BEST PRACTICES/BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
MANAGING THE HEALTH OF YOUR BUSINESS
WHERE TO START
Start by heeding Mark Cuban’s advice: “Know your business and
industry better than anyone else in the world.” Great business
leaders succeed not only by making sound decisions and taking
action, but also by listening, observing and learning. Knowing
42 TCBusiness.com
Paul M. Berman, partner and CEO of
Commerce Health Consulting has more
than 20 years of experience in business
leadership roles in the consumer goods,
hospitality, HVAC, pharmaceutical and
medical device industries. His company
provides business and marketing
consulting to large, medium and small
companies across multiple industries.
CommerceHealthConsulting@gmail.com
(561) 609-5082 (Mobile)
PAUL M. BERMAN
your business, industry, market, competition and potential
disrupters is absolutely critical to the health and success of any
business, regardless of size.
Whether you are running a restaurant, building custom homes,
installing HVAC equipment or managing a regional hospital, you
will optimize your success by adhering to three core principles:
1. Understand the health of your market.
2. Measure the health of your business.
3. Improve the health of your business.
If you’re massively successful, chances are you’re already doing
all three. If you’re just “doing well” or perhaps even not so well,
these three principles will create nothing but opportunity. Let’s
take a look at each one in more detail.
UNDERSTANDING MARKET HEALTH
Before starting a business, investing in an existing business,
considering an acquisition, introducing line-extensions or new
products, targeting specific demographics, or entering a new or
adjacent market, it is imperative that businesses have a solid understanding
of the market(s) they are targeting to enable sound
decisions and ensure subsequent business success.
Understanding these variables should involve:
1. A thorough analysis of existing market and industry data
and research.
2. Frequent interactions and networking with industry and
market experts.
3. Qualitative and quantitative market research to understand
current and future trends, needs and customer purchasing
behaviors.
MEASURING BUSINESS HEALTH
Just as we should always be vigilant about assessing and
managing our personal health, the same is true in business.
Conducting frequent business health assessments is necessary
to build and maintain success and growth. You must always
know and track how well your business is performing versus the
competition on top line growth, net profit, market share, operational
efficiency, financial management and strategic and tactical
planning. Create a simple dashboard that enables you to keep on
top of these metrics and react accordingly. You must know your
business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. These
insights should create the basis for action plans that will improve
the health of your business.
IMPROVING BUSINESS HEALTH
Knowledge is power, but only if it’s leveraged. Action is key,
so use what you learn to optimize the performance and success
of your business. Truly knowing your market and business will
enable you to apply greater discipline, which will lead to greater
profitability, stronger growth and increased market share. You will
have the information needed to develop better branding, better
marketing, better inventory management, a stronger and more
engaged organization, and a more clearly defined vision and
strategic business plan. v
COMMERCE HEALTH CONSULTING SNAPSHOT
Commerce Health Consulting provides experiencebased
business and marketing consulting to small,
medium and large businesses across multiple industries,
including consumer goods and services, hospitality,
pharmaceuticals, medical devices and HVAC. At
Commerce Health Consulting, we treat our clients
as partners and we are driven to provide focused,
actionable, strategic and timely insights (“F.A.S.T.”). We
don’t “waste time” on over-complicating project scopes,
analyses or recommendations. We aim to help our clients
better understand their business, brands, customers,
markets, competitors, and potential disruptors in order
to co-develop impactful, implementable strategies and
tactics that deliver near and long-term business success.
More information is available at
www.CommerceHealthConsulting.com
FOR ADVICE ON MANAGING YOUR BUSINESS DURING THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK: www.CommerceHealthConsulting.com/covid-19-advice
/www.commercehealthconsulting.com
/covid-19-advice
/TCBusiness.com
/www.CommerceHealthConsulting.com
/covid-19-advice
link