Business Tips To Use

I recently learned the benefits of keeping the organizational structure of my small business flat. Mark Cuban highly advises start-ups to avoid politics by keeping the organization flat. In his article, mentioned in my previous blog posting, Mark points out: “If you have managers reporting to managers in a startup, you will fail. Once you get beyond startup, if you have managers reporting to managers, you will create politics.”

I did a little more research and found the following jewel here:

“The flat structure revolves around qualified and competent staff. Fully engaged, skilled work groups leads to happier workers and lower turnover. When employees are more responsible for operations, they take more pride in the company's success.”

My start up will only have professional consultants during the first year to support me, the President of the company. When the company grows during the second and third year, I look forward to hiring efficient team players. Although, I will sign the checks as President of the company, the staff will be empowered to make decisions. For example, when it is time to hire an employee to assist with the publishing and administration for my company, I will allow them to make decisions where necessary. We will hold to the standard of great communication. This way of operating my business will be another detail added to my business plan.

I also learned from Oprah Winfrey how it is effective to have transparency in my business. In my previous blog posting, I noted that Oprah recommends to reveal your personal story - transparency between you and your business offers a sense of trust to your customers.

According to an article on Mashable.com by Sharlyn Mauby, “embracing transparency will help you to be more open, honest, and accountable and connect better with customers”. My future customers require a connection with me as their music collaborator and provider of music. Sharing my personal story is something I look forward to. I will need to practice this so that I will not share too much I need to develop a balance in what is helpful versus what is too much information. I agree that building trust with customers will contribute to good business success.

The most important sections of my business plan will be the Executive Summary and Financials. The potential investors reading my business plan will want to see that I plan to operate with integrity as noted in the company mission statement. It will also be of great interest to the investors to see the company plans for being efficient and realistic with the financials. I was glad to see that other sources such as the Small Business Administration and About.com agree.