Youâve decided to leave the corporate world and become a small business owner. Great! Now What? Are there skills and wisdom you can bring from your corporate career to your new business venture? Of course there are. The reality is big to little box⦠the same rules apply in successfully implementing a business strategy as well as building a high performance team of employees.
The Journey From Corporate to Business Owner
My guest on his episode of The Business Edge is John Todd who was Vice President, Sales Support, Business Services at Sprint before making the leap into entrepreneurship. He tells the steps he took first to find the right small business (that had a sound yet interesting business model); second how he retooled that business, Elite Remodeling, from a residential discount provider to a full service value added supplier. More importantly, he found, as a corporate âdrop outâ one can thrive personally and financially being a small
business owner.
Listen to This Podcast and Learn
* How his corporate experience prepared him from budgeting to hiring right to managing projects
* The big difference: You are the company and everyone takes their cues from you â no blaming others.
* The 5 Pâs of marketing (product â position â price â promotion â people) and how it applies to small business
* That youâre buying the people as well as the business: Realize some youâll keep, some will need to be replaced.
* Why sales is the most important skill business owners should have and if they donât, develop it even if you have a sales team.
The Key Take-Away: Know Your Numbers.
When employed in a big company, itâs top management who are mostly concerned with profit and loss. Now itâs you! Regularly review your financial information: margins and mark-ups, price point, expenses, net income, etc. Donât rely solely on your accountant or financial adviser. If you donât understand the finances, you can go broke!
