Archive for May, 2010

You need a business plan.

It needs to drive daily decisions.

There are tons of free resources out there to help you get started.

One website has over 400 free sample business plans.  This can be a great place to start.  But all it is is a start.

For some business owners, starting their business is their opportunity to live their dreams. For others, the dream is what comes after the business.

There are some simple steps you can take to get the most future value out of your current business. It is all about how you structure your business.

The federal government is very interested in you paying for your own retirement.  There are some wonderful tax incentives to get you to set aside money for the future.

Let’s face it, Social Security is not going to pay much to anyone in the younger generation. (Like it pays that much now!)

Money motivates.

But once you pay enough to get money off the table, money doesn’t matter that much.

Once you do that, what really motivates is being autonomous, the satisfaction of skill and mastery, and making a contribution to the world around them.

Check out Daniel Pink’s book: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

Have a watch. This is well worth 11 minutes of your life:

You need extra eyes looking at your business plan.

Find people with expertise in a variety of areas and meet with them twice a year. The big secret on how to recruit them: free food. Never underestimate the power of free food.

Here is an example from working with one of my clients.  He started his firm at the beginning of this year and discussed his business plan and strategy with me. At a previous employer, collections lagged services rendered by 6 months or more.  Being a new firm, he knew that his cash flow would become unmanageable if his collections were so slow.

Who are you?

What is your business?

If you can’t answer those questions, you’re in trouble.

The answers to those questions dictate how you interact with your customers and employees.

Your business mission statement is the most important part of your business plan because it tells you what else is important.