Business Makeover: Business Decision Making

Welcome to TrueNorth Business Consulting presentation of a Business Makeover. Each month will feature an idea that can help your business. True North focuses on small businesses, but especially helping health and wellness practitioners to maintain and grow their business using the areas of law, marketing, insurance and project management.

I gave a seminar, and when I finished I had a few people come up to me to ask questions. I was surprised that the questions were ones that would require about 5 minutes of internet research to get an answer. It struck me that people don’t do research, and part of managing any project or making a business decision is looking at historical information.

Historical information let’s you see what was done right and what was done wrong. Other people have made similar or the same decisions. You may be able to find some information on the internet, or you may have to ask others.

An example I like to use to illustrate the usefulness of research is designing a website. Once you decide you need, or want to revamp a website, what do you do? Well, first you want to look at other websites-see what they have done successfully and not so successfully. What do you like about that website? Next, you want to think about the elements—do you want a blog? Do you need a shopping cart?

Before you hire someone, you want to look at what is available that you can do yourself. There are online blogging programs, like WordPress or LiveJournal that you may want to use, which would be less expensive.

If you are using a web designer, then get referrals to many. Ask to see their work, and talk to their clients, if possible. You want to make sure your project comes in on time and within budget. Check out the web designer’s previous experience.

Lastly, you want to make a list of all the things you want on your website, along with a date of when you want them completed by. As time goes on with your project, then you can check off things on your list, and also write comments on what is going well and what you need to change.

In the future, when you need another website, you will have your research, plus your historical information to go back to. You will notice a faster project, and have used your research skills to get you there.