I’m frequently heard lamenting about small businesses that are not “run like a business”. What do I mean by that? In many years I’ve seen very successful businesses and I’ve seen the miserable failures too. Here is a list of traits of people and small business subjects that I think directly contribute to a businesses success. Part 2…
Know your costs. Get a pencil and a calculator and your bills out. Go to work! This is YOUR business! You should know EXACTLY every penny of what goes into your product or service. Figure out the exact costs of everything you do, down to the penny. When quoting work, you will know, with precision, exctly what you need to get to make a profit.
Do not believe your own PR. You are probably not as good in the eyes of your customer as you think you are. You are not the greatest thing since the iPhone. People in meetings within a company tend to engage in a kind of groupthink that sees only the good PR about themselves.
Do not try to do everything yourself. You can only be good at maybe 3-4 things out of the possible 15 hats a business owner has to wear. At some point you must hire people smarter than you are in certain areas. Be humble. You are not always the smartest person in the room.
Do not abdicate responsibility for the money. I’ve seen and heard of many instances of fraud that occurred because the owner allowed an employee, usually a bookkeeper/receptionist, or anyone that handles money and and/or accounting, free rein. You have to learn how to implement what accountants call “internal controls”. It’s not a matter of not trusting someone, it’s a matter of not placing temptation in front of someone.
You can’t out-sell your stupidity. Salespeople who go into business usually make bad businesspeople. The reason is that, being sales oriented, they are eternally optimistic, and not very realistic or pragmatic. They typically do not pay as close attention to things other than the prospect of the next sale. Always the next big sale coming next month. Spend a little less time in the future and join us in the here and now.
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I have just finished reading part 1 and part 2 of this post. It was a really interesting read, thanks for sharing.