Owning A Small Business

            Owning a wine shop, as with any small business, requires a lot of time a dedication. There are many skills required some of which can be learned in a college classroom, others come from personal experience and the advice of others. The most important skills needed for this job are the ability to satisfy customers (knowledge of the product, communications skills, etc.), marketing (Creating desirable image and public awareness), creating customer loyalty (share of customer, creating return business) and the ability to efficiently run your business (Break-even Analysis, making budgets and forecasting, Gross Profit margin). Secondary skills that are needed include delegation, management skills (the ability to surround yourself with the right people to be successful, getting most out of your employees, creating feelings of loyalty and dedication, Inventory control) .
             There are multiple math skills required in owning and operating a wine shop. Most of them revolve around basic math skills but very important to the success of the business. One of the most important is the ability to mentally figure out discounts and markups quickly. This is very important when talking with clients. Another important skill is being able to figure out your gross profit margin, this is done be using the formula: Sale Price minus Cost divided by Sale price. Another important skill is forecasting, this is the prediction of the productivity of the business over a period of time. In order to do this you have to be able to recognize patterns in growth or decline of the business over the past years, and how the economy effects the growth of the business. This is important becuase it influences the business's plans for buying, advertising, and expansion. .
             In order to run any business efficiently a proper background is needed. This comes from taking the proper courses in college to prepare yourself. Even though most of what you need to know about particular businesses is learned in the real world, a strong background can prevent you from making many common mistakes and can save you a lot of time and money early.