Family Archives - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

Friends & Family As Sources of Business Funding

As a budding entrepreneur, it took a lot of hard work and diligence, but you finally have your business idea squared away and things are starting to make sense. While visions of success circle throughout your mind, there’s probably one haunting fear that remains: how on earth will you come up with enough money to fund this whole thing? That’s usually not an easy question to answer, but it remains critical that we find an answer if we ever want to turn aspirations into achievements.

One of the first places that entrepreneurs look for funding is from family and friends. Sometimes an entrepreneur may be so lucky as to have family and friends come to them before they even ask for funding themselves! But while the sentiment should be appreciated, a wise entrepreneur will consider drawing funding from these two groups of people very cautiously. And while many people draw a hard line on fundraising from family and friends, doing so isn’t always necessary. Yes, these sort of business transactions can have horrible consequences if they sour, but if entered into wisely and with enough analysis, it’s possible for great things to happen. And although the range of things to be considered when entering such an agreement is vast and nearly infinite, I’ve distilled the subject down to three important considerations to ponder when you think of starting a business with the help of family or friends. To emphasize, these aren’t the only considerations that need to be made, neither may they be the absolute most important of any consideration – my aim is simply to provide a few pieces of food for thought.

1. Will the investment dramatically hurt or imbalance the lifestyle of your family member or friend if the deal goes wrong?

Consider how financially stable the prospective investor currently is. For example, if your friend is living with unpaid student loans or other debts, she may not be the best candidate for a round of financing. Even if she is enthusiastic and willing to contribute cash, the risk that this transaction results in if your business fails are simply too high. This isn’t to say that she cannot still provide other types of capital, however. Even though financial investments are out of the picture, personal capital of labor or social capital of contacts may still be desirable!

2. What level of control, if any, does your family member or friend desire?

Some people will contribute money to your cause merely because they want to help you achieve your dreams, and without a second thought to having a role in the business aside from financial backing. On the other hand, other people will expect some role or control in the company. The level of control could range anywhere from having free products and services for life, or a paid position in the upper levels of management. When probing for their desires, be sure to recognize that giving some level of control to the individual may not always be a bad thing. If he is qualified and brings talent or experience to the position, it’s worth considering.

3. What is the payout for your family member or friend? Will it be financial gains or simply goodwill?

Aside from control in business, a second big motivator for investors is the result or “exit strategy,” and family members and friends are no exceptions. Ask the interested investor what her expectations are for the future. Would she like to see her investment double? Or would she simply like her money back after a certain number of years? Either way, planning for the future by evaluating the expectations made today can be instrumental in reducing tensions down the road.

Time Management Tips for Women – Making Time for Work, Family and Friends

Years ago when I worked for a technology consulting firm in the mid-80’s, I learned what would become of many hard earned lessons in time management. This was an exciting period me as well as the industry due to the lightning speed advances in technology. Our mid-sized firm was rapidly growing and I had recently taken on the role as Human Resources Director. This was a newly created role for the company and boy was I excited. However, my go-with-the-flow natural tendency would be challenged by the rigors and demands of my schedule.

I traveled extensively to top-tier universities scouting for super-smart talent, all the while, training all new hires, developing an HR system, raising two small children, and attending school at night. Yes, I was over my head. Well one day the owner sat down in my office, (as he could see my projects were piling up) and asked me to write down in 30 minutes increments what I was doing. Can you imagine that! I felt totally humiliated! That is a moment I will never forget, as then I realized I had never been taught to manage my time- effectively.

Flash forward to 2011, I’m now a work-from-home entrepreneur running an Internet Marketing firm and Style Coaching business. And things couldn’t be tougher to stay on task, and produce projects (such as this newsletter) on time.

When I see pictures of moms holding kids at a computer, I shake my head in sadness. That image has turned out more stressed out non-productive people you can imagine! There was a time I used to be one of them, but not anymore. Let me share with you the top time management tips of some of the most successful people I know.

1) Completely clear the clutter from your work space. Nothing creates more mental stress than to see piles and mounds of half completed projects. Immediately clear them away and notice the immediate peace that will overtake your spirit.

2) Work in solitude free from distractions. No TV, No music, No surfing the net, if your serious about working from home, achieving the success you desire you have to commit this no excuses. Now this was a tough one for me, because I love me some good music! Don’t get me wrong, I still crank up the music, but not while concentrating on completing a project.

3) Do not answer your phone. If your like me and have children, put the phone on silent and look at it every 15-30 minutes to see if you have missed THEIR call, no one else. Kids love to text- so use that tool to keep in touch. I’m baffled by parents who do not like to text, especially with their children. How on earth can they and you stay on task by engaging in distracting phone conversations throughout the day?

4) Choose a time of day to respond to email. We live in a society of email overload by stuff you’ve signed up to receive and loads of other mystery email that show up in your box. Whatever email account you use, most offer sophisticated tools to help sort and prioritize your emails. Don’t respond randomly throughout the day or you’ll lose precious moments staying focused and on task to complete what you really should be focused on.

5) Block out time in 30 minute increments for projects-then take a stretch. It’s important to know where your time is going and what you’re doing so you can adjust to stay on track. If your like me, your managing several blogs, writing newsletters, coaching clients, board responsibilities, all the while creating new and exciting projects. You cannot overemphasize the importance of time and energy control when you are trying to run your own business or simply be productive. You need to learn the value of time blocking, activity batching, and scripting your day. Stretching sends vital oxygen to your brain and energizes your cells. Try it, it really works!

6) Put your family and friends on notice about your schedule changes. This is a hard one for them to accept. Most people don’t believe you can make money from home, but oh are they dead wrong. By responding to their every request, you’re giving them permission to devalue what you do. What’s even worse is that you’re not getting the results your hoping for, and we all know what that leads to-frustration, fighting and non-productivity.

7) I strongly recommend going to bed early. Even “cool and hip” New York Times best-selling author and celebrity Neil Strauss admitted that an early morning schedule allowed him to get more done. You’ll find that you’ll get “2 hours of afternoon work” done in 30 minutes of morning productivity. Again, I was sure success hinged on the idea of working myself to a pulp. Yep, that’s about what you will become. Pulp!

It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom. ~Aristotle

If working from home to you means relaxing with a laptop and coffee in hand at your local Starbucks or mentally fussing about things that need to get done at home, your aren’t going to create the life you’re hoping for. I’m sorry to tell that’s just not going to happen.

Here’s how to get MORE done. PERIOD.

You need to get serious about simple planning and a time management checklist.

The very last thing you should do each workday is to prepare a schedule/checklist for the next day’s work. Develop a template based on your current projects and literally block time for each task.

In order to “create” this schedule, you’ll need to use a journal to record how you are spending your time right now. Recall my opening story of having to “track my time?” Carry a notebook with you for a couple of days and write down exactly what you are doing every 15 minutes. Do this all day for three straight workdays. You will then identify the things that cause you to waste time, and you can work on eliminating those.

You may notice patterns of falling into the trap of checking emails that then taken you to far away places, like sports sites, fashion newsletters, twitter, etc. You see where this is going and so is your time. See that’s why having your schedule is so important. It will bring you right back to where you need to be.

Lastly identify the time of day when your most productive. What I’ve found is this may interfere with another family task. This is where family and friend support is so important to fill in those spaces of time so you can stat on task. Otherwise, you may find success eludes you for a long time, until you apply these time tested principles.

Top Challenges Faced by Family Business and Its Team Leaders

Like every business organization family business has a unique set of challenges and problems.

The Keyword is CHALLENGE

Family Business mixes pride and passion with pain and glory and a very hardworking pathway to success. Sometimes a family finds peace and prosperity without apparent effort, while others seem to lurch from one crisis to the next.

We can define Family Business success as achieving, A Happy Family within a Strong Business. Success is more of a challenge at a family owned business because we strive to produce both desirable outcomes, within set time frames. We have twice the responsibility that is the happy family and the strong business.

Obviously Family Businesses go through various stages of growth and development and it becomes more challenging for the second generation or the subsequent generation that enters the business.

A famous saying about family owned business in Mexico is “Father, founder of the company, son rich, and grandson poor”. The founder works and builds a business, the son takes it over and is poorly prepared to manage and make it grow but enjoys the wealth, and the grandson inherits a dead business and an empty bank account.

Family Business is Hardworking Pathway to Success

Below we have listed some of the paramount challenges faced by family owned business which determines the success, growth, and continuation of a FAMILY BUSINESS.

1. EMOTIONS – Family problems will affect the business. Divorce, separations, health or financial problems also create difficult political situations for the family members.

2. INFORMALITY – Absence of clear policies and business norms for family members.

3. RESTRICTED VISION – Lack of outside opinions and diversity on how to operate the business.

4. CARELESS DOCUMENTATION – No documented plan or long term planning.

5. FAMILY MEMBERS COMPENSATION – Dividends, salaries, benefits and compensation for non-participating family members are not clearly defined and justified.

6. CONFUSED ROLES – Roles and responsibilities must be clearly defined.

7. PRESSURE TO HIRE FAMILY MEMBER – Hiring family members who are not qualified or lack the skills and abilities for the organization. Incompetency should not be tolerated.

8. GREATER COMPENSATION TO NON FAMILY MEMBERS – It is a common myth that family members will receive more compensation in a family business and develop a attitude of incompetency towards management.

9. PLANNING FOR SUCCESSION – Great conflicts and division are the result of no proper plan for handing the power to the next generation.

10. ESTATE PLANNING AND RETIREMENT – Long term planning to cover the necessities and realities of older members when they leave the company.

11. PROBLEMS IN COMMUNICATION – Difference in level of seniority and emotions like envy, fear, anger invoke zero communication in members.

12. DISABILITY TO CONTROL – Difficulty in controlling the operations of the organization, other family members and lack of supervision in day to day activities leads to more problems.-

But as we all know that Families and Businesses come from different worlds. Like oil and water… they cannot be mixed. But, families have always built businesses together… and they always will.

One of the challenges in family business is working together in teams. It is a fact that team work offers huge rewards but some frustrations are likely. Working within teams needs improvement in the power of creativity. The team leader needs to encourage this creative power, harness it, and channelize the creative fuel.

Andrew Carnegie- “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”

It is vitally important that the team leader unleash the power of team members with a collaborative leadership style to fuel the creative fire within the team.

Below are our top ten tips for channelizing the creative fire of Family Business Teams.

1. BE CLEAR ABOUT THE EXPECTATIONS – Only after the team members know what is expected of them can they deliver the perfect output. So understanding the difference between expected and derived results is necessary for both the team leader as well as the team members.

2. Faith in the Team Members – Being optimistic and challenging helps when you have total faith in the members of your team. As the leader, you need to expect the best from your team, keeping your expectations high and realistic. This is a challenging balancing act, but people need to be inspired to perform at their best. Instilled faith helps the group to perform better and come up with creative innovative ideas and solutions. Like Mike Litman says Improve at 1% each day and thus raise the bar for top performance one step at a time.

3. Encouragement accompanied with respect goes a long way in generating new thoughts. Fresh perspectives and courage too make up for new ideas easily. the leader needs to master the art of creative mindset.

4. Avoid making judgment while generating new ideas. If you are open to new solutions then the process of idea generation is not suppressed and sometimes best ideas are generated.

5. Brainstorming sessions are a great way to get numerous ideas. While brainstorming avoid judgment, look for quality, make notes to capture the idea and moreover combine two good ideas.

6. Communication is the keyword again, which helps to build strong relationships. Communication with open channels helps to trust the team members and know each other better.

7. Employees need to be given responsibility to bring out the best in them, give them the power to decide on a solution to a problem and watch the creativity grow by leaps and bounds.

8. Praise works like reward for the individuals and team alike. Acknowledgment in the form of encouragement is another word for praising the team members. Making sure that the team is cared for and recognized for its hard work is a reward in it self.

9. Be daring and build a brave team. Accept that mistakes are made at times and it is challenge to build on failures and see them as opportunities to learn and succeed further.

10. Unity in Diversity is the final mantra – build a strong team with diverse people, diverse backgrounds and combine the experience, culture, creativity and align them for the success of our family Business.-

Adding humor as a fuel to creativity is the last but not least step to see the team working happily together and productivity of business soaring to great levels.

Stragetic Planning for Family and Private Business

First of all it is beneficial to briefly summaries strategy and strategic planning.

Strategy is the longterm direction of the business that:

achieves a competitive advantage for the business in its chosen market

positions the business in the market in relation to its competitors

defines the scope of the businesses functions, capabilities and capacity

matches the businesses resources and activities to the business environment

Strategic planning is the process (and thinking) that underpins the development and analysis of the options available to the business when choosing its strategy.

For the purposes of this article the focus will be on the higher level strategic planning, or corporate planning, as this is where the company’s direction is set and what drives its operational performance that delivers shareholder value. In addition, it defines the company’s business model, the corporate culture and its reputation from a corporate, social responsibility perspective regardless of its size or structure.

Broadly speaking there are only four types of corporate strategies being:

Growth or market penetration – Same products / services into same market

Market development – Same product / service into a new market

Product / service development – New product / service into the same market

Diversification – New product / service into a new market

Once we accept this then the planning process can be followed to develop a robust and valuable strategic plan for the business.

We apply a rigorous structured process to strategic planning that incorporates a range of activities and analysis designed to achieve the clear direction for the business, its structure, its employees and all business activities.

The first part of the process includes:

Core values of the owners – These are critical as they make up the philosophy and ethics of the business and the people

Goals of the individuals and for the business these are critical as it focuses everyone of the type of strategic direction of the business.

Core competencies of the business – These may be based on the technical expertise of the owners however it is best to think about what competencies the business will leverage to develop the business model it will adopt

Development of the businesses VISION and MISSION – These provide the focus for all future activities. A Mission statement should not be any more than two sentences of between 8 and 10 words otherwise they lack focus and are of little value to the business

Your VISION is an internal statement that drives its direction and performance

Your MISSION is a statement to internal and external stakeholders of how you conduct your business

The second part of the planning process is where the real power of strategic planning is developed as it consists of a series of analysis – Four in fact, which are all designed to provoke a breath and depth of thought that will have a major impact on the structure and operational performance of the business.

Environmental analysis – this is the business environment you operate in and it includes six elements:

Political

Economic

Social

Technical

Environmental

Legal

Industry analysis – this analyses the industry environment you are operating in and competing with and is based on Porter’s Five Forces:

Power of buyers (the buyers of your products / services)

Power of suppliers (those that supply your business)

Threat of new entrants into the market (is it easy for another like business to establish)

Threat of competitive rivalry – How competitive is the market and how do / will competitors react to your business

Threat of substitutes – What is substituting your product / service in the market

Resource analysis – this is the compartmentalization of your resources and is the critical link between the businesses mission / core values, structure and operational strategies / performance. It includes:

Physical – Your location and physical assets

Reputation – The reputation of your business at all levels

Organisational – Goes to the heart of the operational structures and includes what type of human resources is required for the business

Financial – The financial requirements for the business now and into the future

Information – This ranges from your operational information i.e. SOP, policies, T&C of Trade etc to IP that you want to protect / hold separate to the day to day operations of the business

Technical – The technology utilised within the business and the future technology requirements of the business be it systems or software or the use of media

The good old swot analysis – The strengths, weaknesses (or constraints), opportunities and threats (challenges). The swot analysis is infinitely more valuable to the process after the above three analysis have been completed because the business owner will have a greater understanding of their business and will be able to conduct this analysis with clarity and purpose.

Phase three of the process is the development of the businesses strategies. This pulls together everything done to date and results setting a clear direction for the business. We have a three step process for the development of these higher level strategies, which includes

Matrix for offensive and defensive strategies through the matching of:

Strengths and Opportunities – Offensive

Strengths and Challenges (threats) – Offensive

Opportunities and Constraints (weaknesses) – Defensive

Constraints (weaknesses) and Challenges (threats) – Defensive

Prioritising the strategies by filtering then through a specific framework to assess their:

Feasibility (do you have the capacity and capability to implement the strategy)

Suitability (does the strategy suit the current circumstances of the owners and business environment)

Acceptability (this is the risk / return assessment, which includes the possible reaction of stakeholders i.e. employees, your financier, suppliers, customers and competitors)

Strategic choice – Based on the above select the most appropriate direction for your business.

While this process appears involved, complex and time consuming it can be tailored to suit the business. However it is important to have a clear focus on the end game, which is to be a strategically focussed business that has a clear direction and purpose that can be measured.