There are certain concepts that successful business owners create, and then refine, over and over again. Does your business have a mission statement? Have you defined strategies and objectives of your business? What if a lender asks about your ROI?Successful business people talk to each other in these terms. (If you're curious, skip ahead to end of this article and read other concepts that you need to define to increase your chances for business success.) If you're not familiar with these concepts, brush up on "language" of business. Spending your energy defining and applying these concepts to your business can build a strong, solid foundation.
Plan on spending some time crafting these terms as they relate to you and your business. The language of business provides a handy framework for review, but there is so much more to each of concepts than its dictionary definition. In order for concepts to be effective, it's necessary to internalize and use them daily. And keep in mind how not using these principles in your business may cause problems later on. Consider these events:
--The dot.com, Enron, and WorldCom fiascos are excellent examples of what can happen when businesses forget about basics. Some folks decided they were smarter than more than a hundred years of proven-to-work business concepts.
--Established business owners who are stuck. To date, I have not worked with an established business that is able to provide me with a basic business plan-vision, mission, objectives, strategies, etc. Some companies did create a plan for funding purposes but haven't looked at it for years and years. If you're running your business properly, you're looking at your business and marketing plan at least once a week.