Business by Janice

Many of us have often dreamed of starting a business. In a previous post I advocated “following your heart”. If we are passionate and persistent and we combine this with a good dollop of common and business sense, the chances are that we’ll succeed.

But what can go wrong? What are the main mistakes that inexperienced business owners make when embarking on their entrepreneurial dream?

A close friend of mine, consultant Roberto Menéndez, has kindly given me permission to use some of the material from an article he wrote on this topic. Below you will see details of 5 of the most common errors that are generally made:

1. Not having a business plan. A business plan is a fundamental tool to set you on your path. Financial and stategic objectives are set within a time frame to help you monitor your progess and to indicate when you are deviating from the plan in time to take corrective action.
2. Not  having enough money to survive the initial period. A very important question to ask yourself is “For how long can I cover my fixed costs with my current economic resources?” The initial period of a business before sales start to take off can be longer than expected. We need to be realistic about this and plan accordingly, being especially prudent with our day to day expenses.
3. Not wanting or knowing how to sell. Even though you have professional experience, it may not be in  a sales role. Sales are the life blood of a company. If you feel you don’t possess the skills to sell or are reticent about “doing sales”, get some training or coaching to overcome this obstacle, or employ someone to perform this task as soon as the budget permits.
4. Not consulting the professionals. You can’t know everything, especially when it comes to the norms and laws around taxes, employment, licenses and accountancy to name just a few of the areas where we have to be up to date as business owners. It’s fessential to contract the services of professionals in these areas, (unless that is your actual business). Stick to being the expert at what YOU know best, keep focused.
5. Confusing the till with your pocket. There is no doubt about it, the money in the till is exactly that, money in the till which belongs to the company and is there to meet its financial needs. Don’t ever be tempted into thinking it’s just money and as you are the sole owner, it is therefore your money. It isn’t. Make sure you account for every penny that comes in and goes out of the business via an accounting system however primitive in the first few months. This will avoid unpleasant surprises later.

Next week I’m going to write about 5 more common errors that many business owners make when starting out and share some personal experiences with you.  As I look back over the last 10 years of being with Windsor Idiomas, I can clearly identify where our weak areas were (and are), and where we made our mistakes.

As I’ve mentioned before on more than one occasion, running is a business is one of the greatest learning experiences you could ever have. We never stop growing and developing if we are to ensure the growth and develpopment of our baby, our business.

THE ART OF PROGRESS IS TO PRESERVE ORDER AMID CHANGE AND TO PRESERVE CHANGE AMID ORDER - Alfred North Whitehead

I have to admit I’m a bit of a time mangagement/efficiency freak and in fact part of my personal growth journey is learning to be ok with situations and results that don’t turn out as expected or happen within my imagined time frame.

Now the first challenge in this area has been living in a country where punctuality is not a strength. But surprisingly, I got a handle on that challenge quite soon, and in fact waiting 20 minutes for someone to show up for either a date or a meeting doesn’t upset me at all. I can either go into a meditative state of visualising my goals, feeling good about them, raising my energy vibrations to attract more powerfully etc, etc, so in fact I know I’ve made good use of the spare twenty minutes. (Yep, still the efficiency trait coming out there). Or I can turn to one of my many to do lists appropriately organised to take advantage of different types of free windows of time.

Which me leads me nicely to what I really wanted to talk about this week - If you haven’t read it already, you MUST  read “Getting Things Done” by David Allan. (the place I got my special, super effective To Do lists from). It is the most practical time management book I’ve ever read, going far beyond the normal sphere of conventional time management to help people achieve focus, control and perspective in their life. The basic tenet is that to be truly effective, we must have a system that gets every thought of things we must do out of our head and into a system that reminds us of when we have to take an action at just the appropriate time.

But what I’ve recently discovered, due to the comments of a friend who actually conducts David Allen courses, is that the whole book is essentially spiritual.  On reading “Getting Things Done” the first time round several years ago, I didn’t notice this at all, but now I can see it on every page. When we go beyond the obvious purpose of improving productivity, what we find between these pages is a 21st century way of “being”. Implementing Allen’s system allows us to be totally focused and “in the flow”, doing things which match our highest values and vision.  And what happens then?  We invoke the power of the universe to bring us what “we’re asking for” and to create the reality that becomes our lives.

In the follow up book to “Getting Things Done”, “Making It All Work”, Allen writes:

“Ultimately what we desire is more freedom, not more work. At the same time we want to be capable of dealing with surprise, which is occurring more frequently than ever before. What we have, in short, is a desperate need to learn how to manage - not information but rather what things mean and how they all relate to each other. I’ve often been asked, “What’s new David , in the world of technology , communication and information that’s causing so much stress?” My answer is pretty simple - “Nothing’s new except how frequently everything IS new”.

Trying to manage everything that fights for our attention is one of today’s greatest challenges. I recommend you check out both Allen’s books, they really are life changing.

http://www.davidco.com/what_is_gtd

Talking about time mangement, as any working mother will know, we have to juggle a lot more than most men to keep our lives on track.  To focus in on this issue and the special challenges that women have, I’ve created a new blog at http://www.janicehaywood.net/  (madre emprendedora) - when I work out how to insert a link properly I’ll come back to edit.

I plan to write each blog once a fortnight to keep both readers happy  - and to keep my life appropriately balanced!!

I’ve been struck over the past few weeks how many people I know are contemplating embarking on different professional activities, or have, through  circumstance,  been  obliged to reflect on where they are right now, in both the professional and personal arena. It seems that there is a reshuffling of attitude  ocurring. Is it a coincidence that this is happening when we’re right in the middle of the most severe recession since the 30’s.

And then I received one of the books I had recently ordered from Amazon. It’s called  “Conscious Evolution - Awakening the Power of our Social Potential” by Barbara Marx Hubbard. It’s amazing.

For the very first time in the 15 billion history of our universe, due to the amazing technological developments of the last 50 years we are understanding how nature works and so can become involved in its future.  We are effectively involved in a conscious, as opposed to an unconscious evolution. As the book says “Only in the last fifty years have we gained the scientific and technological powers to destroy or enhance the planet’s life support system. Our generation has the ability to abuse or conserve these powers, to act, in a way, as cocreator”.

Hubbard postulates that there are five lessons in evolution. One of them is that “crises precede transformation”. And although she is talking on a grander scale in the book, I believe we can see some parallels with the effects that the current economic crisis is having on many people’s lives.

She writes, “When nature reaches a limitation, it does not necessarily adapt and stabilise, it innovates and transforms, as we saw with the single cell crisis. Problems are often evolutinary drivers vital to our transformation. We learn to look for transformations that the problems are stimulating. We view our problems positively and notice the transformations occurring around us. For example, the threat of nuclear weapons is forcing the human race to go beyond war. The environmental crisis is awakening us to the fact that we are all connected and must learn how to manage a planetary ecology. We learn to expect the unexpected and to anticupate the new.”

Food for thought as always…