A firm is only as strong as its people. Although that adage may seem trite, it is true - your business will only be successful if you have created a resource management strategy that places talented people in well-defined roles within your organizational hierarchy. In many companies, hiring and employee management are jobs requiring at least one full-time employee, if not an entire department. [...]
As a business builder, it is not enough to decide who is your ideal client and how much revenue you want to generate. You must also determine whether your company will specialize in a niche industry or have a more general focus. How will it compare to others in that sector? Is your aim to dominate the market and lead your competitors, or to carve out a comfortable space for your organization [...]
Sometimes running a business can feel like you have been thrown overboard from a ship. If you just tread water to stay afloat and maintain daily operations, you will not make any progress toward the shore. After a while you will get exhausted and sink. However, if you set a destination and start swimming to it, you will eventually get there and survive. We have a saying here at The [...]
Your business plan is probably one of the most important documents you will create for your company. It is valuable because it is not just a few pages that you keep in a forgotten binder on a shelf. Rather, it is a dynamic, ever-evolving strategy that will serve as a resource while you build your business. I would advise working with your business plan on a regular basis as you update your one-, [...]
Type "write a business plan" into a search engine and you will get millions of results. If you merely base one of the foundational documents for your business on a few models pulled from the internet, however, you may neglect to include a few key components. Executive statements and financial projections are basic elements of a strong business plan, but as I explain in The Entrepreneurial [...]