The Clifton Review  

The Clifton Review is a tri-weekly column that examines the question of the Clifton project along with the evolution of the war between two billionaires. We covered the start of this war with articles describing the battle over easement rights, the mysterious burning of a home, the blocks to rebuilding, and countless questionable court filings.

While the 2018 series salutes fashion mogul Peter Nygård’s Golden Jubilee detailing his rags to riches story, his incredible business success over these past fifty years and an inside look at how he did it, The Clifton Review will also continue to address current affairs as they relate to the good of The Bahamas.  

3 Strategies for Many Business Situations

By P.J. Malone 

Running a business and trying to ensure its success is a daunting task. Yet, succeed you must, especially if you have risked it all and jumped into the unknown with both feet.

The good news is that no matter what challenges you face on the road ahead, there are lots of resources to guide you, especially since the advent of the Internet.

So, to wrap this all up before moving on to other business tools, let’s look at a few more strategies for averting threats. Since it is difficult to cover every possible threat to your business that’s out there, here are three strategies that can help in many situations.

You can use it with family and friends or loyal customers who would be willing to support you in your efforts. In your discussion, present the threats that your business faces. Also present your strengths and ask the participants to help you come up with strategies for ensuring your business is able to survive and thrive given the threats.

Even if you don’t perceive any real threats out there (though your internal weaknesses can pose a problem for your business) you can use the focus group to help you come up with strategies for taking advantage of opportunities that are out there also.

So, it might be a good idea to spend some time putting together several Plan Bs for challenges that you could face in your business.

If you have a challenge with cash flow, adding a new product or service to your existing offerings is a way to get more sales and more money coming in.

If you have a new competitor, this strategy is a way to differentiate your business from theirs.

If you are losing customers or market share, this is an opportunity to try and make more money from the customers who are left.

The best way to get the most out of this strategy is to ensure that the product or service you add on is related to what you already offer in order to make it a compelling buy. Here is an example of a compelling buy that no doubt boost sales:

A company came up with a sales strategy targeted to those individuals who don’t necessarily want to own a big coffee-making machine. (Note: there are a number of products for making small amounts of filtered coffee.) What this company did was to create an inexpensive plastic filter for making one cup of coffee and included a free coffee cup as well as severalfree disposable coffee filter liners in the packaging—all for $5.

It was a very easy choice for customers to purchase it. The catch though is that you have to keep buying the disposable filters to continue to use the filter. It was a clever way of hooking a customer and getting ongoing sales on filters. It’s a strategy that several businesses use.

Now that you have the SWOT tool for assessing your business,and ideas and strategies for averting threats, you should feel a little less stressful about your business.

We will continue providing strategy examples from fashion mogul Peter Nygard that helped him take his business from failing to a multi-million-dollar success over the last 50 years.