LittleFishPhilosophy

Does Your Company Have Roots?

As a small business owner, it's essential to build a strong company from the ground up, but sometimes we're focused on building only one of the following:

1 External Factors-Marketing and advertising

2 Internal Factors-Product development and operations

Small business owners often get side-tracked on doing only the things they love to do the best, but without careful planning of both internal and external factors, your company won't achieve it's full potential. It's easy to work on the fun stuff like creating your business name and marketing materials, but it requires more discipline to develop and implement intelligent operations-practices that will help sustain and grow your company for long-term success.

Other than the "External Factors", have you considered the "Internal Factors"?

• Finance - financial plans, budgets, bookkeeping / accounting, legal, so that you remainfinancially viable

• Market Research - continued efforts in gathering information about your customer and your competitor

• Product Development - continually improving your product / service to meet the needs of your customers

• Employee / Contractor Relations - making sure that you've not only recruited the best talent, but that they're motivated, productive and fairly compensated for their efforts

I like to call the "Internal Factors", the roots of a company. Without roots, your company won't be able to weather any storms and trust me, there will be storms and you best prepare for them.

Analogy

Consider the foliage of a tree, as being the "External Factors" that everyone sees. They provide beauty for eyes, shade from the sun and a home for animals. Now consider the roots of a tree, as being the "Internal Factors", that provide strength and stability. If your tree has roots and a storm does come, your tree won't come down. It may lose it leaves, but be assured that your tree will bud again next spring. If your tree has no roots and a storm does come, you will lose the entire tree and be left with a big hole.

Keep Swimming Little Fish!