Effective Business Tools

There are a wide variety of effective business tools available to the businessperson today, irrespective of the size of your business. The advent of the personal computer and other modern technologies has spawned a dazzling array of effective business tools, all offering you that “special advantage”.

From the business owner’s perspective, any effective business tool should be seen to be adding to the profitability of the business. If it doesn’t, then why use it? Of course there will not always be a direct connection between the tool and the profit line, but there needs to be awareness in the business that any particular tool being used is helping and not hindering the bottom line.

The interesting thing about the majority of business tools being offered to businesses is that they add to the bottom line by SAVING the business time and money. Most effective business tools work by streamlining business processes, thereby reducing time and cost factors in the business.

However, you can only save so much. If your business is going to keep functioning then you can improve processes and save time and money up to an optimum point. Try to cut back further than that point and you will run into trouble sooner rather than later.

So while all these process improving tools have their place in any business, the most effective business tools are those tools that help you GENERATE income – and there aren’t too many of those types of business tools around.

To my way of thinking, the most effective business tool that any business can utilize to their advantage is a practical, business specific marketing plan. By business specific I mean tailored to your business, not a generic marketing plan stretched and panel beaten until it sort of fits your requirements.

The best, most effective marketing plan starts from scratch and draws on all the unique aspects of your business and then uses those unique factors to formulate a marketing plan that will work for your business – and not every other business in your sector. If it will work for everybody else, then where is your advantage? – it is then no longer an effective business tool.

Producing a simple yet effective marketing plan for your business is an inclusive process that requires a lot of insight into the environment in which you operate - or want to operate.

No outsider or bunch of prewritten templates is going to give you a unique, effective and practical marketing plan that has the potential to generate your business massive profits.

A simple, specific and practical marketing plan - now that’s what I call an effective business tool!

Keith Perrett is a qualified Veterinarian and Business owner. His ideal way of developing a simple yet highly practical marketing plan for any business or undertaking can be found at http://www.themarketingmanual.com.