Solutions To Help Your Small Business Succeed & Prosper

Small Business, Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

2018-06-03_1055Solutions To Help Your Small Business Succeed & Prosper

There are many reasons entrepreneurs start or buy a business, and just as many reasons why that business could fail and still many more reasons why many do.  We are not going to focus on the statistics stacked against your probable success, but rather focus on how you can succeed.  Any Entrepreneur needs to understand what causes failures in small businesses, how they can be prevented and what can be done to properly manage their own business. Please keep in mind, that for our discussion here, a small business is defined as one that ranges from a sole individual to an organization of less than 50 or so employees.  This size business usually has many of the challenges we address below and less available resources to draw from than those of larger companies.  Which means that the owner really needs to manage those resources effectively if they are to beat the reported failure statistics and improve their odds for success.  However, many of the things we discuss below can be used to run larger companies as well.

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Help For Your Small Business & You

Small Business, , , , , , , ,

2018-06-03_0906Help for Your Small Business & You

When you own and operate a small business or are thinking of maybe starting one the act of hiring others to assist you in defining, fully understanding and growing your vision can play a crucial part in its future success.  Let’s face it, many small business owners are driven to succeed and spend much of their time in one or two areas of their business where they feel comfortable or excel at, like sales or operations.  Not paying needed attention to all areas like strategic planning, marketing, process improvement, pricing, finance, accounting, matching the right people to the right job function or motivating your employees can cause your business many additional challenges that simply can be avoided.

You may have built your business to where it is today by focusing only on certain key areas, but time needs to be spent on the other areas of your business as it grows, but it does not have to be your time.  Bringing in an outside set of eyes can get some of these activities done right away and bring a new perspective to you while helping your business succeed and grow to another level.

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“The Big Cheese”, Leadership

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2018-06-03_0857The Big Cheese, Leadership

Every organization has a leader, even the organizations you belong to. Every entity, every company, every City, County, State and Country has a leader.  The leader is the person who is responsible for the direction of the organization they lead.  The leader makes sure strategic direction has been defined for the organization, that precise future goals are set and resources are available to accomplish those goals.  The leader is the person out in front, “the big cheese”; they get everyone to march to the same step.  The leader is the one the rest of the organization sees as the one to follow and the one person the followers trust most to make good decisions improving the organization so it benefits its stakeholders, which includes the followers.

Where would you follow your leader?  Are you following your leader?  Do you know what your leader stands for?  Do they work to benefit themselves or the organizations stakeholders?  How many different leaders are you following?

Over the years many different types of individuals have held leadership positions.  Some seek it out while others have it thrust upon them.  Some individuals rise to the occasion and do a fantastic job leading their organizations, while others, do not.

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8 Small Business Challenges

Small Business, , , , , , , , ,

2018-06-03_08298 Small Business Challenges

Running a small business today takes a lot of determination, stamina and problem solving skills by the owner if they want to even attempt to run a business.  If they intend for it to prosper and grow, they will still be faced with many waves of challenges that may knock them off their feet from time to time.  A small business owner will need to be aware of, understand and will probably have to address each challenge at some point in their business.  Let’s look at eight challenges that may need to be addressed.

  1. The Owner Themselves

An entrepreneur is a special class of person that has something that is driving them to start a business in the first place.  It could be a passion or they may have something to prove, whatever their reasons for starting the business, chances are they will be lacking in certain knowledge and skills.  They may excel in some areas and they may be able to work 22 hours a day to make up for a lack of some knowledge, but at some point time, their fatigue and uncertainty, while trying to do it all alone may get the best of them.  A business that is largely dependent on the owner can only grow to the point of that owner’s ability, willingness and time spent on getting things done.

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Building A Team

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2018-06-03_0825Building “A Team”

Having a group of individuals come together to successfully accomplish a task is why most of us want to build a team in the first place.  Whether for a short-term project or long-term engagement, team building can take a lot of effort.

There are all kinds of different teams in the world; sports teams, project teams, corporate organizational or business management teams, political teams, family teams and even married couples are a team.  They are all brought together through various ways and motivated to succeed at all kinds of different tasks or events.

Have you ever wanted to be part of a special team? Humans are social people and want to be on a team; it’s human nature to want to be part of something bigger than our self and be part of a group.  What teams are you on or would like to be a part of?

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What Profit Target Are You Hitting?

Small Business, , , , , , , , , ,

2018-06-03_0814What Profit Target Are You Hitting

Are you successful at hitting what you are aiming at?  How do you know what target is the one you should be aiming at?  Small businesses have always had a challenge with identifying the proper profit target for their business.  In fact, many new businesses go out of business before they consistently turn a profit, much less worry about attaining a certain targeted profit amount.

Our LifeLongU™ blog today explores ways a small business owner could focus their aim on different targets of profit. You may be reading this and think, “Isn’t that what all business owners focus on.”  I don’t believe they do.  Many I have met think about sales first.  They become sales driven organizations with processes focused on driving up sales, whatever the cost.  They have a philosophy that if we only had more sales, we would make more profits which is very dangerous and can hurt a company as quickly as having no profits can.  This way of thinking can create lots of sales activity, lots of risk, lots of cash being funneled through the business and lots of extra loose spending if proper controls are not in place to protect profit margins.  It can also create a “feeling” of profitability within your business, which might be false.

Are you clear on what profit you or your business are aiming at?  Are you hitting it?  Are you sure that is a good goal for your business?

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Are You Producing Customers?

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Are You Producing Customers?

Successful businesses focus on generating new customers in multiple markets while servicing current customers constantly strengthening the value being offered by their product and service.  This enables a business to add additional product offerings to customers and increase the lifetime value of each customer to their business.

Where do your new customers actually come from?  As an owner entrepreneur or business manager, you should have a good handle on how a prospect becomes a customer within your organization.  What type of sales team do you have?  Do they have the correct incentive plan motivating them to convert prospects to customers and generate sales?  Are they properly trained and managed?  Can you use Rep’s to plug some of the holes in your sales territories?  Do you know where the holes are?  Does your product or service have a good presence at area trade shows?  Is your company getting any business from trade shows?  How many new customers do you generate each month?  Again, where did they come from?  What are the average sales per customer?

As the owner entrepreneur or business manager, you should have the answers to these questions.  Cash is King, but without sales, there is no cash.  Every business should be generating new customers and trying to increase the average sales per customer.

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Opportunity?

Small Business, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

Opportunity?   Identifying a real business opportunity can be tricky…you have to dig deep and ask many questions.  Ask yourself if your product or service fulfills the needs of a growing market better than the current competition and better than any substitution technologies within the overall external market (e.g. cultural, economic, political, legislative, society, etc).

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Is Your Product Idea a Good One?

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Is Your Product Idea a Good One? So you have an idea for a new product, process or service, but is it a good idea for a business? How can you tell if it’s viable? Do you think you are ready to throw the dart and are you really expecting to hit the bull’s-eye? How

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Are You An Entrepreneur?

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Are you an Entrepreneur? An entrepreneur is generally someone that comes up with an idea and takes that opportunity to start, organize and grow it into a business or businesses.  The big question we may ask ourselves is, do we have a good idea, the skills and the desire to become a successful entrepreneur? Just

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