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Managing Your Home
Based Online Business – 2 |
by:
Roy Thomsitt |
In the first part
of this series of articles, on managing your online business at
home, I wrote about the many management responsibilities and functions
you have rolled into one if you have your own sole proprietor
business, with no staff. Your management task is perhaps the most
difficult of all. You have to manage yourself, in all those different
areas of your business such as finance, marketing, purchasing
and computing.
I believe that if you think of your new home business as having
different areas of management for you to concentrate on, you are
more likely to succeed long term. If you can adopt some of the
techniques of good management, you will end up with a more sound
business that will stand the test of time. You will be a better
decision maker, and it is decisions that dictate the progress
or downfall of any business. Decision making needs to be unemotional
and as scientific as possible, but as much as anything needs to
be based on common sense. Good management is often a matter of
common sense, and that is why I believe you, whatever your background,
can run a successful business limited only by your ambitions.
The other virtue you will need in abundance is patience, and this
an area where you definitely need to manage yourself. Impatience
brings emotion into your decision making. It also brings self
criticism, or criticism of others, when none is either deserved
or necessary. Patience, realism and common sense combined will
contribute greatly to making you a good business manager. With
those three attributes, you will be well placed to learn the skills
of management in the context of your own small business. You will
be able to learn how the different functions of a business relate
to each other and interact.
That is not easy, but over time, if you apply yourself, it will
all fall into place. This is where patience is vital. Your age
or background do not necessarily matter. I know that in my late
20’s I did not really understand business and how it all fitted
together. At 30, I knew I needed some sort of professional qualification,
and I decided on management accountancy. The syllabus was tough,
with 18 exams over 2 and a half to 5 years. What surprised me
was the variety of subjects to cover. There were exams in company
law, business law, economics, corporate planning, marketing, production,
decision making, cost accounting, management accounting, mathematics
and statistics. Each subject was very different. Then, at the
end, I suddenly realized that all of them knitted together. The
ones I hated (law) and loved (marketing) all had a place in the
scheme of things.
You, of course, have no need to study or be an expert in all of
those things. But it does help to at least be aware that some
of them are, in their own way, critical to your success. If you
are taking a long term view of things, which you should be if
you are serious about having your own home business, you have
plenty of time to learn about those subjects that are most critical
for your business:
Finance
Whatever your business, this is a very critical function for you
to understand and manage, so when it comes to learning all you
can, financial management is a priority. Much of this is again
common sense, and realism, and there are many tools around to
help you keep good financial records. But as I mentioned before,
it is decisions that dictate the progress or downfall of any business.
All decisions you make will have a financial impact on your business.
However, good financial records alone will not bring the reward
of better decision making. If you want to maximize the profits
of your home business, you may find it helps to have other, non-financial
records to aid your decisions. I will discuss this more in part
3 of this series of articles.
Marketing
Marketing is what I love most about business, and it is equally
important to finance in all free enterprises. With an online business,
the marketing side is an ever moving area of expertise. Offline,
marketing has long since stabilised. Online, it has not stabilised
at all; it is still developing and evolving. You need to be aware
of what’s happening in the world of internet marketing, what has
happened, and what is likely to happen. Always remember, though,
there will always be a financial impact of your marketing decisions.
You are obviously prepared to take risks, as you have started
or are starting an online business at home. As the manager of
your business you will need to balance the financial and marketing
conflicts as they arise. You have to strike the right balance.
If the finance director in you is too risk averse, you may stifle
the growth of your business. If the marketing director in you
is too cavalier, and unrealistic about sales prospects, you may
ruin your business in one or two rash decisions. More on this
in part 4.
Computing
If you are working online full time, or even part time, you will
always need to be looking out for developments in the arenas of
software and the internet itself, and maybe at times hardware.
You may come across software that either improves your efficiency,
makes life much easier or takes you into a new and better way
of working. This is another area where knowledge is power. You
need to be competitive, and sometimes you will come across new
software that will make you more competitive. Try to keep abreast
of things in the software marketplace, as it affects your business.
Time Management
While not a function like finance or marketing, when you work
at home alone you will find that time management becomes key to
your success and enjoyment of working from home. It is a subject
you should always be aware of and make conscious decisions about.
I will write more on this topic in part 5.
The above are just the key areas where you need to view your business
from a management viewpoint, and the list of course is not exhaustive.
However, pay attention to these from a manager’s perspective,
and you should benefit in the long run. You will take the leap
from being “employee” to “boss”, even if you are the only one
you can be “boss” to.
About the author:
Roy Thomsitt is the owner and part author the home business websites
http://www.change-direction.comand
http://www.home-working-start-up.com
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