Are You Prepared to Do Business?
This Article by John Hill first appeared in Long Island Business News (June 13-19 Edition)
Since 2008 more people, especially those over age 45, have gone into business than ever before. Many of them, because of their age, and, because they wanted to remain on Long Island, had no other choice.
I have friends that are engineers that were employed by large Long Island companies. Along came the recession, and they were looking for work. When you have a wife, two children and a home you don’t have a choice; you have to work to feed your family and to pay your bills. Many of them became consultants and have been fortunate enough to have two to four accounts. They work 60 to 80 hours a week giving them just enough income to take care of the bare essentials, certainly not making the same money when they were employed by a large company.
There are also a few, because of their experience, who were able to get jobs comparable to what they had when working for a Long Island Corporation. The problem is that the companies that they now work for are located elsewhere in the tri-state area. I know of others that live on Long Island, but every Sunday night they bid goodbye to their wives and children and fly down to Washington, drive an old car to Virginia and live in a room for the week while they work at some large facility. They return on Friday evening after work flying home to spend the weekend with their families. Then, Sunday night, it’s back to Virginia. It’s a tough life, but sometimes you do what you have to do to keep you and your family together. They still hope against hope that things will change, and they will be able to find work on Long Island. Eventually their children will complete school, they will sell their homes, and they will move closer to where they work, leaving Long Island… sad but true.
Then we have these new business people that call themselves Consultants. They give me the most frustration. They are good technicians, they know their craft, but they certainly are not business people. Many of them have not taken the time to put a plan in place that will reflect what their business does and how they plan to get business. Now more than ever, you have to be prepared. Business is moving at such a fast pace that you must have your business well-structured and organized to survive.
There is a document that I strongly suggest to my clients and members of the LIASB that they develop, and it only costs them some of their time, a Company Information Sheet. It contains the following:
In addition to serving as a quick reference, this information provides a quick picture revealing how well you are organized. As you write things down they become clearer and more defined. It also reveals what you are missing and what needs to be addressed to insure that your business has all of the tools necessary for you to be successful. In this day and age you need, at a minimum, those items listed above. If you don’t have these, you are not set up to do business, and you are setting yourself up to fail. We have all heard that old adage “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” I hope when you read this it will make you stop and think and get organized.
The key to good business success is preparation and organization. Good article.