Chapter 4

The bright rays from the sun peeked into the room through the small opening and the dark red curtains with a golden trim wasn’t doing anything to hide it and it looked like the creamy sheers behind them were ashamed of themselves for letting the light through. The clocked showed 6.30 AM when the phone rang and she pushed the sheets to its side and reached for it since she was already awake. It was the receptionist promptly making the wake-up call. She thanked her and placed a breakfast order, her usual and felt refreshed after a good nights sleep. She couldn’t remember when the last time she had slept for 8 hours straight was and it felt good. It was a nice room with a neutral light yellow wall paper with simple leaves and flowers which was rather pleasant to look at. It had a window air condition which was desperately trying to push the panels join the dance floor with the sheers. The painting on the wall to the right of the bed, two kids picking shells and playing by the small river and the mother watching them from a park bench nearby; the detail and attention given to the cloths and facial expressions was what she liked the most about the picture. By the time she heard a knock on the door, she had taken a shower, got dressed and was grooming her hair.

Starting a small business is easy but running one well is not. As soon as the work starts coming in it seems it's the business owner that's doing all the running - running to keep up with invoicing, paying bills, keeping records and buying supplies. That's before any of the projects they have in mind are even considered. It's a wonder the paid work ever gets done. Let’s strip down the operation of a small business to its essentials: Producing quality products and services; Pricing your products and services fairly and profitably; Following an operating and organizational plan to success; and Treating employees and subcontractors well. Your first priority is to do your paid work because, without that, nothing else matters. What you'll learn in this course is how to set your prices so that they cover your costs and the cost of the time you spend while at the same time allowing you to make sure you give your customers the quality they wanted when they bought from you. When she walked listening to the words and took a seat at the rear.

Once you have that time blocked off, you need to develop a plan for your business. You need to know how to make plans for projects and for your organization so that you can schedule time to develop your business, break down the work into small steps and keep track of your progress. Part of this process is to keep simple records of what goes on in your business and the direction in which you want to go. After covering your customers and your internal matters, let’s discuss on how to treat suppliers, subcontractors and employees as partners, letting them share in the success of your ventures. We'll first explore how to keep your business structure simple by running your business without employees, using sub-contactors and suppliers. But, depending on the business you have chosen, you may find that you need to hire help I shall give you tips on hiring, keeping and motivating key employees. Once you get your business organized and running smoothly, you will have time to focus on your customers and to start moving the business towards your targets. You started your small business because you had some goals in mind - if you don't seem to be getting there, it's time to take control and get going. She had heard this and learnt it from Chari and slowly her mind wandered off to a different time and a different place.