ANALYZE YOUR BUSINESS^TM

By SHAHRYAR RAEIS-HOSSEINI

www.CONTACT-INT.com

Small Business Consulting

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your business.

Please answer the following 100 questions. When you have finished, click on the view results button at the bottom to see your company's profile by business system.

1. I am working so hard that I don’t have time to run the business.

No   Undecided   Yes

2. We have defined our business strategies for the next 3 years.

No   Undecided   Yes

3. I am not sure how productive some of my employees really are.

No   Undecided   Yes

4. Engineering is generally late on completing projects.

No   Undecided   Yes

5. Company wide meetings are held at least once a month.

No   Undecided   Yes

6. The amount of debt we are carrying is a problem or a potential problem.

No   Undecided   Yes

7. Our brochures and promotional materials effectively produce repeat business.

No   Undecided   Yes

8. Our company website does not create much activity for us.

No   Undecided   Yes

9. Design reviews are held before a new product is released.

No   Undecided   Yes

10. Our employees use statistical process control graphs in their jobs.

No   Undecided   Yes

11. Bills of material are almost always correct.

No   Undecided   Yes

12. Developing new business is not a big part of our sales forecast.

No   Undecided   Yes

13. We have not defined the on-going needs of our customer very well.

No   Undecided   Yes

14. My business has no need for a "corrective action program.”

No   Undecided   Yes

15. Our company has no key advantage over our competition.

No   Undecided   Yes

16. Graphs of our key indicators are for top management's eyes only.

No   Undecided   Yes

17. Our competition has been taking away customers from us.

No   Undecided   Yes

18. A system is in place to measure individual performance.

No   Undecided   Yes

19. I am not achieving my financial goals for my company.

No   Undecided   Yes

20. We are not getting positive exposure from newspaper articles, free publicity, etc.

No   Undecided   Yes

21. Our engineers design products that are difficult to produce.

No   Undecided   Yes

22. I have at least one person whose only job is to develop new business.

No   Undecided   Yes

23. We are late on many deliveries because of how we schedule.

No   Undecided   Yes

24. Departmental meetings are held on how to improve the process.

No   Undecided   Yes

25. If it isn’t broken…don’t fix it.

No   Undecided   Yes

26. Setting goals is not an important as part of improvement program.

No   Undecided   Yes

27. My production staff has little respect for our demanding customers.

No   Undecided   Yes

28. We are doing fine without a staff training program.

No   Undecided   Yes

29. I don’t have a measurement that shows the effectiveness of our Quality control.

No   Undecided   Yes

30. Employee turnover causes us quality problems.

No   Undecided   Yes

31. Our inventory items are correct and accurate at least 97% of the time.

No   Undecided   Yes

32. New products are usually introduced behind schedule.

No   Undecided   Yes

33. We maintain an annual budget with revenue and profit projections.

No   Undecided   Yes

34. My sales department frequently complains about delivery problems.

No   Undecided   Yes

35. I sometimes wonder if we are improving.

No   Undecided   Yes

36. I rate my credit collection staff a 9 out of 10 or better.

No   Undecided   Yes

37. We are able to deliver our product or service faster than our competition.

No   Undecided   Yes

38. Our customers often complain about mistakes on their accounts.

No   Undecided   Yes

39. I am kept waiting for up-to-date figures on our Receivables.

No   Undecided   Yes

40. Deliveries to our customers are normally on time and better than they expected.

No   Undecided   Yes

41. Our cash flow problems are affecting how we do business.

No   Undecided   Yes

42. I use customer complaints as a means to improve my business.

No   Undecided   Yes

43. Our people often don't understand how their jobs affect others in the company.

No   Undecided   Yes

44. We have a very loyal and growing customer base.

No   Undecided   Yes

45. We apply our quality program to our entire organization.

No   Undecided   Yes

46. New products are launched smoothly and on schedule.

No   Undecided   Yes

47. A good system exists to make sure our employees are using the most current procedure or document.

No   Undecided   Yes

48. I chart and graph all the key statistics of my company.

No   Undecided   Yes

49. At least 90% of our customers would say that they were satisfied with what we delivered.

No   Undecided   Yes

50. Our promotional campaign isn’t bringing in new business.

No   Undecided   Yes

51. Engineering and marketing have a technology / new product plan for at least the next 2 years.

No   Undecided   Yes

52. I often find myself solving problems that others should handle.

No   Undecided   Yes

53. Our company website creates a steady stream of new customers.

No   Undecided   Yes

54. Detailed job descriptions exist for all or most positions.

No   Undecided   Yes

55. My company has an excellent credit rating.

No   Undecided   Yes

56. Our facilities are always clean, uncluttered and organized.

No   Undecided   Yes

57. We do not have an active safety program.

No   Undecided   Yes

58. Our corrective action system is designed to cause change in our company

No   Undecided   Yes

59. We keep an active listing of all our past and present customers.

No   Undecided   Yes

60. We have no plans to become ISO9000 registered.

No   Undecided   Yes

61. A written business plan doesn't help me run my business day to day.

No   Undecided   Yes

62. It is only natural for labor and management to mistrust each other.

No   Undecided   Yes

63. Employee attendance is a major problem for us.

No   Undecided   Yes

64. We keep records that prove our people are trained.

No   Undecided   Yes

65. We have no internal audit system to verify our procedures and work instructions.

No   Undecided   Yes

66. Payroll is not always done on time.

No   Undecided   Yes

67. We don’t do special promotions targeted at our existing clients.

No   Undecided   Yes

68. Keeping graphs of key metrics helps move my organization toward its goals.

No   Undecided   Yes

69. We don't have a written company mission statement.

No   Undecided   Yes

70. Our equipment keeps us from producing a better product/service for my customers.

No   Undecided   Yes

71. Our average sales $ per customer is increasing.

No   Undecided   Yes

72. My company's fixed assets inventory is complete and up-to-date.

No   Undecided   Yes

73. I set objectives and goals with my management team at least annually.

No   Undecided   Yes

74. We do not have a regular communication going out to our current customers.

No   Undecided   Yes

75. A written strategic plan exists for our management team to follow.

No   Undecided   Yes

76. Over 40% of our business comes from one customer.

No   Undecided   Yes

77. Our revenue has grown steadily for the past three years.

No   Undecided   Yes

78. We restrict access to our quality manual and quality procedures.

No   Undecided   Yes

79. We have an active cost reduction program in place.

No   Undecided   Yes

80. I haven't yet trained anyone to manage and run the production/service areas as well as I do it myself.

No   Undecided   Yes

81. My management team and I develop strategies and tactics for our business together.

No   Undecided   Yes

82. I track sales, bookings, quality and profit against plan each month.

No   Undecided   Yes

83. We have an employee safety recognition program.

No   Undecided   Yes

84. I don’t believe in sharing our financial results with our employees.

No   Undecided   Yes

85. Our system is good at making sure we are using the latest engineering drawing.

No   Undecided   Yes

86. Public Relations is a key part of our marketing effort.

No   Undecided   Yes

87. Our meetings are worthwhile and a great source of information.

No   Undecided   Yes

88. We are losing business because of not enough follow-up with existing customers.

No   Undecided   Yes

89. Our cash position is better than it was a year ago.

No   Undecided   Yes

90. Interruptions throughout my day keep me from getting my work done.

No   Undecided   Yes

91. I believe that if you measure and track something that it will improve.

No   Undecided   Yes

92. We have a formal training system for all our employees.

No   Undecided   Yes

93. We are not considered the technology leader in our industry.

No   Undecided   Yes

94. We have successful programs for generating new business.

No   Undecided   Yes

95. We have a posted quality policy or quality slogan.

No   Undecided   Yes

96. We don’t have a formal system to change drawings or procedures.

No   Undecided   Yes

97. Responsibilities and authorities are clearly defined in our company.

No   Undecided   Yes

98. The communications flow smoothly and quickly to the right person with no confusion.

No   Undecided   Yes

99. I am not sure if our operations will handle our planned growth.

No   Undecided   Yes

100. My company gets new business from referrals from existing customers.

No   Undecided   Yes