The Small Business Troubleshooter: 152 Solutions to the Problems Faced by Every Growing Company Book

	Instant Troubleshooter	13
	Preface	15
	Introduction	17
Chapter 1	Where are you headed?	21
	The importance of planning	21
	Preparing your business plan	22
	Goals: a sense of direction	25
	Business or busyness?	26
	Simplifying work procedures	27
	Preparing your operations manual	27
	Maintaining confidence	31
Chapter 2	Minimizing risk	33
	Living with risk	33
	How to test an idea	34
	When your image is tarnished	34
	Avoiding trouble with leases	37
	Putting your agreements in writing	38
	Insuring yourself	40
	Avoiding high legal costs	40
	Taking deductions for a home office	42
	Responding to change	43
	Medicine for business success	44
Chapter 3	The bitter harvest of poor organization	47
	Every project needs to be organized	47
	Your employees: assets or liabilities?	48
	Whom do you trust?	49
	Are your records reliable?	50
	What records should you keep?	51
	What computers can (and can't) do	52
	When you must decide--now	52
	Putting time on your side	53
	How to avoid mixed signals	54
	Reorganizing before you must	55
Chapter 4	Getting the money you need	57
	Keeping enough cash on hand	57
	When you need to borrow	57
	Unusual loan sources	58
	Which loan is best for you?	59
	Acquiring a letter of credit	62
	Some surprising government aids	63
	Personal sources of funding	63
	Using your vendors as partners	64
	Improving the way you handle credit	65
	Speeding up collections	67
	If you have to go to court...	67
Chapter 5	Do you have the right people?	69
	Selecting new employees	69
	How to pick winners	70
	Why hire a senior citizen?	71
	When family is involved	72
	Minimum wage exemptions	73
Chapter 6	Managing employees	75
	No train, no gain	75
	Overtime pay during training?	76
	Too much work--too few people	76
	Safety penalties	77
	How to disagree with OSHA	78
	Managing medically related absences	78
	Successful team building	80
	Basic team requirements	81
	Avoiding team problems	82
	Why teams fail	83
	When performance is below par	84
	Correcting behavioral problems	86
	Addressing discrimination	86
	Dealing with sexual harassment	87
	Communication between the sexes	89
	Personality clashes	90
	Getting rid of your mistakes	90
	When you need to cut back production	91
	How to sell an unpopular idea	92
	Stopping the rumor mill	93
	When employees strike	94
	The end of the line	96
Chapter 7	Motivating employees	99
	When motivation is missing	99
	Tapping into attitudes	99
	Providing opportunity to perform	101
	Getting better ideas from employees	101
	What the best need most	102
	How to handle an overachiever	102
	What keeps morale up?	103
	How not to lose your best people	104
Chapter 8	Paying for performance	105
	How to link pay to performance	105
	The unconventional approach	106
	Rewarding lower-paid employees	107
	Bonuses: blessing or curse?	107
	Stock options offer strong incentives	108
Chapter 9	Who's in charge here?	113
	Delegating the workload	113
	Setting an example	115
	Controls are vital	116
	How to use outside advisers	118
	How to learn from your banker	119
	Learning from your accountant	120
	Do you have the right lawyer?	121
	Getting more from your advisers	121
	No substitute for personal contact	122
	Mentoring	123
	When a partner wants out	123
	Choosing your successor	125
Chapter 10	When hard work is wasted	127
	Serving and controlling	127
	Using time as a resource	129
	Resolving internal tensions	129
	The cure for too many meetings	130
	Meeting preparation	131
	Who should attend?	132
	Handling cynics and silent types	132
	Increasing participation	133
	Follow-up	133
Chapter 11	Handling finances	135
	Maintaining financial control	135
	Causes of unnecessary costs	136
	Is your product priced too low?	137
	Evaluating your cash flow	137
	Managing accounts payable	138
	How to avoid fraud in payables	139
	Dealing with a cash crisis	140
	Staying on top of inventory	141
	Performing a break-even analysis	143
	A workable billing procedure	145
	A budget you can live with	146
	Controlling staff expenses	147
	Employee health insurance	147
	Establishing trade credit	148
	Selling your receivables: pro or con?	148
	Can leasing save money?	149
	Return on investment	149
	If you get a letter from the IRS...	150
	If you think the IRS is wrong...	151
Chapter 12	When customers aren't happy	153
	Why customers are lost	153
	Keys to customer satisfaction	154
	Staying focused on your market	154
	Customers buy perceived value	155
	Know the competition	157
	How to get the facts you need	159
Chapter 13	Change before you have to	161
	Picking a niche in the market	161
	Testing customer reaction	162
	How to market a new product	164
	How to launch a new product	165
	Pricing your product or service	166
	Preparing a customer proposal	168
	Coping with a shifting market	170
	Will it sell to the government?	172
	Can you take it overseas?	174
	Getting beyond survival	176
	What growth demands	177
	Family ties and binds	178
	Growing too fast	180
Chapter 14	Avoiding trouble	181
	Keeping partners together	181
	Good partners are hard to find	182
	Your worry is contagious	183
	Caught off guard	184
	Crisis alert	185
	Crisis control	186
	Learning from a crisis	188
	Worst case: a hostile takeover	189
	When hard work isn't enough	190
	Coping with failure	191
	The essential steps in rebuilding	192
	Starting with the P&L	193
Chapter 15	Making a new start	195
	When it's time to sell the business	195
	What's your business worth?	197
	Shopping for a bargain	200
	Conclusion: Become your own troubleshooter	203
	Other books by Roger Fritz	205
	Index	207