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How do you maintain having a business?

Tyriq, age 19

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Subject: Career question for you

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Hagen’s Answer

Tyrig,

Simple question but complicated answer. Assuming you are able to create a small or large business so you move from the creation stage to the run or what is often called the "steady run state" there are two keys to maintaining your company.

First, you must continue to do what you do well. Generally, people pay a business to provide a service; internet, plumbing, banking, streaming. You must, at minimum, continue to deliver that service well. So few or no drops in internet services. No leaky pipe after install. ATMs up and running. Few or no pauses in video stream quality. Just maintaining a high (enough) quality of service so people don't start to look for alternative businesses is it's own challenge. Maintaining can change a lot as your business grows - what used to work, doesn't work as well as you grow.

Second, the good news and bad news about business markets is they are always changing. New streaming technologies such as 5G show up. Do you need to create a 5G offering? Do you need to adjust your pricing to compete with 5G? In plumbing there was a big shift away from copper tubing to plastic tubing which changed the kinds of skills needed and generally made plumbing easier which meant more people could do it themselves or more companies entered the market. How do you adjust your steady run state to that change? Banking went though the whole online banking shift such that all banks had to have websites and apps (which is expensive). How do you stay abreast of the banking market and still maintain your quality. In streaming everything is 4K now. Do you have the technology to offer 4K (which is expensive) even though you're not really able to charge much more for that service?

So it can be a big challenge to maintain your existing services and service quality which upgrading the underlying technology and remaining profitable. If your business is small then you may be able to focus on maintaining quality and making sure your internal costs such as labor and materials stay low. If your business is large, your base customers can help you pay for the changes you need to make while you make them. But many businesses have gone out of business because they couldn't keep up with the changing markets. There are no video stores now that people can stream the same content from home. Blockbuster failed to adjust to its changing market and it is gone.

Hope that helps,

Hagen
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Katherine’s Answer

Two resources that can give you ideas and solid help are the book EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey, and this workbook: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/ldsorg/topics/self-reliance/2017/14678_sgmb_book_eng.pdf?lang=eng
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