Lets Flourish and Prosper!

Some say that in business as in sex: if it is good, it's great and if it is bad it's still pretty good. This does not happen to be true. If business is bad, it can get very bad. There are personnel problems, production expenses, overhead, laws, taxes, fines. Faulty financial decisions, inability to accurately evaluate the situation and quickly resolve problems all lead to an extremely high mortality rate among new business: up to 95% do not survive past their first 12 months.

Modern business management is an art, based on a certain technology requiring certain skills. There is a technology of how to estimate and evaluate any situation and accurately predict future events and trends. There is a technology of finding exact problems, the underlying reasons behind them and handling those exact reasons to eliminate specific problems. Some of the basics of this technology are presented here to help anyone flourish and prosper.

1. OPERATE BY STATISTICS. Statistics reflect production of something in a unit of time. It is a tool that should be used to locate and handle any routine problem or any severe crisis. Awareness of the key statistics provides you with an insight into what is really going on in your business. They help establish causes of events. Best businesses collect up all their key statistics daily, sometimes hourly. Examples of key statistics could be Gross Income, Value of services Delivered, Number of Contacts Made, Number of Appointments Made, Number of Closes, Cash/Bills Ratio, Minutes of Operation With No Downtime, Qualified Staff Hired, Dollar Return Value per Promo Ad, etc. Anything can be represented as a statistic.

2. CONDITIONS. Everything that exists, any activity, is always in some condition. These conditions are very well defined, there are only 6 of them. Depending on statistics, every activity is in one of these 6 possible conditions. Any activity starts in the condition of Non-Existence. As it becomes better established and more known, it raises up to Danger. Then, as it expands, it passes through the condition of Emergency into Normal Operation and then may reach Affluence or even Power. So the conditions from the bottom up are: Non-Existence, Danger, Emergency, Normal, Affluence and Power. Each of these conditions has a "formula", a series of steps which would lead the activity out of any condition it is in and move it into a higher condition. + For example, formula for the condition of Non-Existence is:

· Find a communication line ? a channel on which communication can be sent out and received.

· Make yourself known.

· Discover what is needed and wanted.

· Do, produce and/or present it.

This is the starting condition for any activity. It is easy to see that any gross non-compliance with any of these 4 steps would make it impossible for any activity to eventually reach Affluence. People either know these conditions and use the formulas or follow conditions intuitively, or completely neglect them, commit gross errors and fail.

Statistically, these 6 conditions look as follows:

- Non-Existence: statistics are crushed to the bottom or stay extremely low for a long time or it is a brand new activity.

- Danger: statistics drop sharply or there is a gradual drop over a long period of time.

- Emergency: statistics are slightly down or remain unchanged (no rise, no fall).

- Normal Operation: gradual increase in statistics.

- Affluence: significant increase in statistics, very steep uptrend.

- Power: after a period of Affluence statistics go into Normal Operation trend (gradual rise) on a brand new very high level.

3. DATA ANALYSIS/SITUATION ANALYSIS. Accurate analysis of a situation is a science in itself. It is based on the subject called Logic. It is not feasible to get into it at any length here but there are 2 points that must be understood:

1. There is a cause for every non-optimal situation in business. That cause is defined as something under your control which if handled will resolve the exact problem and revert the statistics.

2. To handle any situation you have to handle the exact reason that created it, not something else.

This seems obvious but people often do the opposite. For example, an employee keeps breaking tools, the owner keeps buying better and sturdier tools. What problem is he trying to solve and what was the cause of that problem in his opinion? The actual reason was that the employee was untrained and needed drilling and apprenticeship. It just required a little bit of an investigation and observation to figure out.

Operating by statistics, knowing and applying condition formulas and investigating the causes of problems allows any activity to flourish and prosper. I will be happy to answer any questions. Let's flourish and prosper!

Michael Priv
Affluence Business Solutions
510-316-3346

---

Controlling Your Cash Flow

IntroductionAre you looking for a way to gain control of... Read More

Motivating Employees - Ten Ways to Start You Off

Yet there is a place for those external 'raft-build's', 'away... Read More

Smart Staffing: Replacing a Key Manager

Have you been in this situation? One of your top... Read More

Show Me the Money!

Are you ready to raise money for your startup?Leslie Mitts,... Read More

People Are Our Most Important Asset!

How many times have you heard or uttered this phrase... Read More

The Idol-Makers

The end of the television season in May included the... Read More

Creativity Management ? Quality from Quantity

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

What Your Employees Want You to Know (But You Might Be Afraid to Ask)

This is a challenge for every company owner and manager.... Read More

Forecasting Support Costs

Did you know that maintenance accounts for 50% to 80%... Read More

Managing People - Why Is It So Difficult?

Managing, supervising, being a team leader is the hardest job... Read More

A Rare Leadership Skill: Dealing With People Who Want Out By Offering Crowns For Convoy

As a leader, you'll inevitably be faced with people wanting... Read More

Problem-Solving Success Tip: Look For Sponsors And Solution Owners

Look for sponsors and solution owners rather than problem owners.Everyone... Read More

Productive Meetings: How to Make Your Meetings More Productive

There's one simple secret to effective meetings: set an agenda... Read More

Employee Retention: Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business

The retention of highly skilled knowledge workers is one of... Read More

Small Business Outsourcing: An Introduction

Outsourcing is the delegation of a business process to an... Read More

Unveiling the Value of Your Expertise

All of us have knowledge, expertise, and experience that others... Read More

Lack of Operations Manuals Stunting Your Growth?

Lack of Operations Manuals stunting your growth?CONTENTS:1. Do you lack... Read More

Human Resources: The Misidentified Subject

Interest in the field of human resources has exploded in... Read More

Management Coaching to Improve Relationships with Work Associates

As a recent employee to your job, you are becoming... Read More

How To Jump Start Your Profits and Keep Your Profits Rolling

There are so many ways to jump start your prifits... Read More

Feedback - Make it Descriptive

Have you ever heard yourself say to a team member... Read More

How to Approach Group Decision Making

GROUP DECISION MAKING -- IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM: Tell specifically what... Read More

Factoring Financing: How to Grow Your Business Without Debt or Loans

What is factoring?Accounts receivable financing, also known as factoring, is... Read More

Gossip And Rumors And Hearsay, Oh Why?

In the Wizard of Oz, it was "Lions and tigers... Read More

Having Your Phil

February 2nd, at approximately 7:30 a.m. local time on Gobbler's... Read More

Taking Care of Middle Manager Bounce Off

How many times have the management consultants been 'in' and... Read More

Communicating Effectively In The Workplace: Four Vital Steps

Ineffective communication is a major, yet avoidable, obstacle to business... Read More

Choices in Appointing International Managers

Globalization is requiring companies to make important choices about how... Read More

Integrity... Should It Matter?

In our fast paced work culture, manned by technology savvy... Read More

Better Manager Skills - How to Learn

When you first take over a department, expectations are usually... Read More

Few Things Are More Destructive Than An Insecure Boss

Few things are more destructive to a career than a... Read More

Creativity Management - The Value of Being Prolific

When asked his secret to success, the author Graham Green... Read More

Four Employee Behaviors That Can Kill Your Business

I found it important to clarify for employees what "deal-breaker"... Read More