This free program has provided technical assistance to San Francisco businesses for 40+ years, all to create jobs and income for low- and moderate-income residents of the city. In such instances boutique consultancy firms come in handy to for example support a particular project or give advice on matters related to a specific topic such as law, finance or HR. Larger corporations often make use of larger management consultancy firms to identify existing organizational problems and development of plans for improvement. We receive our financial support from WTAMU, the United States Small Business Administration, the State of Texas and other sources.

Know the main targeted audience or clients for your current business and try reaching them out and make them interested in it. Getting new clients will also be done when you satisfy your current clients sufficiently, the mouth to mouth word is a big thing that helps you in bringing new clients. Being creative in this regard goes a long way in ensuring that any new and unforeseen challenges contribute to sustainable growth of a company rather than its demise. Successful business development takes a multi-disciplinary approach in that it involves financial, advertising and legal skills.

Reduce spend on low-impact actions — although you may have a tradition of using newspaper ads, job fairs, and large job boards, they often produce only mediocre candidates and have a relatively high cost. However, it’s also important that they educate leads about what solutions your company offers and start demonstrating their value so any potential misalignment is rooted out early. The Lean business principle of Defer Commitment is critical for Lean business development.

They must communicate with the other departments of the organization effectively and represent their organization in front of the business clients. Business development involves identifying new business opportunities, marketing opportunities, partnership opportunities, new markets, after sales follow up as well as generation of orders, sales and leads. They come in the form of governmental institutions providing funding and support to entrepreneurs, and private institutions in the form of business angels and venture capitalists, business incubators and seed accelerators, second stage business accelerators, boutique consultancy firms, and large management consulting houses.

Everyone knows that business development directly feeds company growth, but some companies don’t invest nearly enough to grow. Evidently, there is no single type of business development strategy that will be enough for any business. Since I began working with Denise Mendiola, I have felt that our business has had a gentle hand to guide our company. The objective is to retain all the virtues of being small while growing through development of the business. Jennifer Stephens brings 10+ years of grassroots and formal economic development experience to her role as Missoula SBDC Regional Director.