The Small Business Paradigm
Founders and managers are subject matter experts, who primarily focus on working “in” the business, more so than “on” the business. They are heavily enmeshed in production and marketing, sometimes to the detriment of planning.
They look at financial data as time permits, and then mostly in a historical context (“what happened, how did we do?”). Small business owners and managers more often than desired find themselves reacting to events and putting out fires.
They operate on first on instinct (which partly explains why they took a risk and started a business in the first place). Entrepreneurs trust their instincts, and rightly so.
But what happens when the business begins to grow, when the employee counts pushes past 10, 20, 30, 50? When accounts receivable and payable multiply in size? When the financial picture becomes more complex?
Who has time to look at all the financial data and make sense of it when he or she is trying to run a business, keep production and services on track, and find new customers? Who has time to dig into levels of detail and figure out what to adjust to hit a target 12 months out?
Understanding how small businesses think and operate is critical in today’s economy. Daily visibility of your company’s financial picture and forward planning are key elements in any plan to survive an economic downturn and thrive against the competition, as customers (B2C or B2B) retrench.
Agility and the ability to change course are essential. First, you have to know and understand exactly where your company stands financially and operationally. Second, you have to have the tools to analyze and project forward, to run “what if” scenarios, and to see exactly where to make changes to reduce expense and increase revenues.
And it has to be quick and easy, so you can seamlessly incorporate it into your routine and get back to what you want to do - building and selling widgets.
Qvinci Software has developed a tool for small business owners and managers to help them accomplish these things. We know the paradigm, and we designed our software based on it. Everyone assimilates visual information more easily and readily than numercial data and verbiage. That was our premise, and we took it from there to build a usable, eye-opening solution for small business.
Qvinci is powerful, inexpensive, and easy to learn and use. In 10 minutes over morning coffee each work day, you'll have a complete picture of your company. Where it's been, where it is now, where it's headed, and what to adjust to keep revenues on or above your targets and expenses under thresholds.
We want to foster discussions about not just our tools, but more broadly about how small businesses can use the positive elements of the paradigm, such as drive, focus, and subject matter expertise, to their advantage, while overcoming the negative elements by using technology and best management practices to gain complete visibility and understanding of their financial/operational status and to move quickly to fix problems and seize opportunities.
[Our co-founder-CEO's operational roots are in small business. He has a successful track record as a turn-around expert and COO/CEO of multiple technology companies, including: turning around a $50MM international software organization losing $13MM annually (converted to profitability within 6 months); refocusing a $6MM company and putting them on track to exceed $30MM revenue in 3 years; and driving a startup to $1.4MM in revenue and 45% margins in 1st year. We are committed to helping small businesses succeed.]
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