qprev_HBB Manual 2.qxd - Small Business BC

Future-gazing can never be accurate but you willget better at predicting costs, trends and marketdemand as your business experience grows.Business records give a running record ofestimates and reality. The adjustments neededbetween the two will lessen with time andexperience. Factors not anticipated can be addedto plans, steadily reducing risk and unpleasantsurprises.Keeping track of costs is one of the first essentialsteps in the process of controlling costs. Theseare business management skills that continue tobe important throughout the life of the business.Environmental ImpactUntil recently, few Canadians knew much aboutthe impact of their business operations on thenatural environment. Now, over 90 per cent ofthe population identifies it as a top priority issue.The environment is no longer something that newsmall home-based businesses can afford toignore.Start thinking about the environmental impact ofyour business early. If production processes havehazardous by-products, by-laws may prevent youfrom establishing a business home base, even ifyour conscience doesn’t. Legal, environmentallysafe disposal of any such product is a businesscost that will likely rise with pressures forenvironmental regulations as awareness ofhazardous materials grows. Liability forenvironmental clean-up will be a parallelbusiness concern.Marketing analysts predict a “green” boom inmarketing in the years to come, including use ofthe “environmentally friendly” aspects ofproducts to promote sales. Studies of “babyboomers”,those influential consumers bornbetween 1940 and 1960, show that thisdemographic group is environmentally aware andplaces value on the environment. These trendssupport the need for any new business managerto be equally aware and to consider theenvironmental attitudes of target markets.An obvious example is for your business toestablish a recycling policy for paper and otherwaste which you produce in the office orworkshop. Contact your municipality forinformation on current recycling programs andincentives in your area.Business Cycles and Economic TrendsBusiness cycles in our economy often follow apredictable pattern. Understanding and workingwith those business cycles can prevent you frommaking costly mistakes. If you ignore or don’tunderstand how business cycles affect the overalleconomy, you may make the right businessdecision, but at the wrong time. For example, abusiness producing custom-made windows won’twant to expand when housing starts are downand construction is slow.The particular form that these business cyclestake in your trading area and industry can bebetter understood by talking with local peopleand industry contacts, and by steadily adding toyour knowledge of current business affairs.British Columbians are having to adjust quickly tointernational realities. A home-based businessoperation, no matter how small, is part of widereconomic relationships which are changing andreforming quickly. No new business can avoidbeing influenced, or can afford to ignore theinternational economic picture.solutions for small business home-based business 97