What's Next For Woman-Owned Small Businesses?
Posted by Vicki Donlan on Wed, Dec 14, 2011 @ 05:26 AM
The last three years for those owning a small business have been---how can I say it politely---difficult! Many small business owners have had to forego their own salaries in order to make sure they can afford staff payroll, inventory and other overhead expenses. The question is how can 2012 be any different? What can you do to ensure that you can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel?
Perhaps this well-known expression on life can help explain what small business owners can do to embrace 2012 and start growing again.
(1) Get Your Bookkeeping In Order ASAP
There is no excuse to wait until several months into the new year to assess what happened in 2011. If you must, stop whatever else you are doing over the long New Year's weekend and finalize your numbers. If you require a bookkeeper's assistance hire her now so you will have a complete understanding of where your money is and isn't going.
(2) Pay Yourself NOW
It may have been a tough year for you but if you haven 't found a way to pay yourself now is the time to do it! You can't work for free. Over and over again, I coach my clients to understand that YOU ARE NOT YOUR BUSINESS - what this means is that if your business can't afford to pay you by the end of the year you don't really own a business - you are a volunteer pretending to be an entrepreneur. Yes, I know you don't want to hear this but if I don't tell you this who will?
(3) Revise Your Business Plan
If you answer to this is "what business plan?" then I already know why you are in trouble. Your first New Year's Resolution is to write a business plan. A document that will be your roadmap for how your business will make money in 2012. The hardest part of this exercise is making assumptions from where sales will come from. However, you aren't a startup or are you? If you don't have a clear focus, know where your customers will come from, know what they want and how much they are willing to pay for it---then you really haven't develop a business model in the first place. It's not too late!
(4) Ask For Help
Asking for help never means you aren't smart. It means you have curiousity and want to learn everything you can in order to make better decisions. When I work with men in sales I explain to them the reason woman entrepreneurs ask so many question. We look at the world from many different angles. We want to see things and experience life from a variety of perspectives. Most men want people to believe they have all the answers. Most women thirst for knowledge and the opportunity to learn everything they can about a subject, product, person or place. No one really expects a business person to be chief executive (visionary,leader) chief operating officer (manager, executor), sales and marketing, accountant, lawyer, purchasing officer and administrative assistant. So don't stress over what you don't know. Make a list and get help where you need it. You'll be surprised at how many people will help you for no or little money if you just ask. (email me if needed)
The forecast for 2012 is more of the same. We don't have any leaders ready to stake their political careers on helping small business in any significant way. It is well-known that it is small businesses that employ the majority of workers in the U.S., but that fact hasn't persuaded our leaders to help by lowering business regulations.
2012 is the year you take control of your business. Ask your customers for feedback. Cut back on your overhead - renegotiate leases if necessary. And, most important, please ask for help.
