If
you want to grow and develop your business, you must inevitably take some
risks. All the great entrepreneurs will tell you that they have taken major
risks throughout their careers, but they have survived mostly by being canny and
calculating about which risks to take. So how can you avoid being foolhardy and
only proceed along the paths that are the safest? What will make it easier to
calculate the risks and choose the ones most likely to be worthwhile?
Know Your Business
in Detail
Perhaps
the most important thing is to have an intimate knowledge of your financial
starting point at the time you need to make your decisions. Unless you are
completely familiar with what cash you have available, the liabilities that
will deplete it and the expected revenues, your business decisions could do
more harm than good. Outsourced
bookkeepers can help, and it’s a wise entrepreneur who discusses plans with
them before making commitments.
Do
you know the number and value of your average sales transactions per week or
month? What have you and your staff done to make this happen? Could there be a
way to bump up the numbers without it costing you too dear?
What
marketing strategies have you been using? What tactics have worked well in the
past? What does your market respond to? What has been the response rate and the
conversion rate? What might you change to improve things?
Work out your Needs
and Their Cost
You
also need to be sure about what it will cost to take a particular route, and be
able to predict the long term benefits. Do you need to recruit new skills, and
how much will that cost you in both acquiring and retaining these personnel? If
you don’t know the answers to all these sort of questions, how can you be
certain it will be worth it?
If
you don’t already have all this information at your fingertips, now is not the
time to move ahead with development plans that could end with you falling flat
on your face. Postpone your activity and talk to your bookkeepers about how much
historical information could be made available, and make sure that they collect
and report on all the data you will need from now on.
With
the right information, you will be able to develop reachable goals and plan
what risks are the safest to take as you strive to achieve them. As you tick
them off, you will have the enviable satisfaction of seeing your business
thrive and grow.
