Leaks in your business “hull” are those insidious processes, practices and habits that drain your precious resources of time and money. Is your hull leak-proof or is your business taking on water? One or two small leaks may not be serious enough to sink your business, but let them go unchecked and pretty soon no amount “bailing out” your ship will keep it afloat. Here’s a little diagnostic quiz to test for leaks in your business.

Have you ever played 20 Questions? You know, the game where you get to ask 20 yes-or-no questions to identify a place, person, situation, event or object? Below is the BizEnrich version of 20 Questions for business owners and executives. Every question requires only a “Yes” or “No” answer. Treat “I don’t know” and “sort of” answers as a “No.” Grab a sheet of scratch paper to keep a tally of your “No” responses. You may not like the answers, but treat the questions as a way to help you start identifying those leaky areas of your business that need fixing NOW.

Are you ready? Go with your gut and trust your first response to be the “right” response. Here we go:

1. Does your visual branding match who you are and what you promise to do for your customers?
2. Do you really know what your customers think and feel about you? Really?
3. Do you regularly analyze the quality and consistency of your customer experience, and then make appropriate adjustments based on your findings?
4. Is your website attracting enough of the “right” prospects and engaging your existing customers to become loyal fans?
5. Have you successfully adjusted your sales and marketing strategy to overcome the down economy?
6. Have you developed and implemented a measurable strategy for social media networking?
7. Have you successfully incorporated video into your stakeholder (customer, employee, shareholders, and community) communications?
8. Have you updated your employee training in the past six months?
9. Are you doing anything different to motivate your employees in this down economy?
10. Are you using your financial statements (Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Cash Flow Statement) for intelligent financial decision-making?
11. If you have someone other than you doing your books, do you examine your bookkeeping records for accuracy and theft at least every month?
12. Have you squeezed all of your unnecessary expenses out of your Income Statement?
13. If you have inventory (consider billable hours as time inventory), are you doing everything possible to “right-size” your stock on hand?
14. If you import or export, are you confident that you are complying with 100% of US and foreign regulations?
15. Do you have a regular and comprehensive routine of measuring your key performance indicators?
16. Do you have adequate hardware and software to support your business processes, as well as written contingency plans in place to avoid technology disruptions to your business?
17. Have you taken all the appropriate steps to mitigate legal risk from your business? Employment? Contracts? Products? Services? Buyout? Owner disability?
18. Are you earning enough from your business investment to “retire” when you want?
19. Do you have a long-term succession plan or exit strategy?
20. Are you getting good advice for your business from outside professionals right now?

How did you do? Any “No” response to the questions above may indicate a serious leak in the hull of your business ship.

With awareness of leaks (problems) comes responsibility…

Responsibility to act.

We encourage you to contact BizEnrich to inquire how you can turn every “No” into a confident “Yes.” Contact us right away and we will respond to your request within 24 hours. You may also visit the BizEnrich member and sponsor pages to contact a solution provider immediately with your questions.

Join the growing “flotilla” of enriched businesses that trust BizEnrich members and sponsors to provide them with “water tight” solutions to their business leaks.