Small Business: Six Basic Decisions
When building your small business, there are six major areas to consider.
PLAN
Do you have a simple set of guidelines to keep you focused on where you
want to go, what you want to do, and how you are going to do it?
For example:
- What is your competitive advantage?
- What are the financial numbers?
- Are you properly capitalized?
- Who will be on your team?
PHILOSOPHY
In what direction is your moral compass pointing?
PRODUCT/SERVICE
What are you offering in return for your compensation?
OPERATIONS
What are the day-to-day decisions of managing and running your enterprise
that need to be made?
MARKETING
How are you going to promote your small business and let the world know
it is available?
DISTRIBUTION
How will your product or service get delivered to your client or customer?
All of your business decisions should fall within these broad categories — and they are equally important when considering how or if you should build your small business. Five out of six is NOT usually good enough; failure to properly execute any one of these areas is likely to doom you to failure before you begin.
Plan
Philosophy
Product
Marketing
