As you read through the questions in each section, ask yourself, “If I address this issue:”

How much more money could I have in my pocket?

How much more time would I have to spend with my family and friends?

How much more would I enjoy my business?

 

Management

1.       I don’t have enough time away from here

2.       I’m the only one who knows

3.       People don’t work the way I expect

4.       My people don’t care

5.       I can’t trust my people

6.       I can’t train people to…

7.       I can’t take a day off, vacation, no way!

8.       Not enough time to manage in a day

9.       I work too many hours

10.    My manager don’t know how to manage

11.    I don’t know how to manage

12.    People do not follow rules

13.    I can’t afford quality people

14.    I never get the right people

15.    I don’t have time to train new people

16.    I don’t have the skills to manage

17.    I have to do everything around here

18.    Work creates problems at home

19.    I resent owning the business

20.    I would be better off working for someone

Sales & Marketing

1.       I don’t have enough sales

2.       My people don’t know how to sell

3.       I don’t know how to get more sales

4.       I hate making sales calls

5.       Good salespeople are hard to find

6.       I don’t know how to advertise

7.       Not enough people see my business

8.       I don’t know what my customers want

9.       I don’t know if my advertising pays

10.    It seems my advertising is ineffective

11.    I am the best salesperson here

12.    I don’t know what my sales should be

13.    I don’t have enough time to make calls

14.    I have trouble with objections

15.    Sales are continually slow

16.    I don’t know what my people are doing

17.    I do most selling myself

18.    I do not know who my customers are

19.    I cannot identify why people buy from us

 

 Operations

1.       My costs are too high                                                        

2.       I’m never sure a job can be done on time                       

3.       I don’t know how much inventory to carry                    

4.       I don’t know what I have in inventory                            

5.       My people waste too much time                                      

6.       I’m not sure I’m estimating/pricing profitably                

7.       I’m the only one who can estimate/price                        

8.       My work is too complex to teach anyone else               

9.       I have trouble estimating the time a job takes                

10.    My suppliers are late                                            

11.    I need to increase my capacity                                         

12.    My paperwork is always getting lost                              

13.    I can’t find anything in my files                                        

14.    I’m not sure what my costs are                                         

15.    My customers complain too much                                   

16.    My subcontractors are hard to control                           

17.    I have trouble keeping my people busy                          

18.    This place is a mess 

19.    I need new equipment

20.    I check on everything/everyone     

Financial

1.       I don’t know what records I need

2.       I don’t like collecting money

3.       Budgeting doesn’t work for us

4.       We have poor cash flow

5.       I don’t have a bill payment routine

6.       I am on COD with suppliers

7.       We make money, just can’t keep it

8.       I never know where I stand financially

9.       I finance some of my customers

10.    My overhead seems high

11.    I do not know where my breakeven is

12.    I cannot afford to expand

13.    I cannot afford to update equipment

14.    I have inconsistent cash flow

15.    I cannot get a loan for operations

16.    I cannot afford to keep adequate inventory

17.    I am receiving calls from creditors/suppliers

18.    I do not get financial reports that I understand