Ever thought about what truly separates your business from everyone else?

Is it product? Location? Price?

The truth is that when you peel it right back to the basics, all businesses are the same.

Doesn’t matter if it’s a shoe shop, an online retailer or a bank, everything a business does is the same.

  Businesses sell products or services to a customer base for a price.  

It’s that simple

While the customer will expect a different outcome from each business they deal with – like not getting a new pair of shoes from a bank – the outcome of every business will always be the same – turn a profit through the sale of products or services.

So if all businesses are the same, how do you stand out from the crowd?

It’s not hard to stand out from the crowd, especially if you adopt three simple ideas into your business

  1. Use your data wisely

Data is an asset. Like assets it needs to be looked after if you want it to drive your business growth. 

Clean it. Get it under control. Put it in the right place. Make it work for your business. 

The best thing you can do is encourage a culture that is data-focused, one that realizes the importance of security and privacy, as well as understanding that data is crucial to your businesses success.

Just don’t be creepy.

  1. Develop a sustainable digital strategy

Businesses who take a strategy-first approach to their digital environment are more likely to select the tools that are right for them, thereby increasing their company value and reducing waste.

It must identify your desired future state, and describe the right approach to delivering change into your business at each point in time in order to achieve this. It also needs to be vibrant, dynamic and adaptive to the changing environment.

A strategy is not just a battle plan, it’s a war plan. 

  1. Put your customer at the heart of everything you do

Because with out a customer, who’s going to buy your product? 

What are you doing to differentiate your business?

If the only lever you’re pulling is price, you’re not really that different from anyone else. 

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Testimonials

"One of Ant's strengths is relating to owners in a visionary sense and talking to people who are on the ground...[Ant has a] wide understanding of different systems, processes and applications and can articulate where we're going and what the possibilities are...working with Ant has changed the way we make decisions about IT structures and support systems."

Felicity Hopkins, Director - Research Review

We hired Ant to support us with an important project after he was highly recommended by colleagues. Ant was responsive, speedy, super-helpful and helped us to make key decisions. We appreciated his broad experience, and his ability to hold a high level strategic view alongside expert advice on details. We will definitely be consulting with Ant again and are happy to recommend him.

Gaynor Parkin, CEO at Umbrella Wellbeing

"We don’t need a full-time CTO [chief technology officer]. Ant knows enough about our business he can deliver it virtually. He can translate things for us. During project management, Ant came into his own... Ant gets his head round your business and [took his time] understanding our context. He was really clear about pausing on investment into the app...Ant's inquisitive, curious and approachable - he's very easy to work with."

Gus McIntosh, Chief Executive - Winsborough

"Ant was really quick to understand the business model and our processes and IT structures."

James Armstrong, Director - MediData

"Ant helped us at the early stages of Aerotruth helping us to plan our technical infrastructure and ensure we built a product that would scale. Ant was great to work with and we really valued his support and contribution to Aerotruth"

Bryce Currie, Co-Founder & Chief Commercial Officer - Aerotruth

"No question has ever been too silly. Ant's been accommodating and helped me understand. I've valued that he understands the charitable sector really well. He can look through the experience that he has with larger organisations and what's the reality for a small and mighty charity where you don't have teams of people that can come in and project manage an IT project"

Nicola Keen-Biggelar, Chief Executive Drowning Prevention Auckland

"Having Anthony was really valuable – to lean in on his skillset – and his connections. He was able to provide impartial advice about the different strengths [of the providers]. It was important that we undertook a good due diligence process. Having Anthony there meant we had impartial selection as well, which is very important to us and [something] other not-for-profits [could benefit from]."

Rose Hiha-Agnew, Program Director - Community Governance