| |
| |
|
Management Information |
|
|
|
DIVERSITY is a BIG word -- With A HUGE Business IMPACT
Second thought! Just in case. YOU or someone you personally know may fit the following picture of success which may carry too much risk for comfort. You can sit back and simply enjoy the day. Let tomorrow take care of itself. Can't you just hear it? I've got my money "salted" away in a safe place. Getting great returns. No risk! Where? I'm invested in the dot.com firms of the future..... remember the bubble that burst? YOUR BUSINESS Obviously, you get the point. There is little need to bash the dot.com failures. Our goal is YOUR business. Your future expansions for growth. EXPERIENCE is an expensive teacher. There are BETTER resources. Some of us have learned in the School of Hard Knocks. At least YOU can benefit by knowing some of our mistakes which we freely expose for your perusal. Yes, most of our mistakes were NOT smart. Could have been easily corrected. Most 'goofs' are so obvious AFTER the fact it's embarassing to tell anyone. DIVERSITY Is KEY -- Is that just a nice "sounding" word? Only to those who FAIL to understand it's HUGE impact. SUDDENLY! Almost an Overnight kick.... your financial well being can be GONE. Many of us have been there. All of our business LINKED to ONE account. Are you in that position now? I hear you loud and clear. You are saying, "I'm making good money and business is great. Why should I change?" If that is the case, YOU are NOT in control. Unless you have a service or product without equal or competition, YOU are at risk. Simply ask... if my ONE customer or my major customer GOES AWAY tomorrow... what happens to my business? Are your equipment debts personally guaranteed? Is your home at risk? Do you have a long-term office/warehouse lease? Bank loans? OUR EXPERIENCE Yes, I was fortunate and survived. At the time, I had several businesses not dependent on each other. Regardless,the impact and surprise income loss was real. For 10 years it was wonderful. Profits were basically guaranteed. A major Insurance company needed "outside" typists. Large companies do strange things. Head-count! Move staff (human resource) cost to "service" overhead expense. Situations change! Buyers of services RETIRE. Management gets promoted to a new location. Offices consolidate. DOWNsize. UPsize. Go out of business! Bankrupt yet still oweing you money that will never come. Most of the above happened! Our "connection" moved. I had no idea the company was going to suddenly NO LONGER need our services. It's happening around us every day. Technology! Yesterday is gone -- history. New ways of doing business. Automation. Push-button society. Home based workers. In a FLASH! ONE day! Our business (95%) was gone. We had NO warning at all before the doors shut in our face. WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED? To capsule, we were able to use the equipment in our other businesses. Our lease on the space had NOT been renewed. Our own staff was transferred within. We lucked out!! However, I "shudder" to think of the consequences that could have forced most folks out of business. Had we signed another 5-year lease, the cost would have exceeded our PROFIT for the prior 10 years. Equipment leases would still hang over our heads. Staff? Their jobs would have been gone in a flash. YOUR CHALLENGE Step back and look carefully at your business risks. Don't assume anything. Your "good old" boy network has NO guarantees. Make DIVERSITY your #1 priority in 2005. Add new clients. Add new products. Quickly reduce your RISK away from any controlling entity. Seek to make 10% a TOP line maximum dependence on any one source of income. Large buyers have been known to absorb ALL of a major manufacturer's production. As an astute business executive, YOU can see the END in sight. Don't let it happen. Your customer now CONTROLS your business. Profits are no longer your decision. Expect the "squeeze" to intensify! Too often, we can't see the forest for the trees. Same experience happens to a small service business, too. ACTION TIP: Best advice is simple. DIVERSIFY! Never allow ONE client to OWN your business. 10% is a good MAXIMUM for any single buyer. Reduce YOUR risk. Add new clients or new products as quickly as possible. Don Monteith spent 32 years in the Staffing Business. His firm placed thousands of job candidates in their dream job. Today, he shares his expertise. Learn more by visiting his website at: http://www.HowToGetYourDreamJob.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Employee Surveys: a Strategic Tool for Positive Change Do you want to measure your workers' level of satisfaction? Or change policies and procedures to make them more effective? Or find out if your supervisors are stuck in out-dated ways of managing? Good Idea! But how do you make sure you are getting reliable information to make sound management decisions?When it comes to conducting quality research, a pound of prevention is worth much more than one ounce of cure. Here are five steps to turn your employee surveys into a powerful strategic change management tool. Performance Evaluation: How To Create Change STEPS TOWARDS GIVING A GOOD APPRAISAL INTERVIEW: Give specific feedback. Statements such as, "You're doing a good job" and "You'd better shape up" are almost without value unless accompanied by specific feedback on what the employee is to continue doing or to stop doing. Dialogue: the Four Dialogic Principles For Successful Communication "But you don't understand!" exclaimed the manager, "this new initiative is vital for our team. If it doesn't work we could all be out of a job!" "Uh-huh. Keeping and Motivating the Best Employees Keeping and Motivating the Best Employees In "You Win With People" we talked about the need to hire the very best people to build your team. Now that you've done that the question becomes, how do you keep them, and how do you keep them motivated. Lawyers With 2 Hands And Everything Else I heard this back a few years ago. The boss yelled, "Get me a good lawyer but not the one with two hands!""Huh?" secretary was puzzled. When Business Becomes A Battlefield "We have to be careful it's like a minefield out there" "I like to lob the odd grenade into the meeting to shake things up" "You have to watch your back all the time with her" "We need to attack whilst they are in a weak position" "There was blood all over the carpet after he had finished with them"What is your reaction when you are in situations where you hear these kind of messages? What sort of tone and atmosphere do you think they create?These words and phrases are becoming more common-place language amongst managers and are indicators of how things are done in their business. They are also indicative of the growing number of leaders who believe that running a business is like waging war or engaging in a military operation. Compensation and Six Sigma Black Belts One of the more ambiguous elements of a Six Sigma project is the level and type of compensation the organization should give to its Six Sigma leaders and team members. On the one hand, setting compensation is not an integral part of any stage of a Six Sigma project; on the other hand, compensation is an important instrument to build loyalty and a sense of accomplishment that is a crucial element to the organization's Six Sigma success. Know Your Client - The First Rule of Business Coaching Whilst the very best coaches have undertaken independently accredited training and or have years of experience with clients, new self-assessment questionnaires are coming available which is evolving coaching into a far more focused activity. And that is to the benefit of coach/client relationships for the following reasons:- Key Areas Results from assessments enable the coach and client to understand key areas for development and the client can then choose which will be most beneficial. Avoid These Seven Deadly Dangers Of Outsourcing Here are seven dangers of outsourcing your software development. They become deadly if your career or entire company depends on the timely release of your software. Innovation Management - the power of decision makers Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Transform Any Business into a Go-Getting Power House by Working SMART Probably as well known as SWOT, SMART turns goals, objectives and tasks into concrete deliverables. If there is one key to turning busy, ineffectual organisations into models of streamlined efficiency then this is it. Real Costs in Distribution and What it Means To Your Company Ever feel that all the lawyers in thh Country need to give their lives up for our freedom, by exiting the planet forthwith? Yes, me too. In an article in CCJ-Commercial Carrier Journal entitled "Ticking Away" The Insurance Time Bomb. 3 Steps You Can Use Developing Leaders In Your Industry With the economy bordering on a recession, every company is looking for ways to increase revenues while decreasing costs. Some companies believe one of the easiest ways to do this is to cut their employee training budget. Prepare A Winning CV There is every chance that elements of this article may not be appropriate for everyone in every situation - and that's precisely the point! Every situation is different. No two projects are the same. Eight Key Steps to Building B2B Major Account Client Alliances Audiences who saw the fabled Broadway musical, Chorus Line, marveled at the intricate timing and seamless interaction of the dancers as they mastered the choreographer's precision steps after many false starts in rehearsal.At the final curtain, the stage is crowded with dancers whose images are multiplied by mirrors strategically placed about the stage. Hire People For What They Do Best I recently flew from Seattle to Atlanta, I realized, just as we began our taxi, that it takes hundreds of support personnel to maintain a flight. I saw the woman at the check-in desk, security, pilots, luggage handlers, flight crews, air controllers, and the various staff physically on the tarmac doing whatever people do on an airport tarmac. Hiring Great People And How to Be One Yourself: Five Secrets Bad news.Your senior vice-president, your marketing director or your accounting department head has decided to retire, move to Okinawa or start his own business--and you're left staring, horrified, at a polite letter of resignation. Resistance - How to Handle It Do you ever meet with resistance from other people - I bet you do! It might be a customer, a colleague, a member of your team or even someone in your personal life. Dealing with resistance or objections is one of the biggest challenges faced by business people; so let's consider why we get resistance and how we can handle it. Management to the Vision-Contribution and the Role of Compliance As a manager our role is to:1. Establish the vision, or our contribution to the vision. Success in Business Means Managing Negative Emotions You may have the MBA but if an internal critic constantly berates you, or you have feelings of self-doubt, low self-confidence, fears of rejection or other negative emotions your chances of success may be quite limited.More and more executives are beginning to realize that the next frontier in maximizing their chances for success is to start focusing on building personal internal skills that go beyond the business training that they have already received.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
