Archive for January 2012
Business Management characterizes the process of leading and directing all or part of an organization, often a business, through the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible). Early twentieth-century business management writer Mary Parker Follett defined management as “the art of getting things done through other people.”
One can also think of business management functionally as the action of measuring a quantity on a regular basis and of adjusting some initial plan, and as the actions taken to reach one’s intended goal. This applies even in situations where planning does not take place. From this perspective, there are several major management functions, namely: planning, organizing, leading, coordinating and controlling.
Management is known by some as “business administration”, although this then excludes management in places outside business, e.g. charities and the public sector. University departments that teach management are nonetheless usually called “business schools”. The term “management” may also be used as a collective word, describe the managers of an organization, for example of a corporation.
Today, we find it increasingly difficult to subdivide management into functional categories in this way. More and more processes simultaneously involve several categories. Instead, we tend to think in terms of the various processes, tasks, and objects subject to management.
One consequence is that workplace democracy has become both more common, and more advocated, in some places distributing all management functions among the workers, each of whom takes on a portion of the work. However, these models predate any current political issue, and may be more natural than command hierarchy.
All management is to some degree democratic in that there must be majority support of workers for the management in the long term, or they leave to find other work, or go on strike. Hence management is becoming less based on the conceptualization of classical military command-and-control, and more about facilitation and support of collaborative activity, utilizing principles such as those of human interaction management to deal with the complexities of human interaction.
Small Business, Big Business – What’s the Diff?
Well a lot actually!
I become frustrated and angry at the government’s paying lip service to assisting small business. It appears as though all governments, bureaucrats and many accounting advisers do not know what a real small business is.
In Australia the government’s definition for a small business is one which has less than 100 employees. Who are they kidding? In my consultancy that’s a big business.
They believe that ‘small business’ is the same as ‘big business’ on a smaller scale, that ‘big business’ is ‘small business’ with more of the same.
Wrong! About 99% of small business employs less than 10 employees and what is beneficial to the 100-employee firm may be downright dangerous for the 10-employee firm. Governments must know that. They can’t be so stupid not too… can they?
We Aussies are ready to believe anything about our politicians. We have met so many of them and none of them seem any brighter than the fellow next door. (In fact, none of them seem to know as much as I do).
When I decided to go global I was certain that the situation would be different in the USA. I was wrong.
The USA Small Business Authority has set a size standard for most ‘small business’ enterprises. In the full Table of Small Business Size Standards Matched to SIC Codes published by the Small Business Authority it is annual turnover that limits the size of small business firms.
In my consultancy of restaurants, coffee shops, florists, hairdressers, electrical retailers etc. the turnover limit is $5 million. In Australia there are NO single shop establishments achieving that sort of turnover.
In Australia a hairdressing salon working a 7-day week at an average price of $70 per client would need 30 clients each and every hour on ever day of the year. Impossible in Australia and probably in the USA too.
This does clear up an anomaly I had noticed in the different approach business plans took in Australia as opposed to that taken in America.
When Australian business began to use the Internet almost all the business plan software was from the States. The plans, although meant for small business, were not appropriate for Australian firms because they focused entirely on obtaining venture capital.
There were very few venture capital providers in Australia and of those that were few were interested in providing capital to the majority of our small ‘small business’. Business Plans languished in the filing cabinet and were hardly ever seen again.
The Australian consultants began to oversee business plans that focused on their being used as management tools. The planning itself was a vital element in the success of the business…and the plans were used to chart the course of the firm.
Each month the actual results were compared to what had been expected in the business plan. Tactics were formulated to overcome shortcomings or build upon favorable results.
Are you a small business owner who has studied all the books and web information that you can get hold of, and it is still not happening for you?
Perhaps it is because the information was directed to firms much larger than yours – firms with 100 employees or $5 million in sales. You need information more suited to your own business size.
Various organisations publish benchmarks for your industry. Compare your own results with the industry average. This will show where you should be concentrating your efforts for improvement.
You should seek out advisers and information that applies to ‘mini’ business – firms that are your size whatever it is. Perhaps you own accountant can help you find it.
But never be so foolish as to believe that what the government says is good for small business will be necessarily good for you.
Kelvyn Peters CPA and Associates knows profitable business strategies that really work.
And he’s only an e-mail away.
I get frequently asked about what are the most common things people forget to take into account when they are considering opening a small business.
It is scary, isn’t it? Don’t be afraid. Go through this checklist and you’ll be fine.
1. What means of income will your small business employ? Will you do affiliate marketing on the internet, offline sales in your community, both or have you got something else in mind? Who else is doing it?
2. How good a demand is there for your small business ideas? If it is poor, can a market be found or created that would need this product or service in large enough quantities to make a good profit?
3. Whether there is a great deal of demand or not, how good is your competition? A lot of activity does not necessarily mean the market is “saturated”. Many markets are filled with garbage. A good, honest site that over delivers can quickly rise to the top and make a killing.
4. You will need to advertise if you are opening a small business. If you are going on the internet, you can’t just hang a sign over your door. Will you use mainly SEO’d articles, Pay Per Click (risky if you are a newbie), PPL (also tough on a newbie’s wallet), organic traffic or something else to promote your new enterprise?
5. How will you collect money safely from your customers and protect yourself at the same time from all the predators on the web?
6. Whatever your decisions are, are they based on some get rich quick scheme? If they are, rethink ALL your decisions. There is no get rich quick on the internet, but there is plenty of get rich after some slow, diligent work:-)
7. Last, but not least: What is your passion? The internet allows you to start a website on what you love. You don’t have to worry about the local market like a traditional bricks and mortar business.
Can you see how these simple items can start your business off on a foundation of concrete and steel? Take your time with your small business ideas, do plenty of reading, do a lot of searches and surfing. See how the top 10 sites on any search you do are doing it.
If they are in the top 10, they have what you want. That’s how they got there. You can’t buy Google or other search engine ranking.
“If you don’t own your life, what’s the point?”
- Nori Evoy (Very Successful Web Business Person)