Contributed article in our entrepreneurial business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly
“Nothing is as great as succeeding at an early age.”
Never welcome your early success as if you’ve achieved your goals, instead take it as just the beginning of the uphill struggle that you need to continue doing. Settings up your own business might have been in your mind for years; however, you didn’t spend much of your time realizing the true meaning of the a famous quote by Bill Cosby, “In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.”
Perhaps you’re not sure about your success or you have no idea whether it’s what you can call “Success”. Let me finally ask you, “Did you achieve “The Milestone” on your path that eventually turned out to make you proud of yourself?”
Entrepreneurs do come across the initial surge of revenue coming through various marketing activities and social media campaigns. However, they take this as the success and get charged with more of this passion, resulting in a chain of potential pitfalls. Such a misconception leads to a sudden breakdown of the whole business’s health.
For instance, you must have heard of Friendster, a social networking platform founded in 2002 (14 years ago), which later was transformed into a Social Gaming Site, based out of and operated from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The website became so popular among the youngsters that its founders rejected a $30 Million offer from the Search Engine Giant – Google. It later ran into money distress and had to face a great competition around the web space.
Despite some well-known, visible failures around the globe, there are many less known failures too, which can turn out even fatal. Entrepreneurs must plan carefully to avoid the odds of such failures:
- Keep an Eye on Profitability and Manage Cash Flow
Entrepreneurs with innovative business ideas get funding from various global investors, showing them their true potential to lead their business. An initial surge in revenue because of these investments leads to a mindset that they can build a considerably large customer base going forward. Meanwhile, they forget the fact that money flows freely and ideas burn quickly, leading to failure in the absence of appropriate focus.
You need to stay focused when it comes to the cash flow, as getting the strike once again is not as easy it is in the playground of Cricket. Keep an eye on your primary requirements and spend accordingly to make sure your business is healthy.
- Keep Your Relevant Financial Figure Handy
Startups often need to examine their financial health without majorly focusing on both profit and loss statements. In fact, they’re least bothered about what they’ve earned so far while focusing on stabilizing their business. Since they don’t have too many expenses initially, they can easily keep the figures in mind.
With the increasing number of expenses going forward, these organizations can deploy one or more financial tools to efficiently manage their overall financial structure. Hiring experts who can make the whole financial upgrade worthwhile is always recommended while keeping the factor of affordability at the top of the priority list.
- Never Fail to Follow-up on Customers’ Demands and Corresponding Payments
Businesses involve the trade of goods/services between a minimum of two parties, typically a business and a consumer. A businessman expects the payment to finally arrive after a certain period of delivery of the services/goods; let’s say 15 to 30 days. However, the customers, sometimes, expect some more time (up to 45 days) to pay it off. Meanwhile, the businessman (typically an entrepreneur) himself must follow up regarding the payment.
Businesses don’t run of invoices sent and received; it runs on payment received through cheques, subject to clearance.
Related – 7 Money Saving Tips for Startups
- Have Spare Time to Train Your Employees to Give Their 100 Percent
Every business requires a workforce of certain eligible people to run it steadily on the right path, in the right direction. Hiring such people is certainly a difficult task and, of course, time-consuming as well. In case they hire inexperienced candidates and don’t train them, the business is going to be killed in no time. And, this is going to happen at a rate faster than the money runs out.
The entrepreneurs who hit the market for the first time generally have no relevant experience – for obvious reason. Thus, they also require additional training along with the all other employees. If possible, arrange an external training session addressing the organizational requirements.
- Need Time to Develop Skills and Adapt Work Environment
Organizations hire more and more candidates going forward with their increasing market value as well as work pressure. These newly hired candidates, obviously, don’t have the required skills and they require the process in written format to follow and grow correspondingly. Since these candidates don’t have the problem-solving ability, all they can do is follow the process explained to them.
It’s also possible that they develop new skills and eventually turn out to save the business or the organization. Therefore, make sure individual employees of the organization are attending these special training sessions to provide them all with equal opportunities to grow.
Employer’s Liability – Rich and Healthy Work Environment
In order to attain high profitability, entrepreneurs must provide their employees with adequate health safety at the workplace. The healthy and dynamic the employees of an organization the healthier will be its revenue. When it comes to health coverage offered at the organizational level, group medical insurance comes into play. This is nothing but the assurance of the safety of health of every working individual, making them feel secure and comfortable at work.
Needless to say, you cannot deny the fact – “Health is wealth.” And, these health plans come under employer’s liability, and as an entrepreneur, you must explore the healthcare market and find good health insurance plans while keeping affordability in mind.
Over to You!
Businesses have their revenue dependent on their productivity and its corresponding sales. Businesses grow steadily by the limitless efforts of their employees put into the right direction, i.e. in favor of the organization. Meanwhile, they need the assurance of the safety of their health to make themselves feel secure at the workplace.
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