Let’s grow a new one

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The entrepreneurial spirit.  It is alive and well- even if the potential rewards are attenuated.  And, I’m honored to be able to help those on their journey, their quest to prove a new concept, a new methodology, a new operational mode.

For the  past 45 days or so, I have been assisting a new venture to develop systems, controls, and operational maturity to augment its business model and rapidly growing success.  It’s fun when your business model takes off.  This particular business achieved low six figures two years ago, low seven figures last year, and so far this year has exceeded all of last year’s revenue.

But, the business was all about the business model.  Things like procedures, payroll, taxes and tax reporting, accounting, cash flow management- they never gelled.  And, now those items are critical for the venture to maintain itself and sustain growth.

This is like so many new businesses that are formed- whether they are restaurants, service establishments, internet ventures, retail, even medical.   They have their business idea, but no idea how to run a business.  (Don’t get me started on lawyers and doctors who put out their own shingle.  They are examples of the worst business managers out there- but many of whom know that and retain our services to help them overcome this lack of business expertise and financial acumen.)

But, back to this particular new business.  Thankfully, they chose our services to help them.  Right now, I’m spending my time rearranging their financial systems (they had QuickBooks, with no real idea of what it was for or what to record), determining where the cash goes and comes, and instituting payroll and tax systems to sustain their enterprise.

Web2.0 Business Model Check (for dummies ;-)
Web2.0 Business Model Check (for dummies 😉 (Photo credit: Alex Osterwalder)

So, it’s the little things that are also making a difference for this firm.  For example, we “computerized” a form that must be filled in at least once each day (for compliance and taxation issues), cutting the time it takes to complete each form from half an hour to a few minutes.  Providing coherence to the various computers, so that resources can be shared and information becomes readily available to all.

Over the next few months, I will occasionally report on the changes that have developed, the KPI (key performance indicators) concepts adopted and why, and the success (and failures) of each approach.  (The actual business will be only hinted at; there is no need for such confidences to be shared.)

But, in sharing the essence of the operations, the controls, and the changes, I hope that you can learn how to adopt similar controls for your business.

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7 thoughts on “Let’s grow a new one”

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