PayPal which is presently the leading ecommerce business actually initiated with a different aim in mind. The company endeavored to create a software application for business security. However, as Max Levchin, co-founder of Paypal, proceeded with the business security need he found a great opportunity in the industry of mobile payment and leapfrogged its contenders. Soon the company found its niche in the arena of eCommerce as it provided a safe and secure money transfer system through web.

There can be hundreds of debate on this post that will say that a business plan is the prime tool that can offer a business owner to receive funds from the angel investors. But whatever be the argument, on cannot deny the fact that businesses evolve with time and while being in the process of evolution a business must absorb all the opportunities that come in its way. Hinging on to a strict and well defined plan will arrest the evolution of the business and it might lose the chance to be an industry leader.

In America, presently approximately 90% of the small businesses rely on meager employee strength of less than 10 people and there are several such organizations which run on hardly one or two employees. These businesses can be potentially bugled if there is loss of any employee. Almost every fortnight I get mails that explains how small entrepreneurs are affected by small incidents of disturbances. The whole business models turn turtle with incidents like death of a partner, severe injury of entrepreneur’s kid and so on. These incidents give away the message of high dependability of small businesses each single participant of it. Besides, it also shows how much level of vulnerability small businesses has.

I have created a brief and focused risk management plan for small business enterprises, which can be of help if implemented in the right time.

These enterprises are typically one man projects and this heavy dependence on a single person needs to be removed. It is recommended to have talks with partners who will build sufficient capability to run the business when the other partner is on leave for any emergency.

Risk management must include a through planning for the crisis period. Before any crisis has arrived, the partners and employees must sit together to distribute the responsibilities among the member during a crisis period.

Building healthy relation with clients to make the relationship stronger is a good way to make the company survive during the crisis phase. Good relations with clients are effective in the sense that it earns faith for a small business and during the emergency hours these clients can become important aids.

In case you find the task of risk management far from being simple then there is no point dwelling on what might happen. It is good to leave the task on a professional and focusing on the present business development issues. But in that case an entrepreneur will have to devote few hours in understanding the plans the professional is implementing. That way the entrepreneur can develop the skill set of managing a risk.

In a cataclysmic year like 2008, when the world economy was enveloped by recession the business owners accepted it and reacted accordingly by cutting off their costs. But mere news cannot lead to predictions about recession which eventually harms the style of business management. Say for example the time of dot com bust to internet bubble. The bubble beefed up during the period of 1999 and 2000. The year 2001 saw the burst of the bubble and many businesses faced unprecedented challenges before them. These challenges helped a business to be resilient to the general economic shocks and develop strategies that can help them survive the crisis period. Looking back to the time of internet bubble I will say that I faced a tough time in business, but it made me tough and my business gained strength through strategic business management.

Making predictions and especially for the long-run is not my daily affair as I don’t believe is guessing. The famous saying by the great economists Keynes,” in the long-run we all will be dead”, is proverbial in this context. When a company is managing its business with utmost sincerity then why to waste time in predicting the economic condition of a country? I believe in matching the business functions against the backdrop of the financial condition of a country, be it boom or recession. Businesses which are doubtful about their growth and ability in the market are mostly prone to predict a bubble’s bursting time and shape their business management techniques accordingly.

So let a bubble grow bigger, your business will keep growing in size.

By putting Six Sigma and Total Quality Management on trial to find differences between the two, we will catch along various issues.

TQM, as the name suggests, takes an approach that is solely dedicated to improve quality. The strategies adopted in TQM concentrate in the fields of development and deployment which can help a business achieve better quality.

On the contrary Six Sigma tools aims to improve the product and service quality while keeping in mind the customer satisfaction. The Six Sigma readily takes into account defects in the business process and attempts to reduce it. Nonetheless, the basic aim remains to be the customer satisfaction. As a consequence, Six Sigma tools tries to enhance the ability of a service or product to meet the specifications of customers. Definition of quality in traditional terms is not similar to Six Sigma since the traditionally quality defined meeting the internal requirements. Whereas Six Sigma meets the requirement of customers who are not an internal part of a business house.

To fulfill the objective, Six Sigma tools are utilized to curtail all the activities that are either waste or non-value adding. Eventually the processes of Six Sigma lead to cost savings of a company. It would be a wrong if you think that it imposes aggressive cost-cutting approaches. It is rather the process of identification of waste activities and eliminating them.

Now when we consider TQM, it focuses on making progress in operations at different non-related business processes. Six Sigma tools, on the contrary, concentrate on making improvements within a single business process. Besides, it also takes into consideration other external processes for business improvement connected to this single process which might affect the result of this process, if not addressed suitably.

While TQM activities are generally undertaken as part-time activities by company managers, Six Sigma demands fill-time devotion of experts ( Black Belts, Master Black Belts) to achieve its goals. The process of improvement is continuous and ensures sustainable improvements and innovations.

Another difference among Six Sigma tools and TQM is that the former process regards financial targets and savings while the later discounts it. Consequently a team of managers dedicated for TQM are not aware of the financial benefits of the process. Whereas experts in Six Sigma process can calculate the financial benefits offered to a company through the said process.

After explaining both the business management terms clearly, it is up to an entrepreneur to employ the process that he favors. My entry in this blog has hopefully madder the differences lucid enough for a layman to understand.

But the late 90’s and the early part of the millennium changed all of that. To begin with, venture capitalists started to run business incubators so that they could organically grow companies that they could grow their money in. But by the turn of the millennium the bubble started to burst and these business incubators all vanished faster than you can say ‘Robinson Crusoe’. A business accelerator differs in one key respect; the momentum generated. Incubators allowed for slower growth rates. Business accelerators, as the name suggests, looked at producing rapid, intense growth.

Think of a business accelerator as boot camp for businesses, where all the fat is trimmed off and the business is whipped into shape in double quick time so that the business is running optimally in a matter of a few months. And as the business model for a business accelerator starts to make increasing sense, more accelerators will pop up on the scene. But most of these will not be funded by venture capitalists; they will be funded by angel investors, and that is a good thing. These angel investors will have experience in the business arena themselves and they can provide very precise, very meaningful guidance to these budding entrepreneurs. It is hard to say whether business accelerators are the real deal or not. But if something is encouraging industry and entrepreneurship, surely it can’t be a bad thing. America was founded on the principles of chasing your dreams, and this is just a natural extension of that.

The need to conduct succession planning is paramount. But surprisingly enough, many business fail to make the transition and that is why a large number of businesses fall by the wayside, sold off or crumbling because the right leader doesn’t take over. Moreover, stakeholders and investors could be in conflict about the direction of the organization and that is why the process can be slowed down on account of conflict and strife. It’s not just about CEO’s either. Everyone across the length and breadth of the organization must be evaluated. Their skills, their attitudes need to be mapped as best possible so that the best candidate can be picked for the best position. I say everyone since it’s not only the CEO that you need succession planning for.

What if your Chief Information Officer, Chief Technical Officer or Chief Financial Officer decide to move on? You need to know who to pick to replace them since that is as important a position as the CEO’s. It’s a challenge to fill these posts organically since staff are required to fulfill not only all their current responsibilities but also the added responsibilities delegated by the boss that left. It’s a game of dominoes that could affect everyone, and all because one position of yours has gone vacant. These plans cannot remain static either. They must be revisited and reworked from time to time as the need arises. They have to be updated to reflect any changes in the company values, prevailing market environment, and the abilities and commitment of the people you plan to pass the baton on to.

Many businesses just do not have anything remotely resembling succession planning. It is all a hap-hazard process addressed as and when the situation arises. Most alarmingly, even those leaders that are close to hitting retirement having got any succession planning efforts on the anvil. The need is to start early, as early as possible and having a plan in place, no matter how far into the future a leader might move on or retire. It’s all about picking the right people for the right jobs. Sometimes, after scouring high and far, you might notice that no one is worth promoting within the organization and you might want to pick someone from outside. That too can be discovered only if you do a proper succession planning exercise. That holds equally true for ownership succession and management succession.

The knowledge of how to respond to business challenges and how to run your business is vital, and it is perhaps the most potent weapon in your arsenal. Knowledge is critical, and it is often the difference between failure and success. Ask any armed forces unit and they will tell you their operations depend entirely upon their intelligence gathering teams. That’s the power of knowledge. That is just one part of the equation though. One of the single largest mistakes many new businesses make is to try and conduct business based on their understanding of what they think people should buy as opposed to what people really want to buy. This gap in perception or understanding is one that proves insurmountable for many businesses.

Think of it this way. If I were to open a shoe retail business, there are so many less variables to contend with. It’s simply a question of shoe sizes and shoe styles. Plus, because the population will keep on growing people will need footwear at all times. And people will always own multiple pairs of shoes. Look at yourself for the ultimate proof of this, dear reader. You don’t own just one pair of footwear, do you? As opposed to this, some new product that is radical and completely untested has a very large gray area. How is it meant to be used? What sort of target audience are we looking at? What sort of a retail ecosystem can we create for it? How do you up-sell customers? What supporting products or services can be sold with it? There’s just so much that is unknown. Heck, it took a long time for Zuckerberg to fully understand Facebook’s potential. And now he’s at a point where he’s raking in the giant bucks.

Simplicity is a good thing when it comes to business models and successful business ideas. The most successful business ideas that I have heard of describe the concept in one sentence, a short one. Think of Google. They simply organize the world’s information. Facebook’s is to connect people. Apple’s is to use technology to improve our lives. Don’t be blown away by market potential or feel everyone will need it/buy it. And don’t be stumped if no one is buying or using your product/service later on. That’s just how the market operates, so make sure you identify your market and user and know them through and through before launching your own business. There is no fail-safe formula, but perhaps the best thing you can do is to do the same old things in a new way. That will always keep customers hooked at all times.

• Writing business and operation plans

  Plans are important backbones that will help companies build a steady strong structure. There is hardly any chance of companies getting in trouble who write their business plans and follow them accordingly. Plans sets a future stage for the business endeavors that are good or bad. A proper business plan helps in steady functioning of the business and helps the investors, employees and the management of the company to realize the importance and future expansions of the company. It helps investors get a flying look of what is going on in the company.

• Get in touch with key personnel or board of directors

  The important implementations only come when you talk to the upper management. If you are very sure of your plans and want to crack it somehow, talk to board of directors and take advice from them. Do not hurry to meet once the appointment is fixed; make sure that you have your own business plan to discuss your ideas.

• Revise your plans carefully

  Talk to company representatives and take their suggestions. After a proper discussion, revise your plans and prepare a new plan to show again to the key executives.

• Meet up with employees

  Make sure to meet your company employees once in a while. This will help to create a further bond between them and the company. Talking to them would give you an idea about the problems that are being faced by them. Explain your employees about the new changes that are going to take place and take their opinion about it.

• Talk to your customers

  The main resource that runs your business is the final consumers. Talk to your customers if they are happy with the product they are using, ask them how would it feel with the change in services and what are the changes they are looking for in the new products.

• Tax authorities

  They are the most important people to take care of, if you are not able to pay any of your state, local or county taxes, then notify them immediately. Getting in touch with them is far better off than being in their bad books of avoiding to pay the taxes.

• Bank

  Any business loans taken from banks will have to be repaid someday, if you are not able to repay the loan on time then call up and fix your appointment to meet them personally. Give them your perfect plan of action and talk to them confidently.

• Cut down on unnecessary costs

  Make a point to cut down on unwanted expenses. Also lay off the employees who do no good to your business.

From the practical point of view, getting your old clients in business compared to the new ones is pretty easy and less expensive. You do not have to play the role of a sales person nor you have to hire professionals to explain them your business processes. The loyalty programs are said to have good effect to get your clients back in your business. The following are just some of such programs that helps you to retain your clients and recalling them back to buy your renewed products or services:

• The customers can be given discount cars that will entitle the holder of the card to get some discounts on the next buy.
• The punch card entitles your customer to get some gift article or a money card that they can use in future on a particular set amount of purchases made from your business.
• Offering the rebates or rewards for a particular amount of money spent in buying products from your outlet attracts them to buy more to reach a particular amount you stated.
• The coupons can be offered for regular customers that would include free shipping, or giving them some free items, etc. you can stay in touch with them through emails of your special offers going on in the stores.

You have to be very careful while you implement the above programs, do not get too many complications in dealing with customers. By any chance, if they are benefiting more, let them be do not stretch to keep the record of each penny you give them free. Sometimes, such reward programs are a complete fail, as the owner offers what he wants to and not what the customers want from him, so it hardly attracts any repeat customers because they already know the system.

The industrial experts states that 70% of the recovery time goes in thinking what to do next after the disaster. The business continuity plans are made up with the aim of recovering from disasters faster than the usual and also to keep business relations and processes going on. The business continuity plans does not just speak about preparing or recovering after the disaster, instead they speak a lot on everyday issues at work place and also to make their business processes successful when suddenly the disaster strikes in. Some twenty-five years, the concept of business continuity planning was different, it was creating the back up for mainframe data and also storing the backups offsite. The business continuity planning then meant ensuring that the hardware and software demands were met and they were available at the remote location.

Business continuity planning strategy basically means protecting and preparing for the natural or man made disasters, which can lead to high amount of property loss, financial losses and may lead to break in business relationships. The business planning helps the bigger organizations to cope well with the following aim stated below:

• The planning ensures the survival of the organization.
• Minimizing the loss of customers.
• Protecting the corporate assets and controlling the financial losses.
• Improving the ability to handle the damages.
• Providing the safety for working personnel in the office.

Managing the risks is one of the very important factors that will help you get the maximum advantages of the advance business continuity planning strategies. Develop your own business plans and get going with your business without any disruptions.