The single most important thing to do in business is a mystery to many. If you don't do this you are heading to disaster.
Every business is many-sided and contains those issues you must consider.
Sales
Sales are very important because without sales where would you be?
You can, however, have all the sales you want and still be in a lot of trouble.
People
People are important, they do the sales and the other designated tasks but are easily
changed out.
These days out-sourcing people has become less important and more of an expense.
Premises
Premises and branding are great but one
major shift of recent times is working in the cloud.
This means
that your premises maybe not all that important.
I will give you a couple of examples, Amazon does not have a store on every corner, does not even have a physical customer presence, just a few big warehouses spread across countries and it is the biggest sales outlet in the world.
When merging home supply companies run out of home-based businesses, think of meals being delivered to your home, or groceries or meat and fruit. No shop front needed.
Millions of businesses are now run from home, not just internet businesses but all sorts of occupations.
Shared offices have become common where you rent a desk and a phone to pedal your wares.
The single most important thing to do in business is an important aspect to master.
Traditional Advertising
Over 100 years of written, hard copy advertising has been mainstream. Business category Yellow pages, for example, carried a paid advert for every business, thousands of dollars were invested for the top spot. Where are they now? Newspaper advertising carrying pages of local adverts for small trades is now all but gone.
Facebook did not exist and web pages were full of spiders, oh how we have changed.
Dress sense has taken a big hit. Can you imagine the boys and girls arriving somewhere like Facebook in a Suit and tie carrying a leather briefcase and shiny shoes? It is not done. A t/shirt and sneakers on formal days are great attire.
A notorious traveling salesman who would set out on a week-long journey crossing boundaries and plying his wares. Staying in shabby motels and having affairs with the locals have now changed.
Business plans have changed and are changing as we bend to meet the demands of a new market environment. Nothing is permanent, everything is malleable because we must adapt quickly to what goes on around us. You may have a nice local store, a great capture area and a steady flow of customers and out of the blue, a competitor opens the doors next door. What to do.
Online marketing is an absolute must, Web pages, SEO, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc are now all tools of the trade and the only problem is how well you use them.
So what is that single most important thing to do in business?
I don’t care if you are a home business, an online business or a corporation you all have this one responsibility.
Cash flow.
The single most important thing to do in business.
The answer is control of your cash, knowing everyday where it will come from and what you will do with it. This one simple task can make or break you and remain as important today as it was 100 years ago.
Spreadsheet it forward and adjust as you go. Factor in seasonal changes, quiet days and public holidays.
Prepare for payroll, tax payments, rent, telephone, and regular billing among the ongoing expenses.
When and how you will buy and pay for the stock. You should remember that it won’t all be sold by the time payment comes.
It's always a great idea to have a separate tax account where funds are banked as they come in. The Taxman is not generally forgiving.
Even when you buy stock, even if you get 30/60 day term some will be left on the shelf.
Get rid of slow-moving stocks by discounting or promoting to clear that dead money back into cash.
Use a professional product or just an excel spreadsheet.
The past is a good presenter for the future so look for those peaks and troughs and be prepared.
Money in the bank is not a sign of wealth, it could be an adjustment in stock levels, unpaid bills or other similar events that are all part of cash flow forecasting
Cash, including credit cards, etc. in your daily takings are often seen as your wealth as they flow into your bank account. You only get a little bit at the end, welcome to business.
The old saying was look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.
This is as appropriate today as it was one hundred years ago.
Cash management is your hero. So make it work for you.
The single most important thing to do in business by Peter Hanley
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