About C-Level Reflections

Ravi Patel has over 35 years general, financial and operational management experience in C-Level executive positions with multi-sized companies in diverse industries.

Having substantial experience in leading and consulting with entrepreneurial companies, Ravi utilizes this blog to share useful management thoughts to hopefully assist Entrepreneurs in growing their companies.

Ravi is the President and CEO of Patel CFO Services (www.PatelCFOServices.com) that provides financial and entrepreneurial consulting services .  He can be reached at Ravi.Patel@PatelCFOServices.com

Knowing Your Business Model

How well do you know your business model? As an Entrepreneur have you thought about this question?

One has a successful company as the end result of having a consistently well-functioning business model. An Entrepreneur needs to know exactly how his/her business model works.

What are the key Revenue drivers? Is there a competitive advantage? Are there any barriers to entry? Do you have proprietary technology?

What are the key cost components? Are they well controllable? What costs are fixed and which ones are variable? Is your model labor sensitive or capital-intensive?

What are the other variables that have a significant influence on your model? Distribution? Customer service? Rapid response times?

An entrepreneur has to not only to know answers to the above questions and more, but more importantly he/she needs to determine the sensitivity of each of the components to the whole model. What are the few variables, that have a tremendous impact on the model, if tweaked even slightly could make the model better?

Only when you can fully understand your business model, you can make it better! Do the Right Things!

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

 

Is Firing People Wrong?

There seems to be a lot of controversy in the Presidential primaries regarding Romney’s much publicized out-of-context remark that he likes firing people.

Is firing people wrong? Depending on the circumstances firing a person or a group of employees might be necessary for an Entrepreneur.

A continually poor performer in any enterprise becomes a liability to the other team members and the organization. If there is no change in the employee’s performance after repeated attempts to improve it, it would be wise to part company. Similarly if a third-party service provider does not consistently provide excellent service there is cause for firing that provider.

In a broader sense, for the survival of a company and a majority of its employees if a few employees have to be let go (after all other options have been exhausted), it is most often the right thing to do. As Spock used to say in Startrek, .. for the survival of the many, a few have to suffer.”

Firing people for spite, revenge, uneconomic, or irrational reasons is never appropriate, but letting go of people for the right rationale is not necessarily wrong.

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservice.com

Keeping Cool!

Entrepreneurs and leaders often face stressful and chaotic situations. Do you keep your cool demeanor in these circumstances? Or not?

Have you watched firefighters, policemen or even bomb diffusers operate in high-stress situations? Their ability to act calmly reassures everyone around them not to panic.

Similarly, leaders who stay calm and keep their cool under chaotic business situations inspire confidence in their employees. Instead of panicking, they all tend to follow their leader and behave productively to resolve the issues. If the leaders lose their cool, who can blame the employees for doing so too?

Great leadership inspires people to do phenomenal things. Calm and cool leadership in volatile situations prevents their followers from panicking or performing irrational acts or even worse inciting riots.

Be a cool leader!

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

A New Dawn in 2012

As you take on 2012, it is time to take a “Balance Sheet Review” of your business; not the true accounting numbers kind, but philosophically similar.

Entrepreneurs should evaluate their “assets” in the business – products/services, secondary leadership, people, customers, processes, etc. This should establish the strengths of your business to either build upon or further improve in 2012.

A determination of your “liabilities” will give you an idea of the weaknesses that need to be focused on in 2012. These “liabilities” need to be mitigated or converted to “assets” so that you can utilize them for success during the year.

By performing a “Balance Sheet Review,” Entrepreneurs can set their priorities, resolutions and goals for 2012 – a new dawn!

As Napoleon Hill said, “Hire good people, make money, and have fun,” in 2012!

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

Sharing During the Holidays

In a previous post on “Balanced Life for Entrepreneurs” I had mentioned that one of the four corners of a balanced life is the communities that you live in and conduct business.

Some Entrepreneurs dedicate a significant amount of time in civic, charitable and community activities. This effort is commendable. For some, it is part of their Mission and Vision.

For others, it might make sense to establish some type of focus on giving and sharing. What better time to start than around these holidays. In addition to your individual efforts in this area, you might want to lead your business and employees in community activities. Not only will that inspire your employees, but it will reflect your company’s s desire to share and give in the community that you belong to.

Happy Holidays!

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

“I Need Help”

These three words are so misunderstood, especially by Entrepreneurs.

Asking for assistance is sometimes incorrectly perceived by Entrepreneurs as a weakness in leadership or deficiency. Or as, it is too expensive to ask for help. Nothing could be farther from the truth!

It is widely accepted that Entrepreneurs initially start businesses because of unique, innovative ideas – not because they are professional chief executives. It is not fair to expect that Entrepreneurs are well versed in all major functional areas of a business. Asking for help in areas that are not their strength is not a sign of weakness.

In fact, soliciting assistance at the right time is rational and could save Entrepreneurs time, people resources, and money in the long term. As a strategy, Entrepreneurs may want to create a Mastermind Group of advisors whom they can ask for help at any time.

Asking for help at the right time is smart business.

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

Winners Adjust, Losers Complain

A recent Twitter post by Ed DeCosta – “Complain not about the wind. Adjust your sails.” offers great business advice for Entrepreneurs.

In this troubled economic times and uncertainty, it is very easy to complain about all the things that are preventing Entrepreneurs from succeeding. Some of the issues faced by Entrepreneurs including cash shortages, employee layoffs and poor morale, unsustainable overhead and fixed expenses, misaligned ratios of variable expenses to revenues, customer and product/service issues, high debt levels and so on are ripe topics for complaining.

Losers will take this opportunity to complain and find excuses to rationalize their failure, just as a poor sailor frets about the winds.

Winning Entrepreneurs and leaders, instead, adjust their sails to move forward on a steady course. Finding ways to increase cash flow; having employee work-sharing programs and non-monetary motivational programs to boost morale; reducing overhead and fixed expenses; realigning ratios of variable expenses to revenues, customer partnerships and product/service improvement initiatives; and restructuring high debt loads are all positive ways to adjust the sails.

What would you rather do? Complain about the winds or adjust your sails. Do the Right Things!

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

Be a Leader, Not a Hero

Entrepreneurs sometimes think of themselves as heroes trying to hit a home run or create miracles.

Heroes are created infrequently and for a short time. While you might feel that you have to rescue your company from all situations, it is not always possible and more importantly not the right thing to do.

Successful companies need long-term leadership that builds the organization and the employee team to solve problems and exploit opportunities in the absence of the leader. Dependence on a hero can only work in the short term or in a few instances.

While Entrepreneurs might think of themselves as super-heroes for starting the company and making it grow though its infancy, strong business leadership is necessary to nurture it for long-term growth and success.

Be a Leader NOT a Hero!

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

Be Thankful

Entrepreneurs have a lot to be thankful for!

First and foremost are our country and the free market system that allow Entrepreneurs the opportunity to create and grow businesses and prosper.

Employees are the backbone of companies and Entrepreneurs should be thankful for the dedication, loyalty and hard work put forth by their people to make businesses successful.

No business can sustain itself without customers and clients. Be thankful to your sources of revenue for putting their trust in you to provide services and products.

Entrepreneurs should also appreciate their suppliers and service providers who continue to supply essential goods and services to sustain their businesses.

Shareholders and financiers who have invested in your abilities to grow the business and provide a return on their capital should be high on the list of people to whom Entrepreneurs are grateful.

Do not forget to appreciate your gratitude to your business advisors who provide a sounding board for you to share ideas and seek advice.

Lastly, the community that you operate your businesses in should be appreciated also.

So on this Thanksgiving, I encourage Entrepreneurs to express their gratitude to the above stakeholders in your companies.

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

Should you Fire your Customers?

Some might ask what kind of question is that? Why would someone think of firing their customers?

While the old saying “the customer is always right” might be thrown around, it is not necessarily true that all customers are always good for your business.

Entrepreneurs might have to stand up and exercise their leadership by letting some customers go. Which customers are the ones that might be on the firing list?

Customers who are consistently not profitable for your business are not good for the long term. It is acceptable to have lower profits or losses from a customer over a short period for a potential lucrative strategic relationship. However, if the customer over a longer period continues to be a drain on your profitability, it might be time to let them drop off the list.

Chronic complainers, without legitimate reasons, are very difficult to service and cause undue headaches for your employees. Unless the customer has genuine reasons to be dissatisfied, it is not in the best interest of management to service clients that constantly create irrational demands on your staff.

Entrepreneurs need to develop an excellent reputation for service and customer relations, but if need be it is okay to fire certain problem customers.

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com