To any person who owns his/her business

BY : Ashraf Osman

We start our business with enthusiasm and positive view to life, then comes reality. It hits us in the face and surprises us with numerous events that we, usually, face by a firefighting attitude.
We run out of money, so we reach out to our investors and friends and ask for re-financing.

This is the business reality in 80% + of the cases. However, I am not here to give you a “startup 101” lesson, on the contrary. I am assuming that you have started up a successful business that went on reasonably well for few years.

My purpose of this article is to highlight the need for a continuous evaluation of your business from different angles, so I put my thoughts in the form of questions that I ask any business owner:

1. When was the last time you evaluated your business from the following angles?

a. Revenue & profit comparison (year over year, month over month)
b. Your market share
c. Your products’ position towards competition
d. New entrants to your field
e. Your negotiating power with your suppliers
f. Your business brand (what you are known for)
g. Your loyal customer? Who they are and what are they buying.

2. When was the last time you evaluated the impact of the following factors on your business?

a. What is going on in your country/region’s political climate? How does it affect your business?

b. Don’t you think the economy of your region/country has changed ever since you started your business many years back? What happened? Is it working with you or against you?

c. The social changes, new consumers have money to buy your products, old consumers need different products, etc.

d. New technologies are popping up every day, have you ever thought that some of them could add up to your profit, reduce your expenses, help you reach more customers?

e. Are there any changes in legislation that can help you? (put pressure on some of your customers to speed up certain buying decision)

f. Environmental changes, energy prices are increasing, clean and cheap energy is available already. Did you evaluate the viability of using it?

g. Have you reviewed the talent of people working for you? Who is doing a good job? Who needs lifting up? Who is standing still? and who should go?

If you do not do these periodically, you are missing an opportunity to save money and also make more money.