Business Fundamentals Learned Late in the Game |
Posted: November 17, 2011 |
Humans are stubborn, unpredictable, and flawed. It’s no wonder learning sometimes tends to be difficult. All knowledge is learned, but the technique used to learn the knowledge is not always correct. This concept can also be applied to business fundamentals. Not all business fundamentals are learned the right way. Tim Berry discusses about how he learned five basic business fundamentals the hard way. When working in the business world, employees cannot be a person’s friend. Yes, this idea is impossible to truly make work. A person has to be comfortable with seeing their fellow employees as just employees, nothing more and nothing less. This is a hard for most people to grasp if being social is a big part of life. In the real world, order must remain constant between all individuals in the company. Profits do not equal cash, but is a term used in accounting to describe how sales add up over a specified time and the costs and expenses are subtracted from the total. Creating an increase in sales does not mean the business has the money and the cost associated with that sale might be something having to be paid months earlier. Also, the money you spend to repay debt or buy assets is completely ignored by profits. Never let a company go under due to increased profits. Be prepared for the possibility of dealing with a bold faced liar. As mentioned in the beginning, humans are stubborn, unpredictable, and flawed. Do not doubt what a person will do or is capable of doing to benefit or negatively impact a business. No one is bullet proof, or even lie proof. Remember to approach all investors with intense caution. Everyone makes mistakes, even business owners. One, or a few mistakes is not the end of the world or the end of a business. In Tim’s article, he says, “If you can’t stand mistakes, don’t make them, and don’t tolerate them, then you’re not cut out to have your own business. You are going to make mistakes, you can count on it. You have to be quick and flexible about recognizing mistakes, acknowledging them, and taking whatever steps need to follow them.” All business owners should grab on to this humble advice. A business cannot please all customers and do everything all at once, so do not try. Only focus on the tasks that are in the business’ power and stick with it. Tim refers to this idea as “displacement.” Everything a business owner does rules out something else they can’t do. When trying to do and fix everything, business owners tend to forget the important aspects of their business and then end up getting tasks only half done. Worry about the business, not everyone else. Business owners are not super heroes and their business is not going to save the world, so why try? Humans are going to do what they do: be stubborn, unpredictable, and flawed. The best a business can do is being prepared, focus on their plan, business mission, and fulfill a customer’s expectations. K.I.S.S-Keep it Simply Smart! If business owners follow this straight forward acronym, they can be focused on more important business related issues. Sources: Planning Startups Stories (http://timberry.bplans.com/2010/06/5-business-fundamentals-i-learned-the-hard-way.html)
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