The Three M's

In this post, my goal is to share with you, the reader, the most critical things I learned in business school. Although my undergraduate work was in Philosophy and Russian, I did go back to school for my MBA.

The first important lesson I got in the MBA program was The Rule of 72. 'Nuff said.

The second important lesson was The Three M's. The Three M's are the critical success factors for all businesses. As important as The Three M's are for big business, they are even more critical for small businesses and microbusinesses.

What are those critical success factors?

Management: can you manage the enterprise or put together a team that can?

Market: can you sell this product/service to enough people (and for more than it costs you to provide it) to make it worth your while?

Money: can you get the required initial capital investment to get the business up and running?

Small businesses and microbusinesses need to understand these critical success factors and how they apply to their business. Frequently, we are working with technician/entrepreneurs who are doing all their own actual WORK. They might even be a little overwhelmed. That's why The Three M's are so important--if the things you are working on are NOT related to one of the critical success factors, you must ask yourself whether or not it is worthy of your time. Frequently, it's not.

Next up: more on The Three M's. We'll talk a little bit more about what each means.