Small Business: Management Audit

A Comprehensive Free Resource of Small Business Information, Packed With Dozens of Guides, Tools and Techniques.

Introduction to the Management Audit

Small businesses often fail because owners are unaware of the many elements that can prevent the business from growing and being successful. Often, small businesses are organized around the manager's specific area of expertise, such as marketing, accounting or production. This specialized expertise often prevents the business owner from recognizing problems that may arise in other parts of the business.

This audit will provide the small business entrepreneur with the essentials for conducting a comprehensive search for existing or potential problems. The audit was designed with small businesses in mind and addresses their unique problems and opportunities.

DESIGNING THE AUDIT

The authors have combined case evidence, logical procedures, expert advice and systematic thinking to create a management audit for small businesses. This instrument is not exhaustive, i.e., the business owner/manager still must rely on personal judgment and past experience. However, it does provide a systematic framework to ensure that critical areas have been addressed before action is taken. The audit is a tool, not a replacement for good management skill. Audits and handbooks cannot do the consultant's job; however, effectively designed instruments, such as this audit, can save

time for the seasoned as well as the novice small business manager.

The authors studied actual case reports to find out what management practices were being used by small business, and used that information to create this audit.

HOW TO USE THIS AUDIT

In order to gain maximum effectiveness from this audit, the small business manager should answer all questions in the audit, with an affirmative answer indicating no problem and a negative answer indicating the presence of a problem in a specific area.

After completing the audit, the manager can review the analysis of each section of the audit that follows to determine what action is most appropriate. The audit analysis provides an overview of how the various elements of the audit are related. The audit covers seven critical business functions: basic planning, general bookkeeping and accounting practices, financial planning and loan proposals, sales and marketing, advertising and promotion, personnel and production.

In the healthy and financially sound small business, these seven functional areas are in balance. In many cases, one cannot work on all seven areas at once. The manager must decide which area to concentrate on based on past practices and the needs of the business. Regular use of this audit instrument can help make the small business manager more efficient.

Outline of the audit:

Basic planning

Personnel

Production

Sales and marketing

Advertising and promotion

General bookkeeping and accounting

Financial planning and loan proposals

CONCLUSION

The authors have attempted to present a methodology for enhancing the success rate of growing small businesses. This methodology helps the small business manager to critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of all facets of the business. By using the management audit instrument and the audit analysis on a regular basis, the small business manager will be better able to see pitfalls in sufficient time to react appropriately, thus ensuring a greater possibility of business survival and prosperity.

Food For Thought
So many people waste so much time and effort seeking approval.
There's nothing wrong with wanting the approval of others. It is when we need approval at any cost, that it becomes a big problem. If you require the approval of others, you give them control over your life. And you sacrifice your own uniqueness in order to be the way someone else wants you to be.

Here's an irony for you to consider. Think of the person in your life who commands the most respect and approval. Chances are, that person is heavily opinionated and clearly defined, and does not change his or her behavior so as to win the approval of others. In other words, the people who have the most approval are not the ones who seek it out.

You can never gain approval by seeking it. Rather, people will respect and approve of you because of your integrity and consistency. Follow your own path. The world needs the contributions of each individual. If we were all the same, life would have little meaning. The vibrancy of life comes from differing opinions and ways of doing things.

Don't worry about what other people think. Be true to yourself and your own beliefs, and you'll gain the respect, admiration and approval that you deserve.

Try to hold water in your hand, and it slips away. Immerse yourself in the water, let it flow around you, and you can experience it as long as you wish.
Life is much the same way. Life cannot be contained or held in your hand. To experience life, you must immerse yourself in it. You cannot squirrel it away or keep it only to yourself. You must let life flow through you to fully experience its joy.

It is not necessary to possess in order to enjoy and experience. Too often, we spend so much time and effort trying to hold and possess, that we are unable to enjoy whatever it is we desire. The concept of "need" assumes limitations. When you free yourself from the need to possess, you are free of limitation.

Learn to appreciate and experience beauty, people, food, and ideas without having to own or devour them. It will bring you lasting, unconditional freedom, peace and joy.

Today in the United States we celebrate our nation's Independence Day. On this day in 1776 the Continental Congress adopted The Declaration of Independence, a document which detailed the grievances of the American colonies against the British crown and declared the colonies to be free and independent states.

On this day we celebrate freedom.

Freedom is an empowering and sobering concept. It gives us the opportunity to succeed, and also to fail. It allows us to make our own way in life, and requires that we accept the responsibility for that.

Freedom is impossible without responsibility. The two simply cannot exist apart, and no amount of legislation can ever change this. You can be truly free only by being totally responsible for your life and your actions.

Though millions have died for it, and most would choose freedom over any alternative, freedom can often be very frightening. It often imposes difficult decisions, and requires valiant effort to maintain. Though freedom is indisputably the best course, it is seldom the easiest.

Freedom has given individuals and communities the ability to create great things. Magnificent works of art, immense wealth, productive industry and technology, literary masterpieces, athletic triumphs, caring, compassionate healing and many other beautiful things spring forth from people who are free to pursue their dreams.

Freedom is a human catalyst that has no equal.

Thankfully, freedom is available to more people than ever before. But just because it is availble, doesn't mean you have it. To be truly free, you must accept your freedom, and all the responsibility that comes with it. To be free means being your own person, with your own purpose, and passion, and integrity. And just as it has to thousands of communities and millions of people, true freedom will bring you greatness.