Steps Within Step 5 (from The Basics)

21st century Tools: Moving any business forward requires an intentional commitment to Continuous Improvement Cycles -- this is the byline of knowledge management.

Your unique knowledge is one of your most important assets and it needs to be aggregated, maintained, and made selectively accessible to your communities, then to your customers, and then to your potential customers.

Your web site is the infrastructure for it. Use tools to open it up so others can help you maintain and update it. You need to create a virtual office so there is no time that you cannot perform all the work you could do in your office from anywhere in the world with a telephone.

SPECIAL CASE STUDIES:
1. People Power
2. Job Creation in New Mexico
3. Leadership
4. Albert Black
5. Judi Jacobsen

2. Build on the Past / Your Inner Community: The people who know your past can help you anticipate your future. Business valuation, sustainability, equity/liquidity models, and exit strategy should all be uppermost in your mind. Your past is one good indicator of your future.

Now your meetings with your local bankers, accountants, and lawyers take on a new demeanor. They are listening more carefully to you. Every encounter is important. Every discussion a potential key to unlock a new sale, a new insight for fine tuning your business, a contact for a key employee, a possible investor, and even an insight into your competition.

3. Structuring your time. We've all heard that today is the first day of the rest of your life. It is not quite true. Time has many strange illusions. So in fact, you bring your past with you. The past defines who we are. So be humble. We all make mistakes. All of us have clay feet.

What can we constantly learn from our past? All the details are still right there. Go over the details one more time to see if there is something more to learn. Mistakes teach; successes reinforce; getting it right builds confidence.

Continuity of your communications. Consider creating a virtual office and be sure to use project management / performance management tools as well. We are using a system called Cabrillo.

4. Projecting the day to hire another full-time employee. If you haven't already looked at it, you might enjoy studying the episode, The People Part of business. If you are a family business, there is something to learned within the study guides of all these businesses listed here. If you are thinking of franchising your business, study these episodes.