HUMAN RESOURCES

6. Hiring is such a critical part of business, and yet how many owners have ever taken a course, read a book, or even an article about hiring. Here is a tutorial and two videos that can provide a lot of guidance regarding hiring employees. 

7. Onboarding and training employees: It costs real money to find and hire a recruit. The onboarding and training will either augment the potential from that investment or result in a big loss. Check out this tutorial on employee training. 

8. Managing and motivating employees:  Now it is time to benefit from the investment. How can you use best practices to maximize output and create a well-oiled machine? Here is a tutorial on managing employees and a video that can help you with motivating employees.

9. Retaining employees:  Forty percent (40%) of your employees have considered quitting in the last year. The reasons are many. How can you create an environment where nobody wants to leave? Answers are in this article on employee retention.  

10. Contract labor, gig workers, virtual assistants (VA’s):  Much of what your employees do now may be able to be done much more efficiently by outsourcing. I personally use VA’s (virtual assistants) and gig workers for 100% of my staffing needs. One of our most popular articles covers virtual assistants and gig workers. 

11. Legal issues regarding employees:  There are many, many regulations, taxes, requirements, laws, and legal traps regarding employing people. How can you stay up with everything you need to know and do? Check out this article on employment legal issues.  This video also looks at ways to protect yourself against employee legal issues. 

12. Firing:  Most owners hate to lay off or fire employees. However, there are ways to manage these events that reduce the emotional and financial impact. Here is a tutorial on terminating employees.  

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED:

13. Product (Service) Development - Check out this article for a step-by-step approach to bring a new product or service into existence. 

14. Packaging - Often the packaging is more important than the product with regard to how well the product sells. Start here for thoughts on packaging. 

15. Cost and Pricing - Our most popular article. I never realized how many business owners are poorly equipped to figure out how to price their products to maximize profits. Also see the video on product pricing. 

16. Sourcing - In small business management, finding raw materials, product suppliers, and other vendors is more important than finding customers. For most businesses there are millions of customers, but there might be only one or several good suppliers for some critical parts of the business. Here’s a tutorial on supply chain issues. 

17. Production and Delivery - Check out our article on shipping and another article regarding production management. 

18. Distribution Channels - Your product or service may be useful in dozens or hundreds of different markets. You may be able to grow your company substantially through merely taking the same or similar product or service into these other channels. See the tutorial on distribution channels. 

19. Who Will Sell? - The owner? Employees? Outside Reps? Here is a series of videos on how to sell and another video regarding sales personnel. 

20. Promotional and Advertising Strategy - Later, we’ll look at the specific ways to advertise, but here, we’ll look at how to create an overall strategy. Subject under development.

21. Terms and Conditions - Terms and conditions related to shipping, payment, guarantees, chargebacks, and other aspects of the relationship between you and your customer are all part of your costs. Figuring out how to include these in your pricing structure is an important, often overlooked, project related to product development. Subject under development. 

22. What to account for? - What you don’t count, you can’t manage. Some of the most obvious items follow. 

23. Accounting for Sales - Total sales, sales by territory, sales by salesman, sales by customer, and by profit. You will want to be able to evaluate your sales, so that you can analyze results and make adjustments. See Making Money Out of Thin Air

24. Accounting for Cost of Goods Sold - If you don’t have a “real” cost of goods, then you can’t determine margin, which means you are not going to be able to develop a meaningful approach to profit in your small business management. See Making Money Out of Thin Air

25. Accounting for Variable Overhead - Sales commissions, advertising expense, and some other costs not included in cost of goods are variable. They change based on sales. How do you account for these? See Making Money Out of Thin Air

26. Accounting for Fixed Overhead - Rent, electricity, salaries unrelated to production, and other similar overhead costs do not vary with sales. How do you account for these? See Making Money Out of Thin Air

27. Accounting for Materials - You need to have inventory flowing through your company. You don’t want too much inventory or all of your profits will be in product, which is a “wasting” asset. You don’t want too little invenetory or you may not be able to fill orders. Inventory controls are very important to your bottom line. See Making Money Out of Thin Air

28. Accounting for Receivables - You need to be able to manage the “loans” that you’ve made to your customers. It is so easy to have these amounts get to 60 or 90 days. Sometimes customers never pay you.  See Making Money Out of Thin Air

29. Accounting for Cash. Cash is always moving in from customers, lending lines, or capital and moving out to suppliers, employees, and taxes. Making sure you have enough to pay your obligations is a top-of-mind issue. See Making Money Out of Thin Air

30. Accounting for Purchasing, Shipping, Receiving - Companies can suffer significant losses due to errors or theft in the purchasing and shipping departments. Setting up safeguards is important. You also need to be buying everything, including shipping, at the same or better costs than your competitors, or they will have an advantage. Subject under development

31. Accounting for Profit - It is easy to think you're making money since there’s a bunch of it in the checking account. Or you might despair that you’re losing money since there’s no money to buy more goods. Being able to analyze a well-prepared profit and loss statement will help you know the truth. Covered in great detail in Making Money Out of Thin Air

ADMINISTRATION

32. Processes and Procedures - How do orders get entered? How do they move through to a delivery? How does the customer get billed? How do they pay? How does the money get into the checking account? How do raw materials get ordered? How are they received? How do they get paid for? How do employees get onboarded? On and on. Subject under development

33. Computer, Internet, and Phones - Who is in charge of purchasing, implementing, fixing, improving, and training on these devices.  Subject under development

34. “Paper Flow” - It may not be on paper, any more, but how does information flow through the company to accomplish the business of the company? Subject under development

35. Customer Service (Customer Relationship Management CRM) -

Managing customer information has become a huge business of business. You may use Excel or you may have a sophisticated CRM app. Here is a tutorial on CRM’s.

36. Warehouse - If you buy and sell physical products, it is likely that you have or will need a warehouse. How is it set up? How do things move? Efficiency in this space has become a very hot topic in business. Subject under development

37. Security - If you have physical premises, you are likely to need or want security against theft or personal attack. See this tutorial and these videos on the subject.

38. Equipment - Purchasing, installing, maintaining, updating, and training on equipment is necessary for almost every business, even if it is just computers and printers. Subject under development. 

39. Fixtures - Most retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, importers, and some services have a major investment in fixtures. These fixtures require at least some management. Subject under development

40. Insurance - You need various kinds of insurance relating to asset protection, employee benefits, and catastrophic events. There is a fine art to making sure you have the insurance you need and keeping the expense down. Finding great agents is part of this process. See the tutorial (I think)