Archive for the ‘Management’ Category

How Small Businesses Waste Money

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
small business management
Kevin Sinclair asked:


Most business owners subscribe to the thought that you “must spend money to make money”. This can be true, but you also must know exactly where that money is going and the results it brings. A small business owner never has any money to waste.

Some ways that your business might waste money includes the following:

1. Manage your credit cards - If you have several cards, develop a computer program that will show you the exact balances, due dates, and the interest rate you are paying. Always be aware of other solicitations that save you money and possibly change your balances over to a new company. If you have any employee cards, see if you can set a limit on them. If not with the credit card company, make sure that the employees know their limits. Manage your credit cards wisely and never, ever miss a due date.

2. Develop an annual plan so you know where you will spend money. This helps you in several ways. The business person will be aware of what portion of the profits are going to advertising, towards incentives, towards accounting and other internal expenses, etc.

3. Do not over-purchase any products or services for a business. If you buy in bulk, the money is tied up and a place must be provided to keep the extras and that might be costing money not needed to be spent.

4. Developing an advertising budget and knowing just what resources to use is key to keeping money under control in a small business. You must advertise, but you also must get value for your money or you will soon be out of business. Keep a record of how much is spent, can you get payment terms, when is the most efficient time to advertise your particular product or service to get the most value for the dollar. Every dollar must be accounted for in advertising because the lifeline of your business depends on new and paying customers. Advertising is the way to get the word out to the community or the internet.

5. A small business owner will sometimes be under self-induced stress to manage all aspects of the business. Sometimes, leaving the control and decisions to others that are qualified is the best way to manage the business. Releasing control may be hard to do sometimes, but in a lot of businesses, money can be wasted because the owner cannot possibly be as efficient as the person who has studied or is knowledgeable about a particular field. For instance, if a business owner does not know accounting, many mistakes in reporting income and taxes can be made. A qualified accountant can possibly save more than the cost of their services in reduced taxes.

Take a hard look around your business and do not let anything be set in stone if saving money is the goal. Challenge everything that will cost money and see what can be done to change the situation. Any money that is saved, is money that can be put back into the business either in profits or in growth.

A business owner wants their business to be successful and will work hard to sustain growth. A business owner wants a way to continue making and growing money from a product or service that is interesting to them. After growing a business and being smart with cash flow, many business owners will sell their businesses only to start another business.

The reason is that business owners are independent types and challenges are rewarding when met and faced. Saving money through every day operations will help the business owner to meet their financial and emotional goals.



Colleen

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It’s Time to Get All Strategic - Small Business Marketing Strategy

Monday, June 9th, 2008
small business management
Jitender Sharma asked:


So what’s your small business marketing strategy? I’m willing to bet that close to 85% of the people reading this are scratching their heads now. Many small business owners fail to create a marketing strategy at all, instead focusing on tactics.

Let me give you one of the definitions of strategy from the fine folks at Merriam Webster: a : a careful plan or method : a clever stratagem b : the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal

So a strategy is a plan and the implementation of that plan. Tactics are merely the methods with which you carry out that plan.

Planning is important in small business marketing for a few reasons:

-Planning helps insure you keep a consistent marketing effort.

-Planning helps you set goals and move towards reaching them.

-Planning helps you set and stick to a budget.

Many small business owners are intimidated by the idea of a marketing plan. They think it needs to be a huge formal document with financials and charts. It can be that, particularly if you are going for funding. However, if you are just in business for yourself, your marketing plan can be very simple.

Here are some items I think it should include:

-Your overall vision, value proposition, and unique selling position

-A list of your target markets, and what you know about them

-Your budget for marketing

-A list of strengths and weaknesses with the customer facing side of your business.

-A list of steps you are going to take (I recommend a marketing calendar)

-There are three ways to increase your revenue, and your plan should take each into account:

1. Increase your number of customers

2. Increase the amount of your average transaction

3. Increase the frequency at which your customers buy from you

Most marketing efforts I encounter focus only on #1. However #1 represents the most expensive, difficult, and slow method for increasing revenues.

Remember that marketing is not just advertising and PR. Your plan should encompass your customers’ entire experience with you. It might include changing the way you answer the phone, more frequent follow-up calls, cleaning the bathrooms at your store more often, adding plants to your reception area. your plan also might include some kind of customer satisfaction survey, maybe during follow-up calls or during a visit to your business.

Your plan might also include presenting your products or services better, or repackaging them in different ways. It might have you creating a new brochure, or giving sales training to your staff.

Your plan should include the tactics you want to use, and a budget for each tactic.

There’s an old military aphorism that goes: Even the best possible battle plan has not survived first contact with the enemy. This basically means that the unpredictable always happens - it’s what makes life interesting. Do not be afraid to revise your marketing plan to respond to changing conditions. However, you still need a consistent and intelligent marketing effort.

You should be able to capitalize on new opportunities and respond to new challenges.

Plan and stay consistent - you will outpace most of your competition



Glenda

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Small Business Owner Concerns

Friday, May 23rd, 2008
small business management
Tim Bryce asked:


“Regardless of company size, the concerns of executive management are all essentially the same.”

- Bryce’s Law

I was recently at a gathering of independent consultants from around the Tampa Bay area and we got around to talking about the concerns of owners of small businesses. From this, we devised a list of pet peeves commanding the attention of small-to-medium sized business owners, to wit:



Employees/Human Resources - staffing and allocations, payroll, benefits, and management.

Work environment - facilities and equipment, corporate culture.

Systems - implementing business processes productively, and staying abreast of technological developments for competitive advantage.

Regulations - complying with rules as established by government and industrial concerns.

Time Management - scheduling and devoting time to the proper set of priorities.

Financial Resources - managing and planning cash flow and investments for optimal return on investment.

General Planning & Strategy - both short term and long term, including an analysis of the market and competition.



At the end of this session, we discovered that the concerns of small business owners are essentially no different than large corporations, except on a much smaller scale. The only difference was that the small business owner has to move faster than his corporate counterparts simply due to the size of his operation. For example, he doesn’t have time to read voluminous business plans and financial statements. Instead, he requires summary reports which get to the point in a couple of pages. He needs good, sound supporting advice to make his life easier.

This got me thinking about the amount of time and money corporate executives invest in managing their company’s affairs. True, some things require considerable time and effort to investigate, such as researching new products/services and checking market conditions, but most of what is done is what I refer to as “meatball” type analysis which should be easy and relatively inexpensive to prepare. Let me give you an example; a couple of years ago I was working with a Fortune 500 company who had contracted with another firm to produce a Business Systems Plan. This took several months to perform and resulted in a substantial document over three feet thick (I kid you not) costing the company $1.5 million. I was asked to flip through the document and give an opinion. It only took me a couple of minutes to discover the authors had reused narrative from other client projects in the document and that most of it was superfluous. But the fact that it was incredibly thick and printed on some pretty impressive looking paper, gave the company the feeling they had gotten their money’s worth from the consultants. Interestingly, the company never acted on the information contained in the document simply because it was so voluminous and they couldn’t find their way through it. In reality, a ten page report could have satisfied the company’s needs, but I guess you cannot charge $1.5 million for a ten page document can you?

The point of all this is that the size of a company really has no bearing on the concerns of those charged with running it. They are all essentially the same. Nor does any business owner have the time or inclination to be devoured by detail. Although detail is important to substantiate claims, summary reports are more effective for supporting the needs of business owners. They simply want accurate and reliable information to act on regardless of the form it takes, but preferably not three feet thick.

If you would like to discuss this further with me, please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail at timb001@phmainstreet.com



Roland

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New Trends For Businesses Management

Saturday, January 12th, 2008
small business management
Mark Walters asked:


Every year analysts take a look at the business world. They measure the trends, validate what is new, evaluate what is disappearing. Some new trends have a real significance on the business world and will define success in the coming years.

Some current trends are the increase of eco-awareness and the number of new businesses popping up to meet new consumer needs. Eco-consultants for the home are learning their trade while passing on their skills. This is one business that is changing almost daily.

The disappearance of down time and down space is the next trend. The message ‘The office is closed…’ anymore. They expect the office to be open 24/7. They expect to be able to talk to someone whenever they click the button on the website, or telephone the office. The work at home, remote, and virtual offices are eliminating the term ‘down time.’

Radical Transparency

The Internet and more particularly blogs have given birth to Radical Transparency. Businesses are revealing their secrets online. Their CEOs are admitting when they do not have the answers. The blog reports when they are facing financial difficulty. In the old days businesses hid their secrets. Today, business owners are working and living among a world of customers who are as business savvy and able to read between the lines as the business owner is.

There are many stories of CEOs and business owners who saved their business by offering full disclosure. They won their client’s respect and confidence.

Personal Responsibility

Two decades ago the boss was the boss. He did as much or as little work as he wanted. His secretary or personal assistant did the major part of the workload. The manager took long lunches, attended meetings, and was often emotionally abusive.

Today’s bosses are learning about horizontal responsibility, and self-actualization of their employees. They hire life coaches to help them learn the ‘7 habits of successful people’ and keep them on the path to success.

A Small World

The concept that ‘The World is Local’ has been growing for several years. It is now possible to be in Japan one day and Germany the next. Small business owners can talk with a supplier in Africa and one in Asia at the same time.

VoIP telephone service has made unlimited long distance the norm. Satellite has linked the globe’s network in ‘real time.’ We can read the newspaper online, watch thousands of local television shows via our computers, and watch video streaming from our competitor in Australia. It is easier for people to meet locally. The cell phone has made us instantly accessible.

However, local products and services also are more desirable. Consumers want to be part of the wide world. They want the world at their door. But, they prefer locally made products over imports. This gives small business owners an edge over the international corporations.

Queen Trumps King

The boys club is quickly becoming extinct. The shift in power is forcing businesses to think twice about their management and marketing practices.

Women make most of the purchases. Statistics say that women make 60% of all purchases - without consulting their husbands. That is why you now see children saying Vroom-Vroom in car commercials, and women selling legal services.

Power is shifting from men to women. Hotels now have rooms that are designed just for women and offer amenities that are not found in other rooms, such as chenille blankets, ionic hair dryers, and women’s floors will have extra security and women only lounges.

Management is shifting too. High powered women start their own businesses, and bring down the companies who wouldn’t promote them. This is forcing management to become more ‘women friendly.’ The world is too competitive to turn away talent just because the professional is a woman. Businesses need every edge they can get and that means hiring the best, even if it is a woman.



Peter

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