Back to Basics -- May 2009

Take Control – of your business success
“A series of simple yet effective ways for your business to succeed in challenging times”

Managing in Changing Times -- Back to Basics
It seems that all the business pundits are publishing ‘how to’ guides for difficult or challenging times. On these pages, we’ve been outlining key actions business owners can take to succeed and thrive. None of the ideas are revolutionary. All are proven to work. But many simply don’t get done. Old habits and easy distractions are allowed to dominate in businesses that can’t adapt as they need to.

Last month’s edition of CapeBusiness included advice from two local bank presidents. Joel Crowell of Cape Cod Cooperative stressed the importance of communicating with your banker, first about cash flow, and secondly about your business plan. Business Plan! Where have we heard that before? Everywhere! A business plan can be a 20 page document with 10 pages of historical and pro forma financial spreadsheets. You may need one of those to get an SBA or Bank loan, but most of us aren’t there now. But a business plan can also be as simple as a list of goals for the business, a set of action items that need to be done to reach those goals, management responsibilities, and a monthly or quarterly financial forecast for the next 2 years. Businesses have always needed these. The plan is important for the owner as a way of organizing her/his thoughts and communicating to key advisors. More important is the work of creating the plan. Setting financial, operational, and customer goals that are aggressive yet do-able is a wonderful team building exercise. Developing the action plans is the true essence of leadership. We must take control, and not simply react to the market. And the financial projections test the expected outcomes of the actions. This is a technique for today. That’s for sure. But it’s been a technique all owners need to have been doing continuously.

Dorothy Savarese of Cape Cod Five pointed out that this is a time to watch the business environment and make decisions about what to do for your business. Get ahead of the curve. Downsize, if you must, sooner rather than later. Trim excess expenses and negotiate lower costs. And strengthen relationships, with customers, suppliers, and other collaborators. This is all great advice for today’s times. Of course, it was great advice when times were good, too. A business leader always has to be looking around to see what good could happen and make plans to capitalize, or what bad could happen and make plans to mitigate the effects. They must always look at expenses that can be cut without hurting quality or customer care. And relationships are what built a business. They must be nurtured in good and bad times.

So the best and brightest are giving us solid advice for ‘recession-busting strategies’. And they are reminding us that basic business management works in good times and in bad. Go back to your industriy conference notes. Look at an old business textbook. Dig out your favorite book on leadership, regardless of its age. Call your banker. Call your CPA. Call your business advisor. All the advice you’ve been getting is still valid today.

So make a plan. Work the plan. Then celebrate.
Happy Summer !!

(I’d love to hear from readers on their successes getting back to basics and re-introducing practices they used to use in the past I’d be happy to share your successes in this column next month.)


Barry Neagle
President, Neagle & Associates, Ltd.
bneagle@gmail.com