A business starts with an idea. This idea could be one with the intention of generating money or providing something helpful. It could even be an idea that this would be a fun way to earn a living. Ever hear the quote, “Do what you love and the money will follow?” If you are beginning a business doing what you love, you’re off to a great start. However, you won’t get far if you don’t pay attention to the operations of your business.
To clarify, the operations of any business is the management of the inner workings. This is essential for the business to operate efficiently, productively, and profitably. When you first start a business you are responsible for doing everything from marketing to bookkeeping and the many tasks in between. Most parts of running a business are likely not what you enjoy doing, so it's natural to spend time doing the “thing” you love to do and not spend much time on the things you must do. .
Doing what you love may not entail bookkeeping, for example. If you own a salon and enjoy interacting with your clients, chances are you don’t want to spend your time reconciling bank transactions. But which is more important, spending time with clients growing your business or reconciling bank transactions and looking at financial reports? The answer, both.
If you spend the majority of your time with clients and increasing revenues, and not paying attention to what you are spending, your business will fail. It sounds obvious, doesn’t it? Of course if you keep spending more than you make you’ll run out of money. It happens more than you may think.
I have met many business owners over the years that have incredible revenue streams but are struggling to stay open. Why? They are committed to giving their all to their clients, which is commendable and why they are able to temporarily stay afloat.-- Their revenues keep streaming in, but there are significant holes in the ship that need attention because water is still leaking. Something needs to be done, so oftentimes owners take out loans to keep the ship from sinking. Nothing changes, the ship takes on more water, the struggle to survive becomes more intense, and the ship sinks. They put all their efforts into one part of their business while only having a general idea of how the business is actually doing. They often don’t see the whole picture and fail to realize what went wrong.
The moral of the story? Focus on your business as a whole, fine tune the skills that you enjoy doing, but don’t neglect the operations of the business. Know that every business is multifaceted. There are many moving parts to a business, and you probably are not skilled at every task that is required to make your business profitable. Keeping on top of bookkeeping, accounts payables and receivables, vendor expenses, budgeting, etc.is equally important to the success of your business.
Running a business is a lot of work. It takes time, money, and a ton of effort. Be intentional about what you spend your time on and know eventually you’ll need some help to grow your business. Defining your strengths and your weaknesses is a good place to start.
Contracting a virtual assistant for a few hours to delegate some of those tasks that you are not skilled in but need to have done is a good place to start. Those few hours each week will give you more time to spend on the part of your business that you love to do.
