NFIB

A Stitch in Time
03/ 05/ 2002

Most everyone has heard the saying: "A stitch in time saves nine." This means that repairing something at the earliest possible stage of disrepair will save even greater repair efforts in the future. This principle directly applies to small businesses, which often have a cash flow that is dependent on every aspect of the company working in harmony. In today's Workshop, Jeffrey Moses gives a few tips on spotting aspects of business operations that might need such stitching.

Often, owners of small businesses are engrossed in taking care of large-scale difficulties that overshadow lesser, hard-to-notice problems. For instance, when a new marketing program isn't pulling the expected results, there's a tendency to focus on that, while overlooking the internal difficulties caused by a problem employee in the back office. The employee may be at odds with a manager or another employee, or may be making accounting mistakes. The marketing difficulties certainly demand attention, but in the long run an errant or inept employee could cause just as much disruption.

The time to address problems in a company is before they impinge on cash flow or internal operations. Because of this, managers and owners need to constantly be on the lookout for any developments -- both internal and external to the company -- that could eventually result in problems.

Within any company, there are numerous areas in which problems can occur. These include, among others:

Employee relations
Employee hiring practices
Management interactions with staff
Team orientation and interaction
Management delegation of responsibility
Internal legal problems
Marketing
Sales
Manufacturing
Research
Distribution
Accounting
Purchasing
Facilities (offices, warehouse, manufacturing, etc.)
Overall company morale
External business forces (overall economic trends, industry trends, etc.)

Small business owners would be wise to create an extensive list of specific possible problem areas within the company, along with a detailed description of each item on the list. This allows a complete and regular scanning of all areas in which problems may arise. Owners may want to consult regularly with top managers, going over the list, discussing the existing state of affairs, and examining operations to see if problems may be developing in any areas. Some owners tend to avoid thinking about potential problems when business is going well. But that's the best time to pinpoint problems and start fixing them.

You'll notice that among the potential problem areas listed above, some of the first were in areas related to employees. These were placed high on the list because such problems are among the most common for small businesses, and are often much more subtle and harder to spot than more obvious problems that can develop in marketing, accounting, etc. Business owners should always be on the lookout employee-related problems, and attempt to solve them before they get out of hand.

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