Published: November 20, 2008 11:15 am      

Checking your business' health

Brad Bunt, director of Kilgore College’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC), spoke with area business owners and employees Tuesday afternoon on how to give a “Business Health Check-Up” in order to keep business thriving during these uncertain economic times.

The seminar was held at the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce and was hosted by both the chamber and North Central Texas College

SBDC director Catherine Keeler.

Bunt was accompanied by Kilgore counselor Virgil Conner. A graduate from the University of North Texas, Bunt said business has always been apart of his life.

“I’ve owned two Subway sandwich shops, although I shouldn’t have sold them because Jared started losing all that weight and they’re booming even bigger now,” said Bunt. “I’ve had a racehorse, never do that, and rental homes, so I’ve been in a lot of different things.”

His primary reason for coming to speak at Gainesville, he said, was to try to help give local business owners an outline to keep their businesses healthy.

“As you know, we’re in kind of an economic downturn,” said Bunt. “It’s more important now for businesses, its owners and employees

to start thinking about some different things. Things may get a little tighter and you’re going to have to learn ways to kind of constrict off the rations and look more intensley to make sure you can still operate.”

Bunt then presented his plan or his “Business Health Check-Up Questionnaire,” which covered everything from management, operations and finances.

As far as management goes, Bunt said, every company should have a clearly defined mission statement.

“That’s something you want to start thinking about in this time of turmoil,” said Bunt. “You want to start defining exactly who you are and what you do, so you might want to start thinking about a written mission statement.”

Bunt also advised that the statement can be modified, but should always be known to employees.

“You need to make sure they are buying into your vision of what you need to accomplish,” said Bunt.

Bunt also said it is very important to determine your market niche or what makes your company stand out from competitors.

Paige Davidson, owner of Paige Davidson Gallery and Cahoots Handbags, said her niche is that she is her only employee which allows her to not only have a personal relationship with each customer, but she can cater to their individual needs.

“Because it’s a one woman show essentially, I’m the one talking to each of the customers that I’m selling to and finding out from them what sort of needs they have as far as our bags go or as far as our art goes, so we do a lot of custom work based on what their needs are,” said Davidson.

For example, added Davidson, one customer wanted to have her grandad’s WWII uniform made into a handbag. That individual order then sparked into an entire new handbag line and now Davidson receives similar orders from current soldiers stationed in Iraq wanting bags made from their uniforms for their wives.

Harold Otts, owner of Otts Furniture, said his primarily reaches his customers by word of mouth.

“We have people that we’re now selling to their grandchildren,” said Otts. “We’ve been here so long and I suppose we just have a good reputation.”

Bunt advised both the owners to prepare their own budgets and not to let another employee handle it.

“It’s a bad idea for a small business owner to have personel prepare the budget,” said Bunt. “I’ve met a lot of people who say, ‘Well I get my manager to put together the budget.’ But generally speaking, if it’s not their money, they don’t watch it as tightly as the owner would, so owners always need to stay intimately involved in that with input from employees.”

Bunt also advised the following suggestions: employees should know what is expected of them and have a written job description, owners should know exactly what the business is and who their competetors are, owners should determine the most effective way to advertise and the company should have an adequate cash flow.

To learn more about the “Business Health Check-Up,” please contact Keeler at 668-7731.