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The A to Z of Healthy
Small and Medium Scale Businesses
The business plan for an SME does not need to be an encyclopaedia or a work of art. Nor is it a template that guarantees success. The whole process of drawing up a business plan is about making you think about the issues and challenges and the opportunities you will come to face once you start the business, so that you develop strategies to deal with the risks and capitalise on the opportunities. Starting with Managing Capital, it is stressed that under-capitalisation can become a major reason for failure. So one should go with the right mix of debt to equity, and play it safe, keeping the worst-case scenario of cash flow in mind. Then comes the economics of running the business, which involves detailed budgeting and financial planning. Budget figures are, usually, estimates that have to be revisited and revised from time to time. The author has elucidated on numerous case studies that can be a helpful tool in making your own decisions. There is a chapter on Going for Gold in customer service. The author believes that small business is all about people, not specifically about products and services, so that it is imperative that exceptional service be provided to your customers, day in and day out. Larger organisations cannot provide the personalised, hands-on, caring service that small businesses can, so let it be an opportunity for you. Selecting and motivating your staff is an important function. In a small business, you do not have the luxury of having any more human resources that are absolutely essential, nor too little. So, trying to strike the right balance and retaining people becomes very important. Talking about constantly innovating, again small businesses have an edge in that the time lag between the thought of an idea and putting it into operation can be very short. Your business needs to regularly reinvent itself if it is going to stay afloat in the long term. Another interesting concept shown is the ability to judge your progress. Detailed charts and factors have been shown. More often than not, though, too much emphasis is placed on financial goals in the business and not enough on improvement in lifestyle and personal goals. You are not necessarily a failure, if for some period your sales turnover is not increasing, but you have been able to spend time with your kids and contribute to their development (unless your goal was to increase turnover no matter what the cost to your family). Goals of all kinds are equally important; your goals should be the things that matter most to you, not what anyone else considers important. Talking about managing stress, the life of a small business owner is more stressful than most others. If it is not about staff, it can be the bank or the tax authorities, not to mention the machine that is giving you trouble lately. One should learn how to react and handle stressful events and de-stress from time to time with exercise, aerobics, yoga, meditation or tai chi, one or a combination of them. |
THE
author, Amer Qureshi, is an Australian chartered accountant, who has
lived out his dream of building his own business, and has fallen in love
with the process. He believes that small and medium enterprises are the
backbone of a country like India, but this backbone is built up of frail
pieces that can easily buckle under pressure. He says, "small
business is not a job, it’s a vocation, a way of life. It takes over
your entire life." It is amazing that people so often go into small
business without any training or background in their chosen business,
yet they are willing to risk everything in pursuit of their business
dream.