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Operations - Everything else, all of it working together :)

Kim Brand, 317-833-3000

Business Ownership Initiative

May 24, 2011

(Loosely based on the Core Four Business Planning Course Workbook)

Roughly speaking: Income Statement Stuff

• Production/Manufacturing - Delivery of whatever it is you make or do: product or service - Widgets
• Employees: paying people to work for you, managing people - this changes everything;
• Interviewing, Assessment/Testing, On-Boarding, Employment Application, Culture
• Independent contractors: great deal?, Reporting: 1099
• Unemployment Insurance (Dept of Workforce Development) & Workman's Compensation Insurance
• Training, Employee Manuals, Job Descriptions, Organization Charts, Acceptable Use Policies, Confidentiality, Assignments of Intellectual Property
• Policies: Vacation, Holidays, Uniforms, Personal/Sick Days, Mileage reimbursement, Discipline, Retirement (401K,) Education & Health Benefits, etc.
• Record Keeping: hours worked, performance reviews, raises
• Withholding obligations: Income Tax (Municipal, County, State & Federal), FICA (Social Security,) Medicare, FUTA (Federal Unemployment)
• Regulations: Wage & Hour, (Minimum Wage rules - note: family member exemption, overtime, etc.) EEOC, OSHA, Posters (see links here.)
• Immigration, Discrimination, ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act,) FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act), etc.
• Retention issues, turnover 
• Supply Chain, Logistics, Vendors, Inventory management
• Bookkeeping
• Sales, Billing, Deposits, Point of Sale Software
• Cost of Goods Sold, Expenses 
• Budgets, Dashboards: Ratios, Trends, Stupid Stuff
• Sales/Use & Excise Taxes, Credit Card Fees
• Withholding (Employer matching, Self Employment Taxes)
• Distributions, Dividends 
• Franchise Fees, License Fees 
• Quality Control, Process Improvement, Customer feedback, Suggestion boxes
• Banking (checking & savings,) Credit Cards, Financing (your customers)
• Occupancy Issues, Rent, Facilities, Utilities, Information Technology
• Advertising, Sales channel challenges
• Industry affiliations, franchises, continuing education
• Waste, Fraud, Mistakes, Force Majeure, Acts of God, Theft, Law suits, "When bad things happen to good people..." 

Roughly speaking: Balance Sheet Stuff

• Form of Business: Proprietorship, Partnership, Corporation (Sub-S and C Corp,) Non-Profit, Limited Liability Company (LLC)
• Assumed Business Name (for persons and/or general partnership)
• Individual vs Shared ownership & risk, Creating another 'person' (entity) to do business
• Dodging FICA (Social Security Tax,) Medicare, etc
• Self Employment Tax
• Unemployment Insurance 
• Corporate Governance & Sustenance: Boards, Advisors, Shareholders, Maintenance, Dividends; Registered Agents
• Compliance: Licensing, Zoning Requirements, Environmental, Labor Laws, Signs, Parking, Entity Reporting, 
• Accounting: Bookkeeping Software
• Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable
• Debt Service (again)
• Inventory (again)
• Profit or Loss,
• Audits
• Policies: Customer Service, A/R, etc.
• Insurance Protection & Risk Management (Courtesy of Steve Wells, City Securities Corp.)
• Banking (again:) Loans, Financing (your business,) 
• Taxes: Income, Property, Gross Income, Use
• Intellectual Property (Secret Sauce,) Trade Marks, Patents, Copyrights, Assignments
• Marketing: websites, business cards, branding, blogging, e-mail, Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Professional Advice: Attorneys & Accountants & Management Consultants of various kinds
• Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity Planning, Procedures, Documentation & Archives (Pictures, Recordings, Videos, Documents)

Big Take-Away Messages:

• Become a student of your market & industry, love it
• Work *on* your business, not just *in* it
• It's a business, not a child - your goal is to sell it
• Feedback! - Feedback! - Feedback! (Employ a creative process of discovery.)

Miscellaneous Links

Indiana State Small Business Resources

Federal Small Business Resources

Accounting & Bookkeeping Resources

Employer Resources

Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Oxford University, Free iTunes Lecture Series on Building a Business

Michael Gerber's E-Myth

Free Annual Credit Report

Zoho Books inexpensive ($24/mo) on-line accounting system

Microsoft Excel Templates: Statements of all kinds

Excel Balance Sheet Template and PDF

Excel Income Statement Template and PDF

10 Common Mistakes that Startup and Small Companies Make

10 Suggestions for Creating a Successful Startup 

My Five Mistakes seminar delivered to the Madison County Main Street Project

From the developers of the CoreFour Business Planning Course workbook:

Sample Business Plans

Lending Worksheet, includes the 5 Cs of Credit

Lending Case Study, includes a prototype lending request loan officer writeup - for the Case Study on Slide 10 of the Powerpoint Presentation

Sample Cash Disbursement Journal

Operations Powerpoint Presentation

From the Googleplex: Peter Sims, Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries. 

More Operations related topics you might not have thought about.

• Training, Culture, On-Boarding
• Productivity
• Team building, uniforms
• Security & Safety, Emergency Planning
• Franchise Mentality: Measure everything, document everything
• Liability insurance
• Dashboard - Quality
• Policies and Procedures, Employee Handbook
• Banking relationships
• Hiring - the disaster that bad/suboptimal employees can be