Posted: April 8, 2011

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I recently had the pleasure of watching Bill Murray in the movie "Groundhog Day" and it reminded me of just how closely his situation resembled what small business owners go through each day. For some small business owners, every day is Groundhog Day.

If you recall, Murray plays Phil Connors, an egocentric and jaded TV weatherman covering Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pa. But Phil gets caught in a never-ending "do-loop" and is forced to live the same day over and over again.

When was the last time you reviewed and evaluated your own business practices and financial situation? Do you really know what's taking place in your business?

Don't be Phil Connors. Examine your business and, if necessary, make changes to keep it moving forward. Don't confuse motion with progress.

Items to examine include:

Financial analysis: Do you really understand your business's overall financial health? Are you managing the right ratios? Have you and your accountant/bookkeeper sat down and conducted a thorough review of the balance sheet, income and cash flow statements? Are sales and expenses being tracked and are they in line with projections? How about taxes: Is your business current and paid up? Do you have loss prevention tools and procedures in place?

Marketing analysis: How much are you spending on marketing, and what is it purchasing? What is the return on your marketing, public relations and advertising? Is your message being heard by prospective customers? Are you concentrating too much on getting new customers into the store at the expense of neglecting current customers?

E-commerce: If you have a website, when was the last time you did a thorough review of the site and its content? Is the content up to date, relevant and correct? Does it connect to readers or just sell to them? What about website traffic; what metrics do you track? Where does your company place in search engine listings? There is a lot of power and money in being on page one or two of a search. If you conduct online purchases, how easy it is to conduct a transaction?

Physical plant: If you have a store or office where you conduct business, when was the last time you brought in an outside observer to look around and comment on what he or she sees? Is your place neat and professional-looking, open and welcoming, or the opposite? It is amazing the things we overlook on a daily basis that detract from the overall "look" of the business.

When Phil Connors finally experienced his epiphany, things changed for the better. This too can be the same for small business owners.

Is your business caught in its own Groundhog Day?

Jim Carroll is the vice president of small business for the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce and executive director of the Hampton Roads Small Business Development Center. He can be reached at 664-2595 or www.hrsbdc.org.