Basics for Businesses - 8 Things You Need to Get in Place Regardless of Your Industry

Businesses are like people. They are dreamed about, conceived, born, raised, get all grown up, then die in one way or another. And like people, they have specific needs to grow into healthy, strong, mature businesses. You may be a tiny mom n pop shop now; you may have your sights on being the next Amazon; here’s 8 things all founders need to do. In no particular order:

1) Learn how to manage money

Watch what you spend money on for the first 3 years. Don’t waste money on things you don’t need. Cashflow is everything from day one. It never goes away; the numbers just get bigger. If you have got no training in this, it’s time to learn. Mismanaging money is a top business killer.

Spend money wisely when you start making it. Buy more stock, invest in more marketing, take a course on skills you are missing, hire someone to reduce a bottleneck you are experiencing, buy a new laptop to work on. Buying a Gucci bag and matching heels, or new sports car just to look good is dumb. Ensure your company is financially healthy by being responsible with your money. Ask yourself as you spend money, whether the expenditure is helping to grow your business in some way. Feed the thing that feeds you.

2) Learn how to lead and manage people

Just because you have a skill, does not necessarily mean you know how to lead. Being a good leader needs to be learned and takes time and experience. It takes empathy, compassion and the ability to make tough decisions with kindness. Don’t let the power go to your head. So many promoted office workers do this. A new title and they think they are newly entitled to push people around with no tact. Respect is not taken, it is earned. Be humble and recognize that you do not know it all and can learn from everyone around you. Go on leadership training. Managing people can be extremely challenging, you need skills and aptitude to do it successfully.

3) Decide what type of culture you want in your business

I heard once that the culture of a company is determined with the first 10 people that come to work there. Many moons ago, I got to 8 people, but the culture was just not what I had envisioned. We were making tons of money, but the comradery, cohesiveness, supportive team wasn’t there. I was still new at managing people and made lots of mistakes, so I’m not blaming the team here. Then a recession hit, and I lost them all bar one, and we had to start again.

The thing is that if you suddenly start to grow and hire dozens of people in the space of a year or two, it will be easy to be pulled off your path. It will just become about making money, it has to. The salary bills will demand that. You need to have an iron strong vision for your company and lead by example to actively drive the culture you want so it will scale into the future.

4) Learn how to sell

The fundamental concept of a business is to get paid for providing goods or services. That’s it’s job. It’s your job to bring in the money via sales. If you cannot sell, you don’t have a business. Even if you want to hire a salesman, you still have to sell your vision to that person to convince them to work for you. You will suck at sales in the beginning, that’s okay. It will get better the more you do it. We are not taught how to sell at school and some people have a huge mental block against selling. But it is something you can overcome and learn. Pop over to YouTube and search for selling for beginners.

5) Get operationally organised

This is where plenty businesses get unstuck. Once you’ve sold your products or services, you need to deliver on them. Get your back office organised from day one. Think about it from your customer’s perspective - how can you structure your back office to deliver on what you sold as quickly and efficiently as possible? Make it easy for customers to do business with you.

You need a way for people to buy from you - will that be via WhatsApp, email, and online form, online shop, or bricks and mortar shop? Each of these will result in admin that needs to be taken care of. If you want to get really big one day, you need to also document and systemise your admin as soon as possible. This will allow people to run the business consistently using the same instruction sheets - they’re called procedures in the corporate world.

The faster or bigger you grow, the more of a mess the admin becomes and the more expensive it becomes to fix it. Getting systems in place early will save you pain and suffering later - they’re called intranets. You need one.

You need to be able to capture, store, track, retrieve, act on and manage tons of information during the business’s lifetime. There are 2 main platforms to do this in, Google Suite and Microsoft SharePoint. We are (shameless punt) SharePoint gurus during the day and use this platform daily in our business and at our clients’. Which brings up to the next topic.

6) Learn to embrace technology

I am going to put a stake in the ground and state that no business will be able to compete effectively anymore unless they embrace technology. We live in the digital information age now. This is where it gets tricky though because there are tens of thousands of tech tools in the marketplace. Add then that many people feel like they are technically challenged, makes it hard to get traction here. But you need technology to be able to scale, manage effectively, delivery efficiently.

If nothing else - be open to learning. This is an essential trait as a business owner anyway. Learn what you can but also know that you don’t have to build everything yourself. Outsource the IT stuff, get back to managing your business and driving sales. If I think about the years I have wasted trying to learn website, sales funnel, email automation, training, community platforms, I actually just want to be ill. I’ve gotten out my own way now and hired a web developer that understands me and just gets it done.

7) Be findable, get professional and get reviews

If people don’t know you exist, they cannot buy from you. You need an internet presence. If you want me to give you my money, I better be able to track you around the internet. I need to know you’re not a scam artist.

At minimum you need a LinkedIn profile for you as a business owner. LinkedIn is the de facto business platform and has almost a billion users. Having a complete profile gives you credibility and traceability.

Have a website. This is not negotiable if you want to attract wealthier clients. People with money want to know that you’re taking your business seriously. They need to see if you can deliver on what they need, that you have the expertise and that other people have successfully used your services. Even if it’s a one pager for now, at least you’re making the effort.

Sending clients an email from a gmail account is not going get you the deal. Register a domain and get a professional email address, eg: yourname@yourbusinessname.

Have at least one other social media account, either Facebook, YouTube, X, Instagram or Tiktok. Make sure you are posting things that are building your brand and not destroying your reputation.

8) Build a super strong mindset

Running a business is a tough gig. There are endless ups and downs, highs and lows. You need to have unwavering faith in yourself to thrive in this environment. You need resiliency, courage, trust, adaptability, passion, empathy. If you have a weak mindset, you will be thrashed around like waves crashing into rocks. Building a powerful mind that you use to create your future, puts you on the ocean floor where things are calm and serene. The storms on the surface won’t affect you. The slight tides at the bedrock caused by storms will be easily handled and you will be able to guide your business through anything.

The storms on the surface are economic crashes, loadshedding, staff crises, money issues, hostile takeovers. The ocean floor is your calm, connected, focused mind.

This is a good start. As you grow and scale, other things come into play. But get the basics right first and you will speed up your success.