Lucidry - Connecting The Inspired » Best Practice

A Question of Business

Mel @ Lucidry — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:11:00 +0000

Having unanswered questions about your business can affect its growth and eventual success and prosperity. These are some of the most important areas to consider, and you shouldn’t think you can leave the task of working out solutions to them at a later date, as it will only come back to bite you in the behind!

If you are thinking about the future of your venture then in typical entrepreneurial fashion you probably have many more questions than you do tangible/solid answers. What you can do, is make sure you are mulling over the right questions in every area of your business – so that the answers you find are the ones which can lead you strongly into the future, helping you grow and achieve your goals.

Accounts and Finances

How effective is your current accounting / bookkeeping system? Does it ensure that cashflow is at its optimum through your business cycle; does it raise red flags that can be noticed? Could you find a way to automate any of your accounting steps?

Business Communication

Streamlining the way you and your employees communicate with each other and customers could be a great step in maximisng the productivity of your business. Ask yourself; have you lost any business because of inadequate communication systems? Is there a reduced productivity level or standard of product or service because communication is not clear? Are you aware of how communication could improve your business for the better by using modern technology such as VoIP or a company intranet?

If you were thinking yes to any of these questions the communications systems in your business could be spruced up to benefit, work these things out earlier rather than later!

Staff Relations

Many a business mogul have said ‘treat your staff as you wish them to treat your customers’ – sound advice! Your staff are on of your greatest assets so you should treat them as such! If you don’t have employees think about people in your network who help you out from time to time in the same respect. Make sure your going the extra mile to take care of those who are crucial to your business.

Expanding your business

Is your business ready to grow? or expand? If so you will need to ensure that you plan and execute the expansion well. Growing for the sake of growing may hurt you in the long-term than biding your time and being smart. Make sure to consider the logistics of business growth, implications for company structure and cash flow.

Make sure to ask questions about your business!!!

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Forming Small Strategic Alliances

Mel @ Lucidry — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:25:18 +0000

Forming relationships and partnerships with other start-up businesses is a tactic that small businesses have used for many a year, as it presents many interesting opportunities.

The simplest way small businesses can prosper from having a business relationship is cross referral. In the sense that,business 1 recommends business 2 to customers for certain services and business 2 in turn does the same, by referring its customers to business 1. This is a simple referral circle.

Referrals, do however, need to be genuine, the partnership is only as strong as its weakest member and you should take time to seek partners that you feel comfortable passing your clientele onto as their performance is directly associated with your performance.

Take heed, as some problems can occur with referral partnerships:

- If one of the businesses you have a relationship start to drop in standard / level of service or execution etc then you need to consider whether this is a relationship and a business you are prepared to endorse. You do not want to be referring clients who you value to a business you are not sure will provide them with the same level of support you will.
- One – way street. It can occur that referrals only seem to be flowing from one business to the other. If this is case, take time to reflect on whether this partnership is mutuallybeneficial if not, work to make it so, maybe introduce a referral commission

Trust

Relationships / alliances that operate on the principle of trust rather than by payment or incentive usually work best in my experience. Is there a business / individual you have a special rapport with? Take use of this and maybe cross-promote your businesses. i.e Buy this from me and get 50% off on their product! etc . Find ways to utilise your relationships to better your businesses.

Survival of the fittest

There is somewhat of a myth that all business is a ruthless fight to the death in which only the fittest survive. This is for the most part not true.

It is hard, but not impossible to conduct honest business

Mahatma Ghandi

I believe one needs to find a balance between thinking the business world should be one of love and happiness and the ruthless corp attitude. Every business however, often in the early stages of development needs to determine where it is planning to sit and how it is planning to grow within its industry.

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Why Write A Business Plan?

Mel @ Lucidry — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:33:17 +0000

Many small business owners and entrepreneurs have taken the first footsteps in their journey without a business plan and have since seen no reason to take the time to construct one. A business plan is a living, breathing and organic document – open to growth, revision and correction.

If you haven’t taken the time to construct a business plan, hopefully this article will convince you to do so…

It is far easier to be passionate about the future if you can see where you are going and how you are going to get thereCheryl D.Rickman

Doing anything in life we need a goal, aim or objective – whether that fact is set subconsciously or consciously – it occurs. Your business is no different, it however, cannot be left to chance. There must be a conscious examination of its goals. If your starting a new business, and are leaving the security of your monthly salary – a business plan is even more important – addressing how your business will run and making realistic cash – flow projections will be a necessity.

You absolutely must know where you want your business to go and how it is going to get thereAuthor Unknown

By figuring out your destination and writing down what actions you need to take and who needs to take them, in order to reach that destination – you make its achievement much more feasible. Similarly, looking ahead into the future and all the challenges and tests that could present themselves leaves you prepared and make it easier to manage obstacles and your manoeuvrings.

An effective business plan communicates ideas, tasks, goals and strategies it facilitates focus and direction by specifically defining mission statements and long – term objectives.

Use your business plan to map your idea, write your manuscript to achieve success. Use it to tie together your vision, market research, resources and personal attributes.

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SWOT – An Invaluable Business Tool

Mel @ Lucidry — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:53:12 +0000

When hearing famous stories from well known entrepreneurs, you often hear the flippant – “we went with the flow, and things worked out.” These people are a rarity, hence their popularity. Most successful businesses have done well because they have planned effectively.

A tool to evaluate any business idea, strategy or plan is SWOT:

S – Strengths
W - Weaknesses
O – Opportunities
T – Threats

i.e You place your idea in the centre of page and then evaluate its strengths, weaknesses , opportunities and threats. Once you’ve completed and listed all the presentations for each factor – you can then evaluate.

All the strengths that you come up with through the tool will act as the base for your competitive focus. In you business and marketing plans, you will be thinking of ways to promote/emphasise these strengths to your market.

The weaknesses you identify will become a section within your plan, that you account and plan for, so that plan for wways to accomodate them and work around the barriers they presents. Many weaknesses, marketed right, can be presented as strengths, think past their obvious appearance and see how you can ompensate for the weaknesses.

Opportunites you consider, will become the pinning points of your plans for development and growth. What opportunites have been noticed that will allow you to increase sales? penetrate new markets? increase brand awareness? reduce expenditure?

Taking time to identify the threats to your business before they occur means you are in a good place to react should they become the problem or issue that you have identified. This will mean he effect they have upon your normal operations and development will be reduced.

It is a good idea to periodically ‘re-SWOT’ your business as it changes and adapts through its life-span. This will mean as your environment evolves your business evolves and stays prepared!

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4 Steps to Transforming Your Business

Mel @ Lucidry — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 09:30:02 +0000

Moving business forward after it stagnates or seemingly plateaus is a challenge that any entrepreneurs and business owners will face.

‘I Have A Dream’

So you want to transform your business? But into what? Exactly. You need to affirm your vision. Your vision, no matter how ridiculous it seems is pure, don’t trouble the dream with reality at this point. Just note down what that dream is. Ikea started off with two guys.. building furniture.. in a shed.

Detail the Dream

Taking the dream from one’s mind and putting it onto paper.

Write down everything you see about the dream, the people there, the office, the finances, your emotions everything.

I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream Vincent Van Gogh

Go Past the Obvious

Your initial idea or concept may be simple in nature but try ‘to think outside the box’ – how can you expand that initial thought and idea to offer more services or similar products. Place that idea in circle in the middle of piece of paper and then brainstorm and mind-map everything that comes to mind about it – you may find a better idea concept comes from the process.

Make it Happen

Business plans are an invaluable tool that very business owner should have and be addressing at periodic stages within their businesses life – as circumstances evolve and change, so should your business plan. A good exercise is to condense your plan to one sheet of A4 into four sections. In section one – where your are now, 2 – where you would like to be, 3 – what needs to be done to get you there and 4 – who will do it all and when!