Characteristics of a Successful Entrepreneur - Part 4

4. Manage money wisely.
The lifeblood of any business enterprise is cash flow. You need it to buy inventory, pay for services, promote and market your business, repair and replace tools and equipment, and pay yourself so that you can continue to work. Therefore, all home business owners must become wise money managers to ensure that the cash keeps flowing and the bills get paid. There are two aspects to wise money management.

1. The money you receive from clients in exchange for your goods and services you provide (income)
2. The money you spend on inventory, supplies, wages and other items required to keep your business operating. (expenses)

*taken from 25 Common Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs on entrepreneur.com http://www.entrepreneur.com/homebasedbiz/article200730.html

Oh - I can hear you now, "I've got this one covered!! I mange my money very wisely, since I have so little of it."   And perhaps you do, but perhaps you could do better. 

Managing your money wisely begins long before you have any money, when you plan to have money.  How structured is your budget?  Does your fiscal planning show where your priorities are?  Or have you thrown up your hands and said "There's no money for anything, so we just spend it until it's gone." 

Entrepreneurial thinking business owners and government officials will take a quick look at your programs, your outreach and your customer service to see how you are doing, but they will want to follow the money to see if you are successful. Think Jerry McGuire - "Show me the Money!"

If your plan says that you will have added 5% to the Teen collection by the end of the year - does your budget show that commitment?  Have you estimated what 5% growth in the size of that collection will be and what it will cost?  This is where our planning usually breaks down.  Taking the steps to make sure we implement our plan is work, it can be tiresome and tedious and taxing. (Don't you like my alteration?)  It is also necessary. 

So if you want to prove that you have made a commitment to your plan, if you want to be Entrepreneurial in your thinking - take the next step in your plan and mange your money, rather than letting it mange you.

Characteristics of a Successful Entrepreneur - Part 3

3. Plan everything.


Planning every aspect of your home business is not only a must, but also builds habits that every home business owner should develop, implement, and maintain. The act of business planning is so important because it requires you to analyze each business situation, research and compile data, and make conclusions based mainly on the facts as revealed through the research. Business planning also serves a second function, which is having your goals and how you will achieve them, on paper.
You can use the plan that you create both as map to take you from point A to Z and as a yardstick to measure the success of each individual plan or segment within the plan..

So here is where I make my big pitch for every library to have a written strategic plan.  Got it?! Good. 

I can hear you know - yea, yea, right old ABintheLibrary.  I have 1 staff member - me, and 4 out of 7 board positions filled.  Even if I thought we needed a plan (and I a don't) when am I supposed to write this plan?! 

and you would be right and wrong.  If you don't see a need for a plan, you won't see the necessity of making time for that plan.  But let me take a shot at rattling your cage, just a bit.  If your library had to cut spending 40% tomorrow - what are the core functions you would work to preserve?  Quick - what are your priorities?  Books, movies, storytimes?  materials, resources, services, programs?? Quick - tell me!! Or if someone came to you and said, I have $100,000 for the library, but I want to know what you will do with it - can you tell me your #1 priority?  What would you answer them???

A well written plan does this for you.  It keeps you on track, focused and helps to make those tough decisions for you.

And here is the question I ask in my workshops - Is your library a success? (Usually about 3/4 say yes) How do you know that? (silence).

Your plan defines success for your library, which will be different than success in my library or the library in the next county.  How can you tell potential shareholders that you run a successful library when you cannot show them a definition of success?

This plan does not have to be 40 pages, cross indexed and all.  It does have to be thought out and written by some sort of team - you, a board member, a customer and a member of the Friends.  If you are part of a township or county, I would include them too.    And it does not have to be done today.  It should take a while, for you will need to stew and think and simmer on some sections of this.  But start today.  Make a time to meet and being the planning process. 

"The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen" – Lee Iacocca

*taken from 25 Common Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs on entrepreneur.com http://www.entrepreneur.com/homebasedbiz/article200730.html