.jpg)
Small Business Management
Ashraf Nseem
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction
Growing interest in the subject of
the recent Small Business Administration, so that it became the core issues
that trains in colleges and universities today. And despite the fact that small
enterprises have been since time immemorial of the essential elements of the
national economy, as all large projects today had its beginnings initial small
projects, though small projects that exist today, it will become many of which
are large-scale projects in the future, in addition to that small projects
collectively constitute a significant economic force, contributing a large part
of the gross national product, they also play a key role in the development of
the national economy as well as the obvious social impacts.
This must be cautious and prudent
when you think about the start of the project of a small, whatever the nature
of his work, so that a large proportion of small projects do not succeed and
continue to work, and die in the beginnings of life, and because of that the
process of preparation and planning of the project are not integrated, this to
Besides the necessity of taking into consideration the work of small businesses
is not an easy thing as discretion for many people, but it requires special
specifications, including specifications of certain personal must be
characterized by the owner of the project, as it requires perseverance and
struggle to work, and sacrifice many of Interests other personal in his daily
life.
In this simple Topic to identify the
concept of small projects, and how to manage them, I hope to gain the proper
appreciation.
Small Business
Small businesses are normally
privately owned corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships. What
constitutes "small" in terms of government support and tax policy
varies depending on the country and industry. Small businesses can also be classified
according to other methods such as sales, assets, or net profits.
Small businesses are common in many
countries, depending on the economic system in operation. Typical examples
include: convenience stores, other small shops (such as a bakery or delicatessen),
hairdressers, tradesmen, lawyers, accountants, restaurants, guest houses,
photographers, small-scale manufacturing, and online businesses, such as web
design and programming, etc.
A primary trait of small businesses
often used as a promotional benefit is their participation in local
communities. Small companies often reside in a single city, state or local
region and become a familiar presence in that area. Because they are based in a
local community, employee local citizens and pay taxes in local markets, small
companies often attract a number of loyal customers who prefer to support local
companies versus large chains.
Small business owners enter the
profession from all walks of life. If you look at those small businesses,
however, that surpass the break-even point, or the point at which they begin to
make a profit, you can find common characteristics in the entrepreneurs who
started them. A small business owner is someone who is not afraid to test an
idea, even with the potential for failure and losing her initial investment in
the idea.
Small Structure
The organizational structure of a
small business is generally simpler than that of a larger corporation. In the
smallest sense, a small business could simply be an owner-operator or an
owner-manager-employee setup. Other small businesses are a bit larger with a
few hundred employees working together in a building or area. A small
organizational structure can improve communication among employees at each
level or in different stores in a chain.
Limited Budget
A key constraint for small-scale
businesses relative to larger companies is typically a more limited budget.
With revenue ranging from a few thousand dollars to a few million, small
companies must normally minimize fixed and variable costs of doing business and
operate with extreme efficiency. Marketing budgets are limited so affordable
media such as local radio and newspapers are commonly used to present
advertising messages to customers.
Limited Suppliers
Small businesses also don't often
have the massive network of suppliers common to large companies. The benefit in
this is the ability to build trust and mutual goals with a few key suppliers.
The drawback is limited bargaining power since your suppliers aren't competing
as much to gain your business. Small businesses also face challenges in
providing customers with enough variety and assortment at reasonable prices to
attract them away from larger companies.
Believer in the Business
Small business owners believe in
their businesses. Down to their very core, they take seriously what they sell
to their customers. Without a sense of purpose and a belief in the value of
your business, it is difficult for customers to see the value in your product
or service. If they can't find a value, there's no reason for them to buy
anything.
Planner
People who operate their own small
company can connect their vision for the future and personal belief in the
business to their ability to plan. They can evaluate their business at any
time, take a snapshot of the market and determine the best short-term and
long-term goals. Some goals that you set for your business may be personal,
perhaps tied to your dreams, ambition or emotions, and other goals may be
strategic, intended to help your company acquire a larger market share or
revolutionize the way employees perform their work assignments.[1]
Collaborator and Leader
The ability to work with others is a
hallmark of small business owners. In the start-up phase, owners must convince
others that their idea will work and begin organizing resources to launch their
idea. This includes convincing family and friends, employees, suppliers,
partner businesses, investors and lenders. As a component of successful
collaboration, owners rely on delegating to their employees to lead the business
through periods of growth and maintenance of everyday operations. The strong
bonds they form around their business benefit customers.
Creative
This is the key ingredient that is
required at every stage of owning a business. Creativity helps you think of
your idea in the beginning and then develop a business plan to launch it into
the market. It is a trait that helps you look for new opportunities, including
new products, services and business partnerships, once you're established.
Creativity pushes you to look for better ways to do business. It is the same
trait that you should seek in employees because creative individuals can
suggest how to improve customer service.
Flexible
Small business owners are flexible in
their approaches to different situations. The ways that they manage their
financial resources and employees will affect their company's ability to
respond to changes in the market. This includes being able to take action
quickly when market conditions demand it, such as agreeing to buy out a
competitor's inventory when he suddenly goes out of business.
Some Characteristics of
Small Businesses
“Management in a small business is independent
in the real sense of the term. In most of the cases, the entrepreneur himself
is the manager of all the aspects related to his business. ”[2]
·
A business is said to be a small one when it has small amount
of investment involved and the value and quantity of its output is also not
big. Additionally, such a business employs a small number of workforce, uses a limited
quantity of raw materials and has less complexity involved in its operations.
·
Management in a small business is independent in the real
sense of the term. In most of the cases, the entrepreneur himself is the
manager of all the aspects related to his business. If he cannot arrange all
the capital himself, he ropes in the services of a small group of local people
for the realization of his endeavor.
·
This business has more of the qualities of a family as all
the workers are well in contact with the owner and the scale of operations
seldom involves other states or far-flung areas.
·
The owner is left with no option but to reinvest his profit
back in is business in case he is desirous of expanding it. It’s because he has
to run his livelihood as well as meet all the expenses of his business from the
profit itself. The owner is not in a position to set up a unit that is not
related to his main business.
·
A small business also cannot think of capturing the market
even in the wildest of its dreams. However, a cartel of a large number of
related small businesses may become a significant force to reckon with far and
wide.
·
The marketing of a small business also has to be done with
the help of scanty means and scarce input. Pamphlets in newspapers, strip ads
in the local cable network and announcement via speaks atop mobile vans are the
effective means of marketing for small businesses.
·
Sometimes, the owners of small businesses approach the local
management and training institutes and take the help of students studying there
for the promotion of their newly launched products (usually after some kind of
small donation to the institute). The students sell their products moving door
to door and gain points in return that play a role in the final assessment of
their course.
Small Business Management :
Project management is the process and
activity of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources to
achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary endeavor designed to produce a
unique product, service or result with a
defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by
funding or deliverables), undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives,
typically to bring about beneficial change or added value. The temporary nature
of projects stands in contrast with business as usual (or operations), which
are repetitive, permanent, or semi-permanent functional activities to produce
products or services. In practice, the management of these two systems is often
quite different, and as such requires the development of distinct technical
skills and management strategies.
The primary challenge of project
management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while honoring
the preconceived constraints. The primary constraints are scope, time, quality
and budget. The secondary —and more ambitious— challenge is to optimize the
allocation of necessary inputs and integrate them to meet pre-defined
objectives.
There are a number of approaches to
managing project activities including lean, iterative, incremental, and phased
approaches.
Regardless of the methodology
employed, careful consideration must be given to the overall project
objectives, timeline, and cost, as well as the roles and responsibilities of
all participants and stakeholders.
The traditional approach
A traditional phased approach
identifies a sequence of steps to be completed. In the "traditional
approach", five developmental components of a project can be distinguished
(four stages plus control):
·
initiation
·
planning and design
·
execution and construction
·
monitoring and controlling systems
·
completion
Not all projects will have every
stage, as projects can be terminated before they reach completion. Some
projects do not follow a structured planning and/or monitoring process. And
some projects will go through steps 2, 3 and 4 multiple times.
Many industries use variations of
these project stages. For example, when working on a brick-and-mortar design
and construction, projects will typically progress through stages like
pre-planning, conceptual design, schematic design, design development,
construction drawings (or contract documents), and construction administration.
In software development, this approach is often known as the waterfall model,
i.e., one series of tasks after another in linear sequence. In software
development many organizations have adapted the Rational Unified Process (RUP)
to fit this methodology, although RUP does not require or explicitly recommend
this practice. Waterfall development works well for small, well defined
projects, but often fails in larger projects of undefined and ambiguous nature.
The Cone of Uncertainty explains some of this as the planning made on the
initial phase of the project suffers from a high degree of uncertainty. This
becomes especially true as software development is often the realization of a
new or novel product. In projects where requirements have not been finalized
and can change, requirements management is used to develop an accurate and
complete definition of the behavior of software that can serve as the basis for
software development. While the terms may differ from industry to industry, the
actual stages typically follow common steps to problem solving—"defining
the problem, weighing options, choosing a path, implementation and
evaluation."
How to manage small
business :
Monitoring and follow-up under
accounting books and the use of simplified accounting program:
You need all installations in
different shapes or sizes to the accounting system, helps owners to get
accounting information during the period of activity established merchant can
not rely on his mind in the retrieval and knowledge of all operations carried
out by The key ingredient of the accounting system in the (documents, books,
records, lists and reports) is considered the starting point in the flow of
information and clarification of data on business operations of the facility
and the reality of documents recording is in the books and records to prove
that all the processes are then dump the information in the lists and reports
based on the financial accounting system for the facility to explain the result
of the business for a certain period.[3]
To maintain the high quality:
The intensity of competition on the
item requires a lot of attention to the product or service provided, it is the
basic elements of marketing to be Item provided high-quality match with the
requirements of the consumer in terms of shape, color and design, durability
and shelf life, packaging and gain consumer confidence and ensure continuity in
the market it is necessary to maintain the quality always thinking in the
improvement and excellence.
Maintaining a competitive price:
Price
is the real value of the product and which assesses the amount of consumer
needs and purchasing power, and therefore must be the product price competitor
to achieve a reasonable profit margin and should be pricing process after
studying the cost of the product and the level of demand and the characteristics
of the consumer and competition.
Continuous development of relevant:
The employer responsibility and face
the problems and the determination and perseverance, and work long hours
without complaint, and upon learning the skills of dealing with others and build
good relations with them, as well as the acquisition of management skills such
as planning, organization and command and control over the work, which helps
employers dramatically in the management of work and overcome the obstacles
they are facing .
Develop and improve the place and the
work environment:
Stop development and growth of
small-scale project on the ability of the owner to choose the right place for
the project and determine the competitive position in the market and the
distribution of goods and sales and consumer and market share in the sector and
ease of arrival to the consumer and the number of employees and hard work to
improve the products or services commensurate with the changes and economic
conditions in terms of supply and demand , and benefit from the experiences of
others - especially competitors - and touch the needs and tastes of consumers
and the motives for the purchase and the rate of use of the goods.
Interest in the development of
workers:
The development of competencies of
employees of the most important ingredients for success, the existence of
worker unqualified or untrained reduce the quality of work and lack of
attention to the development and safety of workers at the facility leads to
lower motivation they have, and this adversely affects customer satisfaction
and consumers and then in sales for that employer must concern put his staff to
develop their abilities and maintain their safety and building strong
relationships with them, and this helps to raise the work efficiency and
increase customer satisfaction, thereby increasing sales.
Establish good relationships with
suppliers and distributors:
I always carry the relationship
between the project owner small suppliers and distributors a personal Whenever
relationship entrepreneur suppliers strong whenever helped him get the
facilities of them and the greater its relationship to distributors increased
their loyalty to him and his products and this leads to increased sales and
then the growth and development of its business.
Work analyzing the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities before the beginning of each fiscal year:
His small-scale project is primarily
responsible for the analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for
its business, and can use the offices of consulting (financial, administrative
and marketing) to ensure the success of the project through the annual
evaluation of the proper conduct of the project and must study and analysis of
administrative and operational costs and marketing, and the costs of financing
and capital, salaries and wages, account depreciation on machinery and
buildings, furniture, insurance costs and the cost of maintenance materials,
and the cost of technical services workers and the driving forces in number and
small tools and fluctuations in the volume of sales and estimating the size of
the profits in terms of increase or decrease.
Issuing discretionary budget before
the beginning of each fiscal year:
The owner of the project to adopt the
budget estimate shows the cost of each activity requires financial expenses to
be implemented during the fiscal year of the project trade and the expansion of
the project and its development must walk under the implementation of all
approved activities to ensure the plan is the implementation of the operational
plan for the project and contain the budget on the possibilities and balances
project finance and cash available during the year The new.
Issuing entity's own financial
statements at the end of each fiscal year:
Considered
the consolidated financial index, which we define in which the results achieved
by the project of the profit or loss in a given period and the most important
of these lists: List as a result of the business and show where all revenues
and all expenditures - statement of financial position (balance) and show the
assets, liabilities and rights of the owners of property in addition to the
reports contain some financial indicators and ratios such as the rate of return
on investment and the rate of turnover of goods and the evolution of the volume
of sales .
Sources :
1. http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/characteristics-small-business-owners-1226.html
2. http://dailyojo.com/articles/some-characteristics-of-small-businesses.html
3. http://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/starting-managing-business
إرسال تعليق