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1. Business Planning, Business Couching
Business
Planning,
Business
Coaching

2. Business Planning, Business Couching
Turnaround your business with a strategic business plan. Improve cash flow
and revenue, cut business costs and ultimately increase revenue. Click here.
Healthy companies understand that there are 5 major areas of
business that must be operated for the whole to grow.
Operations: This is the function you get paid to do. The first
priority is to insure happy satisfied customers.
Finance: One of the most under valued areas of a healthy small
business. Finance should be part of every decision made from
budgeting, forecasting purchasing, materials, hiring, and
compensation. Produce weekly summaries of performance as
well as monthly P/L and cash flow reported. Finance also
establishes relationships with bankers or lenders, and assesses
the financial needs of the company for the year.
What good is doing a great job that you lose or make no money
on?
Sales and marketing: According the small business administration
this is one of the two main areas why a small company fails, (the
other being cash flow or finance). Many small businesses under
value the cost and time needed to grow new customers and meet

3. Business Planning, Business Couching
the cash flow needs of the company. Sales are the fuel that keeps
the company running
Human Resources: As you grow you will need to focus more on
good hiring practices, training, employee compensation, payroll,
insurance for employee's, the owners and company, as well as
legal issues. All of these have to fit into the cash flow and
business plan.
Executive leadership: Business planning, vision of the future,
understanding of laws and regulations that affect your industry,
relationship building and the over all cohesive function of the
various departments fall to the executive and senior management.
When a business fails to provide this key area of responsibilities
during growth the odds are it will fail, or fall back to a smaller size.
How to determine which areas are functioning and which need
attention:
Does your company:
Have individual department forecasts and budget monthly?
Have a one month, quarterly and annual cash flow projection?

4. Business Planning, Business Couching
Have a sales forecast based on solid information?
Have formal monthly revenue of cash flow and budgets by
department?
Have a formal employee review quarterly and annually?
Are job descriptions published and communicated?
Is there a formal documented training process for new and
existing employees?
Does executive management or owners dedicate a minimum of
two to four hours each week working and assessing the business
plan and the functioning of each department?
Doe your company have a monthly report that in 5 minutes tells
how each area is performing compared to plan?
Does your company utilize outside sources for key disciplines that
executive management lacks experience in?  
Examples are:

5. Business Planning, Business Couching
CPA, Attorney, business consultant, other same industry
executives, marketing firms, members of associations.
The greatest opportunity I have seen in working with hundreds of
small and medium size businesses is within the assessment and
planning areas. Few business owners pay attention to each of the
above areas. My suggestion for every client I have worked with in
growing or fixing a business starts with spending 2-4 hours every
week assessing the areas, and then taking action on improving. If
you want to be a growth company, you really do have to act like
one.
Turnaround your business with a strategic business plan. Improve cash flow
and revenue, cut business costs and ultimately increase revenue. Click here.

6. Business Planning, Business Couching
Mike Bayes is President of My One Call LLC, a business development firm based in
Lafayette, Colorado.
http://www.salesjumpstart.net
303 543 3906
Blog: http://www.myonecall.wordpress.com
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