Speaker: Once my business is started, how do I plan my day to day activities?
Fred Glave: Well, there is going to be a lot to occupy your time and as we mentioned before, you can spend as many hours in a day or night as you wish. However, as you do plan for your business, I think there are two most important things that you want to always keep in mind. The first is focus and I from I can repeat it, I would say, focus, focus, focus. As you begin your business you are going to see all sorts of opportunities that are going to tempt you. You may set off doing one thing and suddenly you see over here, no you can do this for somebody else and there is a big potential order out there. But if it is not in accordance with your plan, you need to examine very carefully whether it is the right thing to make a change in direction and go off and chase that opportunity. Too many businesses have failed because they tries to chase every opportunity that came along and they didn't keep their eye on the main ball.
So again, if there is one thing that you need to do is keep focus in what you are up and about. On the other hand, if there are opportunities and it means that you want to change your business plan and go in a slightly different direction, you want to be prepared to take advantage of that once you have researched it and convinced yourself that it is the right direction to go. So you have a tight rope to walk. On the one hand is focus, stay focussed on what your original objectives were, on the other hand, don't close your mind and your eyes to real opportunities as they do come along. The other thing that is perhaps most important in executing on a day to day basis is watching the money. Nobody else is going to do that for you. You have to do it yourself. So it is important that you keep a set of books, you would have already started the process by developing a PNO statement and a cash flow. What you want to do when your business is up and running and you are generating revenue and spending money every month is keep a set of accounts.
Many people these days use the popular tax accounting system called Quicken or QuickBooks. You can use that one, there are many others, you probably don't need to hire an accountant to keep your books on a monthly basis. You definitely will have to hire an accountant at the end of the year to file your tax return for you. But the important thing is to have at least a monthly accounting of your revenue and your expenses. Many business owners even know on a daily basis what their orders were, what their sales were and how much cash went out the door. Maybe you don't have to be that retentive about managing your business. You definitely on a monthly basis, you should be focusing on your cash, first and foremost beyond everything else. Remember what we said before, the key to a successful business is to keep repeating to yourself, 'Cash is king.
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