General Business Practices (1 of 3): Providing Business Leadership - John M. Leask II CPA/ABV, CVA

General Business Practices

Part 1 of a 3 part series

Warning Signs: PROFITABLITY/EXPENSE CONTROL

    • Falling profits (before owner’s compensation).

  • Rising expenses.
    • Cost of goods sold.
    • Operating expenses.
  • Decreased gross margin
  • Significant adverse deviations from budget.
  • Significant increase in a particular line item’s cost.

Steps to Improve: PROVIDING BUSINESS LEADERSHIP

  • Apply common sense; you can’t be successful if you don’t have it.
  • Understand fully the long range and short range implications.
  • Don’t be a total absentee owner – it doesn’t work.
  • Be a hands-on manager.
  • Delegate what you don’t know or do well; then facilitate, applying common sense.
  • Always delegate authority with responsibility, but set the limits clearly.
  • Brain-pick your key management team.
  • Choose as managers positive, bright, caring people who communicate well.
  • Stamp out negative attitudes throughout the organization.
  • Don’t hire or retain people with negative attitudes.
  • Be obsessed with quality, but as the customer sees quality.
  • Listen to your intuition, but back intuition with facts.
  • Write and circulate a simple business plan that discusses the key strategies.
  • Seek the opinions of others on your plans.
  • It’s easy to say crazy things, but it’s hard to write them, and even harder to explain them logically to others.
  • Encourage all employees to make suggestions for improvement.
  • Use outside expert advice to close the knowledge gap in critical areas.
  • Form your own “kitchen cabinet” of business advisors.

Back to The Business Doctor

>>General Business Practices (1 of 3): Providing Business Leadership
>>General Business Practices (2 of 3): Monitoring Your Business / Key Statistics
>>General Business Practices (3 of 3): Controlling Expenditures / Cutting Costs