business balls stories
1.Develop a thorough business plan.
The kind of cash flow analysis you do upfront will determine — to a large extent — how well you can weather variations in sales, inventory, and customer interest. You can compile a business plan yourself or outsource the job to a professional company.
With a profit and loss statement, a budget, and a projection of cash flow in place, you can figure out precisely how much money to allocate to various strategies and systems, and buffer yourself against new competitors and industry changes.
2. Concentrate on your core competency.
According to the book “Good to Great” by world renowned analyst Jim Collins, the most successful businesses — large and small — focus on doing one thing extremely well as opposed to many different things moderately well. Collins describes this competency as the business’s “hedgehog concept.” This comes from a famous Aesop’s fable about the Hedgehog and the Fox. As the story goes, every morning, the Fox attacks the Hedgehog in a different way. And every morning, the Hedgehog defends himself by rolling into a tight ball. The Fox never actually succeeds in hunting the Hedgehog. The moral of the fable is: “the Fox knows many little things — the Hedgehog knows one big thing.” Statistics bear out that enterprises that focus on a single Hedgehog concept tend to succeed more often.
3. Get the right people on your team and the wrong people off of your team.
As a small business owner, you work intimately with your employees. It can be difficult to let go of people who have served you loyally for years. However, if you have inadequate, inexperienced, or otherwise incompetent people working for you, your business will inevitably suffer. Conversely, if you have great employees who understand what your business is about, how you intend to optimize strategic opportunities, and what your end-goal for company is, you are much more likely to do well over the long-term.
4. Shield your personal cash and assets.
If you start a business from home, for instance, consider incorporating. If you are going to be outlaying your cash upfront for start up costs and the like, going corporate will help shield your assets if your business fails, if your company gets sued, or if your business incurs other significant liabilities.
5. Generally, keep things small until you can prove concept.
Even if you have a big loan to jump-start your business, work to keep things as frugal as possible — particularly in the first six months. The vast majority of small businesses fail at start up. Even the most insightful and well-prepared entrepreneurs fall flat on their faces now and again. Give yourself room to fail, and you will be far less likely to get stressed out about the day-to-day numbers coming in and far more likely to take the smart but necessary risks you need to bootstrap your way to success.
6. Get critical contracts in writing.
Sure, you can do some business based on a handshake. However, your company will likely (hopefully!) expand in the near-term. Contracts worth just a few hundred dollars today could easily balloon to 20-50 times that much within a year or two. Getting in the habit of creating a sound paper trail will protect you against liability down the line and help you make a more organized transition to a medium sized corporation.
7. When it comes to customer service, under promise and over deliver.
When canvassing for new clients, it is tempting to make grandiose promises of low costs, fast delivery, and super high quality. But if you break your back (or your company’s bank) meeting these promises, you are not doing yourself any favors. Set modest expectations for your customers, and then strive to beat those.
8. Treat your employees as well as or better than your customers.
This may sound counterintuitive. But some studies suggest that putting the employee, rather than the customer, first actually makes businesses operate smoother. Ironically, this also appears to contribute to better customer service. The reason is that employees who feel like that they have some ownership in a company tend to take more responsibility for their behavior, pass along good “word of mouth” advertising about your brand, and forge more personal relationships with your customers. The In-N-Out burger chain in Southern California has succeeded for decades by pursuing this classically counterintuitive customer relations formula.
9. Stay out of debt, and keep all financial maneuvering above board.
By keeping up good credit, paying your state, local, and federal taxes on time, staying up to speed on payroll, paying your insurance and mortgage payments precisely when they are due, and otherwise successfully juggling your assets and liabilities, you’ll have a much easier time adapting to vacillations in the market.
About the Author:
Manufactured Fun is the leading manufacturer of popcorn machines, sno cone machines, and cotton candy machines. Visit them online for their top-of-the-line machines perfect for businesses, schools or concessions.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – 9 Tips on How to Make a Small Business Successful
ACCEPT – Balls To The Wall – 2009 [demo] Reunite With New Singer
|
|
Peter Brooke-Ball,George Eastman and Kodak (Great Business Stories) £2.59 |
|
|
Peter Brooke-Ball,George Eastman and Kodak (Great Business Stories) Book £2.89 |
|
|
In-Line Yarn Ball Winder $27.91 Keep craft projects tidy and organized with an in-line yarn ball winder. The needlework tool is hand-operated. |
|
|
What Should I Do With the Rest of My Life? (Paperback) $12.36 “This wise and inspiring book hands down an important message: Happiness is abundant at any age, and only you can limit your options.” -The Boston Globe In today`s world, the question “What should I do with my life?” only scrat… |
|
|
The Predators` Ball (Paperback) $10.65 Reveals the stories behind the risk arbitrageurs and corporate takeover bond impresarios Michael Milken, Carl Icahn, Ronald Perelman, and Nelson Peltz |
|
|
What Works (Paperback) $11.05 In alively and counterintuitive exploration of success stories from across the globe, an award-winning journalist takes the reader on a fascinating journey in pursuit of the flimsy difference between triumph and failure… |
|
|
Odyssey White Hot XG 2-ball F-7 Putter $114.99 The Odyssey White Hot XG 2-ball F7 Putter utilize a multi-layer insert for phenomenal performance on the greens. The legendary 2-ball alignment system allows golfers to move up their putts on the intended target line for a higher level of accuracy. |
|
|
It-driven Business Models (Hardcover) $30.94 “This book will show organizations how business model innovation should be a key focus area in today`s global economy. It features cases from businesses around the globe who have developed their own business models to acheive high levels of performanc… |
|
|
Paving the Road to Sustainable Transport (Hardcover) $125.02 “This book analyzes how the governance of innovation can foster sustainability. The quest for innovation is consistently at the top of the agenda for policy makers around the globe, on the supra-national level, as well as for the nation states and all … |
|
|
The Most Memorable Games in Patriots History (Hardcover) $16.34 On the freezing afternoon of December 12, 1982, the Patriots and Dolphins were deep into the 4th quarter of a snowy scoreless tie. New England, having advanced the ball to the 16 yard line, called timeout as they planned to attempt a 33-yard field… |
|
|
The Curse of the Dragon God (Paperback) $12.34 China. A land of ancient wonders. A history of tradition, triumph and tyranny. As it casts a shadow across the entire globe, this once forbidden country awakens as the dominant force in a new world economy. Business empires will rise, deals will be mad… |
