Business Owner Newsletter - Page 15

Asking ourselves the right questions and making the right decisions is the focus of another favorite book of ours, QBQ! The Question Behind the Question, by John G. Miller. He challenges us to eliminate complaining, blame and procrastination, and begin asking solution-based questions. Instead of asking who is to blame for a situation, we should ask, "What can I do to improve the situation?" Only when we are able to ask this "question behind the question" can we take ownership of a problem and start focusing on a solution.

 

There are several reasons a person owns a business. Building equity, earning a comfortable living, filling a need in the community, building a job around a hobby or passion, or being able to "do it my way" are all motivations for owning a business. No matter how you define what it means to realize value through your business, there comes a time when every owner will exit their business. It will be by choice, or it will not be by choice. Only time will tell if you exit your business because your exit strategy is being implemented, or due to something outside your control, such as a health issue, unforeseen family dynamic, economic downturn, or numerous other uncontrollable life events. Whenever it happens, tomorrow or in 20 years, will you as the business owner get the most value out of your business?


 

This month we've discussed how to design the structures needed to make project management successful in small business. We've looked at defining the mindset, having a project plan, knowing where to start, and dealing with change. We want to end this month's spotlight with a focus on action. It's one thing to have a plan, but no plan is successful without action.

 

Our Thoughts: The ability to adapt to change within a project is vital to success. Regardless of how great your project plan is there will always be some factors that you cannot control. The good news is that you can always control your reaction to those factors. The sample mindset document we provided earlier addressed the need for a project manager to adapt a flexible point of view, but to truly be ready for change, you must also think about the structure of change.

"Where do I start?"
 

In planning a project, there's no one "place" to start as this is not a linear process. Instead, the project management process is a constant flow of information through the project plan. However, in most cases there are two important sections of the project plan that need to be completed early: the business requirements and milestones. If you haven't already, we recommend downloading our sample project plan and using it to follow along this week.