Passionate about their companies and established in their markets, our Fast Runners need tools─tools they typically don't have access to─to take their businesses to the next level.
Data analytics is one of those tools. And thanks to Bpeacer and strategy consultant Helen Qubain and her workshop "Framework for Business Growth: Defining your Core Business," it is helping Fast Runners evolve their growth strategies from opportunistic and haphazard, to data-driven and strategic.
USING DATA TO ANALYZE SALES
Helen Qubain in Guatemala.
In the book, "The Science of Growth: How Facebook Beat Friendster--and How Nine Other Startups Left the Rest in the Dust," author Sean Ammirati's research reveals that using data successfully is a huge differentiator when it comes to growth. This was a crucial message in Helen's workshop facilitated in Guatemala last month.
Helen took the Fast Runners through an exercise where they analyzed sales by client and by product. Afterwards, they were asked: "If your sales decrease by 50%, what products would you still be selling?" "What about if your sales decrease by 70%?" Many lightbulb moments ensued:
One business owner with
90 products realized that he doesn't know which product has the best profit, or the worst.
Another wanted to get rid of a client, but when she realized that the client provides
23% of the business's profit, she changed her mind.
One Fast Runner resisted the exercise and insisted that if sales went down, she would go out and try to sell more. Helen asked, "What if you have to close the factory?" The answer: "I will buy my products from someone else and print beautiful designs on them." Aha! The business owner realized that
packaging and designs are her differentiators - enabling her to see a repeatable formula she could apply across her business units to better target and pitch clients.
This workshop is now a central component of the Fast Runner program. Bpeace Board Director Mark Fleming will conduct the workshop in El Salvador this summer for the 20 new Fast Runners we welcomed last week─pictured below with Priyadarshi Sen, Economic Officer with the U.S. Embassy.
Priyadarshi Sen explaining how important Bpeace is to the U.S. Embassy's economic growth objectives.
HAVE AN IDEA FOR A BUSINESS WORKSHOP?
With a grant from the U.S Embassy in El Salvador, Bpeace will conduct 10 business workshops on different topics for our Fast Runners. The majority of the workshops are planned, but if you have a burning idea or a presentation that could help business owners with their growth strategies, we are always open to new ideas.
