In a prior small business planning article, Use Critical Success Factors for Small Business Planning I shared how one of our clients narrowed down their potential list of new initiatives, projects or tasks from 20 tasks to 7 in only two short hours. They were able to do this because they first identified their Critical […]
Archive for 2013
11/13/2013
November 2013 – How to Use Your Small Business’ Limited Resources Wisely
As a small business planning firm one of the consistent questions that business owners ask us is, “I have limited financial resources for my business where should I invest them?” This occurred recently when one of our clients, a heating and air conditioning contractor said to me, “George I want to expand my business significantly […]
10/21/2013
October 2103 – Does Your Small Business Make You and Your Customer Happy?
As I discussed in two prior articles, I was recently talking to Peter, who is one of our small business planning clients and he told me that one of the best thing about his business is that he is happy with his business. As I reflected on his statement I realized that so many business […]
09/15/2013
September 2013 – Use Critical Success Factors for Small Business Planning
As a small business planning firm a tool that we found invaluable in assisting a small business owner to ferret out the initiatives that will truly be beneficial to them is to identify a business’ Critical Success Factors. In the article How to Use Your Small Business’ Limited Resources Wisely I discuss the fact that […]
08/08/2013
August 2013 – Finding Profits and Pleasure in Your Small Business
In a previous article I shared that I was recently talking to Peter, who is one of our small business planning clients and he told me that one of the best thing about his business is that he is happy with his small business. As I reflected on his statement I realized that so many […]
07/26/2013
July 2013 – Small Business Planning Involves Setting and Achieving Goals
I was talking to Peter one of our clients recently and he told me that one of the best thing about his small business is that he is happy with his business. He has operated his small business for many years and as I reflected on his statement I realized that so many small business […]
06/04/2013
June 2013 – The Payoffs and Payback of Small Business Planning
From an overall standpoint the top reward for engaging in planning for your small business is that you are able to operate your business as a fully systematized factory versus a fruit-stand business. The specifics of this are that you: 1. Reach more customers 2. Generate greater revenue 3. Serve your customers better because your […]
05/22/2013
May 2013 – Two Key Planning Actions for Starting a Small Business
In providing small business planning services we regularly assist people with starting a business and I would like to share a recent example of someone who was starting a new business. A couple weeks ago Terri, a new client of ours called me to let me know that she started a new business. She is […]
04/30/2013
April 2013 – Branding – The Fourth Step of Small Business Planning
As the owner of a small business planning firm let me tell you about a friend of mine, Jeff who lives on a teeter-totter. He does not literally live on a teeter-totter, but his business makes him feel like he does. Jeff is an engineer who works by himself in a “fruit-stand” type business. Jeff’s […]
03/25/2013
March 2013 – Avoid Tyranny of the Urgent with Small Business Planning
In my previous article, Small Business Planning Steps for Growing Your Business I discussed various small business planning steps that you can use to grow your business. I mentioned that in having worked with over 1,200 businesses in the past 15 years I have found that there are basically two ways in which a business can operate, […]
