Going into business for yourself takes a lot of courage, planning and preparation, but the greatest of these is courage. Planning and preparation are the keys to success once your business has been established, but courage is the origin of the initial step.

Unfortunately this very same courage can lead to a belief that if you have to ask for help you will be seen as weak or incapable of handling the rigors of entrepeneurship. Nothing can be farther from the truth!

As I spoke of in a previous post, we must take advantage of the resources we have around to strengthen our business and our chances of success. If you are having a problem with accounting, ask a successful business person you know for a referral of their accountant. Don’t wait until the IRS has served you a notice or your creditors are threatening to cut off your line of credit.

The important thing to remember is to ask people who can help; preferably someone who has already obtained what you are striving for. Simply put, you can’t get sound advice on soaring like eagles by asking chickens. 

What will surprise you most is how willing most successful people are to help; they won’t give you all of their secrets, but they will usually give you guidance on things that did not work and what they did to overcome adversities.

Be diligent in your process analysis and regularly check your achievments, or lack thereof,  against your business plan and if you are at a lost for what to do next, Ask for HELP!

Word to the Wise | No Comments »

My wife and I were watching a reality show and I commented on who I thought would win the competition. My wife asked me how did I come to that assumption when we had never seen this show before and I had no background on any of the people. I explained my assessment was based on years of being an employer and the consistency of attitude among my best employees. Although there were contestant I’m sure I would like more, this particular young lady exhibited an attitude of a winner and would definitely be one I’d hire.

My wife thought the person was arrogant, self-centered, and would be difficult to train, which could be the case if the manager is not prepared for coaching a Type A personality, but in my case, I welcome the drive, determination, and competitiveness of a winner.

As an employer, being a winner has far less to do with always coming out on top (although I don’t mind that) and more to do with dedication, tenacity and a passion for success. A winner’s attitude causes the individual to look at their situation, consider what is necessary to achieve success and formulate a plan. Additionally the winner assess their plan during implementation to determine if the plan will meet his/her goals and adjusts as necessary.

One of the chief factors in a winner’s attitude is the unwavering belief in success. I am reminded of a story of a little girl who had a swimming contest and she came running down stairs to breakfast and said to her father, she was going to win every race she was competing in. The dad gave her a high five and they left for the meet.

The person telling this story then said the father was wrong to allow his daughter to have the expectation of winning every race; instead he should have said, "do your best and if you win one that will be great and if not, we love you". I’m glad this story teller doesn’t work for me because she would have lost her job. Who is to say the little girl couldn’t win all of the races and if she did not win them all, it may have motivated her to practice harder, longer and with more passion. What would have been the wrong thing to do was dowse the little girl’s passion for swimming and the confidence that allowed her to believe in her ability to win all races.  

The bigger challenge in the preceeding scenario would have been managing the little girl’s attitude if she did win all of the races. A winner’s attitude can be managed best by channeling their drive and passion to the successes of accomplishment. Each stage conquered leads to another goal and each goal leads to higher feelings of success. Once again you don’t necessarily have to win all of the time, but giving your complete focus and attention to obtaining your goals will make you a winner everytime. 

Management | No Comments »

We as business people and entrepreneurs tend to dwell on revenue generated by our daily pursuits. We focus on increasing sales and market share, but what about profits? When our daily routines produce profits for the company what happens to them? The first thought is expansion, retiring debt, increasing employees and inventory, but what is your plan for getting your money back out of the business?

Have you designed a budget that allows you to return the intial investment made by you and/or others? It is not sacrilege to pay your principles from the profits of the company…you just have to include it in your budgeting, which really the point of this post.

Budgeting can be as effective in increasing profitability, as your sales and marketing strategies. Too many times businesses do not maintain a written budget that accounts for all expenditures. This leads to unnecessary expenses, redundant practices and a lack of competitive pricing for services, materials, and supplies.

When setting up your budget, be sure to use a spreadsheet or an accounting program that allows you to determine what percentage of revenue each expense represents. This will give you a basis for analysis of expenditures to determine if best practices are in use in areas such as purchasing, employment costs, and debt repayment.

Once your have established your budgeting protocol, analyzed your expenses, corrected any irregularities or needless practices, it is time to budget for the coming year. This is where you begin paying yourself and/or other stake holders. Be sure to consult with your CPA (because I know you have one), to make sure your allocations are in line with IRS standards and set a repayment level that is commensurate with your rate of growth and profitability.

Finance and Investing, Process Analysis | No Comments »

My most recent client has a product line that can be sold person to person and he has made a good profit over the past year. Now he is looking to expand and increase his market presence as well as, market share. Of course my first suggestion was a website. While he is aware of the successes people have had with the Internet, he is "old-school" and hasn’t embraced technology. In fact, he has had a laptop for more than a year, but has never opened the box.

As I began explaining how the Internet was a gateway to the world and how many of his goals could be obtained and financed through a website, he began to have the same expression on his face as my wife when I try to explain why you use a pitching wedge instead of a nine iron on certain shots.

This was not an uncommon response when dealing with older entrepreneurs and as you can imagine, his next question was, "How important is a website, anyway?" While I could have spent the next two days explaining, I decided to get the idea across in three simple points:

1. When a small business owner hands a business card to a prospective client, having a website lets that customer know you have embraced current technologies and are offering the convenience of shopping online.
2. That you understand your customers and have taken the time research and design an Internet offering to allow them the opportunity to see your entire product line, answer questions, and learn more about your company. 
3. Addiitonally, a website helps a business owner with the high cost of inventory by giving the ability to show multiple skus in various fabrics, finishes, sizes, and colors. It allows a more cost effective way to reach a broader market via the World Wide Web and can provide a valuable means of market research in customer preferences and sku analysis.

In today’s global market, websites are not only valuable, but essential. I can personally say as a consumer, a company that does not have a website, does not have me as a patron. Initially the website serves as an extension of your marketing efforts. As the company grows and name recognition and reputation increases among your target markets, the website can be a source of revenue and growth.

Marketing, Business Development | No Comments »