Archive for the ‘Business Plans’ Category

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are success metrics that help a business define and measure progress towards its established goals.   They are quantifiable measurements that the leadership team defines as the critical items that will move the organization forward and highlight areas that are not performing.

As quantifiable measurements, KPIs must focus on true numbers as a way to measure performance vs. the intangible “to be the best at customer service”.  Therefore, it is important that you first create a standard or baseline from which to measure going forward.  For example,

• A call center may have a standard on the amount of time a customer can wait on hold or how many rings a call must be answered by.
• A sales organization can measure against a sales quota
• Human resources can measure against profit per FTE and turnover rate
• Technology can measure against reducing labor hours
• Manufacturing can measure number of units rejected.

Bottom line, the target needs to be clear enough so everyone understands what they are being measured on but realize many things are measurable so you want to make sure to select measurements that are key to the organization’s success.  So I recommend no more than five for the overall organizational health and each department or area will have three to five under that.

When defining KPIs first think about:

• What specifically you want to measure – including baseline or standard
• The calculation to measure  in specific units or dollars
• Target you would like to achieve.

For example,

KPI:  Employee Turnover – The total number of employees who leave the company for any reason:  Termination, resignation vs. count at beginning of year

Calculation:    Total # of employees who left divided by the total number of employees at beginning of year

Target:  Reduce Employee Turnover by 5% per year.

Once you have good Key Performance Indicators defined,  you can use them as a performance management tool to drive performance throughout the organization.  KPIs give everyone from the leadership team down to the rank and file, a clear goal and picture of what is critical to the organization and what they need to do to make your business accelerate.  Create a culture around KPIs, train on them, engage employees in conversations about them and make them visible to the entire organization.

In today’s economy many business owners are faced with tough decisions that will streamline their business to save a few dollars without compromising service. As unemployment hits an all time high and people and businesses are not spending as much as they did in years past, what can a small business do to survive in a tough economy?

1. Become the ultimate deal maker: With everyone pinching pennies and looking for new ways to save money, this is a great time to offer excellent deals for your products or services. Now is the time for you to be strategic about making deals with your customers, vendors and service partners. In fact, try bartering for services, ad space or product. Every business is looking for ways to save money so do not be afraid to renegotiate contracts with your current vendors and to offer more value to keep your current customers.

2. Look for efficiencies: Take a look at all of the processes in your business and see if there are ways to streamline and become more efficient. Look for areas that are manually heavy tasks and see if there is an opportunity to automate. Look for areas that are paper heavy and duplicated and see if you can tighten up. Combine like tasks for greater productivity and do not shy away from investment opportunities that may reduce your overall labor in future periods. For example, investing in technology that could would reduce labor by 50%. Although there is an upfront outlay of cash, the investment will pay for itself.

3. Up your marketing: Now is the time to increase your marketing. Studies have shown that in times of a downward companies, small business that increase marketing have a greater chance of growing their business since there are so many business owners that cut back on their marketing. Here is a great opportunity to stand out from your competition and grab more market share. Marketing is a process and a continuous one so to get customers in your sales funnel, you need to continue to market your business. Read the rest of this entry »

The creativity stage of business is the most exciting stage because this is the time where you realize your passion and develop your business concept.   The main focus of this stage is client acquisition and delivering your products and services.  Typically in this phase finances are limited and most business owners are operating under a shoestring budget so the number one thing you should be focusing on is making the cash register ring. 

In business, sales are the lifeblood of every organization and as business owners, you need to find ways to generate leads; convert those leads into sales and deliver exceptional service so the customers continue to come back.  This should be your number one focus. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Most businesses start out as a simple “a-ha” moment, an idea.   They begin to grow, become alive and begin to create an identity.  As each of these businesses develops they will experience common problems and as they pass through the five stages of business growth.

Stage 1:  The Creativity Stage

This is the birth stage of the venture and where the idea for the business was conceived.  The business owner is full of optimism and energy is traditionally high.  The owners or the founders are usually technically or entrepreneurial oriented and very involved in the operations of the business and activities are strained by limited resources.  The main focus is obtaining customers.

Stage 2:  The Survival Stage

Typically after twelve to eighteen months in the creativity stage, a business will move to the next stage of business growth – The Survival Stage.  At this stage the business is driven around the sales effort since with no sales, there is no survival.  The business will begin to look for any sale possible no matter how big or how small just to make an impact on revenue.  During this stage a business usually finds a lucrative niche and a pattern for success and repeat business. Read the rest of this entry »

By <a href=”http://www.paloalto.com/business_plan_software/?affiliate=kelliedand”>Palo Alto Software, Inc.</a>
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Often you may hear about what a business plan consists of. While including the necessary items is very important, you also want to make sure you don’t commit any of the following common business plan mistakes:
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<b>1. Putting it off. </b><br>
Don’t wait to write a plan until you absolutely have to. Too many businesses make business plans only when they have no choice in the matter. Unless the bank or the investors want a plan, there is no plan.
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Don’t wait to write your plan until you think you’ll have enough time. “There’s not enough time for a plan,” business people say. “I can’t plan. I’m too busy getting things done.” The busier you are, the more you need to plan. If you are always putting out fires, you should build firebreaks or a sprinkler system. You can lose the whole forest for paying too much attention to the individual burning trees.
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<b>2. Cash flow casualness. </b><br>
Cash flow is more important than sales, profits, or anything else in the business plan, but most people think in terms of profits instead of cash. When you and your friends imagine a new business, you think of what it would cost to make the product, what you could sell it for, and what the profits per unit might be. We are trained to think of business as sales minus costs and expenses, which equal profits. Unfortunately, we don’t spend the profits in a business. We spend cash. So understanding cash flow is critical. If you have only one table in your business plan, make it the cash flow table.
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<b>3. Idea inflation. </b><br>
Plans don’t sell new business ideas to investors. People do. The plan, though necessary, is only a way to present information. Investors invest in people, not ideas.
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Don’t overestimate the importance of the idea, particularly the importance of the uniqueness of the idea. You don’t need a great idea to start a business; you need time, money, perseverance, common sense, and so forth. Very few successful businesses are based entirely on new ideas. A new idea is much harder to sell than an existing one, because people don’t understand a new idea and they are often unsure if it will work.
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<b>4. Fear and dread.</b> <br>
Doing a business plan isn’t as hard as you think. You don’t have to write a doctoral thesis or a novel. There are good books to help, many advisors among the Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), business schools, and there is software available to help you (such as Business Plan Pro, and others).
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<b>5. Spongy, vague goals.</b> <br>
Leave out the vague and the meaningless babble of business phrases (such as “being the best”) because they are simply hype.  Remember that the objective of a plan is its results, and for results, you need tracking and follow up. You need specific dates, management responsibilities, budgets, and milestones. Then you can follow up. No matter how well thought out or brilliantly presented, it means nothing unless it produces results.
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<b>6. One size fits all</b> <br>
Tailor your business plan to its real business purpose. Business plans can be different things: they are often just sales documents to sell an idea for a new business. They can be detailed action plans, financial plans, marketing plans, and even personnel plans. They can be used to start a business, or just run a business better.
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<b>7. Diluted priorities.</b> <br>
Remember, strategy is focus. A priority list with 3-4 items is focus. A priority list with 20 items is something else, certainly not strategic, and rarely if ever effective. The more items on the list, the less the importance of each.
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<b>8. Hockey-stick shaped growth projections.</b> <br>
Have projections that are conservative so you can defend them. When in doubt, be less optimistic.
<p>Source: <a href=”http://articles.bplans.com/index.php/business-articles/writing-a-business-plan/common-business-plan-mistakes/?affiliate=kelliedand”>bplans.com</a></p>