Small Business Management
|
|
Day to day small business management is similar to that of a large corporation. However, it is much less involved. There are administrative and management tasks and, in some cases, a certain order of operations to follow. Some tasks need to be done daily, while others can be done weekly, monthly, quarterly or even annually.
The first year is critical. You will learn much about yourself, and your business, during this period. Once you have cycled through one full year of operation, you will be able to manage your time better … and time more effectively what you have to manage!
Small business management does not tolerate procrastination. Things pile up rapidly especially if your business is young and growing. If you put off some tasks because you hate doing them (… such as bookkeeping, perhaps, hmmm?) then you will be in real trouble.
If you think you hate it now, wait until you have to catch up on things later. The monster will have blown out of proportion, and you will never get it done properly!
Be prepared. Have a look at the list below. Do not let it scare you. Not everything happens at once. Besides, if you have done your planning correctly, you will have eliminated most of the unknowns out of the equation. Proper planning eliminates nasty surprises.
The first months will be relatively quiet as you build your small home business. Use this period to ease into the habit of management and learn the different tasks.
A disciplined approach makes small business management easy and enjoyable.
ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS
Small business management involves administrative tasks.
Mail & E-mail
A daily task. You operate a web business. The web never sleeps. E-mail comes in while you sleep or are away. I scan, sort and prioritize, first thing in the morning. I answer the most urgent ones immediately. I will have another (snail) mail and E-mail session at the end of my work day.
Telephone Messages and Calls
Depending on your type of business, try to have two set periods per day dedicated to telephone calls. Pick up your voice mail in the morning and return urgent calls as soon as you can. Schedule non urgent calls for late afternoon, when you pick up your voice mail again.
Supplies
If you are an infopreneur like me, things are simple. I just have office supplies to take care of. But, if you manufacture goods, then you will have to determine what you need to have, in a timely manner, to keep production going without interruption.
Shipping and Storage
Again, not a concern for the infopreneur. Everything is done automatically, in electronic format, over the Internet. If you are a manufacturer or a reseller of hard goods, you will have to attend to:
- Shipping and tracking of products
- Handling returns
- Storage
- Inventory
WEB BUSINESS MANAGEMENT TASKS
Finance and Accounting
Arrgh! There's the beast. Most home based entrepreneurs I know would give almost anything to avoid this issue. They love going to the bank to make deposits, though! However, there are two sides to a coin and small business management. Money is the lifeblood of your business and, as such, it must be monitored closely. Some of the aspects are:
- Daily bookkeeping (once a week if you love doing it …)
- Credit cards and debt management
- Bank account ( Important: open a separate one for your home based web business! )
- Paying the bills
- Collecting your dues
- Handling refunds (yours and your clients)
I recommend that you use accounting software designed for a single person business. Start using it early to get familiar with it and to avoid a backlog of data to enter later. I use one that guides me through all the transactions. It is extremely user friendly and a breeze to use.
Shop around. Ask questions. Try to have the software demonstrated to you by someone knowledgeable. In my opinion, the accounting software is the most important application you will run on your computer. You must be comfortable with it. Financial management must not be an irritant of small business management.
Monitoring Marketing Activities and Traffic
This should be an ongoing activity. The performance of the following aspects should be monitored. The good news here is that some web hosting suppliers offer automated support of those tasks! You do not have to be a web wizard.
- Clicks in (per page, per day/week/month/quarter)
- Clicks out
- Clicks through
- E-book sales
- Product sales (if applicable)
- Affiliations
- Referrals
- Google AdSense
- Pay-per-Click (PPC) adds
- Value exchange program (link exchanges)
- Offline adds (newspapers, magazines, flyers)
- Special, time limited, promotional campaigns
Analysis of monitored data
This is where things must make sense. Your analysis will tell you what you have to do next: add, modify, delete, hold, invent! Reliable marketing and financial data are essential to small business management.
Managing Web Site Content
Your entire business is based on a helpful, resourceful web site. Your monitoring, and subsequent analysis, will dictate the actions you should take. You must make it a priority to do the following, where and when appropriate:
- Create new content pages (this activity should never cease)
- Modify existing pages
- Issue a periodic newsletter
- Feed on-site Blog
- Create e-books
- Remove or add products
- Special promotional campaigns
Database of Business Information
All the information your business activities generate, and rely on, should be recorded and organized to be a useful resource. You should plan on creating a database of data. Data entry is implied upon creation, and later during ongoing maintenance. This task must be performed accurately and regularly. You must avoid polluting your database with erroneous data.
The advantage of a database is that you can have immediate access to any element of data, and you can generate reports (merge, sorts, correlations, etc). Your small business management database should contain (as a minimum) information about:
- Clients
- Suppliers
- Inventory
- Marketing data
- Affiliations
- Partnerships
- Referral partners
- Value exchange partners
- Competition
- Business contacts
- News and advertisers
Set up Filing Systems
Organize your files. Business document management is too often overlooked by budding entrepreneurs. Small business administration can be very pleasant if you can avoid frantic searches for an important document.
- Paper filing system
- Hard disk filing system
Perform Regular Backups
- Data
- Software and upgrades
- Storage of critical electronic backups (local and remote)
- Test your backups regularly (Remember I told you so!:-)
Manage Your Software Licenses
Use free (open source) software as much as possible. Except for accounting, the free Open Office Suite will help you perform all your writing, databasing and graphic creation tasks tasks, as well as spreadsheet calculations.
Otherwise, use licensed software only (Windows operating system, accounting software, etc.). Do not use illegal copies.
Human Resources
Plan on training someone trustworthy to take care of business while you are away, at least for:
- Secretarial tasks
- Administrative tasks
That is all there is to it
As you can see, operations management is not black magic. It is simply common sense applied under the specific circumstances of small business management.
Stay tuned!
Do come back often. I will be adding to this site regularly.
Return from "small business management" to "free business plans".
