Small business management

SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT Top 10 important ideas

Lexi D. SmithWeeks 1-4

• The first thing that we learned about in Bus54 is to PLAN. When starting up a new business you need to have a rough outline of what you think is going to happen over the next 5, 10, or even 20 years. Also you need a plan incase what you think is going to happen doesn’t. Listed below of some of the initial plans you need to come up with :

• BUSINESS PLAN. How will you establish your business?

– Always plan with the end in mind. How will you run your business? How exit your business?

• OPERATIONS PLAN. Business manual

– There needs to be a detailed list of all duties preformed on the job site incase any one person is unable to perform another can complete the task

and last but not least a

• MARKETING PLAN. Who will be your consumers, how will you sell your item.– Know and pinpoint your target groups and advertise to them, always stay up

to date on all new technologies for you to use, keep customers in mind at all times.

Even though most people will agree nobody likes to be told what to do, in business there must be certain roles prescribed. It is true that in starting up a business most all of the responsibilities will fall on you( the owner). But you will find, as business grows and employ numbers multiply you will need to make sure you have the right leaders in command. Those who perform well in stressful or difficult situations and adjust to frequently changing atmosphere will make for good leaders.

• Without a strong team managing your wants and wishes it is possible for your interior of your business to “fall apart at the seems”

• Make a solid interview process to be sure your hiring the right type of employees for your establishment .

“BREAK EVEN “ the term used when your business is making exactly as much money as it takes to run, all of your expenses are covered. To be able to exceed your break even and make a profit you want to calculate your break even. Break even is usually determined month to month but can be computer daily or even hourly.

You can estimate your break even by taking the sales price of the product/service you offer (-) minus the Direct cost of item and finding your “contribution Margin”(CM) per unit

You then take the monthly expenses divided by the CM and this equals the number of units you must sell to break even. Once you break-even, you can start to make a profit!

The market is a term that all small business managers need to be familiar with, as it is one of the most important aspects of business.

• Knowing the environment in where your business is based is very important this is called your market. You want to be familiar with the

peopleresourcesfinancesand politics

In your area these aspects make up your specific market and determine weather you succeed or fail as a business.

• A part of marketing is knowing the environment in which your market is in. I believe this is a very big aspect especially dealing with small business specifically because most of the time your local, your small, starting out with no cliental base, you have to rely on the people who live or work in that area, and you have to appeal to them. This is somewhat like “target groups” which I’ll get to in a few slides but this really refers to the area more then the people in where you live. You will need to perform an environmental analysis of which consist of 4 parts

• Scanning– Understand what is happening around you, the trends, events, issues and

expectations of different interest groups.

• Monitoring– Describes process that needs to take place to characterize and monitor the quality of

the environment.

• Forecasting– Making statements about particular events in which the outcome hasn’t happened

yet..

• Assessing– Gathering decision making data to determine the viability of a particular industry or

market for business concept, strategy. Or development.

• The 4 P’s are referring to marketing strategies that are used to help spread and expand your business. You need to know the break down of these to be able to properly manage your business

• Product/Service-What are you selling?• Pricing.-What is your pricing strategy?• Place-Distribution strategy, where and how

can I buy?• Promotions- Advertising and publicity.

• What do you sell? Who do you sell to? In what kind of market do you sell in?

• It is important to really know what products it is that you are selling.

• Is it man made manufactured product, is it a service? Knowing the features opposed to the benefits of your product will help you to better know and in return better sell your products/services.

• There are 4 types of customers, all of them important.• Primary

– These customers buy your products most often, where you sell it when you sell it.

• Secondary– Are only interested I some of the products you offer, you are still able

to access these people in a way that’s not directly marketed.

• Tertiary– Occasional use of your services every once and a while

• Potential demand– I think that this is one of the most important kind of customer, the

one you haven’t reached yet, or the ones that your trying to reach out and bring in. potential customers to bring in.

• Something that is really becoming more available as social media and wide-spread technology use grows ever so rapidly is TARGETED GROUP ADVERTISMENT. This does go into marketing but I feel it deserves its own slide because it is so beneficial to the small business aspect. When groups are targeted they are done so because they fit the specific description for what you are trying to sell. I.E. bridal dresses would be advertised to young females while lawnmowers would be advertised to middle aged men. Targeting specific people who would be interested in your product is a growing trend that is making marketing ridiculously personal. Which is impersonal for some and personal for other. It just depends.

Finally one of the most important aspects of small business management is proceeding further, to large business management. Pitching yourself or your ideas to corporate or a franchise. You have to promote your self, along with marketing and advertising a good ting to have prepared would be an elevator speech. This is a micro-speech that allows you to introduce and explain yourself and your ideas.

• Two kinds of elevator speech– SOUND BYTE. Only long enough for a short elevator ride

in a low-rise building 15-30 seconds– THE COMMERCIAL. Long enough for a long elevator ride

in a high- rise building. 1-3 minutes.

Top 10 Small Business Mgmt.

• These are the 10 most important aspects of business. All of the information from this PowerPoint have been gathered from a compliment of my notes from small business management bus54 instructor Carolyn Johnson, and the many different articles we have read in this class too.

• PLANNING• LEADERSHIP/MANAGEMENT • BREAKEVEN• THE MARKET• KNOWING your ENVIROMENT• THE 4 P’s• THE PRODUCT• THE CUSTOMER• TARGET GROUPS • THE PITCH