Hobart partner Michael Burnett recently did a presentation to small business owners on things it’s never too late to know when you run a business. You may enjoy testing your business actions against this list.
1. Have a plan
95% of business owners believe that opportunities exist to grow their business, yet only 22% have a plan to achieve this. Accru has a great ‘One Page Plan’ that can help.
2. Cash is king
If you have $1 or $1million in the bank, is that where you need it to be? Cashflow is a big pressure point in business – don’t ignore it.
3. Sales & marketing
Where are your customers, how do you get in front of them, what appeals to them? Ideas are abundant but testing the marketplace followed by implementation is what’s needed.
4. Build good systems
Building systems makes it easy to get things done and delegate. Both are major time savers/winners.
5. Time is money
It’s not, but this mindset can help. What if you think of time literally as money – how would you spend it? When does it become smart for you to pay someone else to do some of the work?
6. Focus on what you can control
The same economic and financial wind blows on us all. It’s what you do about what happens that makes a difference. Don’t wish for less problems, learn more skills.
7. Structure to suit
Get the business structure that best suits your business. Regulations and circumstances change over time so reassessing any tax and protection side effects is always valuable.
8. Understand what drives profit
Don’t underestimate the importance of thinking about volume, price, cost of sales, costs to generate sales, marketing costs, finance costs, fixed costs and GST mix.
9. Staff = leverage
Aristotle once said, give me a lever and I could move the world. When done right, recruiting and inspiring your people pays big money.
10. Build or buy
Do you grow organically or purchase something that is established with customers, systems infrastructure and a market share? This can be a pivotal question as a business grows.
These issues don’t have black and white answers but that’s where Accru can help. Please contact us if you would like to know more.
