Competing in a noisy world is hard. When there are many like you, you need to gain an advantage to stand out. Getting this right means building your business differently. Here is how…

Imagine you were in the cup business. Cups are a necessity so that’s a good business to be in. But Many people think so and therefore many people are in this business all competing to get ahead and grow.

Across seven events in 3 days, I met over 1,500 business owners. The biggest, a fourth-generation family business achieving R450m annual revenues. The smallest, a 9-month-old township business growing towards R78 000 annual revenues. A smorgasbord of entrepreneurs, business owners and warriors. All fighting against increasingly tough odds, to simply survive. Many, thriving too.

Within friction, lies opportunity or demise. If products are products, which they mostly are, and service is service, which it mostly is, where is the next edge of competition? Friction holds the key to unlock your advantage. As it does for your competitors too.

In building our businesses, we get completely wrapped up in the daily demands and pressures that govern our lives. Suddenly, we look up and January is December and your 35 years of age is 55 years of age. Being clear on what we are doing and why is likely to be the most important decision any business owner can make. That requires ‘starting with the end in mind’ to turn daily action into behaviour that will deliver that end.

There are two types of business outcome you can decide to pursue. An equity or income model with both offering advantages and disadvantages. Understand them, contemplate them and then decide which you want at the end of your work effort. This way, your time will yield a return rather than a nasty surprise when its too late to do anything else.

It might not seem like it with trade wars, Brexit and burgeoning nationalistic intentions across many countries today…but the world is getting smaller. Technology has ensured this. Today, you might be the king in your industry and tomorrow, a minnow from a far away place usurps your market knocking you from your throne.

In a world that’s changing so fast, uncertainty erodes the confidence of even the smartest, most experienced businesspeople in almost every sector.

Perspective becomes critical to take a step back, understand the trends driving the change, and develop an approach to your business that is likely to position it as relevant to the future.

The noise can be reduced to three main levers of change that are reshaping the business environment of tomorrow.  Understanding these trends and creating a strategy to build your business into the future is the benefit of perspective that translates into valuable action.

It’s fair to say that the world has never been so noisy, competitive, impatient and uncertain. Customers and clients are harder to reach than ever before and all services and products are becoming commoditised offers, draining margins whilst operating costs relentlessly increase.

Positioning to win in this environment requires a complete rethink about your business and how you present it to your market. Getting this right will help you to land your message and offer more simply; to reach your target market more affordably; and to generate greater engagement and sales.

When is enough, enough? Well, it’s now enough, especially when promises made are broken!

Prosecutions, Eskom, Investment, jobs – they were all promised. And there was a plan. And we are nowhere.

Feeling betrayed and lied to. Get angry. But there is a risk. Anger, if not well directed, can turn in on you. If suppressed, it acts against you. It needs to be ventilated. But how do you do this and remain positive in thought and action. It needs both. Thought alone is not enough because thought alone can turn into a prayer, dream or fantasy. That’s yielded little for most. Action is the difference.

You build your business within the context of your business environment. When your business environment changes more rapidly than your growing business, the only way to build your business is to break to rebuild. On The Money Show with Bruce Whitfield, Pavlo Phitidis outlines why:

People power or hinder a business’s growth. And the people suited to your business today, might not be the right people tomorrow. What should lead and shape your people strategy and how you get it right is a complex problem. It’s one that is made a lot simpler if you have a clear strategy, know your business well, operate good systems and have time to source and select the right talent.