Leadership Archives - Greg Weatherdon

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Regardless of whether you have two or twenty employees, leadership matters and for what it’s worth, there are few natural born leaders. That’s why leadership skills need to be learned and relearned all the time.

So here’s a question I bet most entrepreneurs don’t ever consider. Do you lead from the front or the back? Some entrepreneurs know instinctively when to lead from the front or to lead from the back. Others though need to consciously work at trying to balance between the two. But sadly too many haven’t got a clue and nor do they care.

To say that leadership is a large and fragmented topic, would be an understatement. A recent search of Google on the word “Leadership” returned an astronomical 4.7 billion results. That’s “B” as in billions. Therefore it’s safe to assume that there is lots of interest in the topic.

To be sure that with this many results there is bound be a fair amount of repetitiveness in the advice given. Fortunately, there are always those tried and true nuggets of wisdom that have stood the test of time.

One of those truths is that good leaders tend to be good leaders regardless of the environment. Having said that, one of the biggest challenge facing leaders today is that they may have to up their empathy quotient. This is so that they can accommodate the current crop of employees, as many appear to need more hand holding than previous generations.

Why step back?

Although every situation is different, the good leaders know when to assert themselves and take charge or when to back off and let someone else lead.

They’re confident enough to know they don’t always have to be out front. By relinquishing control, they give their staff the opportunity to grow their leadership skills.

Ultimately, the more you lead from the back, the more freedom you’ll have, allowing you to tackle more strategic issues, or to simply cut back on your workload.

The trick is to know when to take charge and when to let others do so. Finding the right balance is tough and should always be determined by the situation.

So when do you lead from the front?

So how often do you lead from the front? Unless you have a very green team, it’s a lot less often than you think.
There are a number of situations that require you, the owner, to step up and lead the charge. These tend to fall into two buckets, crisis or opportunity.

A crisis can best be defined as a showstopper. It’s any situation that can negatively affect the company’s reputation or performance and has a high degree of urgency.

Many times in crisis situations you don’t have the luxury of sitting back and letting things unfold in a natural way. It often requires immediacy of action.

This is where experience and knowledge comes into play, whereby the leader can react far more quickly to the situation.

Opportunities on the other hand may require someone to lead from the front for political or strategic reasons.

Here are some situations that may require you to be out in front and leading the charge:

Let’s first look at some crises situations:

1. Having a large client threaten to stop dealing with you after all attempts by your team have failed, would rank high.

1. Needing to defend the actions of your team with a client would be another situation. Many times the “customer isn’t always right!”

1. A massive competitive threat that comes out of nowhere might also qualify.

1. A product or service failure. You need to own it!

And now opportunity situations

1. Depending on your industry, you may need to lead the charge on launching a new product. This gives you the chance to get direct feedback, good or bad directly from your customers. Equally as important, it can show your customers and team that it is important.

1. Setting the vision or direction of the company requires you to lead from front. It’s not something you can delegate. Your actions speaks louder than words.

1. Matching is another situation where it’s important to be visible. Matching means exactly that. It’s where you match client title with your own.

For example, a new clients wants a presentation on your services. In attendance from their side will be mid-level person along with their company president or vice-president. In those case you should be visible and lead the conversation. It also shows the client that they are important.

The switch

Regardless of whether it’s a crises or an opportunity, the goal here is to ultimately relinquish the relationship to a team member.

This is done by stating something to the effect “Going forward Mary will be your key contact”, or “John will follow up with next week to discuss next steps”. By making that statement, you go from leading from the front to leading from the back.

Additionally, whether you lead from the front or the back, these situations must be used as teaching moments.

These teaching moments include taking the time to explain to your team the rationale for the given course of action and will be open to input.

However, being open to input doesn’t mean that you are obliged to act on it. So to counter this, you must take the time to explain why it will or why it won’t be incorporated it into the plan.

Equally important is that, when leading from the back you must let the individual know that you have their back and are available for consultation if needed.

In conjunction with this support, your job is to run interference for their team. In other words, you need to make sure they don’t get distracted with other people’s priorities.

Don’t jump in

The hardest part for any leader when taking a back seat is to avoid jumping in and rescue an individual when it’s clear that their chosen course of action will not achieve the desired outcome.

This was a lesson I learned many years ago as a newly minted district manager at a major consumer goods company. A big part of my job was to monitor, motivate and train a dozen or so sales reps.

Fortunately or unfortunately, very little of this could be done remotely. For the most part this was a feet on the ground undertaking, riding shotgun for hours or days as we visited dozens of accounts.

One of the golden rules when leading from the back, was never to interrupt or critique the individual, while they were presenting to a buyer. Sometimes this was painful, when it was clear that things were going off the rails or there was a missed upsell opportunity.

Had I jumped in to save the day on any of these calls, we would have surely walked out with a bigger order, but at what cost?

Taking control in those moments risked destroying the individual’s self-confidence and undermine their authority with that buyer. Not a fair trade to my way of thinking.

Instead, the right approach was to wait until the call was completed and undertake a post-mortem. Unless the individual was brand new, these after call reviews only took a few minutes and happened in the car on the way to the next call. Simple teaching moments that paid immediate dividends throughout the rest of the day.

Time well spent.

In hindsight, working this closely and exclusively with any team member for a day or two pays huge dividends. Unfortunately, that’s a rarity today and that’s a shame.

Fortunately though, time spent working with your team to show them how to be more effective is always a good investment. It gives you a chance to share your knowledge and experience, usually in real life situations instead of in hypotheticals.

People go to work to be successful!

Developing your team’s leadership capabilities by knowing when to lead from the front or the back is critical if you want to grow your company.

By developing a more capable workforce, it frees you up to spend more time on strategic initiatives, such as goal setting or keeping the organization on point vis-à-vis your vision. And let’s not forget the freedom to seek out new opportunities.

Understanding that if employees are enjoying their work and feel appreciated, they’ll perform at a higher level. There’s nothing new or complicated in that statement, but it’s surprising how misunderstood this simple concept is.

As with any delegation initiatives, the goal here is to free up your time and increase employee’s satisfaction. Always keep in mind that people go to work to be successful. Being bored with their work is a sure fire way to increase turnover.

There’s a time and a place to be that hard charging entrepreneur and there’s a time to step back. Knowing the difference can really help you and your company grow.

You may also enjoy SBM #33 Responsibility and authority

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Greg Weatherdon has been there, done that. As an entrepreneur, he learned not only how to get a business to the point of running smoothly, but also how to reduce the number of hours he worked, delegate more responsibility to his employees, and take longer vacations while his business chugged along like a well-oiled machine. And now he is providing the secret to success.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #106 – 4 Ways to deal with difficult clients

Tagged as: clients, customers, difficult clients, entrepreneur, lost revenue, relationships, revenue, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute, success

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The reality of being a small business owner is that you are going to have difficult clients. How you deal with them comes down to how much you are willing to endure.

These are the clients that hire you because of your expertise, but then try to tell you how to run the project. They can also be the type that doesn’t respect your time or are late in getting you the information you need but still expect you to meet the original deadline. Of course, let’s not forget those that expect you do more than originally agreed upon, and don’t think they should be charged more. I could go on, but you get the point.

(more…)

SBM #103 Complacency

Tagged as: Airbnb, complacency, customers, entrepreneur, expectations, lazy owner, small business expert, Small Business Minute, standards

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For Thanksgiving we decided to get the whole family together and rent an Airbnb. Since our family has grown significantly over the last few years with marriages and the explosion of grandchildren, we now require a much larger accommodation.

For the most part, many of the larger places also come with a higher price tag. In keeping with the higher price, such locations typically boast of a higher level of amenities. This is all good and is what it is.

As one would expect, with a higher price tag, there is an expectation that everything should be in working order and that cleanliness should be a priority, especially during this Covid era.

Unfortunately, what we encountered is a case of what I refer to as a “Lazy owner”. This is something I regularly caution all business owners against. No one sets out to be a lazy owner, but it happens to most of us at one time or another. Another term that can be easily substituted for Lazy owner is – complacency.

Complacency doesn’t just happen overnight, at least not for most people. No, it creeps in over time, where little by little we let our standards drop.

Short term vs long term complacency

Short term complacency is easy to understand and why it happens. When you consider that as entrepreneurs, we are always on and even for the best run companies, there are times when we have more issues to deal with than available resources. So, in our haste, we might let our standards drop a little.

However, once the storm has passed, conscientious owners usually up their game and re-establish their standards. Not ideal, but it happens.

Then there is the issue of long term complacency that has the potential to damage your business reputation. This kind of complacency truly reflects the lazy owner and is rooted in arrogance.

I say arrogance because the owners believe that they have a great product or service. It might be because it is popular and in demand now, so they feel they no longer have to try as hard anymore and dismiss any feedback as whining.

It’s been my experience that these owners used to sweat every detail about their business. They did so in order to establish themselves so, hard work is not foreign to them. In addition, their current success, reinforces that they have good instincts. Unfortunately, these good instincts can also lead owner to reject and negative feedback, because they think they are in tune. This combination can easily lull an owner into complacency.

Unfortunately, they fail to realize that they must put forth some effort in order to uphold those original standards. Sadly, many let success go to their heads and over time they lose sight of the finer points of their business and good enough becomes the norm.

Our experience

The Airbnb we selected had very high ratings and came with a price tag of $800/night. Not cheap but considering the size of our gang and the promised level of amenities, it was acceptable.

In general, the property met our expectations, however on closer observation, signs of complacency were everywhere. The following is the list of deficiencies we encountered during our 4 night stay:

1. Numerous burnt out light bulbs.
2. Very weak or no Wi-fi in many parts of the house. The listing stated working wi-fi however, the router was situated in a bedroom in the far corner of the original stone farmhouse which is not conducive for signal travel. Therefore, most of us had to use our cell phone data plans.
3. Satellite TV not functioning.
4. Water dispenser/ice machine on the fridge was non-functioning.
5. Remnants of leftover dry foodstuff from previous guests including empty containers.
6. An instruction manual that included updated data that was placed behind older instructions. The binder was full of with updated handwritten notes that conflicted with printed sheets and chalkboard information i.e., Wi-fi password, security codes, etc.
7. Numerous hairs found in and around master bedroom and bathroom.
8. A severely stained mattress and no mattress cover in one of the rooms. Unfortunately, it was not discovered until we were checking out
9. Unresponsive owner to text messages.

Except for the cleanliness issues, such as the hair and mattress cover, none of the items were a deal breaker, but it goes to show a level of inattention that is not acceptable.

So, what should have been done?

1. This owner should be doing is a quick walk around inspection between guests after the cleaning crew had left. Doing a walk around with a checklist would ensure the property was up to standards and that the cleaning crew was maintaining the property. I call this trust but verify.

2. Check the instruction manual. How hard would it be to check that the instruction book was up to date, without conflicting information? Writing in new information and scratching out the old is not acceptable.

3. If the appliances don’t work as expected, communicate that to the next guests or replace the unit.

4. Look up and around to ensure the lights are functioning.

5. Test the wi-fi and satellite tv and take corrective actions without the client having to discover sub-par performance. In other words, be proactive instead of reactive.

Unfortunately, this property appears to be consistently booked and therefore has effectively lulled the owner into a false sense complacency.

The review

After checkout, Airbnb requests a review of the stay. So, in a very diplomatic way, we mentioned the deficiencies. Unfortunately, the owner responded in what I like to call the “Not my fault syndrome”, suggesting that we were somehow at fault for some of the shortcomings and that we should have notified her, etc. etc. Which, by the way, we had attempted, but got no response.

So, instead of humbly apologizing, this owner goes on the attack. If you dig deep enough into the reviews of this property, you will discover that this a recurring pattern by this owner when faced with critical or negative reviews. Frankly, it’s not a great way to build relationships.

So, what’s the lesson?

I get it. We are all guilty of letting things slip occasionally, but it’s what you do about it that counts. When was the last time you took a fresh look at your office, retail space or warehouse? Is it looking a little tattered or cluttered with stuff? Are there a few more scuff marks on the wall or chipped paint than the last time you noticed?

What about your vehicles, are they clean and safe for your staff to drive? How do your employees look? Are they presentable or have their standards dropped? How do they talk to customers? Are they a little abrupt? How’s their language? Is it professional or a little too casual?

Even after you have asked all these questions, there is still a much bigger question to ask, and that is, how is your attitude? Because as an owner, you set the tone. Have you become little complacent and as result so have your employees?

Yes, these are all little things, but they go a long way to projecting your professionalism and show your customers that you are not a lazy owner.

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #100 – How much time do you really have?

Tagged as: efficiency, entrepreneur, inventory, manage, productivity, professional speaker, small business expert, Small Business Minute, time, work life balance

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

One of the biggest challenges of a service business is managing your inventory. Now you might wonder what inventory, besides a few stationary supplies you may have, that need to be managed?

Well, unlike a manufacturing, retail or a distribution business, where you have physical inventory that needs to be stored, sold and then replenished, service businesses on the other hand have a single and very unique inventory -TIME!

Time- It’s how you get paid!

Because as a service business, your product is the knowledge that you and your staff carry around in your head. Putting this knowledge or expertise to work is how you generate your revenue and that’s usually in the form of hours worked.

It can be argued that service technicians like appliance or auto repair have inventory, but for the most part you hire them for their knowledge and they in turn they charge you for the time it takes to fix the problem. Therefore, the parts although important, are secondary to diagnostic skills the technician possess, because without those skills, there wouldn’t be a part to sell.

Similarly, sales and marketing services companies also generate revenue by the hour, however, it is rarely shown as such as most fees are displayed as a total for a given project. But all the fees are calculated as an estimate of how much time or hours are involved in executing the project by the various staff members.

Establish some balance

One of the biggest issues with owners of service businesses is understanding that their inventory is finite and that they should be running their companies with that in mind. Unfortunately, this is contrary to how many of these businesses operate. They assume that they can just put in more time and work longer hours. Although feasible in the short term, it is rarely a long term strategy. Yet so many continue to do so.

There are some advantages to managing your business based on your available inventory of time. First off, it should bring a sense of balance to a business. Balance, as in work life balance.
Secondly, it would allow you to establish realistic delivery timelines to the customer. Let’s be honest, we all think we can complete an assignment quicker than reality dictates but that just stresses out your staff or annoys the client when we are late. So being realistic can reduce the occurrence of both.

Additional benefits of managing your inventory can be significant on the financial front. Foremost, you’ll quickly understand whether you are charging enough and whether your existing inventory of hours available can support your financial demands.

Calculate how much time you really have

Furthermore, you should also discover how efficient or inefficient your organization is and where improvements can be made. Increases in efficiencies can greatly enhance your profitability. A simple metric such as revenue per hour is great place to start in benchmarking any improvements. This calculation is done by simply dividing your total revenue by total payroll hours for any given period, including your own.

So, how do you calculate this inventory? Well, it is easier than you think, and it really doesn’t matter whether your staff is making $20/hr or $200/hr as it is the exact same calculation. Earning a higher hourly rate does not give you more hours in a day, as we all get the same 24hrs.

The following example is how you calculate your total available inventory of time in a service business.

1. Assume a 40 hour work week = 2,080 hrs
2. Assume 3 weeks vacation = (120)
3. Assume 11 statutory holidays = (88).
4. Assume 5 sick days = (40)
5. Assume 2×15 mins breaks/day = (12.5)
Total available hours 1855.5 hrs

So before doing this exercise, most owners assume they have 40 hours a week or 2080 hours per year per employee that are available to them. However, after taking into account vacations, stat holidays, sick days and coffee breaks, that number is reduced by 11% to 1855 hours per year or a loss of almost 6 weeks out of a 52 week year.

This number actually gets worse if employees are required to travel to clients as in the case of a repair technician or a salesperson. You can easily lose and additional 2 hours per day which is a potential loss of an additional 13 weeks per annum. So now we are down to 33 weeks of billable time in a year or 1335 hours from a high of 2080 hours. That’s a 36% reduction in available inventory or billable time.

Once you understand how much available time you have, you can now start to make realistic assumptions and projections. Of course, the challenge to all service businesses is the ability to maximize your available time inventory and make sure it’s productive.

Hiring more people not the best option

Unfortunately, the only way to increase your inventory in a service business, is to hire more people. But realistically, that’s not necessarily the best option, especially if you have demand peaks and valleys in your business throughout the year. So, finding tools or processes to increase productivity might be a better avenue to maximize your existing inventory.

Realistically, we are all faced with slack periods where there’s insufficient demand and people are not busy. Sadly, you can’t store any unused time for future use. Because once that minute hand on the clock moves forward, you have lost that inventory forever.

So, sit down with staff and explain the impact they can have on the business by being more efficient. Then ask them where the bottlenecks are and their suggestions to get rid of them, because once that inventory is gone, it’s gone!

You may also enjoy episode #59 Quit Digging!

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #99 Are You Ready?

Tagged as: entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, office, small business, Small Business Minute, work life balance

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

With the vaccine rollouts well under way in many countries, the talk has turned to the reopening of the economies. One of the biggest issues facing many entrepreneurs, is the return to the workplace.

At the start of the pandemic, millions of office workers were sent home to work remotely. Once the initial technical issues were resolved, everybody seemed to profess that they are never going back to the office and their future was a zero commute remote work environment.

So confident that this new structure would be the new forever normal, many moved out of the big cities to rural or small communities, never expecting to commute again. Unfortunately, this might be a decision that they come to regret.

Understandably, no one knew if or when a vaccine would be developed. However, in less than two years many countries are experiencing high vaccination rates and are slowly reopening much of their economies as life returns to some form of normalcy.

So, what’s next? Well for starters, offices will begin to reopen, and people will be required to show up for work. Just wait for the howls of injustice, that after more than a year of remote work, employees will be required to be physically present at their place of work. But, the interesting thing is that this vocal group may be in the minority.

Research

Recent research from KPMG is revealing that the majority of employees want to return to the workplace stating they “miss the social interaction, the buzz, the creativity of being at work”. However, they do want some form of hybrid arrangement combining the opportunity of working remotely part of the week.

Interestingly, another survey conducted by Accenture of financial firms in the US shows that 80% of executives want their employees to return office at least 4 to 5 days a week. Clearly there’s a misalignment between employee and employer expectations.

Just to muddy the waters a little more, EY conducted another survey, whereby more than half the employees surveyed around the world would consider leaving their job post covid-19, if they are not afforded some form of flexibility in where and when they work.

This juxtaposition could prove quite interesting for both parties. When you consider that most employers want people in the office, where exactly are those employees willing to leave their present positions going to go?

Lots of discussion

Apparently, HR consulting firms and employment lawyers have been exceptionally busy over the past 18 months. For the most part they been dealing with work from home challenges many businesses have had to manage, and it doesn’t look like it will subside any time soon.

The new challenge is how to deal with the return to office post Covid-19.

But, depending on the jurisdiction, employees may not have much choice as to where they work. According to some employment lawyers, employers have the right to expect their employees to return to the office as the pandemic was an aberration or a departure from the norm and didn’t change the employment contract.

Granted, for some businesses, working from home may not be an issue and therefore will continue the practice. However, other employers will be less open to continuing the work from home concept. This is primarily because the pandemic has shown that communications, productivity, and creativity has suffered because of remote working.

In SBM #89, Work From Home I related how IBM recalled 11,000 of their employees back to the office 18 months after sending them home to work remotely. They realized that they were missing out on the innovation that happened through in person interactions. So, I think there’s an opportunity to learn from their experience.

Now what?

So, the question to small business owners is what are you going to do? This question needs to be dealt with now and should not be put off, because once the economies reopen, you may be just too busy to give this the necessary thought.

The best advice I can give any employer is to decide what you want. Yes, it’s important to weigh the needs of your employees against any decision you make. But one thing we must remember is that your business is not a democracy. At the end of the day, it’s your business, your vision and your decision. The buck really does stop with you.

Managing the desire of employees to work when and where they want to will be an absolute nightmare for most small businesses. And let’s be honest, the reason many employees want this flexibility is that they are free to do what they want, when they want to do it. Whether that’s going to the gym or shopping and they’ll just do the work at nights or on weekends.

When you consider that prior to the pandemic the clarion call was for work life balance and the separation of the two. Now some have reversed their position solely in order to support their desire for utmost flexibility. Unfortunately, that’s not how the world works. Business needs to operate in a structured environment, where individuals can depend on their teammates to be available when needed.

For example, when everyone was working 9 to 5 at the office and a crisis erupted, the typical reaction was to gather everyone around and brainstorm a solution. The same could be said about an urgent opportunity. However, with everyone working when they want, chances are your company can’t effectively react with the urgency that these situations require. Unless of course you mandate that everyone needs to be available during normal working hours, but that is contra to their desire to work where and when they want.

Will a hybrid model work?

Much discussion has taken place around some form of hybrid solution, whereby employees work part of the time in the office and the rest of the time at home. This may be easier for a large company but probably less so for a small business.

Another major challenge to the hybrid model, is who gets to participate? It could be argued that administrative people can split their work, but what about the person responsible for shipping, receiving or order fulfillment? How do you make this situation equitable?

Another way to look at it, is if your employees were unhappy before pandemic, you probably have a leadership or other issues. However, if for the most part everyone was happy before Covid-19, then why should you change?

For many entrepreneurs, this situation is going to cause a few sleepless nights as they try to weigh their needs versus the needs of their employees. But at the end of the day, you have got to do what’s best for the business.

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

A year ago, had you asked small business owners what 5 things could put them out of business?, I would have bet a pandemic would not have been on their top 10 let alone their top 50 things. But a lot has changed in just over a year. According to the CFIB (Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses), it is estimated that 1 in 6 small businesses won’t survive because of Covid-19. The UK is also predicting hundreds of thousands of failures with the US expecting that number to exceed 1 million according to McKinsey.

Assuming the 1 in 6 estimate to be true, that means that approximately 83% of small businesses will survive. Most certainly won’t flourish and it’ll take a long time to recover, but they will survive. Unfortunately, with the ongoing lockdowns, just surviving is incredibly stressful, to say nothing about how exhausting it can be.

5 areas that require every owners attention

Managing the work-from-home environment is not easy for most small business owners. For many, current technology has made it possible to continue, but only after a number of implementation headaches and costs. The learning curve has been steep. Because for many, technology is just something they’ve never understood.

What we need to understand, is that most small businesses are run in an impromptu or spontaneous manner. The owners have been so busy trying grow their businesses prior to the pandemic, that the majority lacked formal processes. Most just spent their days acting, or more accurately, reacting to whatever the day had instore for them. They are more like fire fighters directing their staff on a moment to moment basis depending what fire was burning the most brightly.

To be sure this pandemic has forced a few owners to get better organized in how they structure their working days, but for many it has become quite the challenge in keeping everyone focused, productive and motivated. In episode #93 Pivot, I discussed the whole concept of pivoting, which is far more difficult than people are led to believe, but so is changing the way a company operates.

So this brings me to my question – What 3 things would put you out of business? Well if you are surviving, you can scratch off pandemic. Sadly, because so many entrepreneurs are so focused in the moment, they don’t realize there are a whole host of issues that can kill their
businesses in a heart beat. The following is a primer list of 5 pretty common areas that require every owners attention, in order to safeguard their business’s future.

“Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise, will sooner or later have to find time for illness.”

Edward Stanley, former Prime Minister of the UK

#1 Your health

Unfortunately, most of us don’t even consider what would happen to their life’s work if they were suddenly struck with an injury or worse a life threatening illness. What would happen to the business if you were laid up? Would it survive? If not, what would you do for income? How would you handle the debt? How would it affect your family? This is serious stuff and requires your attention. Contrary to what we think, we are not invincible.

The following are few of solutions that you can minimize the impact of a health problem.

First off, you should investigate disability insurance. Yes, it can be expensive and yes, it usually pays out less than you’re currently earning. But something is better than nothing.

Secondly, many health related issues are self inflicted by our lifestyle. Making time for some form of exercise should be mandatory for every owner. It can range from taking a daily walk to a full on cross-fit workout at the gym. Something is better than nothing. There’s a wonderful saying that kind of drives the point home and it is from Edward Stanley, former Prime Minister of the UK that says:

“Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise, will sooner or later have to find time for illness.”

An additional item that should be mandatory in every small business and that is delegate. By delegating absolutely everything you can to your existing staff, this will certainly relieve some of the pressure. That way, there’s a good chance that the business will survive, while you are laid up. Unfortunately, this is one of the hardest things to get entrepreneurs to do. (See Small Business Minute #18 Delegating is easier than you think)

#2 Key staff quits.

Having your key staff member quit can really ruin a perfectly good day and for some people it can take their business down.

People leave companies for a lot of reasons and sometimes there is nothing you can have do to prevent it. From career changes, to better opportunities to relocations, sometimes it’s just out of your hands. But in many cases it’s not. One of the top reasons employees leave is the lack of recognition and this is something you can control. An occasional pat on the back or some other form appreciation goes a long way. It can be as simple as a thank you for their efforts.

However, if a key employee leaves, what’s your plan? If you’re like most you don’t have one and chances are you don’t have a deep bench of trained people ready to assume that position.

Therefore one of the best things you can do is to cross train individuals. The secondary person doesn’t have to be as well versed as the key person, but they should have been given enough exposure that they could perform the job being vacated even though they may be less efficient.

Additionally, creating in depth documented processes for all positions, allows other personnel to perform those functions until such time as you can find a replacement. This will go a long way to ensure that your company will survive. (see SBM #34 Processes- Shampoo, Rinse and Repeat)

#3 Business interruption

Covid-19 aside, there are lots of things that can cause business interruptions. A flood, a fire, even vandalism can shut your business down for weeks, if not months. A closed business can’t generate cashflow, yet bills still need to be paid.

It is estimated that over 80% of small businesses have no form of business interruption insurance that would pay out a set dollar amount in the event of a catastrophe. This is different than typical commercial/business insurance, whereby the physical damage to your business is repaired. Business Interruption on the other hand can cover Gross Earnings, Profits, Extra Expenses. Certainly worth considering.

#4 Competition

What would happen if a new competitor came into your market, how would you deal with it? Being so focused on the here and now, is a great way to get caught off guard. As I’ve stated before, too many entrepreneurs are so busy just handling the daily priorities, they never have time to lift their heads up to see what going.

Inevitably, they are not even aware of that a competitor has set up shop until they start stealing your customers. By the time they do realize what’s happening that trickle of desertions turns into a flood and is hard to reverse.

One of the best ways to avoid getting sideswiped is to stay in touch with all your customers on a regular basis. Too often the only time business owners talk with their customers is when they call in an order. The thought is, “they know where we are if they need us and I don’t want to bother them.”

Staying in regular contact with customers signals that they are important to your business and can also provide you with competitive intelligence. Most customer don’t change on a whim unless you’ve treated them poorly. So, by staying in touch the fact that a competitor is circling is often shared, thereby giving you time to react. (See SBM #76 Pick up the phone)

#5 Bad debt

This one item alone has contributed to the demise of many small businesses. Aside from not being diligent in collecting receivables, having one customer represent more than 15% of your business can be potential fatal if they close their doors or refuse to pay.

When you consider that many small businesses have net incomes of less than 10%, taking a hit from a major customer can be devastating. For example if a client reneges on a $20,000 invoice and you only net 10%, you’ll need to generate $200,000 in additional revenue just to recover that loss.

When you think about it, most small business are not flush with spare cash, missing out a major payment means you can’t cover payroll, rent or suppliers.

If you do find yourself with a client that represents more than 15%, you have two choices. First grow your business to get them below that threshold or alternatively collect early and often. Don’t forget you can set the rules, so don’t be shy about protecting your company. (See SBM #20 Cash Flow, the Breath of Life).

These are just 5 areas that should get you thinking, but every business has it’s Achilles heel. Spending some time thinking about “What 3 things would put you out of business?” certainly deserves your attention. Then pick the #1 item on your list and make a plan.

Let me know your thought sand ideas in the comment section.

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Money, it’s one of those personal topics that many people are uncomfortable discussing. Why that is, varies from person to person.

Even inside a business that uncomfortableness exist, but that needs to change. Generally speaking, the only time the subject of money seems to ever comes up is in the heat of the moment in comments such as “Do you know how much that costs?”. Even then the word money is not used.

When I ask owners what business they are in, I usually get the expected answer such as “I’m in retail or I own a restaurant or I’m in a service business of some sorts.” These are all technically correct answers and serve to explain your enterprise to your external customers and strangers alike.

However, I would like you to consider an alternative definition that should be used internally within the organization and be at the forefront of your decision making process. What is that internal definition? Simply, “We are in the money business!”

And it matters not one bit what industry you are in. At the end of the day, you are in the money getting business. Pure and simple. You exchange your services in return for money.

The service you offer is nothing more than the vehicle you use to get that money.

This may sound a little crass to some because they don’t want to think of their business in such impersonal terms. Others are so emotionally committed to their desire to be an entrepreneur that they have fallen in love with their idea and not the business of the business itself.

Let’s be honest, the reason 99% of us went into business in the first place, is the allure of potentially making more money. To be sure, we had other reasons such as being our own boss, validating our idea or just finding a better way to do something. But at the end of the day, the majority of us were seeking higher incomes.

Focusing on money is not to say that you have to become Scrooge like. Nor does it mean caring less about your customers or how you do things. To the contrary, having higher profitability and more money gives you the ability to actually increase your service levels. The alternative means that you’re on the proverbial treadmill generating additional low margin business just to keep the doors open, which results in customer service taking a back seat to everything else.

No, it means being selective in where you commit this precious resource. It also means getting your staff to understand that their actions can impact, good or bad, the profitability and financial health of the company. But you need to reinforce that position with them. You need to make them understand that their actions have a cost associated with it.

Loving what you do is one thing, but it’s got to be profitable and the more money or profit you make allows you to build a safety net under your company. Consider for a moment, how unprepared so many small businesses were in the face of the Covid-19 lockdowns. Sadly, many have locked their doors forever.

Changing the mindset

There’s really only two things you need to know about money, where you get it and where you spend it. So, the logical place to start is to understand where you get your money.

It’s been my experience that just about every business has revenue categories. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs don’t bother to segregate their services into any formal groupings. As a result, they have no idea what percentage each product or service groupings contribute to their revenue.

But revenue grouping is only half the equation. We often hear that we should be focusing most of our time on revenue generating activities. I absolutely agree that this should be every entrepreneurs priority, with one added caveat. These revenue generating activities need to be profitable and we should be focusing on the most profitable of these activities.

Therefore, in order to determine which revenue generating activities are the most profitable, we need to be able to attribute what it costs to generate those revenue. You do so by allocating all the expenses incurred to each of the revenue groups. In doing so, you can now determine the most profitable areas of your business. In other words, what’s making you money, where you’re losing money and everything in between.

By having the ability to analyse your revenue categories, you can begin to make educated decisions. When you consider how much labour, overheads, and other expenses go into generating revenue and then to find out you lost money or only break even, it’s heartbreaking. Granted getting a nice big cheque for a project you just completed is a wonderful feeling. However, if it has a low profit margin, you are effectively just trading dollars.

So first and foremost, you need to prioritize your activities on the most profitable products or services you offer. Then you need to determine how you can increase your activity on these most profitable items.

At the end of the day your objective is to narrow your focus to those items or activities that are the most profitable and quit wasting time on marginal ones. There are only so many hours in a day available to you and your staff. If you subscribe even just a little bit to the 80/20 rule you’ll quickly determine that a lot of your energy and your staffs is wasted on low value products and activities.

I know many will say that they have to keep their prices low in order to compete. This is where you need to get your head around the fact that you are in the money business. If that’s truly the case, get the heck out of that line of business or quit offering that product. If you need to stay in that line of business, then find a way to increase the value of your offer without increasing your costs. That way you’ll you can demand a higher price, thereby increasing your profits. These decisions are well within your control.

A True Story

Many years ago, I undertook this exercise to determine where we were making our money. Although it was a tedious process, it was an eye opener. The net result of that undertaking was that I cut over $300,000 of revenue from the company by identifying low margin activities and clients in industries where, due to competition, we were unable to manage any form of price increase to make them more profitable.

This was at a time when my company had just achieved breakeven and this decision was going to be a major setback. However, as expected or maybe I should say hoped, our profitability grew significantly, and we were profitable in less than a year.

In hindsight, it made perfect sense and the risk was more imagined than real. When you consider that we focused on fewer but more profitable services and clients or labour and other expense inputs dropped dramatically, which resulted in more profits for the company.

In addition, this exercise helped us to identify and target those clients and industries where there was very little competition. Doing so allowed us to regain the lost revenue within 18 months and our profitability continued to grow.

Just to reinforce this point, Covid-19 forced many global foods companies to reduce their product offerings in order to focus on their core products. Lays, Procter & Gamble, Kraft and the Campbell Soup Company, stop producing, not just cut back many of their slower moving products because demand on their core products exceed their ability to supply. Some of these companies reduced their offering by upwards of 18%. Many of these cut products may never return to our grocery shelves because the companies realized that their profits came from their core products.

Spending money is easy, making money is hard

Another thing to keep in mind is, that spending money is easy, making money it is hard. Because of how hard it is to make money, every spending decision, whether that be on equipment or staff needs to be paid for somehow. For example, if you’re netting 10% profit on the bottom line, a $10,000 expense requires you to generate extra revenue by a factor of 10. In other words, you need to generate $100,000 in additional revenue just to cover the cost of that expense.

So before you or your staff clicks the “Add to Cart” button or slap down your credit card on supplies or that new piece of equipment, you better make sure it’s necessary. Because at the end of the day, that’s less money you’ll be able to take out of the company personally.

Money is such a precious commodity in any business. Some of the benefits of having money in the bank, is that it’s a great stress reliever knowing we have the capabilities to meet our obligations. Taking that stress off the table, then allows us to concentrate our time on more productive duties.

It’s in times of crisis that the importance of money is reaffirmed. Crisis come in all shapes and sizes. From key customers that quit buying to pandemics, each can seriously mess with your business. So by adopting the attitude that you’re in the money business, will go a long way significantly increasing your profitability and your income.

I’d like to know your thoughts if you were faced with a similar situation. So, leave your comments below.

You may also enjoy Clustering for Profits

If you found this of value, please pass this along to any business owner that you fell could benefit by understanding that they’re in The Money Business

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

Order Here

SBM #86 – Entrepreneurs in Crisis

Tagged as: control, crisis, customers, employees, entrepreneur, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Covid-19 is creating utter chaos for many small business owners. Fear is taken hold of many owners as they wonder what’s next? No one knows when or if they’ll reopen. Most don’t want to admit out loud what they are secretly thinking-bankruptcy. It’s just too difficult to fathom.

Making any kind of decision while under duress is never a good idea. We’re just not thinking clearly. This is especially true when your dream or life long work is about to evaporate in front of your eyes.

Covid-19 has forced governments to mandate closure of all but essential services in many parts of the world. In turn this has created panic amongst many entrepreneurs and their reactions range from submission to lashing out at everyone. To be fair, this is a once in a lifetime scenario. Much like a 100 year storm, most individuals and businesses are not prepared, and the aftermath will be disastrous for many.

There is no cavalry coming.

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but there is no cavalry coming, sorry. Governments can only do so much, and many small businesses will not qualify for the many programs that are being unveiled.

Many individuals think that the banks should automatically suspend all payments, but that’s not going to happen. However, if you’re business was solid before Covid-19, you can probably get some short term concessions. If your business was struggling beforehand, then don’t hold out hope.

Many landlords are small business owners themselves. They, like you, can’t afford to offer much leniency. They too have mortgages and bills to pay. Unlike residential mortgages commercial mortgages don’t usually have deferral options, so their payments must be made.

Hope for the best, but expect the worst

So, what’s an entrepreneur to do? To state the obvious, batten down the hatches. But instead of just fretting away, it’s time to get proactive and lay out a plan. Actually, it’s time to lay out two plans. The first plan is based on your business starting up in 4-8 weeks and the other is the worst case scenario plan, business shutdown. Regardless of which way it goes, working on your plans will be a distraction from all the noise and give you something to do.

Plan #1 – 4-8 weeks

Assuming you’ll be able to restart, you’ll need to put a game plan in place, so here’s a primer on the things you’ll need to think about.

• Call your landlord- If you haven’t already, it’s time to make that call and ask how you can work together. They may or may not be willing or able to offer any concessions. But you do need to know, don’t assume, ask the question.

• Business most likely won’t return to the pre-crisis level, so how do you plan on managing it? How much staff do you need, short and long term? You need to let your employees know your thoughts.

• How are you going to get your customers back? My suggestion is to call them and let them know you’re planning to restart as soon as you’re able. An alternative is to email them. But it’s far less personal.

• Depending on your business, do you have to do a thorough sanitizing?

• Do you have product that expires? What’s your plan on disposing of it?

• Do you have receivables? How do you plan on collecting these? Are you prepared to offer the same concessions you’re looking for from your suppliers?

• Call your suppliers. Has your status changed with them? If you had credit with them, is it still available? This is important to know. If you no longer have credit available, how do you plan on getting your supplies?

• Make a regular habit of checking your on your place of business. Some leases and insurance policies have clauses stating that you must check the premises regularly.

Plan #2 – Business shutdown

This is not fun, but you need to be prepared if this becomes the inevitable. Planning a measured shutdown is far better than doing nothing and just letting things happen. As soul destroying that this can be, there’s an old adage that says, “if you find yourself in a hole, quit digging!” If shutting the business down is your only option, it’s best to initiate it sooner rather than later, to stop the financial bleeding. Now is the time to get your head around this potential outcome, so that you are in control. The following steps should get you started in the event a windup is necessary

• Contact your lawyer and discuss the situation. Find out what needs to be done to close a business and the cost to do so. Get their input and direction on how to handle your suppliers, including your landlord.

• Contact your accountant and ask them what your liability is regarding taxes owed and their role in a business wind up.

• Make a list of all your payables. This list includes absolutely everything. This way you’ll know how much you owe.

• Make a list of any receivables you have and your plan to collect on these. The more you collect, the less you’ll end up owing.

• List all your inventory and contact your suppliers to see if you can return any unused product. Otherwise develop a plan to liquidate.

• List all your business assets i.e. equipment. These can be sold. Just remember that their value will be significantly less than you paid or what you think they’re worth, as many other businesses will be liquidating at the same time.

• Contact any other creditors to determine what you owe them. Some will be willing to negotiate a lesser amount or some form of payment plan.

• Make sure you complete all the necessary paperwork for laying off your staff, if you haven’t done so yet.

Regardless of your experience or years in business, no one could have foreseen what has gripped the world economies as a result of Covid-19. Most recessions and depression come upon gradually over time and gives people the time to adjust their course in order to weather the storm, but not this time. It was immediate and without warning.

What you do next matters. How you do it also matters. So, by putting your plans in place now, you’ll be prepared, in control and be able to live to fight another day.

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

A few months ago, I finally did something that I had longed to do but just never got around to it. Not quite a bucket list item, but pretty close. That something was to drive a race prepared car on a closed road course. Calabogie Motorsports offers just such a program. The road course is just a hair over 5 kms that has 20 turns and enough of a straightaway to get you to question your sanity. But at the end of the day, I couldn’t help but draw many parallels between the days activities and running a small business.

It all started because my youngest son was planning on signing up for the half day training at the track, and it only took me a couple of minutes to invite myself along. It’s funny how these things always seem like a good idea until the early morning drive to the track makes you wonder if it really was.

Now driving is something I’ve done my entire life, having spent my early days as a long haul truck driver. Getting behind any vehicle with a steering wheel is something I’m comfortable with. What gave me pause, was the fact that I’d be hurtling along in a race car at over 200 kms. That plus the fact, you never want to be that guy that embarrasses himself in front of the other 10 participants, let alone your son. That can be somebody else’s job.

Briefing session

So, as we gathered in the training room at the appointed time, we were welcomed by a couple of gentlemen that were going to review the schedule of morning activities, the characteristics of the car, track conditions that day, safety rules and the meaning of the on-track flags. This brought about the first comparison to running a small business.

Small Business Tip#1 – Briefings

How often do you take the time to gather everybody together, to define the day’s or week’s activity? How often do you remind your group of why they’re here and what we’re hoping to achieve or gain that week? How often do we set expectations in a team environment? Although we have great intentions of doing so, I suspect we don’t do it often enough.

As a result, we just assume everybody knows what to do, when to do it and what’s expected. Sadly, this lack of direction or confirmation of understanding can lead to untold number of mistakes. Implementing, short briefing sessions on a weekly or daily basis, as well as at the beginning of a major assignment can greatly reduce confusion and ensure your team is focused on the same end results. Or as the saying goes, make sure everyone is on the same page.

Track Time

After a quick introduction to our in driver trainer, we made our way out to our cars. These race prepped cars, had windows replaced where needed with Plexiglas and removed where not necessary. I can tell you getting into these vehicles is quite the process as you weave yourself around and through the roll cage, much like performing a downward dog yoga move coupled with a reverse warrior pose to end up in a snug, but less than comfortable racing seat. They make it look so effortless on tv, but I can assure you it’s not.

For the first of three on track sessions, you are a passenger as the trainer puts the car through it’s paces and shows you what’s possible. As a first time passenger in a fully prepped race car, I can confess that it’s a whole new experience. Unfortunately, the sensory overload during the ride along, really wasn’t conducive to learning anything the trainer was saying. There was just too much information to be absorbed in a very unfamiliar environment with your senses being hammered by new inputs. However, I do remember him saying that sometimes you need to go slow to go fast, which I didn’t quite understand at the time.

Small Business Tip #2 – Teaching moments

Too often we assume people understand the objectives. We throw so much information at them and then never take the time to confirm their understanding. To be sure we ask if everybody understands and of course heads nod in agreement. This can be because they don’t want to look foolish or more often, they actually think they do understand, but it may be a completely different understanding.

Taking a few extra moments to ask specific questions about expected results or executional details to truly confirm their understanding can go a long way in avoiding missteps. The reason for this extra steps is to make sure someone hasn’t misinterpreted a critical piece of information or expectation.

My Turn

So now it’s my turn behind the wheel. The moment you push the engine start button and the V8 roars to life, you know you’re not in Kansas any longer. The sheer raw power of the engine shakes the car and is felt in every fiber of your body. Not uncontrollably mind you, but enough to make you respect it’s potential and get focused. It’s also the time when you start thinking, what the hell have I done!

Sitting behind the wheel you realize that these cars are stripped down to their bare essence. An engine, a transmission, tires, body shell and absolutely no interior padding with only a handful of gauges. That’s it, just the basics. But seriously, what else do you need? These cars are built to go fast and stick to the track.

Small Business tip #3 – Simplify

How often do we have steps or unnecessary processes to getting a job, task or assignment done, just because we think it’s necessary? Do we have efficient processes? Can we strip down the process to it’s basics in order increase our deliverables? Has anybody asked, why we do it this way or is there a better, simpler way?

The race car is meant to go fast and it does so without any unnecessary frills. Shouldn’t we be running the most efficient businesses we can? If something doesn’t add real value to the customer, then it shouldn’t be there. Are we asking our staff for their input or suggestions? They are the ones that work with the processes every single day, they just may have a better way.

On the track

As I pulled out onto the track, I distinctly remember that the transmission and clutch had a familiar feel. It then dawned on me that it reminded me of my uncles farm trucks of my youth. The transmission and clutch had a very positive interaction and it was all business, no frills.

Staying in the safety lane all the while accelerating in order to merge with the other vehicles, it was at this point that I realized, I didn’t remember a thing my trainer had told me. However, being connected to him via headset as he sat in the passenger seat, I started receiving a constant stream of instructions that easily matched the speed of the car as we approached 200kms per hour.

For the next 15-20 minutes we did laps around the track as I desperately tried smooth out my handling and add a little finesse to an otherwise less than stellar run. At the end of the session, we made our way in for a debriefing session with all the participants as we asked, and they answered our questions.

Small Business Tip #4 – Status updates

How often do we gather everyone to either get or give a status update on the company or an initiative? Scheduling regular but short debriefing sessions help to identify road blocks, allow for clarification and make course corrections. Checking in regularly can solve many minor issues before they become major issues that are impossible to correct.

The last session.

This last on track session is where I had my greatest breakthrough and an “Ah ha” moment. As with most people who do these things, I felt I was a pretty good driver and understood the basic concepts of racing, such as finding the straightest line through a curve, etc. However, that easier said than done as I consistently missed apex after apex on most turns. It was frustrating and humbling.

The trainer kept telling me to brake hard to scrub speed as I entered the tightest turns. I figured I understood the concept, but time and again, I’d blow the turn. I thought I was going slow enough to hit my mark, because going any slower wasn’t cool and we’re suppose to go fast, right?

So, on one particular lap I figured I’d slow down earlier and harder and see what happened. To my amazement, the car just hunkered down and dug in. We held the line and we rocketed out of the turn, with very little corrective input required on my part after pointing the car in the right direction. The throttle was wide open, it was almost textbook, and it was confirmed by my trainer’s comment “that’s what I’m talking about” through the headset.

Small Business tip #5 – Pump the brakes

Too often we’re in a rush to get the end result. Ambition is a great quality but needs to be tempered at times. The Navy Seals apparently have a saying that says “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast”. I know that sound contrary to what we believe, but it works.

Not always, but sometimes we just have to pump the brakes on an idea or initiative and stretch out the deadline. By doing so it gives us the time we need to make sure we have all the information, the right people and the capacity to handle the assignment. Whether that’s growing our business or contemplating pitching a large contract. This extra time may allow for a much smoother execution and less rework, because smooth is fast.

Go Slow to Go Fast

Going too fast can be very stressful for all involved and can set us up for mistakes. Knowing when to hammer the throttle and when to stand on the brakes is an artform in itself and I have a new found respect for professional drivers because it’s both mentally and physically draining controlling a race car at speed.

The same can be said of running your business too fast. Sometimes you just need to go slow to go fast.

I appreciate hearing your feedback to this or any of my posts. So share your thoughts below.

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #78 – Trust

Tagged as: "A" Game, customers, entrepreneur, laptop, router, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute, smartphone, success, tablet, trust, Wi-Fi

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I recently had some time to kill between meetings and I was hungry. So, I decided to go to a local diner. I figured I could use the time to do some writing. One of the reasons I chose this location is that I knew they had free Wi-Fi and I needed to access some information online with my laptop.

After I was seated, order taken, and beverage served, I flipped open my laptop and attempted to connect to the Wi-Fi. No luck. I checked to make sure the network was visible and still nothing. Re-entered the password that was printed in big bold letters on the wall of this establishment and still no joy.

After numerous attempts, I finally asked one of the servers if the Wi-Fi was working and she said yes, it is and that she was on with her smartphone. Of course, this made me think, aren’t you supposed to be working and not worrying about your social media or text messages? But I digress.

Laptops are for inputting

So, I went through everything again and after a few more attempts, I gave up and assumed the problem was on my end. Frustrated, I resorted to using my phone in an attempt to access the information I needed.

Yes, I could have used my phone sooner, but that just doesn’t work well for me. I once heard that tablets and phones are for consuming information or data and that laptops are for inputting. This statement so represents me. Try as I might, I hate trying to compose anything other that a quick email or text response on my smartphone. I also find that undertaking any kind of extensive searching is frustrating on a small handheld appliance.

No one on duty

I tried again by asking another server, who I believe was in charge of the front of house, if the Wi-Fi was down? To which she responds, yes, it is! She then proceeds to tell me that whenever the restaurant gets busy, which it was, the router crashes. To which I responded that it probably just needs to be rebooted. And here comes the kicker. She then tells me that the management has locked the access to the router because they don’t trust them. To which I responded, “seriously?”

She then went on to tell me that every time it happens, no one can do anything until the manager resets it. Ok then, get a manager to reset it, I said. To which she replied, there isn’t one on duty.

We trust complete strangers, but not our staff

So now I’m a bit confused. You have a restaurant with approximately 100 guests being served prepared food and you trust the staff to abide by all sorts of food safety issues without management oversight. Further, we trust these same employees to treat our customers properly and efficiently. We further trust these employees to process payment and handle cash, yet, they cannot be trusted to reboot a Wi-Fi router. Where does this make sense?

I know this is a simple example but is illustrative of many owners actions when it comes to their employees. Isn’t it funny how we trust hundreds, if not thousands of complete strangers everyday when we drive our vehicles? We hope these strangers stay in their lanes and that none of them cross over a painted yellow line into our lane, where doing so could result in serious personal harm. Yet, we don’t always trust the people we work with every single day to reboot a router.

On further contemplation, I also wonder why the manager hasn’t clued into this being a problem. If this is in fact a reoccurring issue and it affects the customer experience, then this needs to change. Especially since they have a sticker on the front door the says “Free Wi-fi”.

Your success depends on trust

Silly little situations like locking the router behind a closed door sends a message to employees that management can be dysfunctional. It left me wondering what other stupid policies this organizations has on it’s books.

Trust is a necessary component for the success of any business and employees are not going to bring their “A” game when faced with nonsensical restrictions. You’re never going to achieve the success or freedom you want if you can’t explicitly trust your employees.

You may also enjoy Successful People Do the Hard Stuff

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You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

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1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
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5. You can never take a vacation.

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Category: Leadership

Why step back?

So when do you lead from the front?

Let’s first look at some crises situations:

And now opportunity situations

The switch

Don’t jump in

Time well spent.

People go to work to be successful!

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Short term vs long term complacency

Our experience

So, what should have been done?

The review

So, what’s the lesson?

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Time- It’s how you get paid!

Establish some balance

Calculate how much time you really have

Hiring more people not the best option

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Research

Lots of discussion

Now what?

Will a hybrid model work?

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

5 areas that require every owners attention

#1 Your health

#2 Key staff quits.

#3 Business interruption

#4 Competition

#5 Bad debt

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Changing the mindset

A True Story

Spending money is easy, making money is hard

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

There is no cavalry coming.

Hope for the best, but expect the worst

Plan #1 – 4-8 weeks

Plan #2 – Business shutdown

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Briefing session

Small Business Tip#1 – Briefings

Track Time

Small Business Tip #2 – Teaching moments

My Turn

Small Business tip #3 – Simplify

On the track

Small Business Tip #4 – Status updates

The last session.

Small Business tip #5 – Pump the brakes

Go Slow to Go Fast

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Laptops are for inputting

Your success depends on trust

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

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