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No 26 July 2004 Building a Community"I am a rock, I am an i-i-island." These are the title lyrics of a 1967 Simon and Garfunkel song. Paul Simon wrote it while he was "finding himself" in London. Perhaps this attitude worked for Paul. But for small business owners, being an island is not a good plan. It is even less of a good idea for the Portfolio worker. So how do we make sure you don't become an island? Build a community - preferably, several communities. Webster says a community is "a unified body of individuals." Let's take that definition to the next level by making it possessive, as in, "Your community." Not your geographic community. Rather, the community of people who know, support, and depend on you - WHEREVER they may be. And here's the pivotal point to understand: in your community, as Webster might define the term, you are the unifying force. It's pivotal because there is great power in recognising the unifying influence you have on your community, especially when you exercise that influence for the benefit of all the members, including you. Success and community It's important and productive to think about the power of community as leverage in your effort to carve out a niche in the marketplace. Because being able to create and unify a community that's available to you - and you to it - is essential to small business success. Dave Longaberger, a learning-disabled stutterer who turned his father's basket-weaving hobby into a billion dollar a year business (making baskets of every shape and size), said it this way, "Your success will ultimately depend on the relationships you build." Community. So, how do you build your community? One word: networking. In "Masters Of Networking," Ivan Misner, president of Business Network International wrote: "The most successful people surround themselves with a well-developed, sophisticated support network." Community. Chicken or egg? There is no mystery here: the egg - networking - definitely comes first, followed by the chicken - community. Networking without an awareness of, and a goal toward, building communities is like what Texans call an urban cowboy, "all hat and no cattle." If you're networking without unifying those contacts into communities, you're wasting a lot of people's time, including your own. Networking done well produces many different kinds of communities: business communities, friendship communities, avocational communities, etc. And in the 21st century, it's important to realise that your communities include people you have met, plus those who are part of your virtual communities. Building, unifying, and influencing communities is a proven way to be successful, and an excellent way to create happiness for all of the members of your communities. There are existing communities that are available to us. The professional associations, the networks of our social life, the networks of our work, of our business, the network of the NEWORKers that come and go but are always there in the workforce. Join the NEWORK network, explore the network. The regular activity is held on a Thursday lunchtime as portfolio workers and those interested in the concept meet together over a cup of coffee in the NEWORK Centre. Master carpenters build houses. Master networkers build communities. Get off of your island and start building.
Dashboard ManagementNEWORKer No 14 included an article that talked about the dashboard of a car and how a dashboard for a business might look The following picks up on the theme again If your business were a car, would the dashboard instruments have gauges with needles you can monitor, or warning lights that flash with no specific information? The answer is of couse : gauges. And in your business those gauges are financial statements and operating ratios. If your business has flashing lights, that means you probably wouldn't know your business has a problem until some damage is done. Let's take a look at three issues on two different business dashboards - one with warning lights and one with gauges. Inventory - what you need to do your job, to run your business, to bring about that income Inventory light: Warning! Check Inventory! If you're operating with an inventory light, by the time it flashes, your inventory is not only too high, but also poorly distributed across your lines. You may have lots of stuff on the shelf and in the warehouse, but not enough of what customers are buying now. Inventory gauge: With a balance sheet inventory gauge, when you see inventory creeping up in any month, you can immediately adjust stocking levels to get them back in line. Inventory is cash you can't spend until a customer pays for it. With cash so tight, can you wait for a light to flash before you make inventory decisions? Payroll : Remember that you and your family have to somehow live, pay the household bills. The payroll in your business may only comprise what you pay yourself. Payroll light: Caution! High payroll! If your instrument panel has a payroll light it will only flash when payroll expense is already too high. By then, you may have made payroll commitments you can't justify, and/or paid yourself a large bonus. Payroll gauge: The needle on the payroll gauge identifies the payroll-to-income ratio, including a breakdown of how much you should pay sales, management, production, etc. Payroll is usually your largest operating expense. Do you want to manage it with the incremental movement of a needle, or wait for a light to come on? Growth : This may be an issue. It need not be just getting the business bigger and employing people to work for you. Growth takes many different facets Growth light: Danger! Excessive speed! This light only comes on when your business's working capital pistons have reached redline operating levels. By that time, either your internal systems will be over-extended, you will have grown yourself out of business, or both. Growth gauge: Certain financial ratios are the growth gauges that indicate if you have the working capital required to expand, or if you should slow down until you've acquired the capital to grow successfully. With your success depending on sound growth decisions, don't you need the incremental immediacy of a gauge? Business gauges are the numbers on your financial statements and the ratios they produce. Like gauges on a car's instrument panel, when displayed accurately and checked regularly, they move in small increments to show positive trends, or warn you of specific impending dangers. Astute business operators not only manage the movement of their operating gauges, but also understand the cause-and-effect relationship each gauge has with another. Business journeys are more successful when your business's dashboard has gauges instead of warning lights.
The NEWORKer can be viewed online at the Work & Age Website http://www.nework.co.nz
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