Archive for Business Basics
Don’t wait for perfection
Posted by: | Comments
Do you have a project or a new product in mind but you’re not quite ready to get started on it? Perhaps you’re waiting for a particular resource, or a chunk of free time to work on it. Or perhaps you need some extra money to put your plan into action.
I know because I’ve done this too – waited for the time/situation to be just perfect before getting started.
But then last week I was reading Prince Charming Isnt Coming
: How Women Get Smart About Money by Barbara Stanny. In this book, Stanny talks about how women often wait for a man to look after their finances for them. There is one particular passage that jumped out at me.
“Please note: “Mr. Right” or “Prince Charming” need not be a man, or even a person. Our prince could be an ideal job, an insurance settlement, the lottery jackpot, or just an amorphous “something” – anything that we fantasize will save us financially. To become genuinely smart with money, we must get to the point where we can say with total conviction, I can do it myself.
This passage really grabbed me by the throat and made me realize that there are a number of projects I’ve had on hold because I didn’t have everything perfect. Read More→
Are you measuring your business success?
Posted by: | Comments
This morning I filled in for a friend at his BNI meeting (Business Networking International) and the “Education Nugget” was about measuring. The point is, you don’t know how you’re doing, nor can you improve, until you can measure it. And you can’t make smart decisions about your business unless you measure what you’re doing.
Follow the money
First, you need to measure your money. Are your books up-to-date? Bookkeeping isn’t just for tax time. You need to keep them current so you can predict cash flow and see what products and services are profitable.
Cash flow is obvious, but looking at what areas are profitable is just as important. I knew one business owner who upon looking closer at his books, realized his best selling product was actually losing him money.
While the direct cost of the product was less than the selling price, the cost of servicing it meant he actually lost about $100 per unit. By eliminating that one product, although his total sales went down, his profits shot way up.
Do you know what products or services are most profitable? Look at your books. If you’re not sure how to determine profitability, ask your bookkeeper or accountant. Read More→
Small business summer-time blues
Posted by: | Commentsor How to stay motivated when you’d rather be outside
Working from home is sometimes a challenge in the summer. Yes, there’s the fact that I have no air conditioning and my office is on the 2nd floor. (Last week’s heat wave in eastern Canada and U.S. was brutal).
There’s also my teenage son who is home from school and around the house. Plus there’s the sun shining and I want to be outside.
As a result, there are some days where sitting at my desk staring at my computer seems unbearable.
But I still need to work. The mortgage still needs to be paid and we have this pesky little addition to food.
So, what’s a home-based entrepreneur to do?
I posed this question to my network and got some interesting answers. Read More→
It Takes A Village to Raise a Business
Posted by: | CommentsWe’ve all heard the saying that it takes a village to raise a child. However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned after surviving five years in business is that it also takes a village to raise a business.
When I was in my mid-20s I actually tried to start my own business doing very much what I’m doing now (minus the social media since Facebook etc. didn’t exist back then).
I survived about a year before I packed it in and got a “real job”. The problem was that I thought in order to be a business person you had to be independent, and independent meant doing it all myself.
This time around, being a little older, and a little wiser (I hope), I recognized that trying to go it alone was part of the problem. Read More→
5 Reasons Why Imperfect Execution Is Better Than Perfect Planning
Posted by: | CommentsW
hy is it that some people seem to move ahead by leaps and bounds while other people who are perhaps more talented seem to be left behind in the dust? Seth Godin said it best in Linchpin: Are You Indispensable. He wrote: “Real artists ship.”
What did he mean? You don’t have to be the best to be successful. The people who get ahead don’t worry about being perfect. They get off their butts, take action and get their products to market.
So here are my thoughts on why imperfect execution is better than perfect planning
Work your plan
While I’m the first one to tell you that planning is important, I know that too often planning can be a form of procrastination. Rather than getting down to the work, you keep tweaking the plan. Get a plan in place and start working it. Over time you can tweak the plan as you see what works and what doesn’t.
Beating the competition
How many times have you seen a competitor release a new product that is just like the brilliant idea you had a year ago but is still in the planning stages? Don’t you kick yourself when that happens? I know I have. Let’s learn from our mistakes; when you have a brilliant idea quickly create a plan then work on execution so that someone else doesn’t beat you to the punch. Read More→
