Things to keep in mind while running a business

Here is a short guide to things an entrepreneur needs to watch out for.

KARACHI: A business’ margins, sales and cash in hand are the prime levers on which every business tries to balance its existence. Similarly, the productive capacity of a business to deliver whatever it sells is another vital factor. Once a business understands its position among its competition, the next step is to link sales demand, profitability and resource capacity, while ensuring stable growth.

Companies today want stable profit trajectories at optimum cost ratios, both for the short run and the long run. This requires paying attention to two things: recognising the underlying relationships between growth, risk and profitability, and the practical techniques that will deliver your goals in a low-risk, affordable way.

All businesses struggle with sales due to factors such as a lack of cash, pressured profit margins, commission costs, time lapses, political changes, taxes, delayed delivery and delayed payments. The customer determines what a business is today, and their actions and buying patterns indicate what sells versus what is obsolete. Customers are the foundation of any business and it is the customer that decides what business should remain alive and what will die.



Inculcate higher credit control, savings and improve budget planning before you decide to boost sales. On the other hand, your working capital must be stable. If you are not actively pursuing safety measures, your business will be slowly eaten up by competition as they grow with better cost controls and revenue streams through research, efficient marketing and managing employee turnover and staff motivation.

Secure your business by securing customers, and let them decide what we can sell and what we should stop selling.

If you are in business, it is good for a lot of other people too. Banks want to profit off you by lending their cash resources to you. Accounting firms want you to grow, because it increases demand for their services like tax planning and costing. Finally, the government wants you to grow because it increases demand for employment, and your income contributes to the government treasury.

The writer comments on international relations and public policy

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29^th, 2013.

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