Did you ever notice what happens when you ask lousy questions? Generally, you get lousy answers! Most of life is centered around questions: those we ask (even without voicing them), those we answer, those we avoid, those we rearrange, those we battle. Administering a business (as an owner or manager) includes asking and answering (and perhaps avoiding, rearranging, and battling) lots of questions. Consider these useful questions related to your recordkeeping:
- What information do we need? How often?
- How are we going to capture that information?
- Who will gather the data? Are they skilled/experienced?
One ingredient of successful business administration is a clear business plan that includes those questions. This ingredient has been missing from the great majority of businesses we’ve rescued from various crises. From “we didn’t know” to “we assumed” to “it’s not important ~~ we saw no need”, the reasons (excuses?) show a lack of smart business approaches. For many, the product or service is so dominating, the “business of running your business” is ignored or given only a cursory thought. The questions then can become: How did this happen? Who caused this? Where did all the money go?!?
So perhaps an outstanding question to start with might be: Where do I find a successful business model to follow so I will achieve my own remarkable success? Happy questioning!
