the Adjunct Lecturer

You’re great at what you do, be good at business too! ™

THE REALITY: Your Passion, Your Business

It’s something you enjoy and happen to do very well. It is your passion, and you decide to turn it into a business. Making the best, serving the best, being the best, must lead to business success, right?

WRONG! Business success depends on much more than the passion one brings to their business. Making the best, serving the best, being the best just isn’t enough to guarantee business sucess.

You see aside from being the best at what you do, to be successful, you need to be good at business too. In fact, being good at business beats being the best, when it comes to business success.

Every Business Engages in 3 Primary Activities –
    1. Financing
    2. Investing
    3. Operating

That’s why every business owner, to be successful, needs to know how their engagement in these 3 activities impacts their bottom line.

  • Business Failure After 1 year 20% 20%
  • Business Failure After 2 years 30% 30%
  • Business Failure After 5 years 50% 50%
  • Business Failure After 10 years 70% 70%

THE FACTS: Most Businesses Fail

Based on statistics provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 50% of businesses fail within 5 years, and nearly 70% within 10. These are frightening stats.

To be successful, business owners have to be good at the basics of business. In business, if you get the basics right, you’ll be in good shape for the long haul.

Business basics includes things like creating and organizing sales funnels that promote growth, developing an inventory infrastructure to assure growing demand is met, setting-up bookkeeping, accounting and information systems that measure and track performance, creating and implementing effective plans and procedures, setting adequate prices, and securing capital.

THE FACTS: Most Business Failures Can Be Avoided

According to StatisticBrain.com, incompetence (emotional pricing, poor cash management, nonpayment of taxes, and no knowledge of pricing), lack of managerial experience (poor credit granting practices, expanding too quickly, and inadequate borrowing practices), and lack of product line experience (poor inventory decisions, no knowledge of suppliers, and wasted advertising budget) combined  account for 87% of business failure [see graph on left].

This means most business failure stems from business owner incompetence and/or inexperience.

Given this, we can say most business owners can avoid business failure by simply getting help.

  • Incompetence 46% 46%
  • Lack of Managerial Experience 30% 30%
  • Lack of Product Line Experience 11% 11%

Learn business fundamentals now, we show you how!

THE ENTREPRENEUR’S PRACTICAL GUIDES TO STARTING AND MANAGING A BUSINESS

Accounting is the Language of Business

If you own, operate, or manage a business it is vitally important that you have a basic fluency in the language of business (accounting). You need to understand your balance sheet and how your financial statements flow from it. You need to know how to read your financial statements and, most importantly, how they are related. With this you’ll understand the likely impacts engaging in the 3 business activities will have on the business’ financial performance and financial condition, how your decisions in these areas affect the same.

The Entrepreneur’s Practical Guide to Accounting teaches you the fundamental accounting principles you need to know in order to be fluent in the language of business. Using the example of starting a business, the guide illustrates how principles are used to make sound business decisions, assess performance and condition, and enhance operating efficiencies.

Business Planning is the Key to Business Success

A good business idea is a solution to a problem enough people are willing to pay for at a price that covers the business’s operating costs and provides a decent return on the capital investment required to start it. A good business plan validates the idea as solving a problem, determines that enough people are willing to for it, accurately estimates both start-up and operating costs, and determines that the price is sufficient to cover operating costs while providing a decent return on investment.

A strong business plan does the above, and then develops an action plan that sets forth the steps one must take to realize the vision.

It’s impossible to make a reasoned decision to start a business without performing this analysis.

The Entrepreneur’s Practical Guide to Business Planning is a step-by-step guide to writing a strong business plan.