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Tips and advice on
Small Business
Why Does a Business Fail and What Can You Do to Stop It?
I believe the number one reason why a business will fail is lack of planning. This can be due to various reasons, perhaps because the market research wasn't sufficiently carried out in the first place, or because the financial burden was higher than was planned for etc. Sometimes business failure happens because the business owner is not very savvy at other aspects of the business, such as management, promotion, branding, advertising, public relations, leadership, bookkeeping, or customer follow-up etc. It is important to get the necessary training to ensure all aspects of your home business run efficiently, or to hire help to manage these other aspects. Here are some other reasons to consider: 1. Inadequate accounting records 2. Disregarding or misinterpreting financial records 3. Not controlling costs 4. Fraud due to poor internal control 5. Pricing goods or services too low as a way of getting customers or clients 6. Lack of marketing/selling skills 7. Not carrying adequate and appropriate insurance 8. Failing to adequately train and develop employees 9. Lack of goal and business advancement planning 10. Not seeking advice or professional help when necessary. If you know that most businesses fail because they don't bother to plan properly, what can you do to ensure this won't happen to your business? Have your own business and marketing plan and use it every day! Review your goals on a daily basis. Use that to-do list every day, making sure to cross off your accomplishments. Then make a fresh list every morning of what is left to do, and what other things need to be accomplished in your business/work day. Be ready to talk about your business in every encounter you have during the day. Practice a 30 second speech about your business so you are always ready to share it with people, and make sure you ALWAYS carry business cards with you. It looks professional too. Hire people to do the work that you are not good at, so your business doesn't fail due to your weaker points. Have a Plan-B! Put money by for a rainy day. Find a mentor, someone in your field that can help and encourage you with your business. Join a small business association where you can network with others in your field of business. Work hard and stay motivated. You can make your business a success with the proper planning! Michele Miller is a home-based business owner and medical transcriptionist. She is also the author of an ebook about starting a successful transcription business from home. http://www.medical-transcription-at-home.com
The Most Important Decision of Your Massage Business Career
Don't you find that there are so many decisions you need to make each and every day regarding the direction of your massage practice. Especially if you are a solo-preneur or own your own massage business. As a business owner myself I know at times it can seem overwhelming, wearing all the hats of massage therapist, marketer, salesperson, office administrator... and the list goes on. Yet there is one key decision that will chart the course of your business and will ultimately determine your level of success long term. This decision will also increase your chances of staying the course till you have your ideal massage practice. Can you think what that might be? Well, let me ask you... Are you trying to build a massage practice? Are you hoping to get more clients? Are you feeling it out to see how it goes? Or have you committed to building the business of your dreams... no matter what! Many therapists can't wait to finish massage school, find the ideal location for their practice, and jump right in there looking for ways to fill their schedule book with clients. But when things don't work out quite as smoothly as they expected, they get frustrated and give up all too easily... because they never stopped to make that all important decision that they were absolutely committed to building a successful massage business. This decision is a turning point. It announces to the world that not succeeding is no longer an option. This decision will inspire you to take action, even when things get rough. My husband Francis is also a massage practitioner (jointly we have over 30 years in the profession). Early on in his career he traveled with motivational speaker, Anthony Robbins, as his personal massage therapist. One of the things that Tony used to say was, "To get new results you must take new actions, and all actions are fathered by a decision." So, what fundamental decision have you committed to regarding your massage practice? And is it a decision that inspires you to take action? Can you write it down somewhere that you will see on a daily basis? OK, so you have made your decision...but do you believe it? Do you have the confidence in yourself to carry it through? In his classic book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill said that if you can conceive of something and believe that you can do it, then you can! And the more you believe in yourself the more likely you are to achieve your goals and manifest your dreams. So what are your beliefs about: Your skills as a massage therapist? Your ability to attract your ideal clients? Your ability to build and sustain a successful massage practice? Your ability to create prosperity and abundance (and maybe even complete financial freedom) in your life? Because until you believe that you can do it, you won't take the sustained action necessary to build a thriving business. And that would be a terrible shame because you have unique gifts to share in a way that nobody else can, and there are people for you to work with that no one else can help in quite the same way as you. So, if your "belief muscles" are a little atrophied, how do you build them up? Here are some things you can do:
So let's face it, as you grow your business there will be times when you will feel challenged, when you have to move outside your comfort zone, when you make mistakes, and when you doubt yourself and your abilities. This happens to us all! And you can either let these things undermine your confidence and sabotage your success, or use them to strengthen your decision to build the business of your dreams...no matter what! A Native American elder once described his own inner turmoil like this: "It feels as if there are two dogs inside of me. One of the dogs is always fearful, anxious and filled with doubt. The other dog is playful and confident. The worried dog fights the joyful dog all the time." When asked by his friend which dog wins, he thought about it for a moment and replied, "The one I feed the most." So which dog do you feed? The one that is doubtful and full of fear, or the dog that is joyful and successful? The choice is yours alone to make. But don't make it lightly. Because the answer will greatly influence the success not only of your massage business, but of your entire life. Elizabeth Fletcher Brown LMT, a Certified Success Coach is the founder of the Massage Business Center, dedicated to supporting massage therapists in creating financial freedom through business success. Do you really have what it takes to build the massage business of your dreams? Take our free online assessment at http://www.MassageBusinessCenter.com and find out.
Increase Profits With a Small Investment of Time and No Money
The less a business pays for goods and services the more profit that business generates. How does a small business with limited purchasing power get access to lower cost goods and services? The answer is simple. Pool the purchasing power of many small businesses to increase the purchasing power of each individual business. The implementation of forming a buying group can take lots of time, money and resources. Most small business owners have little of these buying group ingredients. The concept of many small to mid-size businesses joining together to form buying groups has been around for a very long time. The implementation of the concept has only been available for a few years. Just about all of the national buying groups that have started operations in the past five years are no longer in business. I will tell you why many of these buying groups were not successful later in the article. Some of the few surviving buying groups have formed an alliance that offers their members access to greatly discounted pricing with a total of 37 national vendors. The Hospitality Buying Group was the first national buying group to offer a FREE lifetime membership to any business in any industry. This group recently started the Hospitality Buying Group Alliance which offers free lifetime memberships to all the national buying groups in the alliance. The only investment the business members make is the time to compare the prices of the alliance vendors against what they are currently paying. By now you are thinking that all of this sounds too good to be true. If the Hospitality Buying Group Alliance gives away lifetime memberships then how do they make any money? If the members are not a revenue stream then the only other revenue source must be the vendors. The vendors pay the buying groups commissions on all purchases made by their members. There is no risk for the vendors because they only pay the commission after they have been paid by the buying group members. The commissions are very low so the maximum discounts can be offered to the business members. Some credit card companies, like American Express, offers a small savings or a percent cash back reward to their customers for using vendors in their network. While saving 2 - 5 percent with credit cards is good, a 10 - 50 percent savings with buying groups is much better. Buying group members will only be contacted by the alliance vendors they select. As the buying groups get more established more vendors are interested in offering their services to group members. If the concept of the buying group is so good then why do most buying groups fail? Most of the failed buying groups spent a few hundred thousand to over a million dollars just to get the buying group started. To make matters worse they have large operational expenses. This is going on at the beginning of the buying group's existence while the group has few vendors to offer potential members. To keep the group functioning they need to charge members $500.00 - $10,000.00 annually to join the group. With few vendors the members can only expect to save a few thousand dollars annually. Many small business owners are not willing to take the risk of purchasing a membership in a buying group that may not generate significant savings. This results in few buying group memberships sold. The buying group can't pay their operational expenses resulting in reducing the sales force. This results in decreased revenues and finally the buying group ceases to exist. The successful national buying groups that make up the Hospitality Buying Group Alliance were all started with an initial investment of just a few thousand dollars and thousands of labor hours by just one or two individuals. Their operational expenses in the beginning were just a few hundred dollars a month plus lots of labor hours by the owners. As the buying groups grew the revenues were reinvested back into the buying group. The use of technology reduces the operational cost of the buying group. This approach results in a successful buying group with a positive cash flow. This information should put potential members at ease because they know the buying group will be around for a long time. This is a very special time in the history of buying groups because this is the first time an alliance of buying groups has ever been formed. With the free lifetime membership, total freedom to select one or many alliance vendors and a growing alliance of buying groups makes this the best time to participate in the buying group alliance. You can which national vendors the Hospitality Buying Group Alliance offers by going to: http://www.hospitality-buying-group.com/. Paul Buisson has been involved with buying groups for over 12 years. He has consulted with several buying groups to make them successful. He can be reached at 985-727-2992 for free advice.
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