The reason I love social media is the great nuggets of wisdom shared by your friends. This one comes from Rick Telberg via Twitter (@CPA_Trendlines).
Does this scenario sound familiar? “It's just a little past midnight and I can’t sleep. A million things are running through my mind. Sales have dropped 40 percent, my retirement plan has lost $100,000, I can’t collect my receivables and my vendors are hounding me for money. I don’t know what to do and I feel that the whole world is falling apart.”
This is from a post by Steven Feinberg, CPA, over at his blog, AppleTree Business Services. He goes on:
“There are many facets of today’s bad news that you can do nothing about. You cannot change what is happening in Washington, Wall Street or in other countries. Stop dwelling and worrying about those issues. You need to focus only on your world and the people in it, for you can only affect the people and actions of those things that you take control over and make decisions about.”
Then Steven closes with the Focus Five (my additions are in parentheses):
- Sales and marketing.
- Production (getting the product out or performing the service).
- Regular customer / client contact. (I say increased contact.)
- Preparing and reviewing your financials. (Understand your business model.)
- Collecting your receivables. (Cash is king!)
These extremely volatile times force all of us to get back to basics and focus.