Managing a Business

To succeed in business you need to allocate time and energy to managing the business, over and above creating and delivering the product or service.

To grow a business will require time and energy directed to:

• Managing yourself and your time
• Managing your staff
• Managing suppliers of goods and services
• Managing your business network
• Managing your money

The menu choices on the left, address some key aspects of managing a business. Click to access an information sheet that introduces this topic and links you to detailed sources of information on specific issues.

The fact sheets in this part of the site will help you to manage your business.

• In planning your timetable, allocate blocks of time for your business and blocks of time for family and leisure activities. Work time is divided into technical work and management tasks.
• How many staff is required at each stage of the business life cycle.  How you will find your staff, what skills do your staff require, what training will you provide your staff and how long will it take you to recruit and train staff?
• You need to balance the loyalty, service and possible price advantages of dealing with one supplier against the risk of the supplier becoming complacent or not performing, causing a lack of key products or components.
• You need to know why your partner(s) want to go into business with you and what they expect to get out of the business.
• You need to work out when you are going to need money and how much money you will need. The essential financial tools to guide you in this task are a Cash Flow Forecast and a Projected Profit and Loss.

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