One great tip that could turn your business around A Business Perspective By Arthur Zards This is not an article on the obvious things your business could do to survive an economic downturn. Cutting down your office supply expenses, not printing as much paper as you usually do, and getting rid of the free office coffee are all things that will help, but let’ be honest, these aren’t magic bullets that will keep your business in the black. And as a small to medium sized business, don’t expect a government bailout either! Instead of all the obvious money savers, I would like to share just one great tip on not just making it though a downturn, but something that can help you completely turn your business around. One of the challenges of running your own business it that, well, it’s your own business, you’re in control, you make the rules, and no one knows it better then you. And that can be a problem. It’s easy to gain tunnel vision on what you think works and doesn’t work. You’re wearing blinders right now and you don’t even know it. What if you could have an extra set of eyes and ears, looking at your business from an outsider’s perspective, offering feedback and fresh ideas on what you are doing? Telling you from their perspective what appears to be working and what isn’t. Asking you probing questions that you would never think to ask yourself. It’s easier then you think. What you want to do is create an “Unofficial Board of Directors.” In short, you create a small handful of trusted, experienced advisors to view your business at a board of directors level. You meet with them  once a quarter or so, you share with them everything, and they offer you feedback and direction. Share everything? Yes. It’s not an easy thing for a business owner to share with other people your full disclosure of your business, your profit/loss, even your own compensation information. But you will be surprised at the value of having different seasoned sets of eyes and ears giving you valuable feedback on your business. I personally know businesses that have turned around 180 degrees after starting this practice. This process has even helped XNet weather some tough times during the Internet bust, thanks to its own unofficial board. Your board can be anyone—a parent, a friend, an old teacher, a retired executive. The key is that you must trust them, and you must feel that they bring a level of experience that you need. What seems to work very successfully is retired executives. Organizations such as SCORE offer easy access to thousands of retired executives, who bring decades of business experience and are aching to get back in the game. Your unofficial board will sometimes point out things to you that you neither like nor you want to hear. And that’s the best part, for these are the issues that you must hear, and must be aware of. They are  things that when you’re running your own ship that you choose to ignore. Many times these are the key items that you need to handle to keep your business afloat, or to get to the next level. Still not convinced this will help? Just three retired seasoned executives can add more than a century of business experience. Or imagine that all your competitors each have their own unofficial boards of directors offering all their years of business experience and knowledge, and you don’t. So instead of canceling that Christmas party this year to save some money, get your own unofficial board of directors. After all, it works for free and doles out invaluable advice, but you are still in full control of your business. A good starting point is SCORE (www.score.org). At the very least try using its online mentor search and see the talent pool that you can access. You’ll be impressed. Arthur Zards is president and co-founder of XNet, a Lisle based boutique data center, the XNet Critical Computing Facility. Since 1992, XNet has developed Internet technologies that allow companies to scale back their infrastructure and bandwidth costs. Contact him at zards@xnet.com.

Posted on Thursday, April 09, 2009 (Archive on Thursday, April 16, 2009) Posted by jstoltz  Contributed by jstoltz

Return