14-02-2008
The fast train to business success
By Karen Baldwin
Most small business owners are well aware of the dangers of standing still; of not expanding their product or service offering; neglecting to develop further skills and expertise; or of failing to fine-tune systems and processes to ensure they are as efficient as possible.
In such a dynamic and fast-paced world, including a continually changing business environment, you can quickly be overtaken by competitors if you fail to keep on improving.
This is the very reason why so many successful small to medium businesses have embraced the concept of training and development – of providing an environment where ‘lifelong learning’ is encouraged and opportunities to train are provided to employees, with the resulting benefit being a more productive and competitive business.
But while staff may be encouraged to take up training, how often do you as a business owner neglect your own training needs, protesting that you are far too busy to take time away from the business?
While there is probably no doubt that you are indeed very busy, this is a very short-sighted attitude. Your own training and development is not a luxury, but a necessity in order to ensure that you can keep up with the breakneck speed of business and technological advances.
As the business owner you are not expected to be an expert in everything (although you probably wear many ‘hats’, particularly in the early days of the business), but a good cross-section of skills and an understanding of how all aspects of your business operates will stand you in good stead.
Most modern business management books espouse the importance of working on your business, rather than just in it, and personally undertaking regular training is a great way to help achieve this all important goal.
Rather than just viewing training as just one more thing you have to do as a business owner, view any training as a personal development initiative – an opportunity to not only improve your business, but improve yourself.
Business owners, just like employees, need to be constantly challenged; to feel that they are always learning and growing in order to keep up the motivation to put in the enormous amount of hard work required for running a business.
The training can be diverse – it could be the updating of qualifications, training on new technologies, ensuring industry knowledge is still relevant, or learning about different aspects of your business, such as marketing or HR.
It might be something very practical like training in the latest version of the accounting software that your business uses or perhaps something ‘bigger picture’ like one of the growing number of courses now available on entrepreneurship or leadership.
The training you choose might involve a commitment to an ongoing university degree, a six month vocational program or simply a few seminars or workshops.
In addition to the very obvious and practical benefits that you will gain from training, such as industry knowledge or updated skills, there is also the opportunity to pick up new ideas and expand your networking opportunities.
In order to determine which areas would be of the most benefit and interest to you, take a look at yourself in the same way you would look at a business proposition. Be honest in reviewing your strength and weaknesses, as this is a good starting point to determine what training options you need to consider for yourself.
With this knowledge in hand, you can then begin to research the vast array of training choices that are available to you.
This process can also provide the opportunity to identify areas within the business where perhaps the recruitment of new staff may be more beneficial or where there are opportunities to outsource.
For example, probably one of the most dreaded aspects of running a business for many is managing and collecting payments. A business owner will often love providing the product or service, but then find they don’t get time to send out accounts or feel uncomfortable chasing customers or clients for payment.
Suddenly, while the business has plenty of work, cash flow becomes a major problem putting considerable stress on the business owner.
While taking up some form of studies in book-keeping or basic accounting may alleviate the issue, outsourcing this function may be a better option.
This can be done through factoring – a service which turns a business’s unpaid invoices into cash by advancing it a percentage of the invoice amount. The sales accounting functions of the business can also be taken over by the factoring company, which will manage the sales ledger and collection of accounts.
This effectively allows you to turn your debtors into assets with the factor generally advancing 85% to 90% of the value of your invoices within a few days. The remainder is paid once the customer has settled the account less a service fee and interest.
At a daily operational level, this frees up capital to negotiate better arrangements with suppliers, comfortably pay rent and wages and eliminate the worry of chasing debtors to juggle cash flow.
It also provides the business owner with the opportunity to pursue training and development opportunities that not only provide real value to their business, but which they really enjoy.