How to Run a Small Business

Video Transcript

"I think the biggest, the biggest thing we advocate all the time is having a plan taking the time to do that business plan; taking the time to setup your record keeping system so that you know what you're going to do week to week and month to month. Because when you have a plan; well first of all, statistics indicate that businesses with plans succeed more often so there is; it's in your best interest to do it even though it's hard to take the time. And when you find by just setting your plans in business, it's really hard. So you have to plan to plan and take that time to work. People say work on your business rather than in you business so that's the kind of time you have to schedule into your day. But having a plan is really important and it's really difficult at the same time. It sound simple. You have, I have a cash plan; cash flow is the biggest challenge for a lot of small businesses and so you want to monitor your cash everyday and make sure that you know; see if you have a plan, then you know what you're suppose to be doing and if you're off from that, you know that you can take action on that sooner rather than later. And that time, timing comes really important. You want to, you want to always be thinking about your marketing plan; consistently updating it with new ideas; thinking about marketing everyday; doing one marketing activity everyday. Then really, related to the plan is information. Information is crucial. So you want keep your records and track your progress towards your plan and then problems solve and take actions if your behind on your sales for that month, what can you do. Can you do a little marketing campaign? What can you do to reach out to your current customers? Are you losing customers? And so you want to know that as soon as possible. It takes dedication; takes a lot of energy to run a business; so you've got to be able to have that endurance for long days, long weeks. Family support is really important. It sounds like a touchy feely thing but if your family isn't supporting you, it's going to be even harder. You replicate, repeat business so you want to again know your customers and focus on your repeat, repeat customers 'cause they're the most important and the most profitable. And then the other thing you can do is actively generate referrals from these customers. What are you doing; have you asked for referrals? I mean, we don't even ask and we expect that word of mouth; I mean a lot of my entrepreneurs say, "Word of mouth is my biggest marketing; it's how I; it's my most important marketing thing". But, are you asking? Are you saying, "I really appreciate if you would refer me to someone that can use my services". Ask for it and then thank them. That's the other thing that people think about. Don't think about that is really, can go a long way for you."