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In business you must always identify the main success factors in the industry you operate in, of-course, by identifying them and taking them into consideration it will help your business succeed insha Allah (if Allah wills). Various industries have different success factors, however, in order for any business to survive, owners must determine what customers want and determine what the business needs to do to stay competitive. So how do you determine what your customers want? You first have to know who your customers are. For example are they students or working class individuals. You will have to make an enquiry about their needs and then you make enquiries about how they make a choice between similar products. This could be achieved via a focus group or questionnaires. Once the preferences of your potential customers have been identified, then the factors that could help your business stay profitable could be identified. For example, in the cement industry if customers buy products based on quality and cost efficiency then you must combine product differentiation with a low cost strategy.
Determining how to stay competitive requires understanding the nature of competition in the industry. You should enquire about how intense competition is in the industry and look for ways to obtain a good competitive position. Do you need to have the best form of technology to stay competitive? For example the mobile phone companies need to keep coming up with better products cause their products have a shorter life spans and competitors could overtake them, as such you will need equipments that will help you develop better products or does your business need a lot of capital to stay competitive. You will have to carry out a research based on all I have discussed above to stay profitable while achieving sustainable growth. Most of all, your business has to be halal. Everything happens according to the will of Allah.
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