What I learned this summer

This summer, I spent a great deal of time contemplating my own business and how to make it more successful. I was fortunate that I had the time to actually do this. This got me thinking, I wonder how many other business owners actually take the time when things slow down to work ON their business. As an entrepreneur, I understand that it is very easy to work in my business year round, however, all business owners need to set some time aside to really take a holistic view of their business and see if they are still meeting their goals and objectives.

Every entrepreneur needs to take time to see the proverbial forest from the trees. Taking a strategic look at your business can be a very daunting task, but a necessary one for the long term profitability of your company. Here are a few steps that entrepreneurs can take:

Step one: Create an organization chart for your company as it exists. Is this what you had envisioned when you started the business? Next create an organization chart of how the business should function. Ignore for the time being the people in each role. Once you have the ideal org chart now plot in your people according to their strengths and weaknesses. If you have any people or square left over, you will need to make some decisions on whether current staff can be retrained to fill the empty squares or do you need to bring in outside expertise.

Step two: Create a flow chart of your sales process. Another words, create a chart following the money that comes in and out of your company. Once you have drawn all the steps in your flow chart, take a close look at how you can improve the overall efficiency of your company. Can you merge or eliminate some of the steps? Are you missing any critical steps?

More more ideas or help email me: dr.harj@gmail.com