However, it is critical that the individual manager judges the accounting figures before making the final prioritisation of his/her actions. A commercial mortgage broker might hold industry forums twice a year with speakers presenting on the economy and industry trends. This is because those we know well introduced us long ago to the opportunities they can provide, but those with whom we are barely familiar are connected to an entirely different network of opportunities. When your customers call, what do they want?
Hoping your past customers give you a referral
Many
business owners get
stuck at this point. Again,
not necessarily.
We
have argued that
the task of management in the interactive context hinges on making sense of a complex and ambiguous context, constructing narratives, interacting, developing and assembling complex solutions with external counterparts. It
accommodates the frequent
lag between when a purchase is made and cash changes hands.
New competitors are looking to your customers for their growth
If
you or one
of your team members has been awarded patents, achieved record sales gains, or once opened an unbelievable number of new stores in the space of a year, now s the time to tell about it. Install
job cost and
account tracking systems to help you determine what things really cost. Your
job is to
maximize profits, seek profitable customers, and build your business. Either
they are the
cheapest, the best at service, or the best at quality.
Continue to reach out
You
hire people because
you can't do all the work yourself. Piquing
customers' interest is
fun and gets lots of attention. So
you need to
choose a product or service which people instantly 'get', otherwise it is going to be an uphill ' and expensive ' battle. The
lingo of the
business world ' cash flow, profit and loss statements, accounts receivable, debt-to-equity ratio, and so on ' makes small-business ownership appear far more complicated than it really is.
Maximize and allocate resources to Human Resource Management
It
s your unique
selling proposition in comparison to those of other players. Choose
a product which
you can buy in small quantities so you are not tying up a lot of money in stock each time. After
someone gives you
a referral, send a thank you note and a gift as appreciation for their help. Expect
the business plan
to be a living document that improves with every tough question asked by a potential investor, business partner, or customer.
Finding sponsors
Marriage
or family counseling
with an experienced counselor can be an invaluable preventive investment. It
gives people the
idea that you have a well-thought-out plan of action so they have more confidence that you have credibility and feel they are not jumping onboard what may soon be a sinking ship. This
can itself cost
money, but the alternative is worse: Undercapitalization is among the most common causes of business failure; it can bring down an otherwise healthy organization. The
vast majority of
small-business owners we know provide products or services quite similar to what's already in the marketplace and make reasonable but not extraordinary sums of money ' and, thanks largely to the independence that small-business ownership offers, are perfectly happy doing so!