it. She lost a lot of money and a lot of pride.     Axiom:You need a flexible continuing operating plan for your business.     Advice: Make sure you can adapt your business plan to changing circumstances.     5. Know When Youve Succeeded-Or Failed     Success in a small business involves meeting your objectives, especially the one that says you have a positive cash flow by a specific date. Normally it shouldnt take long to know whether your business will meet your objectives.     Many people wait a year or two to see whether the business will succeed. I think thats a mistake. Instead, figure out how long it should take for your potential customers to hear about your opening and then add a month or two. In a retail business, thats usually no more than three to six months, depending on the type of business and how good a promoter you are. Put another way, your sales will probably level out three or four months after you open. People in service, wholesale and small manufacturing businesses may expect a longer start-up cycle. For example, a real estate agency normally allows six to 12 months for money to begin coming in. Thats how long it takes to find clients, negotiate deals and generally get known in the community.       What if your sales are less than you expected after you have been operating four months? Do you triple the advertising budget and hope that sales will pick up? I hope not. A more sensible psychologically difficult for many people to do. Its all too easy to get hung up on proving that your original plans were right, rather than accepting what the numbers tell you.     Example:Pierre, who had never run a business, bought a failed cafe. He was confident in his abilities to turn the cafe around, since he had a degree in hotel management and was an accomplished chef. Pierre projected $30,000 a month in sales and budgeted accordingly. Actual sales in that first three months were $12,000, $18,000 and $16,000. Sales leveled off at the $14,000 per month level for the next several months, resulting in a first quarter loss of $60,000.     Pierre cut back to where he was only losing $2,000 or $3,000 per month for the next three months, but stuck to the idea that he could generate monthly sales of $30,000. In the meantime, he sold his house and his wifes jewelry to keep up with the bills. Many people suggested that he make cutbacks so that he could make a profit on $14,000 per month or, as an alternative, sell the restaurant. So far, he has refused. If he doesnt take in $30,000 a month soon, hell go broke.     Pierres approach is not one I would recommend. Here is how I would tackle this sort of problem. I would take the first four months total sales and divide by four to get a monthly average. Then I would design a Profit and Loss Forecast to make a profit at that level of sales. To do this, I would have to cut back. I would also pay a lot of attention to both the quality of my food and techniques to get the word out in the community. For example, if Monday and Tuesday evenings were slow, I might close the restaurant and start a cooking class those nights. If my efforts to generate more business failed, I would think about closing.     Axiom: You can fool yourself into waiting too long for success.     Advice:Before you open your doors, establish a time when you will review your business performance to see if you are meeting your goals. This forces you to compare your results to your plan. If your business is not doing as well as it should be early, you still have a chance to make