It was a breezy morning when I got to the office one October morning.  As a small business consultant I usually met with both new and experienced entrepreneurs and today in particular I expected to have a long day considering my long list of client meetings. 

One of the clients, Jackson, had already been in business for 10 years and was now having some financial difficulties and we were working on new strategies to revive his business and come up with a positive cash flow.

Another client, Christian was just getting started and needed assistance preparing his business plan for his loan application.  In addition we are going to extend the plan to include details that would cover his operational needs.

My focus this morning was also on my friend Kevin Sakalindo who had already started his online retail business and was doing well.  Last night I had made up a list of things that Kevin had asked me about.  He wanted to know how to keep his business growing and make more profits in the process.  Kevin’s business was still in the early stages and he was a sole proprietor.

I hadn’t been able to send Kevin an email yesterday so I decided to go ahead and send him the email this morning before my first meeting at 9am.

I thought I could share the same information on this column…

Here are a few tips to keep that new business growing and stable…

·          Set a big vision – Aim high even if you start low this helps set the tone for the business and the quality of product or service to be offered

·          Make decisions quickly – Other companies are already moving forward, a startup in its early stages needs to catch up and the timing for decision making may make all the difference

·          Give customers a reason to keep coming back – always aim at retaining customers not just attracting new ones.  Loyal customers are great contributors to successful business

·          Deliver more than you promise – give customers a chance to see the business exceed expectations, it will keep them wanting more of the product or service

·          Urgency is important in everything you do – whatever can be done now or today needs to be done rather than postponed

·          Do not spend more money than you have to – avoid spending more than necessary and save the money for more crucial expenses

·          Hire people who know what they are doing – it is better to hire a few people who are good rather than many who may not be very competent

·          Learn to sell – rather than expecting the sales personnel to do all the selling be sure to get to know the process too

·          Operate at a profit for the products/services – profits will keep the business going, big companies have the advantage of volume even when they minimize the profit margin, startups don’t

·          Implementing the marketing strategy diligently - marketing is what will bring the product/service to the customers this may include word of mouth, referral bonuses, press releases, newsletters etc

I will wait to hear what questions Kevin might have later today, but for now I need to get back to the first client’s file and get ready for my meeting []