Posted by JuJuan Buford, Entrepreneur & Writer @JSBUFORD
#1. Attract & Empower Leadership
If nothing moves unless you move in your business, that is a problem. When monied interests are taking inventory of your business, whether to invest in or purchase, they are looking for assets that can operate independently of you (or them.)
This advice is not specific to private investors or hard money lenders either. Though this element is weighted differently when seeking capital from a bank or micro-lender, there is a reason why 99% of financial institutions make inquiries regarding your executive leadership.
If you are the bottleneck concerning every important decision. If you are the sales and marketing team, and the operations system, down to opening the doors in the morning, you’re a self-employed professional with business risks and responsibilities… not a business owner.
#2. What is a Profit & Loss Statement & Why Is It Important
Just because your business is generating revenues, it doesn’t mean it’s profitable or valuable.
Imagine being a 100k income earner that spends 120k per year, with 50k in credit card debt, you own absolutely nothing, plus you’re 50 years old (age discrimination is a real thing) with a skill set that is decreasingly in demand like being a greeter at McDonald's.
You may wear nice attire. Drive a nice vehicle. Spend an hour a day posting your foodie pictures from your favorite restaurant, but you’re on borrowed time.
If this is your situation, you would be far better off with a job working at Burger King earning 30k per year, paying rent somewhere for $800, plus car insurance, with an extra $500 to spare, finishing up an apprenticeship to be a master electrician.
Your P&L statement lets a prospective investor know if you’re all smoke and mirrors, or whether there is a real value (future earnings) there.
It also, lets you know the overall health of your business, and how much margin you have to work with to invest in your business. Breaking even isn’t good enough. The next financial, real estate, emotional, psychological, or physical pandemic is always just around the corner.
#3. Secure Business Financing / Business Credit
As your sales acquisition and client services operations grow away from you, your business will require you to bring on a virtual assistant, contract worker, or a couple W-2 employees to help you manage the growth of your business. This is when most entrepreneurs realize using personal income and credit to cover expenses is no longer an option.
If you haven’t established a business profile that allows you to access business loans and credit, your business is not likely to survive an untimely disability, death, departure of a partner or key employee, or a sudden shift in the marketplace forcing you to pivot suddenly.
Entrepreneurship is like the stock market. It’s going to go up. It’s going to go down. Those who win prepare for both realities.
#4. Understand the Value of your Intellectual Property
In today’s economy, entrepreneurs are marketing and branding companies first. We are service and product providers second.
Protecting your brand and reputation is more important than ever before because it turns the company's intangible assets into exclusive rights. In other words, your ability to monetize your logo, likeness, and or your digital presence exclusively in the marketplace via merchandising or for the purpose of establishing multiple product lines cannot be underestimated.
Creating multiple streams of revenue doesn’t necessarily require you to split focus from a successful enterprise. Understanding and protecting your intellectual property rights allow you to increase your revenues where you stand.
#5 Your Network is Your Networth
This one is a big one. You do not own your social media page/s. If 100% of your client acquisition, servicing, and follow-up is conducted via social media you're going to get fried one day.
Create a landing page. Or a signup page. And place it in your emails. Make it omnipresent in your social media postings. Collect names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, business anniversaries, wedding anniversaries, industry or occupation, etc, etc., etc.,
If you lose access to your social media account, and you’ve built a database of your prospects, clients, and followers, the situation becomes a mild inconvenience.
Also, when investors are looking at your business, they are also taking inventory of how much demonstrable market share you’ve achieved. How many repeat customers (very valuable) are you serving. Do you really have an established group of people whom you’ve forged an emotional connection with? Think Elon Musk and Twitter.
#successleavesclues #entrepreneurshipisempowerment #nextopposocial #smallbizarchitect #DecideBeDoHave
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JuJuan Buford is a CEO, Co-Founder serial entrepreneur, writer, and public speaker. JuJuan started his career in the banking and investment advisory industry, transitioned into business ownership, and is enjoying entrepreneurial success in multiple industries: business coaching, real estate, direct selling, business technical assistance provider, ghostwriting, and publishing.
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