The Problem with Problems

I recently met with a business acquaintance and he was lamenting about all the problems that he was having in his business. He was having a hard time getting and keeping people. He had collection problems on his Accounts Receivables and his business was down.

So, I asked him if he had a plan? "A plan for what?" he said. I said "a business plan". I got that deer in the headlights look. I said, this is where your problem lies. You need a road map in which to guide and steer your business down the road. Now, I don't have enough time and expertise to lay everything out here in this article, but one of my mentors early on in my business career told me this. "If you don't have a plan or target in mind, you will hit it with amazing accuracy". In other words you will eventually fail.

My friends problem was like with many young business men and women. They start off as a one person operation and they get some success. They hire at first close family and friends to help them grow a little bit more. Everything is pretty loose, problems handled on the fly, life is good. Then you reach a certain level in your business, where you start hiring people outside of your circle of influence. You start getting more and more customers without having any hard and fast rules on payment expectations. Your employees now don't have a guideline to follow, i.e., not having a training program in place, not having an employee handbook which lays out the rules and expectations of both the employee and the company. The list goes on and on.

I told my friend that not all was lost but that he had some homework to do. We will work together and set up a business plan. Work on some ground rules for his employees and for him as the owner of the company. Work on getting his cash flow going positive and work on branding his company.

Remember, not all is ever lost. But unless you have a definitive goal in mind and then have a road map to get their, you will never reach your goal. It doesn't mean that you won't have to take the occasional detour, but if you know what the goal is, and you have a plan to achieve it, then you will have a chance to succeed.

Success to all.