a small group or partnership (see Business Structure), once your venture reaches a point where you can no longer be responsible for the entirety of operations you will be required to build your Team through the Recruitment of additional staff. In order to manage your team you will need to focus on the Human Resources aspect of your business.
Finance
Raising Finance involves much more than Cash Flow issues; you may require further funding at some point in the life of your venture, and you will almost certainly need to track and manage the return expectations of your Venture Capital or interest payments on a Loans. You may require Accountancy services at some point, but you should also be familiar with Cash Flow projections and Financial Reports yourself.
Legal Issues
The importance of Legal Issues in Growing a Venture cannot be overstated; in addition to ensuring that you are aware of any Intellectual Property rights laws that are pertinent to your business, you should also be aware of the potential pitfalls or extra costs that Legal Advisors can incur, and how you might be able to avoid them.
Operations
It can be easy to get caught up in the daily Operations of your business, and to find yourself trapped in a pattern of doing things. However, sometimes it can be beneficial to make changes to see what is most efficient and effective for your venture at that particular stage. You might also come across changes or events which may disrupt daily operations, such as the need to change Premises, improve your Supplier Management or streamline your IT Services.
Suppliers
You will have to decide which Suppliers can best provide you with the goods or services necessary to keep your venture running in the most efficient and productive way possible. You will need to think about Hardware Supply, Software Supply, perhaps even which Email Software to use or the most economical way to manage Printing; you might even require the Recruitment of specialist Software Engineers.
IT Services
There is an overwhelming variety of IT Services which you can use to streamline your business, improving efficiency but often at a lower cost. However, finding out about these services, understanding the IT Terminology, knowing where to access them, and deciding which are trustworthy and which really aren't can be a difficult and confusing process; that is, if you don't have a starting point.
