Business Management

Business Management

You will be able to:

• Understand the importance of a business plan

• Explain how to set strong goals

• Describe what to consider related to growing a business

• Understand concerns related to hiring staff

• Identify ways to use technology with business

• Describe the importance of generosity

Key Terms

• Business Plan: a written document that outlines the goals for a business and how they plan to reach those goals

• Brick-and-Mortar: term used to describe a physical store location

• Mission Statement: a statement describing the purpose of your business

• Liability Insurance: protects you in the event you harm someone or damage any of their stuff

• Property Insurance: covers losses and damage to any of your personal property

A Business Plan

What is a Business Plan?

• A written document that outlines your goals and how you plan to reach those goals

• A business plan keeps you focused and gives you something to work toward. 

• The primary purpose of a business plan is to keep you accountable to your goals and keep you moving forward. 

• As your business grows, your business plan can grow as well.

What is a Business Plan?

• It is not uncommon for a full written business plan to be 20–30 pages in length. 

• You may need a detailed business plan as your business grows.

• You will look to a business plan for direction and decision making.

  
  

Video: Setting Strong Goals

Setting Strong Goals

• It is important to set strong goals that are realistic to achieve.

• Goals will push you and stretch you.

• Goals will hold you accountable to a plan.

• Strong goals must have several important qualities:

Strong Goal Qualities:

• Specific—You need to know exactly what you are working toward; use words that are specific.

• Measurable—You need to be able to measure your progress or you will never know when you reach your goal.

• A Time Limit—You need to set a specific time limit that gives you a definite date to work toward.

• Yours—You need goals that you set specifically for your business so that you will work toward them; don’t use someone else’s goals.

• Written—You need to put your goals in writing; writing down your goals will hold you accountable and help you remember them

Example of Strong Goals:

• I will add three more lawns to mow to my schedule within the next three weeks

• I will create three jewelry pieces to sell each week for the next month for a total of twelve new pieces.

• I will increase my profits by 15% over the next three months by adding two new customers and filling five additional orders.

Building a Business Plan

• Business Name and Contact Info: Start with your business name, logo, your name, and contact information.

• Executive Summary: This is an overall summary, or a sales pitch, of all your business offers. This should sound professional and should make someone want to read the rest of your business plan. It is best, however, to make this the last thing you work on.

• Mission Statement: This is a short one-sentence statement that answers the question of why you are doing what you are doing. Your mission statement describes the purpose for your business.

Building a Business Plan

• Business Description: This description expands on your mission statement by providing more information about what your business does and what problem(s) it can solve for potential customers.

• Services Offered: List the services your business offers. These services should match up with the equipment you have available. As you add more equipment or services, this portion of your business plan can expand.

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Building a Business Plan

• Services Offered: List the services your business offers. These services should match up with the equipment you have available. As you add more equipment or services, this portion of your business plan can expand.

• Pricing Strategy: Create a list of your products and services along with their prices; this is especially helpful to have on hand when someone wants to know your prices. Remember, as your experience and reputation grows, you may be able to charge more.

Building a Business Plan

• Business Goals: List the things you would like to accomplish. Remember that your goals need to have five important qualities: they must be specific, measurable, have a time limit, yours, and written.

• Marketing Strategy: Brainstorming and writing down plans to market and promote your business is the first step in actually doing something. Set some goals for social media posts, promotional ideas, reaching new customers, and expressing appreciation to current customers.

Legal Considerations

• Depending on your business, you will need to check into some legal considerations.

• There are a variety of legal issues to be aware of, especially if your business is service-based or food-related. 

• ou should always check local regulations to determine if there are any specific business licenses or permits you may need.

Legal Considerations - Food Truck

• Proof of ownership and proper identification

• Proper license/registration for the vehicle

• Health department inspection certificate

• Business permit or license

• Food purchase records

• Liability insurance

Legal Considerations

• Anytime you’re working with, handling, and selling food you also have to be aware of other health and safety matters. 

• Depending on your type of business, there may be some things you need to register with local and state governments. 

• Don’t forget to look into the various types of insurance that are available—and necessary—for your business.

• Liability insurance is one of the most important types, depending on the type of business you run. 

•  Another important insurance for business is called property insurance.

Growing Your Business

Video: Teen Entrepreneur Jack

Start Small

• Starting small allows you to build a loyal customer base, establish your business name, and develop a good reputation. 

• As word of your business and reputation spreads, you will be able to make more sales. 

• Make sure to save some money and set it aside for future growth and expansion.

Grow As You Are Able

• When you grow slowly, you are less likely to make mistakes or waste resources.

• As your business begins to do well, you should plan for what growth would look like.

• Identify what the next steps could be, how much it will cost, what other things you would need, and what the impact might be on your business.

Grow As You Are Able

• Grow at the speed of cash. That simply means to grow and expand only to the point where you can afford to pay for it in cash. 

• Don’t go into debt for your business. 

• As easy as it may seem to get some extra cash to spark your growth, you don’t need (and you won’t want) the debt hanging over your business.

Future Expansion

• Before you consider a large expansion, answer this question: Why do I want to expand?

• Future expansion goals are a great way to keep you motivated in the work you do right now. 

• Expansion allows you to reach more customers with your products or services. 

• As you look toward the future, you will want to consider and plan for additional things such as:

Future Expansion

• Hiring extra help

• One or multiple locations

• Brand or name recognition

• Additional costs

• Rent, build, or buy

Human Resources

Staffing

• When do you know it’s time to hire extra help for your business? 

• The right time to hire someone is when you have maxed out your capacity, you want to grow, you have the cash flow to pay someone else, and you want the responsibility of another person.

• If any one of those things is not true of your situation, then you are not ready to hire someone.

  
  

• Many entrepreneurs hire extra help too early.

Staffing

• As a result, the employee doesn’t have enough work to do and you end up wasting money.

• Another way to get extra help, especially if you aren’t sure how long you will need help, is to offer a temporary job.

• A temporary job could last for several weeks to several months. 

• If things end up working out and the person is a good fit, you could consider making the position permanent.

Hiring Staff

• Hiring staff can help you get more work done, and it allows you to delegate some of the work to others so that you can focus on moving your business forward. 

• When you get to the point where you need to hire staff to help your business, Christy Wright offers some great guidelines to follow: 

Hiring Staff

• Hire someone who cares about your business and is onboard with your mission and purpose.

• Hire someone you genuinely like because you will be spending a lot of time with them.

• Hire slowly; take your time with longer interviews to get an idea of an applicant’s character, passion, and work ethic.

• Don’t hire someone out of desperation or just to get a job done; don’t dismiss red flags that cause you concern.

• Hire staff with the understanding of a ninety-day trial period to make sure the person is right for the job before the job becomes long-term.

Hiring Staff

• Provide training to get them started in the best way possible. 

• Clearly show them how to do the work you hired them for, and help them understand the why behind all you do.

• Explain your vision and the things that are important to you and your business. 

• Clearly communicate how they will know if they are doing a good job in the work you hired them to do

Paying Staff

• Before you hire someone, you will need to calculate how much you will be able to pay someone. 

• Determine if the position will be part-time or full-time and what hours and days you are expecting help. 

• You’ll also need to decide how often you will pay employees.

• Determine before you hire someone is how you will handle overtime, holidays, sick time, and vacation time as they relate to pay.

Paying Staff

• Hiring extra staff opens up a lot of legal issues to consider. 

• You will want to pay attention to all the tax information (and the taxes you will have to pay) by reviewing all the employer information available from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). 

• The IRS will provide the information you need to complete a variety of employment forms.

• Types of Forms

Information Technology

Video: Understanding Point of Sale, Platform, Records and Policy

Record Keeping

• Being able to locate transaction records, sales figures, and other information is important not only to keep your business moving forward but also in the event the IRS questions anything about your business when it comes time to pay your taxes. 

• Keeping good records is vital for your business.

  
  

• There are plenty of cloud-based services you can access from a computer or mobile device. 

• You will want to consider utilizing an accounting system as well as a document management system.

Information Technology

An accounting system helps you with accounting—or keeping track of money stuff. Your accounting system will help you keep records of your sales by storing electronic copies of invoices and income. It will also track your expenses by recording the things you purchase for your business. You will want to organize and track anything else you spend money on. Many of the accounting systems available for your small business will prepare, deliver, and track payments for invoices. The right accounting system will give you real-time access to your financial data.

Information Technology

A document management system will help you keep electronic copies of all your important paperwork—rather than filling up a filing cabinet with sheets of paper. Scanned or electronic copies of important documents—receipts, invoices, statements, orders, customer correspondence, and more—can be stored and accessed as needed. There are a variety of cloud-based systems available that will help you store and search your documents. You may have to pay a monthly or annual fee depending on the amount of storage capacity you need.

Technology In Business

• Advancements in technology make it easier than ever to run a professional business

• Technology makes communication with customers and potential customers so much faster with email, text, and phone calls. 

• From paying for orders to shipping items to customers, technology helps your business be more efficient. 

• Modern technology is also more secure and helps keep business information protected.

Being Generous

Video: It's Not Just About Profit