It may sound strange to say that one of the things that can get you into trouble really quickly is success. After all, that is what you are trying to accomplish, right? Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), some companies become more successful than they ever imagined and find themselves in trouble.
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It may sound strange to say that one of the things that can get you into trouble really quickly is success. After all, that is what you are trying to accomplish, right? Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), some companies become more successful than they ever imagined and find themselves in trouble.
One commercial that illustrates this point rather well shows a group of very young people surrounding a computer. They click and turn on their website which is selling their product. They start cheering as the counter starts clicking away with all the orders. Suddenly they stop cheering as the counter starts going even faster and they start looking at each other when they realize that they are selling at a faster pace than they ever imagined. Suddenly they have to worry about whether they have the capacity to fill all those orders, do all the shipping. Suddenly they are in a bit of trouble.
When you were doing your business plan (you did do a business plan didn't you???), did you make some contingencies for the greatest success you could ever imagine? How long would it take you to gear up to meet the demand? Do your systems have extra capacity? Can you control how fast things go (i.e., would your server temporarily shut down if traffic reached a certain level or would the entire thing collapse under the stress)? Do you have a way to reach people to let them know that you are experiencing higher demand than you anticipated and what you are doing to try to remedy the situation? We all start a business to be successful, but a lack of planning can do a great deal of damage to your businesses reputation before you even really get started if things get out of hand too quickly.
Try to test things out before you go live. If you are working through a website, turn it on for a short time and see what happens. If you are expecting 20 hits in six hours and get 200, you may need to rethink your preparations. Ask as many people you can about your product and see what they think. Gather as much information as you can before you go live and be as prepared as time and your budget allow. You don't want to go overboard, but generally it is easier to scale back than to gear up.
Be ready for the best and go for it! You don't want your own systems and lack of planning to slow you down!
Recipe for Trouble:Documentation (or Lack Thereof)
We all like to trust people and we would like really be much better of if people always did what they said they would do. But we all know that this is not always the case. If you are a business owner, you can find yourself in deep trouble if you do not document.
Recipe for Trouble: IT
Depending on how dependent your company is on computers, IT (or information technology) can be your biggest ally or the biggest thorn in your side. While people tend to refer to IT for anything that involves computers, information technology can encompass a very large variety of business needs from servers to websites. There is no one-size-fits-all IT professional any more than there is a one size fits all employee of any type.
Water is Water Right? Wrong!
We all know that we should probably be drinking more water. We have all heard the health benefits staying hydrated. But we get busy and we forget to drink. So we stop by the drinking fountain and take a quick sip or hit the office water cooler and we think we are getting the hydration we need. But hydration is not even enough. We also need the proper trace minerals.
