Rapid globalization has opened up new possibilities for innovation and a better quality of life through startups and entrepreneurs specializing in selling products and services for particular niche industries.
SMEs and MSMEs have proved invaluable in creating new job opportunities, forming essential providers of resources to larger firms, and enhancing their respective sectors through innovation.
However, these organizations require financial assistance or consultancy to clear the initial obstacles like business management, planning, accounting, etc.
Learn how a business development service can increase the overall efficiency of a startup by enhancing various elements of the company and providing a roadmap for entrepreneurs with excellent market potential to attain a self-sustaining model for business eventually.
What is Business Development Service?
Business development service (BDS) refers to services that assist organizations like startups and MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) with information, guidance, management, financial backing, and technical skills to enhance market performance, growth, and competitiveness.
With advisory and information provision, consultancy, coaching, and mentoring, business development services support companies in every development phase, from the foundation to daily operation.
BDS for startups can help with expanding operations, advice on how to market and sell company products and services, guidance with business plan development, and validation of product-market fits through financial and non-financial services.
Non-financial assistance can include strategies to reduce production costs, target new markets, increase sales, partner with larger firms, etc. Financial services can help entrepreneurs and startups acquire machinery, production locations, legal representation, and starting capital.
Regardless of the type of service, professional business development services involve consulting management, sales, and marketing teams of recipient companies.
Categories of Professional Business Development Services
MSMEs often turn to a business development service backed by governments of OECD and non-OECD countries that are public agencies, private for-profit firms, non-profit organizations, or a combination of the three, and use physical, telecommunication, or online mediums.
The first distinction between business development services can be between formal and informal business development agencies. The former are services a contractor provides to a business owner based on arrangements made through agreements and conditions between two parties.
A formal business development service consists of private firms, consultancies, or public sector organizations that provide their specialized services commercially for a fee or free. Formal service providers focus on making profits and growing their organization with their offerings.
Startups and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) often leverage informal BDS for free by not contacting private or public firms. These organizations rely on their sphere of influence (SOI) to obtain information and use publicly available mediums like television, newspapers, the Internet, etc.
Levels of Business Development Services
The structure of BDS providers is arranged based on the level of intervention they choose to undertake. Thus, a business development service can be classified into one of the following three categories:
- BDS provider – BDS providers take on the highest level of intervention in business development. These can be private for-profit and non-profit firms, NGOs, or national government agencies offering free continued business development services.
BDS providers communicate directly with recipient companies or individuals.
- BDS subsidizer – BDS subsidizers are institutions in the private sector that provide constant subsidies for business development to startups and SMEs without monetary transactions.
- BDS facilitator – BDS facilitators take the least amount of intervention that promotes the proper functioning of the free market by simplifying service provision or resources necessary to clear initial obstacles for SMEs and MSMEs to make them self-sustainable.
These international or local firms focus on developing BDS markets locally by targeting providers with new services, enforcing best practices, etc., and recipients with information, education, advice on BDS purchases, etc.
BDS facilitators calculate the impact that can be made through providers and help create better policies for the BDS market. Institutions that comprise BDS facilitators are usually public firms or NGOs backed by the government or donors.
Best Practices for Business Development Services
Based on insights of the Committee of Donor Agencies for Small Enterprise Development, UN, and NGOs worldwide, here are the best practices a business development service can follow under most socio-economic circumstances:
- Reach the right clients with growth potential: Professional business development services must be connected to the ideal clients that show potential for optimal profits and competitiveness in the future. The BDS services are commercial transactions (financial or otherwise) between providers and MSMEs.
- Demand-driven: BDS providers must offer services like information and training based on the exact market requirements of startups and MSMEs for more impact on recipient organizations and profits for BDS agencies where the clients pay for valued services.
- Maximum outreach: Creating a learning network through information sources and reinforcing private-sector BDS providers helps MSMEs acquire high-quality services and training to address immediate market demands. Maximizing the outreach of business development services to startups is usually achieved through informal BDS services like information from SOIs, commercial transactions with clientele and contractors, and on-site training.
- Integration with financial services: Business development and financial services might differ in functionality, but an optimal BDS performance relies on integrating these two parties. Despite their integration, separate units must operate these services within the organization.
- Impact-driven: The growth of recipient organizations depends on projected profits, preexisting entrepreneurial skills, and adequate access to professional business development services.BDS providers must monitor performance metrics diligently to identify organizations in which they can make the most impact on enterprises that address specific market demands.
Impact of Business Development Service on Your Company
Business development services for startups target every level of an organization’s operation to drive holistic improvements across the board. Here is a detailed analysis of how a BDS provider can enhance different elements of your business:
Sales
Startups and SMEs target specific markets or clients to close deals on sales for company products or services. However, most organizations face obstacles caused by inadequate sales skills, strategies, and channels.
A business development service can offer a team of sales and marketing experts that better target audiences, develop sales plans, execute strategies, conduct market research, and implement new sales channels for better revenue generation.
Marketing
Marketing strategies aim to increase brand awareness, create demand, and target advertising to sell products to potential customers. Limited marketing budgets can cause diminished market visibility. Product sales can also suffer due to poor marketing.
BDS encapsulates various marketing strategies through content, social media, print media, etc., by allocating consultancy services to analyze the market for trends and expand your customer base.
Market Expansion
Startups, SMEs, and MSMEs must eventually target the global market to expand their market reach and open more avenues for revenue generation. BDS providers can support organizations through financial services or consultancy and information.
Non-financial support can inform companies with market research, business planning and set up strategic partnerships with contractors for startups to scale their operations to expand their outreach globally.
Strategic Partnerships
Strategic partnerships enable businesses to form alliances where both parties gain mutual benefits to expand their market presence and create opportunities.
Business development services offer legal consultancy and networking opportunities to SEs based on goals and projected success after adopting a self-sustaining model.
Business Planning
Business plans are vital for achieving long-term goals. BDS providers offer financial and non-financial services as consultancy or capital to maintain a standardized roadmap for optimal business growth.
Despite its many advantages, acquiring formal and informal business development services can be tedious or expensive for several SMEs and MSMEs. You need a platform to gather financial and non-financial services based on immediate market requirements.
Fozzie is the perfect business development service platform to connect with several BDS providers without spending significant resources to communicate with them directly in one-on-one meetings.
Fozzie: Meet High-Value BDS Providers To Address Market Demands
Fozzie is a comprehensive platform where you can schedule and attend online meetings with the business development service of your choice to communicate your startup’s market requirements and acquire adequate information, consultancy, or financial assistance.
Fozzie has over 50000+ verified LinkedIn profiles you can connect to and arrange meetings for fees starting from just $1.
SMEs and MSMEs that cannot afford for-profit business development services and cannot find the right services in free services from BDS agencies can instead reach out to industry professionals and present their requirements to negotiate the perfect development solutions.
You can search business development services for startups on our platform by typing out the names of LinkedIn leads manually or filter out profiles based on your niche-specific requirements by choosing “Company Size,” “$ Range,” “Job Title,” “Role,” and “Industry” filters.
For formal and informal BDS providers, you can sign up for Fozzie and choose your meeting fee, which will be deducted after an online meeting successfully ends. We also offer native integrations to Calendly and Pledge.to.
Conclusion
The optimal strategy for developing a business development service is to design it based on the market’s demands. The private sector is kept in focus while the government assists with subsidies, correcting mistakes in the market, and offering public goods.
Private firms, non-profit organizations, and government institutions must work together to develop startups, SMEs, and MSMEs to foster better trade, employment, and market conditions locally and worldwide.
Fozzie helps connect startups with industry professionals on LinkedIn, who can provide them with services like starting capital and on-premise expansion, consultancy for future planning, management, and legal representation, and open new possibilities by networking with larger firms.
Acquire the resources your startup needs to enhance your entrepreneurship to the next level with Fozzie today!
