As the US economy continues to restructure itself, many skilled, middle management people are finding themselves looking for new employment in jobs that have faded out of existence forever.
Hardest hit is the so-called baby boomer generation, the age group that is 50-65 years old, educated, mature, and highly skilled.
During the first part of 2008, various parts of Michigan in particular were struggling with unemployment levels reaching 9.
5%.
However, small business startups in the state during the previous year jumped 17%.
Some people in this 'outplaced' category were fortunate enough to receive a significant severance payment and it's occurring to them, that the only way they may find new employment, is if they 'buy' themselves a job - start a business based on a skill they might have.
However, people who are highly skilled at designing a world class fuel injection system or even the next generation of 'widgets', typically don't have the comprehensive skills needed to start and/or run a business.
So how does a potential entrepreneur overcome that lack of inexperience, and minimize risk? Perhaps the single biggest factor for minimizing your risk of being in business is ensuring the flow of relevant, accurate information from every corner of your enterprise back to you.
As a business owner, you need to decide, in a bottom-line sort of way, 'What do I need to know about?' and 'Why is it important to me?' Finally, you need to comprehend, 'Here's what I need to do about it.
' This is actually a common dilemma; Fortune 500 companies find themselves drowning in oceans of information, to the extent that much of it becomes useless, overlooked, and certainly underutilized.
Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, are making critical life changing decisions on a daily basis, and typically suffer from an absence of any relevant information.
Regardless of whether you're CEO of a one horse ranch, or you have an entire org chart descending from you, the first step is to break your business operation down into each operational element such as office management, shop management, design and engineering, sales and marketing, customer service, and human resources.
Identify a few key metrics from each of these areas that are critical to your organization's success.
For example, it's one thing to actually sell your products and services and generate the 'appearance' of revenue, but its an entirely different matter to ensure you are actually getting paid by your clients and putting money into your checking account.
Once you've identified those key metrics for success, set up a system to track those numbers frequently, accurately and easily.
The second step is to take a comprehensive approach to managing or being aware of every aspect of your business operations.
It's highly unlikely that your personal skill set qualifies you to tightly control every aspect of your business operation.
So, actively compensate for those weaker areas by bringing in qualified people who do have those skills.
Monitor those operational components more tightly by increasing the flow of relevant information that you are personally reviewing.
Finally, once you know how every component of your enterprise is performing, and you've compensated for the strengths and weaknesses you've identified in your business, the next natural questions you want to ask are, 'what are my competitor's doing?' 'What are their weaknesses?' And, perhaps most importantly, 'How do I leverage that knowledge to help me achieve a competitive advantage?' Place yourself into situations where you can have 'your ear to the ground' such as networking groups, chambers of commerce.
Industry associations are great resources for competitive information.
Also, search the internet for tools that can provide business analysis and business performance data both for you and for your competition.