Taking Care of Business: Are you ready to take the growth challenge in 2010?

Ruth Schwartz is the author of Taking Care of Business

If you want to grow your business like members of TAB, I dare you to take this challenge.

 Last month, I talked about whether we can successfully hold our own feet to the fire. The conclusion was that we need a combination of social pressure and external support in addition to our own drive to make that happen.

 Then I had my epiphany – the 4 a.m. variety.

 Part one: By the time you decide the status quo isn’t good enough and you are ready to make a change, you actually crave external pressure and accountability. Even if we thought we didn’t have the time or the money or the know-how to do so, we accept the assignment and make it happen.

 Part two: I had to create a challenge and take the kid’s gloves off!

 Local members of TAB (The Alternative Board) have already signed on. If you want to grow your business like members of TAB, I dare you to take this challenge.

 Do a quarterly financial review. Defend and explain your company’s financial information to others. Analyze (for example)  your gross margin, net profit, debt to equity, A/R aging, A/P, budget to actual expenses, and cash flow among other key performance indicators. These financial measurements represent the viability of your business. Do you know what needs work and what’s working?

 Do a quarterly sales plan review. Understand your sales funnel, cycle and its key measurements. If you review it quarterly, you will be able to measure what you are doing and quickly change anything that is not working.

 Do a quarterly marketing plan review. What marketing works? What doesn’t work? How do you measure results? How much should you spend? You absolutely need to get a handle on these difficult issues and change them quickly as needed.

Pick one operational issue that you need to address. Do you need to work on communications, customer feedback, quality control, delivery processes? What policy, procedure or system needs your attention? Implement a plan and review it monthly. Don’t start on another until you feel that you really have a handle on this one.

 Reviewing with others is exactly what corporate CEOs are doing and what small private companies need to start doing. If you are a small private company, you do need others holding your feet to the fire. I promise if you take this challenge, 2010 will be the year your company grows.

 Ruth Schwartz is the author of Taking Care of Business, a regular feature  She can be reached by calling 530-288-0180 or visiting www.TABGoldCountyNorth.com.