Six Areas to Assess
by Henry McCabe-A blog for businesses with 20 or fewer employees or for people planning on starting one.
In my October 10, 2013 post I suggested that in order to
plan for growth, you need to assess where you are now in order to identify what
you must change to make it happen. Assess
the following areas of your business by answering a few questions about: Goals,
Management, Marketing, Sales, Operations and Finance. In this I write about the
first three. I'll address the last three in my next post.
1. Goals. Do I
have a clear set of goals for the business and for what I want the business to
do for me? Do I have both long term and short term plans for how I will achieve
the goals? Am I lost because I do not know where I want to go and do not have a
map for how I will get there? If the
answer to the two first questions is no and to the last is yes, then one way to foster growth is to do some planning.
Create personal and business goals, a strategic plan and a business plan. The
plans would address the five topics that follow.
2. Management. Have I defined my role as manager and the
respective roles of each of my employees? Do I consistently act in my role as
manager before I just do business? Do I conduct periodic evaluations of my strengths
and weaknesses and those of my employees? Have I developed corrective action plans
to overcome identified weaknesses, especially my own? Do I have an organized way of recruiting,
interviewing, background checking, and training new employees? Do I provide clear directions and work schedules for my employees? Is the business
on auto pilot with nobody really managing it?
If the answer to any of the first six questions is no and to the last
is yes, then one way to foster growth is
to become a professional manager. Create employment policies, job descriptions,
performance evaluations, corrective action plans and most of all commit
yourself to manage the business rather than let it manage you.
3. Marketing. Do
I have a marketing plan for the business? Do I have an advertising plan for the
business? Do I understand the difference between the two? Do I have specific
measurable goals for each advertising campaign? Do I have a campaign for
retaining my current customers? Do I collect data on the results of the
campaigns and compare them to the goals? Are my promotional campaigns bringing
in enough new customers? Am I sure my prices are not too high or too low? Are
my sales shrinking, stagnant or growing so slowly that I barely notice? If the
answer to any of the first eight questions is no and to the last is yes, then
one way to foster growth is to develop a plan for bringing in new customers and
retaining existing ones. Create a unique selling proposition, brand identity, pricing policy, advertising
plan and budget and the other elements o f a marketing plan.
Planning. The
only thing we know for sure about any plan we make is that actual events will
turn out to be different. We must not let the attempt to create a perfect plan
get in the way of completing one at all. An imperfect plan is better than none
at all.
Definition Quiz. What
word describes everything a business
does?
Answer to last quiz:
Unique Selling Proposition
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