Employees - Your Most Precious Resource

Matrix Key:  Financial Viability - Resource Management - People

"People are definitely a company's greatest asset.  It doesn't make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics.  A company is only as good as the people it keeps." - Mary Kay Ash

A vital component of Financial Viability is Resource Management.  Your company must be a good steward of the people, products, capital, and information it has available if the company seeks to be profitable.  The most valuable resource of all is your people.  In these challenging economic times, it may be easy to think that it is an "employer's market."  Many people are searching for work, and it could be tempting for employers to cut wages, benefits and incentives thinking that their workforce can be easily replaced.

Here's the thing...you wouldn't purposely buy inferior products, because the lack of quality will cost more in the long run.  Excessive employee turnover is another huge cost to an organization.  Better to hire, train and nurture excellent people who share your commitment to making the company great.

To properly care for your employees, you need to be taking the following actions:

1. Create a human resources department that can handle your employee needs and comply with all pertinent rules and regulations.
2. Train your employees well, and cross train them so they have a better understanding of other roles.
3. Provide consistent, visible leadership.  Make sure your employees know where they fit in to the company's goals and why you are asking them to do what they do.
4. Evaluate employees regularly and reward excellent performance.

If you recruit and train great people, you will want them to stay.  The best teams are those that have worked together over time and who feel like valued partners in the company's success.  When you have your A-team on the field, you have a much better chance of winning the game of business.

Are You Ready to Win?

Managing Your Capital

Matrix Key:  Financial Viability - Resource Management - Capital

"Capital, in some form or other, will always be needed." - Mahatma Gandhi

As most entrepreneurs know, obtaining capital to fund their start up or their ongoing operations can be a daunting task.  Your business must have capital in order to be financially viable.  So once you acquire capital, how do you manage it?  Capital is a precious resource that needs care and nurturing if it is to help your business grow.

To properly manage your capital, you need to manage all four of the following:

1. Investors - They gave you the money.  Make sure you hold yourself accountable to them and be able to show them the value of their investment.
2. Profits - If you are not converting your capital into profits, you have a problem.
3. Banks - Your banker can be your most effective partner.  Banks can supply additional capital and give you tools to manage it.
4. Accounting - You must track how your capital is being deployed into the production and delivery of your product and be as efficient as possible.

Every business owner has a duty to carefully manage capital.  It is important to find the right balance between releasing capital into the business and holding some back to fund future projects.  Get as much advice as you can from trusted sources, and always be on top of your numbers.  When you manage capital effectively, you have already won half the battle.

Are you ready to win?

Information Management - What Do You Need to Know?

Matrix Key: Financial Viability - Resource Management - Information

 "Knowledge is power." - Sir Francis Bacon

Take a look at all of the Financial Viability components on the WholeLife Matrix. When you run a business, you quickly learn that you must manage all kinds of information if you want to remain financially viable.  It helps to break that information into two distinct categories - internal and external.  Internal information are all the performance metrics your company produces that tell you where you stand financially and productively.

Just as important are external reports that highlight how your business is performing compared to the marketplace.  How do you stack up?  How are you perceived?  How can you track your influence on the market?

Here are four key pieces of external information that you should be tracking:

1. Market Research - what is the appetite for your product or service?
2. Prospect Research - who buys that product or service and where can you find them?
3. Client Database - who buys that product or service from you?
4. Competitor Research - who does as good a job or better at selling your product or service?

 Imagine if a company started up today and tried to sell covered wagons to young families.  A ridiculous example to be sure, but one that shows the importance of keeping your finger on the pulse of what's happening in the market, and how it impacts your potential customers.

Are you ready to win?

Managing Your Product Resources

Matrix Key:  Financial Viability - Resource Management - Products

"A product for everyone rarely reaches much of anyone." - Seth Godin

Next to your employees, the most important resource in your business is your product!  If you don't have a product, you don't have a business.  As you can see on the WholeLife Matrix, you must devote time and energy to caring for your product resources.  If you cannot consistently produce a quality product, you will not be able to sustain your business.

Here are the most important points to consider if you want to effectively manage your product resources:

1. Cost
2. Materials
3. Technology
4. Research and Development

You can manage these resources by developing good relationships with vendors and always looking for new ways to source materials.  Make the investment in the technology that will keep your product cutting edge, and always be on the lookout for your product's next evolution.  When you produce a quality product effectively, you have already won half the battle.

Are you ready to win?

Financial Viability

Matrix Key:  WholeLife Matrix - Financial Viability

"Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out." - John Wooden

The first quadrant of the WholeLife Matrix is Financial Viability.  For most business owners and entrepreneurs, Financial Viability is top of mind and sometimes all consuming.  Without a financially successful business, it is hard to achieve balance in all the other areas of your life.  

The Financial Viability quadrant identifies the four key essentials to a healthy, thriving business:

1. Profitability and Finances
2. Resource Management
3. Marketing and Sales
4. Production and Delivery

 These are the four legs of your financial viability table.  You have to make sure you are putting equal effort into each of these four aspects of your business.  Future blogs will detail some of the actions to take in each of these areas.  For now it is important to note that each of these components affects the others, and all four must be operating in tandem and very efficiently.

Business owners and managers have a lot to do and handle every day in order to be financially viable.  By breaking down the business into segments, it will be easier to identify strengths and weaknesses as well as delegate actions to the appropriate teams.  When you have your Financial Viability game plan in place, it will be much easier to win the game of business.

Are you ready to win?