Owners and executives must be leaders first and managers second. As leaders our task is first and
foremost to be about doing the right things, and the seven deadly si , should be on the top of
your list as leadership i ues you are dealing with on a regular basis. Building a small busine is
one of the most rewarding, but risky ventures one could po ibly venture into. Most papers on small
busine deal primarily with financing and risk management, which are only symptoms of the real
i ues. Your bank account is just the scorecard of how well you have developed your leadership
skills relative to accomplishing the right things.
This paper will help you avoid many of the costly pitfalls of operating a small busine , a uming
you heed the advice. Avoiding these pitfalls will in turn help you to co erve cash, develop market
share, increase sales, improve customer loyalty, increase employee retention and build efficiencies
into your operation.
The seven deadly si include 1) Poor or non-existent busine pla ing; 2) Lack of a strategic
objective; 3) Lack of marketing strategies and tactic 4) Management in the place of leadershi 5)
Poor or non-existent system 6) Failure to utilize an a ropriate leadership style; 7) Care and
feeding of sacred cows. Busine owners and executives who do not understand them, do not have
experience with them and therefore do not a reciate their impact and significance often ignore
these critical leadership i ues.
Thirty-five years of building and operating small busine es has taught me that most small busine
problems are not money problems at all, and in fact money is just an indicator that much deeper
i ues are at play. Beware; the market is a wicked taskmaster, these seven deadly si are like
small doses of poison injected into your operation by the very marketplace you are trying to
conquer, and they provide a slow painful death to the naive.
Here are the seven deadly si in order of priority.
1) Poor Busine Pla ing
Most small busine es do not have even a summary busine plan, and of those that do, many are
cookie cutter busine pla built with the help of a piece of software. At a minimum a busine
plan should have an executive summary; a company overview with company history and its current
statu the companies strategic objective; a description of the companies products and service a
list of the companies intellectual properties including patents, copyrights, trademarks, proce es
and know-how; a market analysi a competitive analysis, which includes competitors and their market
position, and their strengths and weakne e a marketing plan, which includes your marketing
strategy, product strategy, sales strategy, and pricing strategy; your customer service pla sales
projectio by product, in units, for at least three year and finally a set of financials which
include projected income and balance sheets with a Performa sales forecast.
Here are some other important suggestio and facts related to busine pla ing:
Le than a third of small busine startu have a busine plan
A busine plan does not have to be incredibly detailed for operational purposes
It should be a work in progre updated on a periodic basis
Particular attention should be paid to the marketing plan
A busine plan is part of the first fifteen percent of the busine development proce
which will a ure the last eight-five percent will go smoothly
The executive summary should be written last, after the rest of the plan is in view.
2) Lack of Strategic Objectives
A busine strategy is made up of carefully crafted words making up templates, which in turn act as
filters through which all pla ing, tactics and decisio are pa ed through before implementation.
A strategic objective is therefore, a busine strategy developed to guide an organization in
meeting busine objectives. A strategic objective is developed from the owners vision, pa ion,
core competencies and values for the busine . Contact Emerald Busine Services or go to our
we ite for a worksheet you can use to develop these critical busine development tools.
3) Lack of Marketing Strategies and Tactics
Marketing strategies govern the development of tactics, which in turn provide the actio items
contained within your pla ing proce . The most important a ect of your marketing plan is the
development of promotion strategies and tactics, which feed your promotion pla ing and provide you
with sales forecasting data. The promotion plan should also detail costs and anticipated unit volume
so you can set priorities and provide sales forecasting data.
4) Management in the Place of Leadership
So why is leadership so important in growing a busine ? Because leadership is about doing the right
things, management is about doing things right . In many ways, it is leadership that will grow your
busine from a sales and a stability per ective, and management that will make, or keep it
profitable. Also, co ider that the best companies focus ninety percent of their attention on
external i ues, not internally , leadership is primarily a focus on the external i ues.
5) Poor or non-existent Systems
Most people think of computer systems when they hear the word system. But in the since it is used
here it mea all systems, including the system you use for selecting the right employee, for
decision making within a department and so on. One of the more telling statistics in this area is
the fact that ninety-four percent of all task or project failures are system failures2. Some of the
more common reaso for system failure include:
Islands of automation verses integrated systems
A ent or non-existent policies, procedures and user manuals
Poor training.
6) Lack of Development of Leadership Style
Developing leadership ability has a lot to do with understanding the type of leadership required at
different stages of your companys development. There are at least six different leadership styles
identified to be effective at different stages of a companys development including; Visionary;
Coaching; Affiliative; Democratic; Pacesetting; and Commanding . Understanding which leadership
style to employ has been found to significantly increase the effectivene , growth and heath of the
companies in which leaders utilized multiple styles. Just as important is the understanding of what
a leaders personal profile is. Armed with these vital bits of information a leader is equi ed to
pursue the right leadership style for the task at hand.
7) Care and Feeding of Sacred Cows
I do not have a statistic on the amount of money, time and energy expended on the sacred cows
lurking in American busine es, but it has to be staggering. This list details some of the types of
sacred cows you can look for in your busine .
The way we have always done it
The product or service you keep pouring money into because you just know it will take off
and be your future, (these are almost never accompanied by market research or even a promotional
plan)
Resistance to growth through change
Idlene within the ranks, some experts believe ten percent of the poorest performing people
should be let go each year to make room for people with fresh i ights and ideas
The company airplane, automobiles, and other perks, which drain company recourses
The dead weight relatives and friends of the family who would be better off elsewhere, act
as distractio , and add nothing to your bottom line
The expert that no one can live with, who holds a noose around the companies neck in the
form of some expertise or an unwritten code of loyalty.
You could call this busine 101, however, most of the i ues developed in this paper are rarely
taught in schools, much le heeded. These seven deadly si can impede your companys ability to
succe fully navigate through the turbulent waters of busine development. If you do not understand
all the i ues summarized in this paper, do the research; find a busine advisor to help you
navigate these storms , you owe it to yourself, your busine and the people who count on you.
Conquering the devil in the details is what management is about, concurring the seven deadly si
of small busine is what leadership is all about. The beauty of developing top-level leadership
skills is that there is no dow ide, only o ortunity for growth in both your busine and your
personal development. Leadership is what the entrepreneurial irit is all about.
Develop your busine plan, establish strategic objectives, establish marketing strategies and
tactics, lead, build effective systems, utilize more than one leadership style and kill the sacred
cows in your busine , it might be the only thing that kee you and your company from becoming
another dreadful statistic.
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1. Inc.com article Most Entrepreneurs Start with . . . No Busine Plan
2. Demming
3. Peter Drucker
4. Allan Wei
5. Goleman
6. Keeping everything the same and expecting things to change is at least one definition of i anity
7. Call us at (619)985-0799 for a free co ultation
The article is refered from http://www.bbcok.com, http://www.worldloanpro.com, please go to read more.