Business Concepts

Letting Go While Still Keeping Control

Active business owners often put off thinking about how to pass their business on to a child, or other family or non-family successor, because they don't want to think about retirement--just like they don't want to consider the possibility of premature death.

Yet this failure to carefully plan for their succession, both as regards management control of the business as well as ownership of business assets, is cited as the main reason why only 30% of family-owned businesses continue into the second generation and only 10% make it as far as the grandchildren.

Success and failure

Failure is not a single, catastrophic event. Neither is Success a bolt of lightning or a chance lottery ticket.

We do not fail or succeed overnight.

When we fail at anything it is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. Failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.

Increase your profits with effective follow up

Everybody knows that sales are vital to building a profitable business. But, few people understand the importance of maintaining a permanent reservoir of potential customers (I call them "hot prospects") from which sales can be made now or very soon. The majority of businesses put most of their time and effort into continually attracting new prospects. They spend very little or no time and effort on following up with previous prospects. Attracting new prospects is important. It's also expensive. Following up with previous prospects is important, too. In comparison with finding new prospects, it's very inexpensive.

Cut Costs to Increase Profits

What do you think is easier to do … reduce your expenses by 5% or double your sales? I think most would agree that reducing expenses might be easier. Why, then, do most business owners spend little time on attempting to reduce expenses? Consider this: Your current profit margin is 5% - if you reduce costs by 5% your profits double! Of course, you can do the same thing by merely DOUBLING your sales!

It is amazingly simple to reduce operating costs by a few percent by being diligent. This article will provide you with a listing of some of the specific ways in which operating costs may be reduced. You may find that you can reduce spending considerably by observing only a few of the suggestions. And remember, the small stuff adds up! Think about saving each time you spend and you will discover your own ways to save.

Profit Watching Checklist

Making a profit is a primary objective of a business. Profit measures success. It can be defined simply: Revenues - Expenses = Profit. So, to increase profits you must raise revenues, lower expenses, or both. To make improvements you must know what's really going on financially at all times. You have to watch every financial event without any kind of optimistic filter.

This article gets a bit technical at times, but it shows many of the factors involved in managing the profitability of a business. Keep in mind that many of the software systems in the marketplace make it easy to manage the information, but that it is up to you to make sure that the information is captured and maintained properly. There are also many resources available to you to help you to manage all of this properly.

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Gelu Business Advisors

Business Concepts

Letting Go While Still Keeping Control

Success and failure

Increase your profits with effective follow up

Cut Costs to Increase Profits

Profit Watching Checklist

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