By Alvin E. Terry, MBA/Business Consultant
Now is the time to look back over the past 10 months of your business activity and analyze the findings that you have compiled. It’s time to see if your projected sales and expenses were anywhere close to the actual performance that you experienced.
If you were diligent and followed your plan on a monthly basis with appropriate recordings, you should have been able to make the appropriate adjustments to keep your business on course.
At the beginning of the year, if your business was a start-up, you should have been recording all of your start-up costs including required items such as:
- Deposits
- Equipment Purchases
- Tenant Improvements or Building Purchases
- Legal and Accounting Expenses
- Advertising
- Signage
- Website Design and Hosting
- Miscellaneous Purchases
- A Safety Net “Contingency Fund”
All of the money you invested (Owner’s Equity) coupled with other capital infusions you may have done, such as Investor Capital or a Bank Loan or Line of Credit, put your company in the position of doing business.
If you are not a start-up, you have the previous year’s numbers to work from. Those numbers are now the benchmarks in which you will begin the New Year that are realistic because they have historical value. The focus now is to drive more revenue, realize exponential growth, hire more employees, and expand into more markets.
All businesses go through the same business cycles at various times in various stages. “Cash Flow Management” has become the real focus because you are now in a growth mindset.
If your company is in year two and you have survived the “shock and awe” of what it takes to meet some sort of weekly payroll and kept the doors open, now is the time to expand your sales staff by hopefully recruiting seasoned sales professionals that really know how to close the sale and get the order. Of course, this is based on the premise that you have a brick and mortar business and you need someone to get out and shake some hands and look at some eyeballs. This is the old-fashioned way of selling and still is the best way to establish relationships that will last.
If you have an Internet based business, then you need to hire IT professionals that can help you achieve dominance in the social media arena whether it is B2B or B2C. Either way, you are going to hire someone to help achieve the growth in sales that you will need to compete in the marketplace.
You will have to design several compensation packages that will appeal to the freshmen sales professionals and also to the seasoned pros. Your goal is to capture and retain the best talent that you can afford at this time.
While you are working on the sales and marketing strategy, you will also have to focus on building your “Mid-Level Management Team”. This team of professionals will be composed primarily of individuals that have the following skill sets:
- Operations
- Sales
- Accounting
- Finance
- Customer Service
- Logistics
- IT
As the company grows, so will you. It’s inevitable. You must evolve, you have no choice. You are still the one with the original “Vision and Mission”. It’s natural that all businesses evolve whether small, medium, or large. It’s time for you to go back to school and learn the traits of leadership by taking specific courses, seminars, and workshops that will help you manage your company more effectively and efficiently.
The decision of “letting go” and delegating is a very liberating act. If you go down the path of “I must keep control and micromanage everything”, it will definitely become a hindrance to exponential growth. Relax, stay focused, get a mentor, and move forward.
I sincerely hope that this message will serve as an inspiration and education tool for you as a small business owner.
Alvin E. Terry, MBA, President of Dynamic Business Builders can be contacted by email at alvin.terry@rocketmail.com or by cell at 713-392-9107.
