"For many small business owners, there is
never a right time to invest in their company," said Kevin
Carr, MEP's director, "but doing so doesn't have to be expensive
and can lead to gains that can have a substantial impact on a company's
bottom line all year long and for years to come."
MEP's top 10 business New Year's resolutions include:
- Re-examine your marketing approach. Many industry pockets
are experiencing rapid growth. Is your company taking steps to
identify these areas of growth? A marketing assessment of your
company's product and the markets you can sell your product to
can help you determine opportunities in growth areas that you
might not have previously considered.
- Profile your best customers. Wouldn't it be great if
you had more of your best customers? Make a list of your customers
and focus on the ones that provide the best work at the best margin.
Look for patterns or similarities. The result-a profile of your
ideal customer-can be compared to marketing databases to find
prospective customers ideally suited to your company and services.
- Invest in sales training and technology. Make the most
of existing technology, marketing databases and software to give
your sales force the support they need. Send your sales force
to a sales training course. Explore purchasing contact management
technology to help get the most out of each sales call.
- Refresh your business perspective. Get fresh ideas on
your business by getting an objective, outside view of your company.
Strategic assessments are useful in identifying improvement opportunities,
informing about business practices used by other companies, and
sharpening your company's game plan by providing practical ideas.
- Streamline Your Business Strategies. Lean business strategies
help companies identify and eliminate waste in the business cycle
and can help a small firm attain gains that would normally be
associated with a much larger company. Using lean business strategies
can lead to better space utilization, quality improvement, enhanced
team work, and effective communication, all of which affect productivity.
And, more importantly, they provide efficiencies that translate
into cost savings and increase bottom-line profits.
- Upgrade your network security. Computer viruses are increasing
in frequency and complexity. Take steps now to ensure the security
of your business data and computer network.
- Review your disaster plans. The Sept. 11 attacks impacted
a variety of business supply chains. Regardless of the cause-a
natural disaster, customer loss or other issue-a disruption of
any kind can be better managed using a well-articulated disaster
plan.
- Invest in employee training. Promote people from within
by providing them with skills that prepare them for the next job.
Research the skills or technologies your customers need next.
Ask your vendors what training opportunities they may have to
teach you about their products and services. Whether it's a computer
software course, management class or technology training, employee
education pays off.
- Take stock of what you measure and why. Are your measurements
aligned with your business strategies? If you're looking for focused
measures, consider inventory turns and on-time delivery performance.
These two indicators often provide clues for future cost-savings
and improvement opportunities.
- Engage your employees. If you're not asking your employees
about ways to improve the company-and listening to the answers,
you're missing out. Engaging your employees at the grassroots
level, whether it's through informal hallway discussions, employee
surveys or monthly staff meetings, is one of the easiest ways
to reap big rewards.
Credit:
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/n01-07.htm
As a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department
of Commerce's Technology Administration, NIST strengthens the U.S.
economy and improves the quality of life by working with industry
to develop and apply technology, measurements and standards.
The MEP has assisted more than 107,000 firms to
date nationwide. For more information, visit www.mep.nist.gov.
To contact the MEP center nearest you, call 1-800-MEP-4MFG.
Related
Information:
NBA
Benefit Provider - Department
of Commerce - U.S. Commercial Service
NBA
Resource Article - Time
Running Short for 2003 Tax Moves
NBA
Resource Article - Ring
in the New Year and a New Tax Filing Season
Reprint of this article does not constitute an
endorsement by the National Business Association; the article is
for informational purposes for our members and viewers of our Web
site.
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