Two Minute Business Wisdom

Much of our uccess in business, and in life in general, comes from a coin flip that just happened to come up in your favor at just the right time.

Businesses will grow at their own rates, and that growth is mostly out of the control of the business owner.

Know your 20% or less number before looking at deals.

Every potential business partner you encounter is not looking to leave you high and dry. But it happens. That is why it is important to have rules to follow to keep you from signing on to potentially bad partnerships.

Learn how to highlight key features and usage tips for all your inventory and service products on your sales sheet.

Introducing new products or services is a great way to attract customers you previously had no access to and retain customers with a shift in needs. Even if creating a new product or service isn't apparent, find a way to define and make them regularly.

The importance of flexibility and adaptability in business can not be understated. From knowing how to pivot to a new strategy in the face of market changes or when just to give up a product or service that is not working, the market will force change upon you, and you must react accordingly.

Highlights of significant achievements or milestones you have witnessed from previous customers are incredible tools to add to a sales pitch. If you think you lack the skill to be a compelling storyteller, plenty of coaches are waiting to sell you with some stores of their successful clients.

Keep informed on the news and innovations going on in your industry, and if you have the talent, contribute personally with the writing and presentation of that information to your customers and other curious people.

Just as important as your mission and values, it highlights team activities, values, and work environment. However, a person in power with nefarious reasons can also use these as a tool 'to protect' company culture.

Understand what your business stands for, and learn to express your business's core principles and goals with simplicity.

Your physical and mental health are the most important aspects of your business because you cannot maintain a business without proper maintenance.

Unless you are wealthy and can cover the cost of paying it back, have investors who can cover it for you, or have massive cashflow to cover it through salary, I don't recommend taking out loans at the offset of launch your small business.

This episode offers five strategies to help small business owners establish effective time management. SPOILER ALERT: You will never achieve genuinely effective time management, but don't let that stop you from the attempt.  

The importance of networking, partnerships, and collaborations in driving small business growth cannot be understated. Despite the potential frustrations and exhaustion, remember that these connections can provide invaluable support and encouragement for your business.

Small businesses have no choice but to try and leverage technology to improve customer satisfaction. However, in this age where it is hard to get someone on the phone, you have the advantage of providing a personal touch, making your customers feel valued and your business feel more human.

Creating a solid brand identity and value proposition for small businesses can be daunting. But the best you can do out of the gate will help you immensely, even if your initial ideas need to catch on for the masses.

You may only need a little paper or minimum time with a lawyer on retention to get down to business. But you need to know this from the first day of offering your products and services for sale to the public.

Stories of people who could start and grow a business with minimal external funding are great. These stories also convince many people who can't bootstrap their business to give it a shot when they should not.

Digital marketing comes with a cost, so use cost and time-effective strategies for your small business.

Managing your finances, including budgeting strategies, cash flow management, and cost reduction techniques, will make the difference in you being a long-standing success or a quick financial failure.

Following some basic initial steps for launching a small business will save you time, frustration, and money in the long run. This involves choosing a business structure, properly registering the company, and being honest about your initial market analysis.

Build a foundation from the beginning that reflects your values and how you want to be seen. That makes it easy to run a company that maintains your values.

If you're just looking for something to do, especially if you have a large amount of money burning a hole in your vault, taking on a business opportunity is typically a terrible path to take to alienate that boredom.

Polish up your business plan and get to work. Find seller financing. Raise funds from investors. Use different types of loans. Ask friends and family who understand how investing in a business works. The financial risks of getting a new business off the ground are well known. Save yourself some of the headaches by looking for funding in the initial stages.

Things will go wrong in your business. Don't attempt to survive on sheer will. Have understood and ready to implement plans in case of multiple downside scenarios.

Knowing how long and how much fiscal damage it will take to sell a business if you want (or need) to should be known before you receive the keys to the building. A business that doesn't align with your exit plan may be a business you need to pass on.

If you have never worked in an industry, you should avoid taking on the responsibility of a troubled business. A turnaround story on an unprofitable business is excellent to tell but hard to write if you have never done it before.

A crucial key to business success is organization. Proper organization will help you complete tasks and stay on top of things to be done.

Before making any significant changes at a company you are taking over, take as much time as you need to understand how everything functions and who the key players are. Your genius changes to the process may have been attempted before with disastrous results, and just you being you may not be the secret to its new success in this attempt.

When an applicant interviews for the job of a lifetime and you are just trying to fill a spot with any able body, both sides will find the process frustrating.

Are you an 'elite expert' or the 'just as bad as you' guy when it comes to the Guru Game? Understand what game you intend to play, and play that game well when you deal with how you work with mentors.

Always show you can walk away from a deal not going your way. Especially if you are desperate to make that deal come through.

There is a lot of pre-launch effort that goes into launch day for your business. This counts for the business entity of your choice, you, and the people who will lose time with you as you pursue your business success.

Providing exemplary service to your customers is crucial to gaining their loyalty and retaining their business.

Prepare to make sacrifices in your personal life when establishing your business. In turn, prepare yourself to understand the need for these sacrifices will mostly come from those who work for you who are unwilling to make the same sacrifices (and justifiably so).

It's essential to be aware of who (or what) your business competition is and both the appropriate and inappropriate tactics that someone can deploy in defending your business against them in the marketplace.

The very long, poor SEO'ed title for this episode offers three simple truths for preparing yourself mentally for a business launch.

My thoughts on wearing uniforms for your business, and my thoughts almost always 'yes.' Dressing for success is necessary, even without a formal dress policy.

A recent posting from Seth Godin emphasized your final destination on your entrepreneurial journey and just how final it really is (or is meant to be).See the post at https://seths.blog/2023/06/when-we-get-to-where-were-going/.

You've figured out what entrepreneurship really is and don't want that. That doesn't disqualify you from starting a small business or signing up for a side gig to bring more money in. Just know the reasoning behind what you try to pursue and the realities of the needs both require.

Understanding your personal finances means knowing the difference between not wanting to spend over $200 and only having $200 to spend. Understanding your business finances means knowing the impact of what money you can bring in and what money you must ensure always goes out.