Operations, finance and marketing traditionally make up the business success triangle.  While each of these areas are necessary for long-term, sustainable business growth, natural tension often exists among them.   And, this tension is healthy for sustained growth. 

It is especially important for entrepreneurs, solo-business professionals and small business owners to not only understand but to strategically manage the operations, finance and marketing components for continued growth and development.  However, entrepreneurs often focus on one area at the detriment of the other two.  When this happens, the business often becomes unbalanced and can result in loss of customers or worse - the business has to close. 

Here are key focus areas for each component: 

Finance -- Deals with numbers including: gross revenue, net revenue, profit margins and cash flow.  Often referred to as "bean counting,"  this part of the business is one of the easiest areas to outsource to experts.  However, every business owner must have a grasp on their business finances or they will quickly go out of business.  For example, there may be significant profit but not enough cash flow to keep the business operating.  Finance tip:  Count your beans even before you have beans to count.

Operations -- Manages all aspects of delivery of products or services to customers.  The quickest way for a business to loose credibility and clients is promising a product or service and not being able to deliver easily and timely.  Operations tip:  Test your delivery system so that you understand the experience your customers will have. 

Marketing -- Conceives products and services that solve client problems or pains.  Then, turning prospects into to paying clients or customers through promotions, sales, advertising, media, joint ventures, alliances, social media and public relations.  Marketing tip:  Know what your prospects want to buy before developing products or services to sell.  

While many entrepreneurs are responsible for all three areas, incorporating strategies to ensure that each area is fully developed, creates checks and balances for the business, thereby, ensuring the business continues to grow and prosper.