Operate

First off, congratulations are in order! Look at you with your own business, doing boss things! We are so happy that you have made it this far – because this is where the real work begins – but fear not, because we are here with you every step of the way to help you not only operate but also sustain your business.

We’ll be looking at business operations on a holistic scale, which will include paperwork (we know it`s daunting, but hang in there), financials, human resources, marketing, building your business notoriety, and every other step from procurement to production and transacting. Let’s get started!

Structure

The first plan of action as a now operating venture is to plan a structure, by now you have looked at your market and identified your target clientele, and in order to deliver on your promises you must have an idea of how your business will operate in order to reach your goals. This is where you plan your finances around your current budget, taking into consideration your bills, rent, comparison of suppliers, cost of production and or packaging, transportation, salaries (if you have workers), and project how long your current budget will be able to sustain your expenses until you make enough profit to break even.

Pricing

Pricing your services or products can be tricky as you will have to be bear in mind the prices of similar goods and services, the financial features of your target market (consider the fact that many workers in Botswana earn lean incomes), and demographics such as age and interests, as a youth-owned business whose majority customers will be youth, does your pricing cater to their pockets? And more importantly, make sure that the strategy you used in settling on your prices is the correct one. There are 2 strategies used when choosing how to price, which are;

Fixed pricing – It is a strategy in which a price point is established and maintained for an extended period of time.
Dynamic pricing – It means the price on a product or service can change over time.

After deciding on a pricing strategy, you will need to choose pricing models

Branding & advertising

This is where advertising, branding, sponsoring and all around marketing comes in because people have to know that your business exists. The number one way of marketing in Botswana is through social media, which is not surprising because that is where almost everybody is. So there is your answer on how to reach your target audience and future customers quicker and easier! Post, Tag, Share, Repeat! Depending on the age group you would like to reach, that is, use whatever form of reaching out at your disposal. Of course print media is not to be cast to the sidelines as a lot of Batswana (mostly the older generations) still look to papers and magazines for purchases, find out where your target customers are mostly found and go there. As a young start-up trying to get into the scene, various marketing channels such as Business to Business (B2B) marketing may be of use. This is where a business advertises another business’s product or service for the same favour to be returned. You may team up with an already established and well-known business for this tit-for-tat. For the best digital marketing tools comprising of; Google Analytics, Mailchimp, Hootsuite, BuzzSumo, KWFinder, HubSpot, Canva, Ahrefs, Slack and Yoast.

What makes us move forward

One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little

Operate

Structure

Pricing

Branding & advertising

What makes us move forward

Peloton

Fitbit

Blue Bottle

Evident

Goodreads

Assistly

Backtype

Hardware Ring