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5 Fatal Errorsto Avoid When Starting a Business
By Holly A. Magister, CPA, CFP®
The Great Recession has been a great teacher for many seasoned women entrepreneurs. Those who have survived have been the ones willing to truly look at their businesses objectively. And in doing so, they have learned many lessons.
One of the best ways to look at your business objectively is to ask yourself the following question: If you were a Startup, had very few dollars in the bank, and knew what you know today about your business, market, and employees, would you do it all again the same way?
Simply put, you would be a Lean Startup unaffected by poor decisions, failed initiatives, and unmotivated employees.
Please understand, I do not mean to suggest that all of your decisions have been bad, all initiatives have failed or all of your employees are a disappointment. In most cases, it is just one or a few of these things that bog down many businesses. And this causes the business to not perform at its highest level. Such businesses do not have the benefit of operating as if they were Lean Startups.
What I do suggest is that by looking objectively at your business, as if it were a Lean Startup, the woman entrepreneur could eliminate many headaches and greatly improve the bottom line.
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Before I share with you part two of my story about my own need to execute the business continuity plan as a result of my sudden and extended illness, I want to thank those of you who reached out to me to express your concern for my welfare. Thank you. Truly, I am doing very well and I very much appreciate your good wishes!
As I shared in my last blog post about business continuity planning, the need for a woman in business to plan carefully for a possible unexpected interruption to her business is real. Things happen. And when they do, you have no way to go back and say, gee let’s get this or that in place…It’s simply too late.
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Recently I found myself looking around for a candid camera and asking “is this really happening?” You see, over the past three weeks or so, my own business continuity plan has been tested and tested and tested again.
I live to share my story and to encourage other women in business to be prepared.
Working with business owners who plan for the sale or transfer of their business to others gives me the opportunity to really get to know my clients. One very important part of our planning process is to work with the business owner as they decide how to protect their business in case of their incapacity and how to transfer their estate to others after they pass away. This is where my story begins.
If I have said under my breath once, I have done so at least one hundred times… “The devil is in the details!” As we work with business owners and deal makers on the hunt for profitable businesses to acquire, this expression has become our theme song!
Recently, we have been working closely with one of our clients while they sorted out the details from documents dating back several decades to the language drafted into a Letter of Intent negotiated about six months ago. And every word, literally—every word in between, has been scrutinized.
Hard work? Yes.
Exhausting? Of course.
Rewarding? Absolutely!
So, with several thousand pages of documentation, where are the details that matter?
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