Happy holidays!

by John R. Burgess

On a quarterly basis I write to the small and medium-size business community about the perils and pitfalls of running their day to day operations, and still further, about their long term goals and objectives as they relate both to personal lives and businesses.

I learned many years ago that the best time for reflection on ones strengths, weaknesses, goals and aspirations is during the holiday season. It is necessary that each and every business owner look at themselves in the mirror during the holidays and define what they could have done differently to achieve the maximum level of success during the prior year, and more importantly, a level of success for the coming year.

In order to do this effectively, it is absolutely necessary that you specifically define your errs and omissions, which means that you determine what it is that you do well, and what you don’t do well. In order to define what you don’t do well, you have to first begin with a functional analysis of your “own business character.” What is your business character?

How do you define success? Are you revenue conscious, cost conscious, profit conscious or not conscious at all? Do you really try to ascertain the short and long term goals and objectives of your business? Have you really assessed what they are? Have you truly defined what functions need to exist within your business in order to achieve even a percent of your maximum profitability, maximum cash flow and maximum ease of operation?

All of us need to reflect on all of the benevolence that has been bestowed upon us. Every entrepreneur has individual traits of strong will and character, of being a risk taker, of aspiring for greatness. During this holiday season, do a self analysis. Define what you really want, how you are going to achieve it and what needs to be changed in you as the business owner.

As business owners, we have been blessed with the skills that other people can only aspire to have. It is up to us to take advantage of what our maker has provided us and use those skills to better society as a whole.

Happy holidays from all of us at IPA, our family of companies and more personally, from myself.

John R. Burgess is the founder and driving force behind IPA, the world’s largest management consulting and professional services firm specializing in the small and medium-size business marketplace.