Small Business: Getting Back to Business
It’s Never Been More Important and Never was Unimportant
If the last six months have taught us anything about economics and running a business it’s that continuing to ignore fundamentals will have consequences….including dire ones. Consequently as a New Year begins it’s an opportune time to examine the principles and practices that support your business. This article mentions three considerations that are fundamental to running any business. The three considerations are time, team and money. Most businesses can attribute their failure or success to how well they manage their time, their team and money.
Time. Michael Gerber, author of The E Myth, which is a book about why most small businesses fail and what to do about it, notes that business owners spend most of their time working in their business and hardly any working on their business. For example, how many business owners have a time management plan (TMP)? A TMP helps an owner examine how they are spending their time with the goal of assigning routine functions to someone else allowing the owner to concentrate on more important tasks.
Team. The second basic consideration relates to team building. Even if you are the sole proprietor of your business you still have to manage relationships with vendors, customers and other stake holders. Consequently even sole proprietors should have a strategic plan that defines their businesses vision and mission and charts a course for accomplishing goals and objectives. If a business has employees what type of team building or performance incentive plan does it have?
Money. The third basic consideration relates to how a business generates and spends money. There are several fundamental questions that every business owner should be able to answer about their business, particularly during challenging economic times. These questions include: what are my break even numbers? What are my revenue and profit numbers and what are they telling me about my business? Is the time that it takes me to collect my receivable creating a cash flow problem for me? Am I running my business consistent with my business plan?
These are just a few of the basics that every business owner should understand. Those that do and that have developed effective and efficient systems should emerge as stronger and more profitable as the economy improves. Those that do not or don’t have time to develop supportive systems should commit to getting some help. With a New Year just weeks away why not begin it by committing to partner with a professional to grow your business to new and exciting levels.
Author: JC Cancelleri is a business strategist and consultant with John Cancelleri, P.C. JC’s value as a business professional is augmented by being a lawyer, life coach and by having a PhD in Organizational Leadership. You can reach him at 804-368-7397 or email JC.
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