5 ways to improve your business

Business leaders are always looking for ways to improve operations, cut costs and increase profitability, and this stands to reason as no business can afford to sit back and rely on continued custom. Ultimately, customers flock to proactive companies that go the extra mile to provide outstanding service and great value. No matter what the size of your business, there are ways you can improve it and ensure your workforce and customers achieve the best possible standards.

Amazon is a great example of an e-commerce business that’s taken the globe by storm. The Amazon business was launched by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and is now one of the most valuable companies in the entire world. For the year 2018 Amazon’s net profits were US $10.07bn, based on total global sales amounting to US$232bn. These amazing sales and profits figures are a real eye-opener for most business leaders, particularly as Amazon initially launched as an online bookseller!

We’re going to take a quick look at the Amazon business model now, and highlight some of the operational activities that really do ensure Amazon stands head and shoulders above other e-commerce sites. Whether these five solutions will work for your business or not is really your decision. But, you could possibly come up with your own business improvement solutions after finding out just how Jeff Bezos and his leadership team manage their own multi-billion dollar organisation.

1. Stay in touch with your workforce and customers

One key Amazon policy is to ensure the entire workforce spends a minimum of two days each year working on the service desk. All company employees, including Jeff Bezos and senior executive teams, do this. It has to be said this is a great way for every single worker to keep in touch with all key business priorities and reach a better understanding of just what customers want. Your business may not be structured along similar lines, but you surely do have some customer-facing roles, and may be able to implement a successful strategy of this nature quite easily.

2. Innovation is key to success 

Within a month of launch, the Amazon website had reached all of the US states, alongside 45 other countries. This is a truly admirable statistic to emulate, and indicative of just how innovative their business model actually is. The internet for consumers was really still in its infancy when Amazon launched, and this meant the brand could constantly strive for innovation and excellent customer service. The use of drone deliveries is due to start in the US and elsewhere, and this innovation has already proved successful in small trials in Cambridge, UK. Amazon announced in June 2019 that it hopes to schedule customer deliveries within 30 minutes of order once the drone service is fully operational.  

3. Delight your customers!

Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, so any business tips he can offer should really be classed as the “gold nuggets” by business leaders. At a recent conference in Las Vegas, he answered a query about they key to his business success by stating that business leaders should be totally “customer obsessed” and constantly striving to find ways to “delight them”. This may seem a little simplistic to some entrepreneurs, but you really can’t argue the toss when you look at Amazon’s amazing success!

4. Don’t be afraid to fail

 Another key Bezos pointer for all entrepreneurs is that they should not be put off by failure. Indeed, he seemed to hint that entrepreneurs need to take chances and be bold if they are hungry for success. He said: “You’ve gotta accept that your business is going to be in many ways an experiment, and it might fail. That’s OK. That’s what risk is.”

 Ultimately, Bezos commented that business leaders need to be accepting of the fact that failure is par for the course. Amazon Prime currently has more than 100 million subscribers, but Bezos achieved this amazing success because he was prepared to sell some products at a loss in order to be more competitive in the marketplace.

 5. Believe in your business

 It seems a little silly to stress that business owners need to have genuine belief in their products and business services, but Bezos stresses that any lack of belief will impact on the business, the workforce, and the ultimate success of the venture. He says: “You have got to have some passion for the arena that you’re going to develop and work in.” 

There you have it, some fairly simple tips to enhance business success, based on one of the most phenomenal internet e-commerce success stories we’ve ever seen!