Stop Spinning Your Tires and Grow Your BusinessWritten by June Campbell
Does operating your business these days remind you of spinning your tires? Are you generating a lot of activity but not moving forward? Believe it or not, this could be a good sign. It could mean that you are ready to move from one stage of business growth to next.Experts identify three main stages of business growth. The Startup Phase is time when you get your business up and running, locate customers, make sales and essentially, try to get money coming in. Typically, at this point, you are an Owner/Operator. The next stage is Early Stage Expansion. In this phase, your business experiences "growing pains" similar to ones I will discuss below. In third stage, your business moves from Owner Operated into Management. In other words, your function is that of manager.You are no longer involved in day to day operation of running business or of producing product or service. Experts claim that only a minority of small businesses move into third phase. Therefore, today's article will address ways of managing growth as you move from Startup into Stage Two. You know its time to look for ways to manage growth if any of following apply: 1.You have steady income and regular sales but you are working too hard. You are investing "sweat equity". You know that if you continue working at that speed, you will burn out, lose productivity or worse -- become ill. It is time to find a way to increase growth while working less. 2.You are running into cash flow problems. Often, cash flow problems are caused by need to invest in inventory or in product development, or to cover payroll. However, while money is being spent on above items, payment for sales is delayed until product is developed, delivered and invoiced. That is, you have capital assets (equipment, inventory), but cash is flowing out faster than it is flowing in. In this situation, you will need to find a way to manage by generating an influx of cash while continuing to develop your products or services.
| | PREPARING FOR YOUR STARTUP VENTUREWritten by Charlene Rashkow
When you awoke this morning, you found yourself buzzing with a fantastic idea for starting a new business and you hadn't a doubt in your mind that you could turn it into a huge success. Now what? All those great ideas floating around in your head and you're excited about making them happen, but at moment you don't feel nearly prepared. What is first thing you should do as you contemplate your plan of action?The best suggestion I can make that will certainly pay off in long run and probably will be most effective strategy at this stage in game would be to start writing things down. Even if thoughts that occur to you seem insignificant at moment, keep your ideas in a simple notebook so that when you're ready to prepare your plan, all your ideas are ready to go and in one place. It is amazing how quickly you can forget something that you thought would stay with you forever, so keep notes on all your ideas. I can't count times I didn't write something down immediately upon thinking of it and later couldn't remember it no matter how hard I tried. Now I make it a point, even if idea occurs in middle of night, to quickly jot a few words down on a paper kept beside my bed. Even if it's just a few brief terms, those few words will jolt your memory and bring idea to forefront when you're ready to address it. The next step would be to start preparation for a business plan. Whether you are applying for a loan, seeking investors or are going to present your idea to other business associates you need a well thought out plan. No one will take you seriously unless you have a planned strategy. Furthermore, your plan will not only be utilized for presentation purposes, but it will in addition make your idea a reality. This crucial and important step of preparing a business plan, allows you to see your ideas take form, and what better way than in a precise and organized plan? I promise, once you see your plan in print, you'll be provided with impetus needed to forge ahead.
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