Enterprise

How to acquire, keep at healthy business lifestyle

kiun

Apparently, one of the most talked about subject today is "a healthy lifestyle."

It is now in the public domain that lifestyle diseases are killing more people than dreaded diseases like malaria and HIV Aids.

Lifestyle diseases as the name suggests are diseases that are associated with the way people live their lives. They are usually caused by eating habits, smoking, drinking alcohol, lack of physical exercise and stress. They include some types of cancer, diabetes and heart problems.

The good news about lifestyle diseases is that they are non-communicable and can be prevented by choosing a healthy lifestyle.

In business, there also lifestyle problems. Otherwise how can you explain a business that sells products that are on high demand, has high margins, has many customers, good initial capital but cannot meet its obligations? It is simply the lifestyle of the owners or managers.

If you paid attention you will be disturbed by the high number of business that used to do very well but are struggling, or a promising business that suddenly makes an aboutturn. Most of these business woes spring from mismanagement or simply a bad lifestyle.

Like a health body, if you embraced certain proven healthy business habits, you are sure to succeed in your business.

Let’s look at few of them.

First, manage you cash flow well. Cash is the most important thing in business. If you mess up cash flow by overcommitting your money, overstocking, overspending, unplanned expansion or taking profits too soon, you will not be able to meet your financial obligations or take advantage of many opportunities that you might often come across.

Second, focus on most important things to avoid spreading yourself too thin or cluttering your mind with unimportant things. Find your niche market, your best customers, your most profitable products and your best strategies that work and focus on them. Prune the rest so that you can be light and productive.

Put up working systems in your office. You need an effective accounting and management software to monitor key things like stock, movement of all resources as well as opportunities. Without a good system that can give you real time reports you are exposed to many risks.

Third, keep prospecting to get new customers. Develop your product to suit your prospective customers. You can never rely on your current customers regardless of your level of customer care. Some of them will be grabbed by competitors, some will move or change preferences and others will fade due to natural attrition. The only way to keep growing is to keep prospecting and replacing customers who will nevertheless go away.

Finally, embrace taking good care of employees to attract and retain the best. Companies that have a high turnover always lose.

They lose to their competitors and customer goodwill. Employees are the biggest asset that a business can leverage on to grow.

Mr Kiunga is a business trainer and the author of The Art of Entrepreneurship: Strategies to Succeed in a Competitive Market. [email protected].