| by Bryan Ziegler,
Indian Hills Iowa SBDC, Ottumwa, IA When you start a business, its important to think about everything from legal requirements and sales tax to your marketing strategy and financing. But that can't end once you've got your business started and you're concentrating on the day-to-day fires. An existing business should periodically re-think or "restart" the business to verify that everything is still on track. Below are a few examples:  Legal requirements: It is appropriate to go through the motions of checking on all legal requirements, including sales tax, to ensure you're doing things correctly or that you haven't missed any changes in the law. In a sense, you're acting as if you're starting a new business. You also should check to see if you face any new legal requirements. For example, if you own an auto body shop, are you meeting new clean-air requirements?
Business name: Words and meanings change over time, and so it's good to periodically reconsider any negative impact your name could be having on your business. Although I haven't seen any research on this, my feeling is that a business's name can really influence its profitability. It is costly to change a name, but the cost of keeping a name could be greater if it's negative in any way. Dusseldorf cheap hotelsMarketing Strategy: Usually when you start a business, you are selecting a marketing strategy that is appropriate at that point in time. Often businesses get in a rut and need to rethink their whole approach to what they're offering the customer and how they're promoting that to the customer. Financing: The financing structure of the business should be analyzed. Even if a loan has been taken out for 20 years, this loan structure should be reconsidered every five to ten years, as there might be better opportunities to cut costs in financing. Remodel: In a sense, a business is like a mechanical system: every so often, it should be shut down, repaired, overhauled and then put back into service. This also can apply to remodeling the premises the business occupies. If a business does not change its appearance in seven to ten years, it's time to gain a fresh look. This doesn't mean that some of the fundamentals that have always served you well need to change, but it could mean just freshening things up a bit. For additional information on businesses issues, contact a consultant at a Small Business Development Center. > See also: Human Resources & Personnel | 
