IBA, as the premier business brokerage firm in the Pacific Northwest, is firmly established as a respected professional service firm in the legal, accounting, banking, mergers & acquisitions, real estate, and financial planning communities.  Periodically, we will post guest blogs from professionals with knowledge to share for the good of owners of privately held companies & family owned businesses.  The following blog has been provided by Kelly Deis of Soundpoint Consulting (www.soundpointconsulting.com).

21 Things to Do As An Entrepreneur While the World is Stopped

Some businesses are less affected by the virus and others are able to creatively keep sales alive. However, the vast majority of companies are finding that business is being seriously curtailed or in some cases, temporarily shuttered.

This virus will pass and at some point we will reach normalcy again. But until then, what can we do that is productive with this unwelcome time on our hands?

Steven Covey is quoted as saying, “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” With the slow down in business, now is the perfect time to tackle those items which have been sitting on the back burner.

Activities that are important but not urgent are the ones that will really make the difference to your business and help you accomplish a lot more of what you want.

Broadly speaking these actions generally fall into the categories of business development, strategic planning, education and risk management – all things we know we need to do but somehow seldom get around to actually doing, because they don’t feel urgent.

Here are a few ideas of how you might spend some time in the following weeks (or perhaps months) of forced downtime to better position you and your business for the future.

Planning

1. Dust off your business plan and assess your progress against plan.
2. Re-confirm your growth strategy (click here for more info).
3. Read up on your industry and complete a competitive analysis (click here for more info).
4. Complete a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of your business.
5. Determine the key performance indicators (KPIs) for your business and determine a way to track them.

Financial

1. Review your budget and adjust as necessary for our new reality (click here for more info).
2. Set up a dashboard of financial performance and monthly review process (click here for more info).
3. Review and clean up your financial statements and Chart of Accounts (click here for more info).
4. Calculate your business’ financial ratios and compare your business to the industry (click here for more info).
5. Complete a product and/or customer profitability analysis (click here for more info).

Marketing

1. Review your website; update content.
2. Re-confirm your value proposition and areas of differentiation (click here for more info).
3. Develop a marketing plan and calendar of marketing-related activities.
4. Work on that marketing campaign that you have been putting off.
5. Clean-up your customer and other mailing lists.

Administrative Efficiency and Other

1. Assess your organization’s efficiency and identify areas for improvement (click here for more info).
2. Complete a cost review and determine if there are areas to save money.
3. Review and update standard contracts and other templates.
4. Organize your on-line filing system so it is up-to-date and intuitive.
5. Review your Operating Agreements and update as necessary (click here for more info).
6. Take an (online) class to enhance your skills and expertise

If you have questions relating to the content of this article, Kelly Deis, CVA, CEPA and President of Soundpoint Consulting, a business valuation and consulting firm specializing in business valuations, exit planning, strategy and operations business consulting, and financial services for marital dissolutions, would welcome inquiries. Kelly Deis can be reached at 206.842.4922, or kelly@soundpointbusinessconsulting.com

IBA, the Pacific Northwest’s premier business brokerage firm since 1975, is available as an information resource to the media, business brokerage, mergers & acquisitions, and real estate communities on subjects relevant to the purchase & sale of privately held companies and family owned businesses.  IBA is recognized as one of the best business brokerage firms in the nation based on its long track record of successfully negotiating “win-win” business sale transactions in environments of full disclosure employing “best practices”.