Business is a commercial organization to seek profit by selling value in the form of goods or services. It should be noted that business is an organization, so that freelancers or content creator is rather difficult to say as a business, and more precisely to be called self-employment.

In planning a business, it is common to find planning using the executive plan, business model canvas, and others. But according to Raymond Chin, the best way to build a business from scratch is to “keep the planning very simple”. According to him, business execution that makes a person successful is basically an execution that is carried out immediately, gets positive feedback, and is repeated continuously.

The 5 main steps in business execution are as follows: 

Step 1: Define the idea

By running a business, it means that we offer products that have value to potential customers. The products we offer can be in the form of goods or services. Often aspiring entrepreneurs get stuck in the phase of determining the perfect product to start a business, and end up not starting at all. In fact, we don’t have to wait for the perfect idea to get started. The important point to note is that the products that we will offer have enough possibilities for other people to buy.

The main factors that can be considered in determining the optimal business idea is to consider the needs of the market and the scarcity factor. It is very important to pay attention to the needs of the market so that we do not make products that are not needed in the market, so that they have a value much smaller than what we expected. The scarcity factor has to do with our competition and that of other businesses in the same sector. How valuable is the product we provide? How rare are our products? In other words, the key to a good idea is rare and valuable.

Step 2: Do some research on the business idea

This is an important thing to do to find out how good an idea is to apply to the real world. Analyze and define the target market of our business. Then look at competitors who are in the same realm as our business. Find out their advantages and disadvantages. Calculate the details of what is needed and what is obtained from the business we create. For example, how much income can we generate each month, how many products can we sell each month, or where do we get the funds to run our business. 

Step 3: Operation

In building a business, it’s necessary to instill a mindset that business is an organization, and a system needs to be made so that the business can continue to stand and run well. In the early stages, maybe we have to handle the whole operation process alone. No problem, this will actually make us understand the business more because we are already trained to do technical things in business. However, over time, it’s important to build a system to make the business run automatically, for example by hiring managers to manage the business we have.

By automating business, we will have more time to think about improve a product quality or marketing strategy, so that our business can continue to grow.

Step 4: Marketing

In the early stages of starting a business, marketing maybe more important than the product itself. This is because when we sell products to customers, we can immediately get feedback, and feedback is a very valuable thing as a direction to develop the business.

Marketing itself can be done in two ways, namely inbound and outbound. In inbound marketing, we make efforts to attract the attention of potential customers. For example by creating social media accounts, advertisements, and others. In outbound marketing, we become more active in offering the products we sell, by directly contacting potential customers and offering to buy the products we have.

Another thing that can be added to the marketing strategy is make sure the uniqueness of our products. We can make product designs that are more different from the others, include taglines or characteristics to a product. This will attract the attention of potential buyers and also at the same time give a strong memory to the buyer.

Step 5: Customer Satisfaction

The most important stage in a business is to make sure consumers are satisfied with the products we have. For example, in an online store business, it is necessary to pay attention to replying to messages from customers immediately, packing well, and maintaining the quality of the goods sold so as not to experience any defects. Consumer satisfaction must be a priority because it is at this stage that consumers determine whether to return to buy the products we have.