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Small Business Articles from Make-it-Fly®
 Are You on Track?
By Victoria Munro
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Do you have a business or is it really a job? If your business can’t run without you making it happen day in and day out, it’s probably a job. What was the goal—the vision you had in mind when starting your company? Did you see it as a vehicle to help you achieve your life plan?
It’s all too easy to keep busy with the day-to-day activities and lose sight of the dream that inspired you in the first place. It may be time to step back and assess whether you’re on track to achieve your goal.
Some ideas to help you keep on track and grow your business:
Read, or re-read, the E-Myth Revisited, By Michael E. Gerber
Create effective systems. Doing this is a vital first step to growing your business and reaching your goal. If you’ve been in business for some time, you know what works well and what doesn’t. You’ve developed some useful processes and procedures. It’s important to get all that valuable information out of your head, and the heads of your employees if you have them, and onto paper. Review and write down each operations procedure in a manual. Doing this helps you to think through all the aspects of critical tasks.
Spend at least 25% of your time working on your business: evaluating, planning and organizing.
Consider writing an org chart, even if your name now fills most of the slots. Writing job descriptions for each position will both help you hire the right people for the jobs and develop appropriate training.
Evaluate your marketing and sales plan. How well is it working? Are you achieving the results you want? Do you need to adjust the timeline or test new marketing strategies? Find out what’s working for your competitors and what you can learn from them.
Put your exit plan in place. Identify and groom your successor. This will be critical to allow you to eventually step back.
Implementing these ideas will help to free you up from the day-to-day operations and keep on track to grow your business and achieve your goals.
(442 words)
© 2005-2008 Victoria Munro.
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for printable version.
About the Author: Victoria Munro is
co-founder (along with husband Dave Block) of Make-it-Fly®
LLC, a company dedicated to creating success for
small-business owners through creatively designed programs
and tools. Victoria has started and run nine different
businesses. To receive FREE business success articles
with tips to help you with your business, sign up for
their award-winning ezine, “In-Flight Refueling,”
at: www.Make-it-Fly.com,
and receive a free copy of the eBook, Get
More Done in Less Time: 101 Quick and Easy Time Tactics
& Tips.
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