Resource Pull!

At the beginning of development a business requires suppliers to provide raw materials as inputs, workers to process these raw materials, clients to buy the resulting outputs, investors & partners to collaborate with. 

Most business owners complain about one thing, no time for yourself. This is because at start you spoon-feed literary every function of the business and without you you think it will collapse. Let's assume you are an entrepreneur, you have been doing things alone and the job is getting too much, you need to share it.

Trusting yourself first is paramount, shifting into areas that you are strongest or vital to the business and leave the rest to the rest. You have to let go, pretend you are on a vacation and you have to leave certain things in care for someone, besides it will be nice to have someone you can irritate and let steam off lol. If you can't trust people then it will be difficult. Whats the point in having a business and you cant get busy, all you need to put are checkpoints.

You can ether take staff or best take in partners at first but they still need to be managed (everyone needs to know what and where. As the business grows you require information to alert you on what's going on and you can't be running from post to post asking what's going on.

As you go on growing do realise that each department has its own "objectives" (This is like managing a family), you need to understand the processes and set workflows so that you can track what's going on or how to fix things if they go wrong. Your workflows "policies and procedures" will determine the type of information to demand. Create a chart; this will help you and your staff orientation on the business chain of command. Let's assume you are starting a restaurant! In order to manage the business you need reports. Reports show you 2 things: problems and opportunities. As a business owner you will  manage risking change "transitions".

Within a business you have 3 sub categories of management. Promoting "MARKETING", Controlling "ADMIN", and Implementing "OPERATIONS". In all of these areas there are 2 divisions. Front End & Back End. The operations are the most important doors to your business, next following Controlling (admin), and then PROMOTING (Marketing), for various businesses it’s different.

Put customer experience first! Let’s assume you are in the food business.

A customer comes in, what happens? They are asked where they would like to sit, or offer them where is best based on their preferences. They have a sit and the menu is given, some may ask what's on your specials, or what can be recommended. One has to remember that if you are serving just dinner, then your customers come for leisure, if you are serving lunch or breakfast they are coming to eat quick and head back to work. So the best customer experience should be streamlined considering their time factor but the best is to always serve quick. And give customers 20min to get in and out. This is why you find out that most clients are unhappy if their first 5min is spent on just waiting to get started. Everything has to do with getting customers happy. Your workflow, processes, policies are based on customer experience. If you don't do this then don't be surprised when everything is upside down.

The reports you need are client complaints. The opportunities bracket is based on suggestions clients make, every waiter for instance has to record all info they get from the client, how they made their order, what dishes they went through before they choose the one they ordered etc. This will help you at the end of the day to reorganize your staff on what the needs are and how to meet them better.

Meetings are the best way to manage staff in the food business. No need to shout at your staff as most clients don't always know what they want and they confuse your staff as well. Wouldn't it be nice to have a client that knows it all? that is rare, so teach them how to help the client to make the quick and best choices.

Support

CHANGE MANAGEMENT: (Tweaking & Shaping) during transitions or growth and expansion. Business wants to be the preferred supplier, they want to be seen as an industry leader and they want prestige.

STARTING UP: when it comes to creativity, what matters is if they BUYIN to your Idea. If they see your perspective they will BUYIN, if they need your perspective they will BUY. The difference in BUYING and BUYIN is in the goal you are pursuing. Investors, Partners, Staff need to BUYIN to your Idea to be a part of it; Customers need to BUY. The Convincing power of your pitch is what persuades each party.

Example...

Do we need clothes? Not really especially us in Africa :). The shame of nakedness drives us to cover ourselves. We might as well wear fig leaves. The need to attract others is what drives the fashion industry. You might as well wear a rag. Loll Nice PR statement, a perspective to make people laugh.

Does man really need to go to the Moon? No!!! But NASA is sponsored by Telecom corporations as an overhead position provides a large covering for communication. Understand what values are, then see how you can create to support the values of or for the world.

GROWING THE BUSINESS: A TREND is another word for opportunities. Personal, Careers, Social Values Change and it affects the business and career personality & capabilities within an environment. Look out for value changes; these are the trends to look out for. With every Tech the business environment changes. Pampers was invented to help mothers as well as pads!!!

From your personal experiences you can presume what a person may want or needs. Don't go too far, your grandparents, spouse, friends, clubs; COMPLAINTS are indicators of a needling change. You might just be the next It THING.

BUY OR SELL A BUSINESS: Not everyone can start a business from scratch, not everyone can carry a business to the end. Sometimes the best way to get value from your investment is to sell and start a new one. You may not be capable to raise it to its potential, merge in.