Keeping Your Small Business on Track

3 Tips to Help You Stay on Target

For some, being a business owner is a lifelong dream. For others, the economy has forced larger companies to downsize, leaving employees with the choice to find a new job or open a business of their own. Regardless of what path led you to being an entrepreneur, the biggest concern for small business owners is making sure their company stays on track and can make money for themselves and their employees. While there are a lot of different resources out there about how to run a business, here are three simple tips that can help keep the company afloat and your entrepreneurial dreams alive.

Have a Good Business Plan

Before opening a business, it is important to map out exactly how the business will run and the overall goals of the business. Once the business is off the ground, however, it is key to continue to revisit these plans and start setting more goals for business growth. It is important to set timelines that you are comfortable with – many businesses work on a 90-day goal plan, while others have their millstones mapped out years in advance.

Regardless of what approach you take, it is important to know where you want to take the business and decide how you are going to get there. By creating and revisiting goals on a regular basis, it is much easier to take active steps towards accomplishing those goals. You also have to be willing to change with the times. Plenty of businesses find success in secondary areas and evolve to make these areas more of a focus of the business. If you find an unexpected area that is showing profit and interest, do not be bullheaded and refuse to take the company in a new direction.

Find Balance – Personal Growth Can Help Business Growth

Life balance is something that all business owners struggle with on a regular basis. It is always a battle between spending enough time working and spending enough time with family and friends. But it is important to remember that your personal well-being is directly linked to the business’s well-being – if you are unhappy at home, chances are you will be unhappy at work, which will affect your performance and possibly the business’s performance and profits. Business owners see this correlation more often than the average employee because they have invested so much of their time and passion into making a dream a reality. Make a strong effort to find balance between your personal and professional life in order to drive positive growth in both your home and your business.

Never Quit

Opening and growing a business is a lot of commitment and work, not to mention it is not exactly the easiest endeavor. Taking a look at some statistics, such as the fact that 8 out of 10 small businesses will fail within the first 18 months, may make opening a small business seem like an impossible task. But, the two businesses who did survive their first 18 months did so because they did not give up. Perseverance is an important quality to have as a business owner – there are going to be ups and downs, good sales days and bad and it is important to keep going and keep striving for your business goals. Road blocks in business are easily overcome when a business owners takes charge and is proactive rather than reactive, which gives the business, and the owner, and even greater chance at being successful.

I know it can be hard to keep a small business or work at home business going. We face plenty of challenges, but give me a few minutes and I am sure I can help you make your business more profitable. My name is Stacy O'Quinn and I have helped dozens of business owners create a six-figure income for the financial freedom they have always wanted. To learn more about me, click here.