The RMS Titanic sank 100 years ago today. In that time, do you know how many businesses have sunk?

Neither do I, but I’m sure it’s a lot.

There are lessons learned from the Titanic disaster that prevented future shipwrecks, but what about lessons that can prevent business failures?

Lesson 1: Expect the unexpected. The largest ship on the sea at the time, the Titanic was known for having advanced safety features that were touted in marketing materials claiming that she was “designed to be unsinkable.”

In business, whether it’s a matter of getting involved with questionable partners or investors or simply believing that your great idea just can’t fail, it’s good to be realistic. Does anybody design a boat to be sinkable, after all? No, but icebergs happen! People don’t plan businesses to fail either, but often, big dreams and unrealistic claims or expectations cloud an entrepreneur’s judgement. So learn from the Titanic, and recognize up front that unforeseen events are going to come up, no matter how much of a “sure thing” your business will be.

Lesson 2: Plan! Perhaps because they didn’t heed lesson 1, the Titanic crew left port with only 16 wooden lifeboats and 4 collapsible boats, which gave them the total capacity to hold under 1,200 people (about a third of the Titanic’s capacity).  The ship could have taken 64 lifeboats, which would have meant space on a lifeboat for more people than were even on the ship. And the crew wasn’t properly trained, so many lifeboats were put into the water with fewer people aboard than they could hold.

A good business plan will help you prevent this kind of catastrophe in your business. Whether it’s an inventory issue, a cash flow challenge, or just about any other business circumstance, doing a little work ahead of time can go a long way toward saving the life of your business. If your business plan indicates that you’ll have a cash shortage, you can’t just wing it and hope for the best. Banks don’t like it when your cash out exceeds your cash in. Your plan will tell you if you need to adjust the timing of when you collect on credit (or when you pay debts), and nobody has to jump into the sea. (Check out our free Cash Flow Calculator if you’re interested in more about this particular situation). Having enough cash on hand is as important to a business as having enough life boats.

Lesson 3: Heed the advice of others. About an hour and a half before she sank, the Titanic was warned by another ship, the SS Californian, that pack ice had prompted the Californian to stop for the night. Apparently, the Titanic’s wireless operator decided to ignore this warning and continue on. Big mistake!

Admitting that you don’t know everything might not be easy, but in business you have to be willing to learn from others. Not only should you at least consider the advice of others in your industry, but you should seek it out. Find mentors, counselors, or advisors who can help you avoid common mistakes or make tough decisions. Don’t be the guy in the radio room who says  “Ah, they’re overreacting” minutes before your ship goes down.

The “your business is like a ship” analogy comes up a lot. On his Planning Startups Stories blog, Tim Berry frequently talks about business planning in terms of steering the ship, and revisiting a business plan to make course corrections, much as a sailor would use navigation tools to keep on course. In this case, learning from a real maritime tragedy can help you make sure that your business won’t get lost at sea.

Happy new work week, month, year, and decade. Are you glad to let 2010 go? Me, too. As we look at our businesses for this coming year, maybe we can do some things better, which may mean doing fewer things — or just the right things. Some ideas are better opportunities than others, and some ideas aren’t opportunities at all.  Here’s a quick list to help you jump-start the year:

1. Beware of lists like this one; business doesn’t generalize very well. You aren’t typical. Use this and others as thought generators, something like the occasional whack on the head, but take nothing for granted.
2. Look for contiguous growth first. Not all growth is created equal. Selling an existing product to existing customers is way easier than selling a new product to new customers.
3. Strategy is focus. Find the sweet spot of your business. What really drives it forward and makes it grow? Some customers are better for you than others, and you get them because some of what you do is better than the rest of what you do. Can you concentrate and do something really important a lot better?
4. Remember the displacement principle: everything you do rules out something else you don’t do. Sure, we’re entrepreneurs, so we want to do everything well; but this is the real world.
5. Know what knobs you can turn. Close your eyes. Imagine you and your business as you are sitting in the driver’s seat of a vehicle. Now think about what knobs you can actually turn. What’s realistic? What can you actually do that will help?

Think about some of this for awhile, and you’re heading towards strategy. Develop it and put the specifics around it, with some concrete steps and ways to measure progress, and you’re a long way towards business planning.

(Image: snail_race/Flickr cc)

If you’re reading this blog, it’s safe to assume you’re somewhat Web-savvy, right? You’re operating a computer, you have access to the Internet. You found a blog you were interested in reading…

So, do you have a website? If you operate a small business, how do your customers find you?

As a software company employee, I probably spend more time online than the average person. I acknowledge that. But I don’t think I’m too terribly out of the ordinary in my personal (as opposed to professional) reliance on the Internet as a source of information.

Here’s what I know. If I search for a company and can’t find them online, I make certain assumptions. Either they’re a small-time operation, they’re brand new, or they don’t want to be found.

Now, the last possibility — not wanting to be found — is the only acceptable reason to not have any Web presence. And by acceptable, I mean it’s a questionable business decision, but an acceptable rationale for not having a website. If your business plan is to NOT attract new customers or make yourself available to your existing ones, then you’re doing great by not having that website.

photo by flickr user tonythemisfit

Let’s assume that invisibility is not your goal, though. Maybe you’re a mom and pop operation. You don’t take online orders and you don’t care if your company’s name gets in front of anyone in any other part of the country or world.

You still have customers or clients. And you want them to be able to find you. Maybe all they need to know are your hours of operation, or your phone number, or your street address. Maybe they want to look at your breakfast menu, or whether you service their make/model of car. And maybe it’s midnight… There are too many ‘maybes’ to list. The point is, when even your grandfather has a phone capable of browsing the Internet, it’s more important than ever to make sure that people can find you.

An ad in the yellow pages doesn’t cut it anymore. According to MarketingCharts.com, a 2009 study showed that 63 percent of consumers and small business owners use the Internet as their first source of information. So if you’re not making yourself available to them by having a website (and according to the study, a shocking 56% of small businesses aren’t), you’re basically hiding. At best, you’re making your customers take extra steps. At worst, you’re inviting your customers and potential customers to go to your competition.

You don’t have to be a computer programmer to make a website. In fact, website design is pretty easy, with templates and step-by-step wizards available to guide you through the creation process. You don’t need to know code or be a designer to create something that will look nice and be useful. Companies like our partners at Network Solutions offer great deals on packages that include domain names and hosting, site building tool, and even personalized email addresses.

It’s 2010. Any business, of any size, without a website is simply waiting to be passed by.

-Jay Snider
Palo Alto Software

Seems like I’m getting a new flow of e-mail lately from well-meaning people asking for “tips on new business” or “tips on starting a business,” as if there were some storehouse of generic tip treasures that are waiting to be distributed.

Here are two examples:

I ran across you on [the web] and wanted to send you an e-mail and see if you would offer any advice in, well, any part of this new direction I am taking. I read your “About Me” section on your site and you have seen it all! This is something completely new to me and I am looking to do better than most right out of the gates. Anything you can offer would be appreciated!

I have been working in my field for more than a decade now. I believe I am quite adept at meeting challenges, too, but I get numb when it comes to starting up a new venture or business of my own. Basically, lots of ideas just scatter away. I always get this feeling that a paper plan is good enough only if it’s simple, actionable and time bound. What do you think? I need some sound advice and tips from a man like you who has seen it all.

How do I answer requests like those? As soon as I start to even think about it, the obvious platitudes well up in my brain like a flood of useless, boring, obvious advice: Give value. Be true to yourself. Do something you like doing, something that people will pay for. Buy low, sell high. Bootstrapping is better if you can get away with it, but can be bad if you end up stifling a business that might have prospered with more capital. Don’t spend more than you take in.

Business, and particularly startup business, isn’t generic. Every case is different. I like answering questions–you can see a bunch of my answers at Entrepreneur.com and at bplans.com–but I don’t have a stock answer for a request for general generic wisdom.

Tom Taulli, author and entrepreneur, wrote a great article about the five key steps when starting a business at the Entrepreneur’s Journal this weekend.

The advice is well worth a read and there’s a bonus as he talks about our own Tim Berry’s new book, The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan.

Way too many people fail because they don’t recognize that nobody’s really good at everything. They play too close and too tight. Get help.

It’s a short read, but chock full of great information.

This is also a great opportunity to let everyone know that Tim’s book, The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan is now available at Amazon.com for purchase. Pick yours up today!

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software