success exponentially .
SF : Financial controls over who has access to funds coming in or out of a company is often overlooked . There have been many high-profile thefts that have occurred in business within our community . Anytime a theft occurs , the owners / executive management say they trusted the person . My response is if you didn ’ t trust them , you wouldn ’ t have kept them in the position they were in . Trust but verify !
3 . With change and disruption as constants , where should entrepreneurs focus to sustain and grow their businesses ?
JF : The question lays an excellent predicate – change and disruptions are constants . In the business plan , the owner should identify what the business ’ core aspects of what will make the business successful and grow . If your product is ordinary but the services will set the business apart from its competition , focus on that service until you determine that you were wrong , and the patrons are not willing to pay for the service and then focus on changing the product . If your products or services are ordinary , but your marketing and social media presence will set our business apart from its competition , then focus on the marketing and social media presence , until
you learn otherwise and then be prepared to change . Setting goals and thresholds to meet , so that if you are not meeting those goals and thresholds , you will know to reassess . The constant is change . You need to be prepared to change based on outside changes and disruptions .
SF : Businesses must have the resources to survive a downturn with either reserves or borrowing capacity . Leverage is necessary to grow a business , but if it is too highly leveraged , there is no room for fluctuations , like what we saw this last year .
4 . Good advice is like gold . Who should business leaders have in their “ cabinet ” to grow and thrive ?
JF : The members of the business cabinet will depend upon the nature of the business . However , as to base cabinet members that apply to virtually all businesses , I would recommend legal , accounting , insurance , and social media experts . As a business grows , the next cabinet member that will help a stakeholder to build a business would be human resources and / or payroll services expert . Similarly , as a business grows , bringing on a banker or financing source may allow the business to maximize its growth opportunities .
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