1. What is changing in your market?
Many business owners believe that if they have a great product or service, business will automatically come to them. Even if you do offer the best product and great service, if you don’t deliver what the market wants it will eventually dry up and blow away.
Get to know your market and how it is changing. No longer is your biggest competition coming from down the road, it is coming from overseas or online. Know what changes are happening in your industry and prepare for them now. A great way to do this is to be in regular communication with your customers and listen to what they are saying.
2. How well do you know Your Numbers?
Business is all about turning assets into sales, sales into profit and profit into cash. If your business strategies aren’t putting more cash in you bank account, then don’t do it, or do it differently.
Take the time to review what happened last year, analyse the results you achieved, see what adjustments you need to make to obtain the results you require, plan next year and look at what assistance you need to obtain the desired result.
Every business has 2-3 critical drivers that are producing the bulk of its results. Learn what they are for your business and focus on these. You’ll get to your future destination much quicker.
3. Where are you going?
Setting and achieving goals is one of the best ways to measure your life’s progress and create clarity. Consider the alternative – just drifting along aimlessly hoping that one day good fortune will fall into your lap with little or no effort on your part. You’ve got more chance of finding a grain of sugar on a sandy beach.
It is a fact that successful people do the things that unsuccessful people will not do. Successful people write down their goals. Goal setting is a powerful process for making your vision and dreams a reality.
Get very clear on where you are going and stay connected to this daily. Back this with a clear step by step plan and you’ll be well on your way to achieving your future
4. What is your succession plan?
Every business owner must condition themselves that eventually, the baton must and will be passed, and he or she must be able to do so without hesitation. There are three important components of succession planning that must be kept in mind during the entire process:
1. Attracting and retaining the best talent.
2. Building leaders from within the business.
3. Developing the careers of potential successors.
Create systems in your business so your business becomes ‘systems dependent’ rather than ‘people dependent’. This will mean when you come to exit your business you’ll have the fundamentals in place so you can hand over to a general manager or you’ll have a more marketable asset to sell.
Begin with the end in mind so you can maximise your return on effort.
5. Who are you listening to?
Too many business owners listen to ‘BBQ Bob’ – the guy at the BBQ who will give you all the ‘free advice’ about how to run a business… when he hasn’t even run one himself… Be careful about who you take advice from.
Surround yourself with the best advisors and become a generalist, rather than a specialist. In an information economy, there is a lot to keep on top of so surround yourself with the best experts who can keep you informed about the key changes that will impact you and your business. It will be a small investment compared with the acceleration they’ll give you.
Take time to find the right advisors who can fast track your journey.
6. Do you have cash for growth?
Profit and cash flow are not the same thing. A business can still go broke whilst making a healthy profit just by not having enough financial reserves to meet its commitments.
Cash flow management is the fundamental and essential responsibility of the Business Owner or General Manager. A good cash flow manager reviews cash flow needs for the next week, next month, next quarter…and plans for any large cash need before it becomes a crisis.
Remember that cash flow management is more than just what’s happening with accounts receivable and payable. It also includes sales, raising finance through loans/overdrafts or sale of assets, controlling stock…
7. What is your exit strategy?
For many business owners, their business is their superannuation – so get clear now on how you will exit your business and who would buy it.
Do you have employees with the management ability and the mindset of an owner and the ability to access capital to pay for the business? If these people aren’t working for you now, do you have time to recruit them and teach them the business with an understanding that they might take over? What about your suppliers, customers or competitors? They might be looking for an opportunity to enter your part of the industry.