Small business owners resolve to watch details

Finch had the same experience as many new entrepreneurs: “I was doing everything.” The things he didn’t like or felt he was bad at, he did get someone else to do. Yet project management didn’t fall into that category, until now.

The impetus for the resolution was the fact that “our growth hasn’t been as spectacular as we expected it to be, and it all comes down to execution,” Finch said.

He’s well aware of the irony that a company that sells project management software has been struggling with that very process. So, Journyx will have someone to handle that part of the business in 2007.

Shnack, meanwhile, says her company needs a business plan to grow. Her business, Asia Business Connect, helps U.S. companies do business in China, and vice versa.

“There’s so much opportunity that we need to have a business plan to stay focused and to have a strategy to grow the business,” said Schnack, who is based in Sedona, Ariz., and who has two business partners in China.

Many companies start putting a business plan together because they want to get financing from a bank or investor. But Shnack is following the advice of small business advisers who believe a business plan is a blueprint that helps companies be run in an organized, purposeful fashion.

Some business owners are resolving to take better care of themselves personally, because that will in turn help their companies.

Rempel’s resolution, to eat lunch, is interesting because she routinely skips the meal although she has a home-based business.

“It’s the first thing that’s always neglected and I’m realizing how important it is for your health and my company,” said Rempel, owner of SimplySoles, an online and catalog shoe retailer.

“It affects my demeanor, and being in the customer service industry, I need to keep my energy high and my gratitude for the customers showing in every call.”

Rempel has other resolutions more directly connected to running the company, and they also involve paying attention to some of the small but important details. For example, she’s going to be more vigilant about creating a record of every customer phone call.

“I’m always on the phone, running from one crisis to the next, and many of my phone calls are short snippets here and there,” Rempel said.

“Unfortunately we have a different recollection of that call when or if something doesn’t happen per our expectations down the road.”

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