I believe you will agree with me that you want everyone in the company to be efficient, effective, and earning a profit for the company. The first place you start checking on is the job that each employee is supposed to be doing for the company. Are they doing their job to the best of their ability? Is their best ability good enough for what the company needs done? The key is that the person doing their job needs to be involved with setting the rules and boundaries for their job with their supervisor at the beginning of their position at the company. The last sentence of their job description needs to read along the lines of “and any other responsibilities that management deems necessary.”

 So just for grins, let’s start at the top of the company organizational chart with the owner’s job responsibilities. No surprise, the owner is responsible for the company and all that it does or is supposed to do. With all of that being said, what would be a quick and easy way to know if the owner is doing what they are supposed to do? Running a business is like flying a commercial passenger jet; running out of fuel is an absolute no no! Running out of cash in a business is the same absolute no no! If you make the mistake in either situation, NO one will be able to help you quick enough, regardless of your need. The owner MUST use their smarts to make sure they do not allow themselves to get put into a situation they cannot recover from!!! In the commercial passenger jet scenario, the pilots use their flight plan to make sure they are burning their fuel over the proper time and space. The owner is using the same type of flight plan. It is composed of the company budget, the company income statement and the company balance sheet to make sure that the company is where it should be according to budget. If it is not, corrective action must be taken in a timely manner or the company may get into a situation that it cannot recover from. In order to get correct information, the owner must set up and monitor a reporting process in order to get correct information in a timely manner. Accurate and timely numbers come from keeping track of all of the company’s costs for labor, material, subs, rent and any other expenditures the company has. The process will also determine whether or not the work that the company does is profitable work and whether or not to continue doing the different types of work the company currently does.