SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Top 10 important ideas
Lexi D. Smith
Weeks 1-4

• The first thing that we learned about in Bus54 is to PLAN. When starting
up a new business you need to have a rough outline of what you think is
going to happen over the next 5, 10, or even 20 years. Also you need a
plan incase what you think is going to happen doesn’t. Listed below of
some of the initial plans you need to come up with :
• BUSINESS PLAN. How will you establish your business?
– Always plan with the end in mind. How will you run your business? How exit
your business?
• OPERATIONS PLAN. Business manual
– There needs to be a detailed list of all duties preformed on the job site incase
any one person is unable to perform another can complete the task
and last but not least a
• MARKETING PLAN. Who will be your consumers, how will you sell your
item.
– Know and pinpoint your target groups and advertise to them, always stay up
to date on all new technologies for you to use, keep customers in mind at all
times.

Even though most people will agree nobody likes to be told
what to do, in business there must be certain roles
prescribed. It is true that in starting up a business most all
of the responsibilities will fall on you( the owner). But you
will find, as business grows and employ numbers multiply
you will need to make sure you have the right leaders in
command. Those who perform well in stressful or difficult
situations and adjust to frequently changing atmosphere
will make for good leaders.
• Without a strong team managing your wants and wishes it
is possible for your interior of your business to “fall apart
at the seems”
• Make a solid interview process to be sure your hiring the
right type of employees for your establishment .

“BREAK EVEN “ the term used when your business is making
exactly as much money as it takes to run, all of your expenses
are covered. To be able to exceed your break even and make a
profit you want to calculate your break even. Break even is
usually determined month to month but can be computer
daily or even hourly.
 You can estimate your break even by taking the sales price of
the product/service you offer (-) minus the Direct cost of item
and finding your “contribution Margin”(CM) per unit
 You then take the monthly expenses divided by the CM and
this equals the number of units you must sell to break even.
Once you break-even, you can start to make a profit!

The market is a term that all small business managers need
to be familiar with, as it is one of the most important
aspects of business.
• Knowing the environment in where your business is
based is very important this is called your market. You
want to be familiar with the
people
resources
finances
and politics
In your area these aspects make up your specific market and
determine weather you succeed or fail as a business.

• A part of marketing is knowing the environment in which your market is in. I believe
this is a very big aspect especially dealing with small business specifically because
most of the time your local, your small, starting out with no cliental base, you have to
rely on the people who live or work in that area, and you have to appeal to them. This
is somewhat like “target groups” which I’ll get to in a few slides but this really refers
to the area more then the people in where you live. You will need to perform an
environmental analysis of which consist of 4 parts
• Scanning
– Understand what is happening around you, the trends, events, issues and
expectations of different interest groups.
• Monitoring
– Describes process that needs to take place to characterize and monitor the quality of
the environment.
• Forecasting
– Making statements about particular events in which the outcome hasn’t happened
yet..
• Assessing
– Gathering decision making data to determine the viability of a particular industry or
market for business concept, strategy. Or development.

• The 4 P’s are referring to marketing strategies
that are used to help spread and expand your
business. You need to know the break down of
these to be able to properly manage your
business
• Product/Service- What are you selling?
• Pricing.-What is your pricing strategy?
• Place-Distribution strategy, where and how
can I buy?
• Promotions- Advertising and publicity.

• What do you sell? Who do you sell to? In
what kind of market do you sell in?
• It is important to really know what products
it is that you are selling.
• Is it man made manufactured product, is it a
service? Knowing the features opposed to
the benefits of your product will help you to
better know and in return better sell your
products/services.

• There are 4 types of customers, all of them important.
• Primary
– These customers buy your products most often, where you sell it
when you sell it.
• Secondary
– Are only interested I some of the products you offer, you are still able
to access these people in a way that’s not directly marketed.
• Tertiary
– Occasional use of your services every once and a while
• Potential demand
– I think that this is one of the most important kind of customer, the
one you haven’t reached yet, or the ones that your trying to reach
out and bring in. potential customers to bring in.

• Something that is really becoming more available as social
media and wide-spread technology use grows ever so
rapidly is TARGETED GROUP ADVERTISMENT. This does go
into marketing but I feel it deserves its own slide because
it is so beneficial to the small business aspect. When
groups are targeted they are done so because they fit the
specific description for what you are trying to sell. I.E.
bridal dresses would be advertised to young females
while lawnmowers would be advertised to middle aged
men. Targeting specific people who would be interested in
your product is a growing trend that is making marketing
ridiculously personal. Which is impersonal for some and
personal for other. It just depends.

Finally one of the most important aspects of small
business management is proceeding further, to large
business management. Pitching yourself or your ideas
to corporate or a franchise. You have to promote your
self, along with marketing and advertising a good ting
to have prepared would be an elevator speech. This is
a micro-speech that allows you to introduce and
explain yourself and your ideas.
• Two kinds of elevator speech
– SOUND BYTE. Only long enough for a short elevator ride
in a low-rise building 15-30 seconds
– THE COMMERCIAL. Long enough for a long elevator ride
in a high- rise building. 1-3 minutes.

Top 10 Small Business Mgmt.
• These are the 10 most important aspects of business. All of
the information from this PowerPoint have been gathered
from a compliment of my notes from small business
management bus54 instructor Carolyn Johnson, and the
many different articles we have read in this class too.
• PLANNING
• LEADERSHIP/MANAGEMENT
• BREAKEVEN
• THE MARKET
• KNOWING your ENVIROMENT
• THE 4 P’s
• THE PRODUCT
• THE CUSTOMER
• TARGET GROUPS
• THE PITCH