In today's economy more and more people
are turning to entrepreneurship as job replacement. This is true for
two instances:
- People who can not get jobs and need to start their own business to earn money.
- People who are under-employed and need to start part-time businesses to supplement their income.
In both cases, these individuals, who
are not necessarily entrepreneurship-inclined and trained; need to
take steps to enure their businesses succeed and that they do not
take a bad situation and make it worse; and that they do achieve
what they set out to do – earn enough money to pay the bills and
live a comfortable (at worst) life.
Before starting a business keep in mind
that:
- 50% fail in the first year
- 10% to 33% are left standing after five years (depends upon the study you read)
And that the main reasons business fail
are:
- No business plan
- Poor management
Interestingly,
research I have done shows:
- 80% of all entrepreneurs indicate a business plan is important
- 20% of all entrepreneurs have a business plan
Looking
at the last stat, along with many people starting businesses with no management training; it is no wonder the vast majority of new
businesses fail.
This
is why I implore people starting businesses to generate a
business plan (worst case in bullet point format) and, at minimum,
know what management tools are needed to run a business successfully.
A
business plan is needed for many reasons, not just to obtain
financing. A business plan is a feasibility study to ensure your
business can earn enough money to cover your personal and business
expenses. A business plan helps set strategies so you can measure if
you are on the path to success or need to re-look what you are doing
(and to do so quickly before you get swallowed up by debt).
Researching and writing a business plan also helps define your
management strengths and weaknesses. If you cannot develop a good
marketing promotion while generating your plan, you better improve
your skills or leave room in the budget to hire someone to develop
one for you.
As
far as management tools go; you need to implement a strategic plan,
with specific objectives, strategies, tactics and goals from day one and monitor your progress quarterly.
You also need to understand marketing. This includes advertising
and promotion, pricing strategies, your competition, perfecting your sales skills and
elevator pitch, and understanding branding. Other areas you will
need to perfect include: customer service, cash flow management,
project management, market research, and more.
I
teach a course, “How to Start, Grow and Manage a Business.” The
course covers business plans and management tools. I wrote a book to
support the course. It contains much of the lecture content (in
bullet form so you do not have to read four paragraphs to get the key
piece of information) and has lots and lots of worksheets that
entrepreneurs can use in their business and to outline a business plan.
You
can check out the book's table of contents on Amazon
(http://www.amazon.com/Building-Successful-Business-entrepreneurs-instruction/dp/1470000636/ref=sr_1_29?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328713612&sr=1-29).
If you cannot find a better deal on line, go to my book's web site,
https://www.createspace.com/3785695
and use coupon code ADF28U4Q for
$5 off.
The book is perfect for entrepreneurs, whether new or seasoned, and for managers employed by a business who want to learn new to implement improvements to their departments.
