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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Can You Be A Philanthropist?

Philanthropy, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Can You Be A Philanthropist?

Many of us may think of philanthropy as something done by billionaires like John D Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, Warren Buffet or Bill Gates who may have initially, set up foundations to outlast themselves.  That certainly is philanthropy working on a large scale and very helpful.   But in reality, philanthropy is practiced every day by thousands of people.  People giving their excess to a needy situation that will help right now and is very satisfying to them and their recipient today.

Some of the very large foundations being created or in existence today have a new business model, one where the foundation may not outlast its founder; one that more closely follows an individual’s day-to-day model. They want to be in control of how their excess gets re-distributed, not leave it to someone to do it later. The Lord blessed them with excess and with that comes a certain level of stewardship and responsibility to help those in need (Note:  not those with less, but those in need) (Read, “An Unconventional Billionaire is Revolutionizing Philanthropy by Closing His Foundation)  Many people like to give and many more people would like to have a say in where that gift gets placed or maybe even how it is used, right away.  Understanding where the donation went, who it helped and what impact on the needy did it have is a large key to attracting donations.

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Filter Your Senses

Life Balance, , , , , , , , , , ,

Filter Your Senses At An Early Age

How many times a day are your five main senses engaged with an offensive attack on your beliefs or convictions?  What have you seen today where the image has left a negative or damaging impression in your mind?  What touched you today that made your skin crawl?  What sounds have you heard that really are noise and have caused you to lose focus, distracted you from what matters in life?  Have you smelled or tasted anything that made your stomach turn or simply made you sick? Our five senses are being overly engaged to get our attention…what can we do about it if we don’t want to give our attention?

Our presence in today’s “civilized” world is full of life, some of it good, and some of it not so good.  In fact, some of it is bad, really bad.  As a person that holds themselves to a higher standard, we should try to filter out as much as we can of the things that try to draw us away from our beliefs and convictions.  If we continue to allow ourselves, our five senses, to be subjected to a barrage of stimuli that goes against our belief system, we will in time become desensitized.  Our convictions will slowly erode and we will find what once bothered us no longer is as much of an issue today.  Is this a good thing?

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12 Attributes of a Good Friend

Relationships, , , , , , , , ,

2018-06-03_080412 Attributes of a Good Friend

 Just how many contacts do you have in your LinkedIn account?  How many friends on your FaceBook page?  How many followers on your Twitter account?  How many people are in your Google+ circles?  Are they all your friends?  Is what a friend has become or is this simply a competition to build a high number of connections, followers and friends started by each of these respective companies, to build their businesses?  I believe we may be degrading our personal friendships by spending so much time with friend quantity, rather than quality.

Has the meaning of the word friend taken on new meaning?

Dictionary.com defines Friend as “a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard”, at least that is its first definition.  It also has, “a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter”, “a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile”, “A member of the same nation, party, etc”, “a person associated with another as a contact on a social-networking website”.  Accurate definitions, but which is your definition?  

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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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Where is Your Relationship At?

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Where Is Your Relationship At?   Where is your relationship at?  Has it been blessed or seemingly cursed? Life on earth can be difficult alone; being able share it with her/him can make some things better, but may also add more challenges.  Make sure you are ready to commit to solving those challenges together. What

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Household Budget…4 Places for Your Money $$$…

Financial, , , , , , , , , ,

The New LifeLongU™ Household Budget is fast and easy to use. Enter household Inflows (Income) and Outflows (Expenses) in predefined categories, only 4 of them.  Add an allocation percentage (%) to the different line items. Household Budget is based on creating a spending plan that focuses on 4 main areas of expense: Charitable giving first

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Is Your Work Time “Leisure” or “Toil”

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Is Your Work Time “Leisure” or “Toil”? Leisure time…what does that even mean for us in today’s time?  For me, I picture myself, with my “special” someone, relaxing someplace warm with a great view, great service, nice tropical breezes blowing, waves are crashing on the shore and I do not have a care in the

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Is Your Product Idea a Good One?

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

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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