Visions Business

I’ve been beset by health topics the past few weeks. Doctor test results, Physical pain and restrictions, and general pills and procedures have focused my thinking on maintaining health. Then, a trip to the ER and resulting Treadmill Test for the old ticker.

Turns out I’m OK, but that doesn’t end the concern.

I naturally thought about how my personal health affects the health of my business. Then, about business health in general. How do you measure and improve it?

Attributes of a Healthy Business

What is it about a business that marks it as healthy? What characteristics make it ready for the long haul? What are the indicators to watch for to remain healthy?

1. Profits – At the end of any given day, a business has to be making a profit, or it won’t survive. Look at GM and Chrysler, lately. They have sustained massive losses over the years. They can’t make it up in volume. They finally had to bow to the truth and file Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. I don’t foresee those losses ever being earned back, let alone paid back to the out-of-luck lenders.

Make sure you have a suitable bookkeeping system in place, and up-to-date on the entries. Be sure to pull an Income Statement every month, or every quarter at the lateset. This statement allows you to look back on how your operations fared in the marketplace.

Profits? Good news. Are they enough? That’s the next indicator.

2. Plan – Do you have a Business Plan, and are you keeping up with it? Do you regularly review the Plan’s action steps? Do you update the Plan with new information? Are you keeping pace with the projections? If not, why not?

Do you have a Weekly and Daily Plan to work from? Do youi know what you are going to be doing, today, to improve your business?

3. People – Are your employees helping your business, or are they hindering it? Do you have a hiring plan in place, or do you hire randomly? Do you have a defined and routine employee evaluation process? When you find an employee who is below par, do you coach them to improvement? Do you replace them if it doesn’t work out? Or do you collect dead wood – holding on to dud employees for a later fire sale when you go out of business?

4. Customers – Is your customer base growing? Are you serving more and more customers with better and better service? Do you have a Referral program or Loyalty program in place? Does your sales process capture customer information so you can follow up with them with later contacts?

What Else Measures Health?

This basic list of attributes will help you start measuring your business health. There are many more you can use depending on your business.

What are some of the ways YOU measure business health?

JohnL

(This is a response I wrote to a friend who asked, “I want to sell online using drop-shipping. How can I find a product to sell during a recession?”)

 Congratulations on stepping out for more independence. We’ve been selling online for about 5 years, and find the freedom and flexibility it gives us to be wonderful. I hope you can weather the frustrations (like you’ve encountered early) and reach some profitability. I’m happy to help as I can.

We personally don’t do any drop-shipping, but we try to own and ship our own products. However, I usually advise that you begin by selling a product that people buy… (An author once wrote about writing… “I usually try to leave out the words that people don’t read…)

Success in online marketing is the same as in a regular store: Have the Right Product at the Right Price at the Right Time.

I’m  pretty confident that just about anything you select as viable will continue to sell during recessions. If you had a regular store, then I’d worry. But, the Internet is such a great, big, pool of potential customers, that you’ll pretty much always find plenty of people whose life-decisions have included your product as an essential purchase.

But, selecting products (or first markets) is the most important decision to make in launching any business. Online is no different. I usually advise that you begin the process by writing down areas that you enjoy or that you know something about. You can sell what you know better than what you know nothing about. Credibility and authority are vital in an online business.

For example, I know about and enjoy tools and wood-crafting, but I don’t much enjoy fabric and sewing. (Sandi does.) Both are sort of crafty and creative, but different people are attracted to each of these areas, and not many are attracted to both. This begins to define an available market for me to try to serve. Your list should include several to choose from. 

Next, I think of all the kinds of problems, or solutions to problems, or gaps in what the market offers inside this market area. I try not to think from my own perspective, but from the general public. (A fisherman doesn’t bait his hook with food the fisherman likes, but with food the fish like…)

I look online for forums or blogs that specialize in my selected market, and I review the postings and comments – looking for these gaps or opportunities. Look on Yahoo Answers to see what people might be looking for to buy. This is all valuable research that will help you zero in on the right products to evaluate.

Then, you can begin to evaluate products in terms of price, profitability, and marketing methods.

Your Market comes before Product. Potential Profits come before Products.

Now, removing your own thoughts and feelings about what might be “cool” or desirable, select your product(s) to begin selling. Your market should determine the products, not you. You are only one out of the potential thousands of customers you need to please.

I hope this is helpful. Please let me know how else I can help.

John L