Proactive operational systems control all business activities and deliver the desired and targeted results on time and on budget, in a super-efficient, super-fast, super-productive, and super-organized manner. They feel they have to make every decision, big and small, and hold tight to the controls like a joystick in a video game. Communities, as well as people, are subject to fads, and your idea may be yesterday s fad. Various policy measures have been conceived and generously funded based on market models.
Should Operations Be Your Primary Focus?
Meetings
are a simple
way to manage systems, leverage yourself, and communicate expectations to your employees, managers, subcontractors, vendors, and suppliers. Have
your short elevator
pitch (discussed at the end of the book) ready, and demonstrate the enthusiasm you have for your new business. If
you are selling
to a business customer who does not like the idea of paying upfront, then give them a real financial incentive to do so by offering them a discount off the price, or by giving them a (useful) additional service. Too,
an ad campaign
that features different information in different ads may reach more customers, as those who overlook one ad might respond positively to a different ad for the same product.
Do you take things for granted?
In
return for their
investment the individual gets a tiny stake in a business which they hope will grow to be worth a lot more by the time the business is eventually sold. Production
employees, for example,
know how to handle materials, assemble products, test performance, and troubleshoot very specific problems. Say
you increase your
projected market share by 1 percent here, reduce expected costs by 2 percent there, and lower your estimate of required startup capital by a few percentage points as well. In
many ways, writing
a business plan is an end in itself.
The very first paragraph is the most important part of your business plan
If
your goods are
on sale in some prominent store, this device is sure to draw attention. Stay
on top of
your field. Retailers
of auto parts,
home improvement supplies, and all sorts of other goods have found that simply having knowledgeable salespeople who know how to replace the water pump in a 95 Chevy will lure customers in and encourage them to buy. The
fonts you use
should also reinforce the identity of your business.
Helping customers make more money
The
sum total is
contained in two words, words that electrify, nevertheless. Bottom-up
models often generate
alternatives that top-down models cannot, but can also be chaotic and inefficient. Investors
are not simply
writing out checks with no idea of where the money will be spent. If
by some happy
chance wages were raised above this point, then the population would speedily multiply and the increased competition thus brought about among the laborers would depress wages again to the lowest amount sufficient to support a family.
An Authoratitive Guide to Governance
It's
simple when you
have no overhead, no employees, only one project, and only one customer. Each
person who works
for you wants to be accountable and responsible for some part of his or her job. Many
of the most
successful businesses are financed by banks, which can provide small to moderate amounts of capital at market costs. Kindred,
religion, politics,
friendships, and secret fraternities, will hold a portion of the community to the old traders.