What Do You Want from Your Small Business? (Setting Long Term Goals for your company)
First, i have to apologize, i accidentally deleted all the comments from my short list of readers that we want to grow. I”M SORRY! Please continue to add comments, i’m still working my way around this platform.
So, on to my story. Last year, my aunt Mary Jo, who has a doctorate in International Diplomacy contacted me and told me that she needed a website, logo, biz card, etc, etc. I knew that she had been traveling non-stop with tons of business, so i asked her? Why?
“Well, i don’t know, someone told me i should have one.” I asked her, “Where do you want your business to be in 5 years? Do you want employees? do you want massive growth? Are you having a hard time finding business?”
She told me that she has tons of business, and doesn’t want any employees or to have an “office”, as she works from home. So, i told her that a website wouldn’t be necessary, but i can get her a cheap logo from LogoSnap.com (only $39) and i’d take care of her business cards for her, from BargainPrinting.com - which are like $35. I probably saved her close to a thousand dollars, and more importantly, the pain and time of having to create something unneccessarily. So, what’s my point? My point is to create your short term objectives and goals based on your long term goals, and DO NOT be pressured by what others expect from you. It’s ok to be a small business that pays the bills and gives you flexibility. It’s ok to work from home part time.
So, my recommendation to any SOHO or startup is to think about where you want your business to end up. If you want to be the next Michael Dell, and end up being a huge corporation, they you’ll know what’s expected of you when it comes to the type of corporation/llc you set up, what type of marketing materials you ultimately need to have, infrastructure you are moving towards, financing, type of employees, etc. And, if you want to have a successful local flower shop with hopes of providing services to the likes of Star Jones on her wedding, then go for it. 
Something else to consider is, will you want to sell your business someday? Well, then you better have VERY clean books and document everything. If not? Then you don’t have to sweat over your books and the EBITDA - you’ll be concerned about cash flow.
Here’s what you need to do:
1) Sit with your wife/business partner and discuss where you want this business to be in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years to include: Financial goals, number of employees, products/services you want to offer, level of service, number of stores, profitability. These should absolutely correlate with what you want at home. If you are a family person, and don’t want to work 15 hour days, don’t shoot to be the next Microsoft.
2)Determine your exit strategy (ie, if you want to die as the owner, that’s a strategy, and ok, but at some stage, life or death, you will no longer be working for this company).
3) Make a list of what decisions you need to make in order to help you get to this point (ie, type of corporation, business relationships, types of employees, building, marketing materials, etc.).
4) Have fun…owning your own business should be fun. If it’s not fun (most of the time)- then you are making some bad decisions or need to make some hard decisions in order make changes.
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I figured, since no one else is commenting on my blog, i’ll start—you are an AMAZING writer! I LOVE Star Jones.