Management Information |
Business is About Making Money
Ask most people why they are in business and they will give you any number of reasons. Things such as wanting to improve the lives of others; make the world a better place; provide for their family; have more free time; the list goes on and on. Fact is business is about making money, which means the bottom line is the bottom line. Many business owners, managers and sales people seem to forget this. If you don't have a strong bottom line you cannot continue to do business for very long. And if you can't continue to do business you cannot achieve the other primary reasons you do what you do. The way you get a sturdy bottom line is to understand some basic truths about business. A few fundamentals to running a successful business are to know what your product or service is, who your customer is, who you are, what drives you in business, and what trends are impacting the economy and marketplace. Many people run their business without these key ingredients. Sure, a company can survive, but is survival all you are seeking? Don't you want more? As previously mentioned, most people are in business to design a certain lifestyle for themselves and their families. Many are in business to create an experience for their customers. Still others are in business to improve the quality of their community. Unfortunately, many miss the mark by a long shot. Think about why you are in business. What is it that drives you? Wouldn't it be great to thrive beyond your wildest dreams and be a contributor to many of the causes you believe in due to the success of your business and professional life? Regardless of where you are in business, whether you're just starting out or you've been running your company for some time; whether you work for yourself or for someone else there are essential pieces of information that are key to your success. First, in order to thrive you absolutely must know who you are. Not only who you are in the business, but in life in general. You also have to know what you believe in, what your values are, and what drives and motivates you. Another key aspect of succeeding in business is to understand the needs and wants of your customers. Until you determine exactly who your customers are, you will have a difficult time satisfying what they want and need. That is why it is so important to determine what drives you. If you understand what drives you, what your values are, your beliefs, your dreams and goals, and what your ultimate purpose is, it will be so much easier to figure out who you want to do business with. As has often been the belief and practice of many business owners, sales professionals, and managers, when asked who their market is, they respond with, "Everyone!" Fact is, if everyone is your market, ultimately no one is your market. It's incredible how many people have never taken the time to determine who they would ideally like to do business with. The more clarity you have, the simpler your process of doing business becomes. Do not confuse easy with simple. Running a business is not necessarily easy and yet, the process can be simple when you gain massive amounts of clarity. Additionally, your existing and potential customers will have a much easier time distinguishing you from your competitors. With a new competitor cropping up on what seems like every street corner, make the decision making process for your clients as simple as possible. By gaining clarity through self-evaluation and customer evaluation, you attract more of your ideal clients. As you attract more of who you want to do business with you can focus more on the business of providing a great experience to your customers. Copyright: © 2004 by Dr. Scott Kiser Publishing Guidelines: You may publish my article in your newsletter, on your web site, or in your print publication provided you include the resource box at the end. Notification would be appreciated but is not required. About The Author Dr. Scott Kiser has been practicing general dentistry in Salt Lake City, Utah for over 20 years. Consumer Research Council of America selected him as Utah's Top Cosmetic Dentist of 2003 - 04. Currently, Dr. Kiser is co-authoring the book "Why Be Different, Success Secrets to Sell the Unsellable" (Maxwell Publishing) scheduled for release in January, 2005. Visit www.greatsmilesutah.com to sign up for a FREE monthly online newsletter or for more information on Dr. Kiser and all of his services.
MORE RESOURCES: Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting |
RELATED ARTICLES
Get It Done! Soft Skills not Hard Tools are Required If your organization has people, then interpersonal skills are needed.I work with companies that are on a path they call the lean journey. Does Your State Like To Keep Your Workers Compensation Secrets Hidden? Workers compensation secrets are hidden deep within piles and piles of bureaucratic mumbo jumbo. They are sometimes used as high priced paper weights for over worked government workers who may or may not be totally interested in seeing that you find the exact information that you are looking for. Understanding Every Aspect of Your Organization GET TO KNOW YOUR ORGANIZATION: If you don't understand an aspect of the organization or a procedure within it, ask. If you still don't understand, ask again. Building Trust in Your Business Relationships - 10 Steps There are some simple things you can do with your people to ensure that they start to trust you. As a letter from Mike Emmott of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the UK says, in April 2005's UK Management Today says:-"Our surveys show that only one in four employees trust senior management to look after their interests"Is that not appalling? How on earth can businesses develop, survive and above all hang onto their best people if they are seen to be untrustworthy?It's horrible. Business Fails When We Do Not Talk You may remember being told as a child, "Keep quiet!""Children should be seen, not heard," and "You talktoo much." You were a "good" kid if you kept quiet. Delegating Responsibility Too many managers waste both time and energy performing tasks an employee could perform just as well, thereby lowering productivity while raising operating costs. The answer to the problem is easy-delegation. Ten Problem Solving Techniques Do you ever need to find some good ideas, or come up with a solution for a persistent problem? Learn some simple problem solving techniques, and start applying them. Choose a few of the methods below, and get in the habit of using them in your personal life and your business. Managing Yo-Yo Style Does being managed by others smack more of "Survivor" than Stephen Covey for you? Could there BE any more management styles out there-have you gotten to experience all of them yet? And what kind of manager are you-or should you try to be?If you're reading this, you're probably familiar with too many types of management and leadership styles-more flavors than months, for the most part. On the leadership, not so much. Reprimanding Marginal Employees THE MARGINAL PERFORMER: Every manager must, from time to time, deal with a marginal performer - an employee whose work, for the most part, is satisfactory, but who regularly fails in some specific area or areas to maintain a satisfactory level of performance. The work of the marginal performer can be classified as substandard in some cases but not so poor as to warrant immediate termination. Questions To Ask Employees You Want To Retain Times of cost cutting and downsizing has dramatically impacted the way employees look at their careers. Employees at all levels now know better than ever that job security is no longer something they can count on. How to Reject a Job Applicant A Nightmare That Really HappenedOver 10 years ago, when I worked as a manager at a major corporation, I received a call from a headhunter about a magnificent job opening. It sounded like the perfect job for me. What Every Manager Should Know About How to Conduct Successful Training Activities Whether you are training preschoolers in the classroom or executives in the board room, here are 15 premises you might want to keep in mind the next time you're designing training activities.1. How to Make the Best of it - Take Your Weather with You I once worked in a place where there were three lines of words, placed just before employees went from backshop to front of shop. These said:-Smile!Remember - you represent your CompanyDelight your customers. Is Your Employee Newsletter Management Propaganda? It should not be. If it is an effective newsletter, it will serve the needs of readers (employees) as much as it serves the needs of the publisher (management). Humor in Business With the advancement of computer simulators, anybody can repeat all the business routines before he goes to the field, and have the opportunity of relaxing from the tedious work with numbers. The businessman can concentrate more on the human factors: The Customer Service, the relationships among fellow workers, and self care. Performance Expectations - 5 Tips and 5 Questions People want to understand their role - they want to do well! So by being clear, really clear about what it expected of them, makes a big, big difference! And that improves performance as well as saving you time chasing others around to deliver what you want.5 TipsBe Clear - your people need to know what they are doing, both in terms of actions and the standards that you will be expecting. Unravelling the Data Mining Mystery - The Key to Dramatically Higher Profits Data mining is the art of extracting nuggets of gold from a set of seeminngly meaningless and random data. For the web, this data can be in the form of your server hit log, a database of visitors to your website or customers that have actually purchased from your web site at one time or another. A Checklist for Organized Executives I could begin this article by providing a checklist of organizing techniques for you to incorporate into your daily work routine. The goal would be to become and remain organized, improve your time management and reduce your stress while increasing your productivity. 6 Simple Steps to Dealing with Difficult Managers The challenge of managing difficult managers can be rather daunting, especially when you inherit them! If they are your own born and bred, then hopefully they would have evolved into great managers!Experience shows that difficult managers are difficult because they are angry and frustrated about something or somebody (even themselves - especially where they are, or have become, a square peg in a round hole of a job), so the steps to take are these:-Always a first is to build great relationships with your people. This involves protected one-to-one time, where they feel valued. Managing Workplace Conflicts Kinds of Workplace ConflictsLet's start by identifying where conflicts happen. Think about the kinds of conflicts that happen around your workplace. |
home | site map | contact us |