When it comes to making plans for your business, you must try to plan for real-life scenarios that could lead to problems in the future. Unfortunately, we certainly do not have a real magic 8 ball that will predict the future accurately, but we can make smart business plans that will help reduce the number of business disruptions that could occur. Here are five smart ways that proper planning can prevent future business problems.
- Insurance matters
- Know every aspect of your business
- Save for downtimes
- Think outside the box
- Stay flexible
Insurance Matters
Regardless of the size of your business, you need to make sure that your company is properly insured. Small family-owned businesses and large corporations are both susceptible to natural disasters and accidents. It is important to make sure every aspect of your business is insured and that you are properly insured against potential lawsuits.
Insurance mistakes can lead to costly repercussions. Make sure you know the answer to what is piercing the corporate veil as well. Piercing the veil means that a court could put aside your limited liability protection of a business to hold the directors or shareholders personally responsible for actions or debts. This typically only occurs when the court is looking to hold shareholders or directors personally liable.
Know Every Aspect of Your Business
There is no reason that you should not be able to single-handedly operate your own business in a pinch, regardless of the size. You need to be able to jump in wherever necessary in the event of an emergency or if you are short-handed. As a business owner, you should know the internal workings and be able to perform HR, accounting, customer service, and operational needs that may arise.
Save for Down Times
Many businesses will experience times of highs and lows. This means cash flow may be higher seasonally and lower during other seasons. While cash flow may fluctuate, the expenses the business accrues will remain relatively level so it is important to use the gains from those high times and save them for the low times.
Businesses should be able to have enough profits saved that they can operate for months on no revenue if necessary. This will give strategic marketing teams much-needed time to help strategize on new revenue-generating methods for the business, if necessary.
Think Outside the Box
Just because you own one type of business, does not mean you can not incorporate a similar business style to help generate revenue. It is important to think outside the box.
Perhaps you have a landscape company and you live in a region that experiences four true seasons annually. Just because your employees can no longer cut grass and build retaining walls does not mean there isn’t work to be found. You could branch out to autumnal lawn clean-up, winter slow plowing, and then return to your spring and summer tasks when it is seasonally appropriate. All business owners should be able to consider different avenues for revenue during their downtimes.
Stay Flexible
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is to stay flexible. Many companies had to turn to home-based employment where workers were strictly remote. We learned that offices weren’t exactly necessary and most business transactions could be completed from home-based solutions.
Retail stores had to learn how to be a bit more flexible than standard offices. These vendors had to up their internet presence and flood social media sites with their products. Proper web design and order processing strategies became key components to keep retail businesses afloat. Make sure you have online recourses established so that you can fully operate your business online if needed.
Utilizing all five of these proper planning techniques will help businesses plan for the future and be better prepared in the midst of financial hardships. It is important to remember to insure your business properly, know all of the aspects of your business, save money for the downtimes and stay flexible while thinking outside of the box. These will make business ownership less stressful.