Category Archives: Vision

Steps For Starting a Nonprofit Business

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Starting a business with a cause offers much satisfaction as you work to make lives better for others. To launch a nonprofit corporation, it requires taking many of the same steps a for-profit corporation or LLC does, but there are differences, too. Nonprofits must comply with some requirements that don’t affect other businesses.  

So, where do you begin? 

1. Understand what it means to be a nonprofit.

A nonprofit may be created a nonprofit for charitable, educational or certain other purposes—as long as they don’t directly benefit the owner. Nonprofits (if approved by the federal government) operate tax-free, and they can accept donations and apply for grants.

While a nonprofit business can make profits, surpluses must be used toward fulfilling the organization’s objectives—such as buying computer software to run the business more efficiently or investing in resources that deliver value to those that it serves.  Continue reading →

Is Your Business Ready to Franchise?

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Is your small business thriving? Do customers from out of town ask if you’re going to open another location in their neck of the woods? Are you secretly yearning for a new challenge now that your business is running so smoothly? If you can answer “yes” to all these questions, it might be time to consider franchising your business.

But there are a few other questions you need to answer to determine if you’re ready to get serious about franchising your business.

franchise book

Ask yourself:

Does my business have strong systems in place?

A good franchise has operational systems and processes that can be standardized and taught to other people to provide a consistent product or service across all locations. For example, if you own a sandwich shop, do you have a written system for all the steps of making a sandwich, such as:

  • Whether to put on gloves first
  • How much meat, cheese, mayonnaise, and other ingredients to use (such as “two ounces” or “one tablespoon”)
  • The order in which to assemble the items
  • How to wrap and package the sandwich

Continue reading →

Your first step toward business growth: a SWOT Analysis.

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This simple strategic planning technique can help you identify what your business is doing well, what it needs to improve, where it needs to grow, and what could be its undoing.

SWOT strengths weaknesses opportunities threatsChoosing the right direction for the future of your company can be a daunting task. Should you add services? Is your team staying competitive? How can you improve cash flow?

All of these questions and more can be answered by performing a regular SWOT analysis.

What is a SWOT Analysis?

SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Taking a deep look into your business by examining these four elements will provide you with an overview of the health of your company. Your strengths and opportunities offer avenues for your company to flourish, while your weaknesses and threats can inspire improvement and help you recognize emerging competition.

It’s likely that you completed a SWOT analysis in the beginning stages of your business plan to help determine where you stood in the market and identify target customers. Now that your business is established, it’s imperative to conduct regular SWOT analyses to help improve your operations and systems and stave off problems.

How to Get Started with a SWOT Analysis

The most vital step in conducting your SWOT analysis is determining what your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are, but sometimes they can be hard to narrow down. Continue reading →

How big do you really want to grow your business?

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by Kelly Deis of SoundPoint Consulting

Should you grow your business? It is a simple question with an assumed answer. The answer, of course, is YES! But, I am not sure it is quite so simple.

Before you invest your hard-earned money and time, think about what you want to accomplish and why. Then, carefully consider your options.

Decide to Grow

We have all heard horror stories of businesses that over-extended, only to lose it all. If your expansion strategy is not well conceived or executed, it could be a costly misadventure, both in terms of money and focus on the existing business.

If your business is well-established, has a loyal customer base, is reasonably protected from the competition, profitable and affords you the lifestyle you have sought (both in terms of discretionary income and time) then think hard before you take on an expansion strategy. Understand your goals – both financial and personal, before moving forward.  Continue reading →

Managing Change

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by Mary Marshall, CEO Coach

Change before you have to – Jack Welch

Change inside an organization is the one constant you can count on. If change doesn’t happen, growth slows and eventually, obsolescence takes over. Few like it, most complain about it and just wish we would stop tinkering with things and let it be, but as leaders, we can’t. However, changing things for change sake is never a good strategy and usually leads to chaos, as does poorly managed change.

So how do you do it well? Just to be clear, it’s hard. Start with the premise that it will take work and won’t be a breeze and you’re already a few steps ahead. Another assumption you need to make is that change is a constant. The minute you change something, no matter how well thought out, an unintended consequence will show up. The theory of constraints says that the minute you fix (change) one thing, you cause something else in the flow to break or need work. It’s a never-ending process and for most entrepreneurs, it’s half the fun. For employees, not so much.  Continue reading →

Plan, plan and plan some more.

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by Mary Marshall, CEO Coach

As 2016 winds down from fall to winter, it is the time most entrepreneurs and business leaders start thinking about next year. How did we do on the plan this year? What should we focus on next year? Do we have a Strategic Plan?

That last question is the one most asked. There are usually goals, and sometimes strategic direction, but for most small companies much more planning than this is rare. The problem, of course, is that if you don’t make it a priority, the direction you are going will be dictated by what is happening today. Or as I like to call it, “the whack-a-mole strategic plan.” We will take care of what comes up because we’re really good at fighting fires and taking care of problems. In other words, we react to circumstances vs. planning for the future.

So rather than just mole slaying, perhaps it’s time to do some quiet reflection and think about why you keep solving the same problem, why you never seem to make progress on your larger strategic goals, and why the team seems to be like arrows moving in different directions.  Continue reading →