Operations 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 #113 Two Kinds of Entrepreneurs

Tagged as: bad, Canada, care, entrepreneur, good, small business expert, Small Business Minute, trust, untrustworthy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Unfortunately, not all entrepreneurs have the same motivations. There are those that really care about what they do and how they do it – the good, and there are those that just want your money – the bad. Fortunately, there are more of the former than the latter.

We often hear complaints on how consumers have been taken advantage of by a less than professional business, but these issue are equally as prevalent in the B to B environments.

Let’s look at both and hopefully provide some clues to who you are dealing with.

The Bad

The bad entrepreneurs are the ones who are only in it for their own gain. They don’t care about the customer. They just want to make a quick buck and move on. These types of entrepreneurs have no regard for quality or customer service. They may be selling products that aren’t up to standard, or services that don’t deliver what was promised.

They may also be trying to take advantage of customers by charging too much – often relying on business owners lack of knowledge of the market rates for these services.

These types of entrepreneurs will often be quick to promise results, but slow to deliver them. They may also try to push you into a deal before you have had time to think it through properly by pressuring you into signing contracts that are not in your best interest.

The Good

On the other hand, there are good entrepreneurs who genuinely care about their customers and what they do. These are the people who take pride in their work and strive to deliver the best quality they can produce.

Often, they’ll walk away from a sale when they know they can’t deliver on the customers expectations. Let’s be honest, that one of the hardest things to do, but more often than not it is the best decision for both parties.

The good entrepreneurs also understand the importance of customer service. They will go out of their way to ensure that customers are satisfied with their product or service, and they’ll be willing to put in extra effort if something isn’t quite right.

These types of entrepreneurs will also be more transparent about pricing and when questioned, willingly explain their costs. They may or may not negotiate, but you’ll know why. Their goal is not just to make money but rather build long-term relationships with their customers, which usually begins with trust. If earned this trust will result in repeat business and repeat business is far more profitable, than one off sales.

How to Spot the Difference

It’s not always easy to tell the difference between good and bad entrepreneurs, especially when you’re dealing with someone for the first time. Here are a few tips that can help:

Research their background

Ask around in your network if they have any experience of working with them. This will give you an indication of how reliable they are and what kind of service you can expect from them. But be careful where you source referrals.

Too often entrepreneurs take the lazy way out and post on social media that they are looking a referrals for a specific supplier such as a graphic designer or and accountant. Rarely does this solve their problem as they end up getting dozens upon dozens of referrals from their connections all stating that theirs is the best, without any context. This does nothing to solve the issue and is not much better than a Google search.

Instead, contact a few key trusted associates and ask them if they can provide a referral to the service you’re looking for. That way you can have a more in-depth conversation about why they recommend them.

Look at online reviews

Carefully read them. A telling sign of an entrepreneur’s commitment to customer service is how or if they respond to reviews, but especially negative ones. An entrepreneur that ignores any review they get should be suspect.

Let’s not forget that there are always two sides to an issue and that the customer is not always right. If a negative review is responded to by an entrepreneur in a professional matter that clearly lays out their side of the issue, they are probably worth a considering. Ensure you check for tone and sincerity of their response. Righteous indignation might be a indicator that they are difficult to work with.

However, a high percentage of negative reviews without a response from the owner, should get a pass. Likewise, nothing but 5 star reviews should also be looked at with a jaundiced eye. Lack of performance details or specifics might be a sign there could be a disproportionate number of fake or paid reviews.

Ask questions

Once you’ve identified potential candidates, ask a lot of questions. The best suppliers tend to answer most questions before they are even asked and not just the positive attributes, but also the negative ones.

This type of honesty is the exception yet should be the norm. However, it can serve as a good indicator of the depth of their experience. Because of this experience, they know what concerns their clients have and go out of their way to allay those issues with specific examples.

Knowledge

Listen to what they say about their industry. Their discussion should include letting you know about the trends within their industry and whether they are in tune. Whether they agree or disagree with the changes is secondary to the fact that they are aware of what’s going on. But they should explain their position.

Set expectations

This applies to both parties. Understanding what both parties expect will avoid future problems. Most of the time this revolves around timelines for deliverables and the the potential consequences of missing these dates. This will give you a better understanding of what they can offer and how they work.

Get a quote

Ask for an estimate or quote on the service or product you are interested in. A good provider should be able to provide this quickly. If not, then it might be a sign that they’re not as professional as they claim to be. This may also indicate that they have limited experience with the type of work you are requesting and are unsure of how to price the service.

Check their terms and conditions

This sounds like a no brainer, but make sure you read all the small print before you sign any contracts or agreements. Question anything you don’t understand and ensure you get a straight answer. This will help to ensure that you are getting the best deal possible and that there are no hidden fees or costs.

Take your time

Don’t rush into a decision. Take your time to consider all of the options before making a final choice.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it’s important to do some research before committing to working with an entrepreneur as not all entrepreneurs have the same motivations and goals in mind when working with customers. The good entrepreneurs care about their customers and strive to provide the best quality service or product they can, whilst the bad entrepreneurs are only in it for themselves.

By taking your time to research potential candidates, ask questions and read all of the small print before signing any contracts, you should be able to find a good entrepreneur who will meet your needs.

You may also enjoy reading 4 Ways to Deal With Difficult Clients

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 #112 Putting Lipstick on a pig

Tagged as: authority, customer experience, customers, delagting, entrepreneur, financials, operations, processes, responsibility, small business expert, success, templates

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I actually starting this piece 3 or 4 years ago, pre-Covid days. And as often happens when trying to be creative, you can be hit with a case of writer’s block that can leave any number of incomplete topics to collect dust. In my case, I can have upwards of a dozen or so pieces just sitting on the sidelines at any point in time. So was the case with this piece.

The reason I mention pre-Covid days is because many businesses are still facing challenges as they recover, however my original observation about customer experience were prior to Covid and yet still exist today.

Putting lipstick on a pig

The phrase to put “lipstick on a pig” means making superficial or cosmetic changes to a product in a futile effort to disguise its fundamental failings. {Wikipedia} Many businesses, both small and large, condone this kind of behaviour.

On a recent road trip south, we stayed in a number of hotels. Like many, when heading to a specific destination we tend to stay in mid range establishments that we book at some point during our day. Booking any farther ahead is pointless as we never know how far we’ll drive on any given day because of weather or traffic.

These establishment are well known chains, from Holiday Inn Express to Hampton Inns, to name a few. Fancy, no! But usually more than satisfactory for a quick overnight stop and they’re usually situated right near major highway exits. So easy off, easy on. In most cases they’re reasonably priced and provide a free breakfast. All in all, a good value proposition. Most of the time.

The following are just a few of the observations I made during our stays at various establishments.

Poorly trained and uncaring staff
Burnt out light bulbs in room.
Inoperative power ports or outlets in room.
Significant marks on wall and ceiling in room.
Peeling wallpaper in hallways.
Worn and scratched stain on bathroom door.
Poorly applied caulking around tub.

I ain’t buying the place

Individually, none of these shortcomings are a deal breaker and can be easily overlooked when just staying one night. As I like to say, “I ain’t buying the place” and for the most part the rooms and establishment were clean. But they tarnish the customer experience.

The point I’m trying to make with these observations is, when something such as a hotel room is serviced every single day, how do any of these items get overlooked? In one hotel we stayed in they were in the process of completely renovating the front lobby and the breakfast area. Yet, this is the same place where the wallpaper in the hallways was pealing and light bulbs in the room were burnt out. To my way of thinking they kind of got this back asswards.

I always wonder whose decision it is to invest tens of thousands of dollars in refurbishing the lobby when the rest of the establishment is in dire need of some loving. Especially when these items can be rectified at little or no cost. It’s akin to putting lipstick on a pig and again does little to improve the customer experience. Considering that these places are designed for travellers who typically spend more time in their rooms than in the lobby as they rest up for their next driving day.

When you think about it, once checked in, most guests spend their time in the room as they rest up for the next day of driving. So, wouldn’t think room maintenance would be a priority? Just saying!

To be sure 1st impressions are important and major renovations are part of the hospitality industry. As franchisees, they have requirements to update their facilities to new standards set out by the franchisor.

Out of sync

But many small businesses operate the same way. They are more concerned about their outward appearance, which I maintain is an absolute must, but useless if the behind the scenes operations are totally out of sync with that image.

Too often I see small business owners spend time, effort and resources on producing a great website and social media posts but only deliver mediocre products, services, or results for their customers. If they only spent a part of that effort on delivering great service to their customers, their profitability would soar. Unfortunately, that kind of effort doesn’t get them the likes or shares that they so desperately seem to need.

What many forget is that likes or shares rarely put money in the bank. Let me ask you how many times have you purchased a product or service only because of their social media activity? If you’re like most, not very often, if ever.

The sad part is that the return on investment on social media is, for the most part never measured. Mostly because most small businesses don’t have the knowledge or resources to track results. The assumption is that they’re successfully executing their strategy, because views or likes keep growing.

Focusing on the wrong things, rarely pays any dividends. The true metrics that they should be measuring are those that are focused on the customer experience. average order size, repeat sales and on time delivery. This is what successful entrepreneurs do. They focus on getting better.

Do you care enough?

So in order to determine if you are focused on the right things, the first question to ask yourself is “Do you care?”

Are you actively working on becoming more efficient? Are you paying attention to the little things that would make it easier for your clients to deal with you? Are you actively seeking input from your customers on what’s working and what isn’t?

What are their pain points in dealing with you? These are all legitimate questions and more often there are a myriad of little things that you and your team can do to improve your deliverables. But first, you must care. You must care enough to dig deep to identify your company’s shortcomings. It’s never easy to self-criticize but is necessary if you’re going to improve the customer experience.

What you can do to improve the customer experience

One of the best way to start the process is to ask yourself, if you were your customer, would you be willing to accept your service levels? To help with the process, the following is a list of questions to help you get started on the journey of discovery that cost little or nothing but will help with your customer experience.

1. When was the last time you looked at your website? Is the information relevant and current? Is it mobile friendly? Do a quick search on “outdated websites” and you’ll discover what turns off your customers when they visit an outdated website. It might be costing more than you think. Consider that over 70% of customers visit a website before visiting the business.

2. When was the last time you checked both the company voicemail and that of your employees? Does it still have your “out-of-office” notice from last years summer vacation? Does the message drone on forever with information, instead of directing them to your website. Do you use it for quick promotional messages?

3. What’s your response time to voicemails or emails? Many voicemail messages state that they’ll get back to you within 24-48hrs. Seriously, customer calls should be returned immediately, if not, then the same day at least. Get too many calls that you can’t return them the same day? Then hire more people or put the most commonly asked questions on your website to reduce the volume of calls that only require information. See point #1

4. Do you deliver on time? Are you constantly missing deadlines and having to make excuses? Maybe you’re taking on too much work and agreeing to timelines that you know will be impossible to meet. To correct this, you might need to be honest with the customer from the start and set realistic completion dates. Yes, you might lose some business, but it’s better than failing to deliver and damaging your reputation. It’s about managing workflow.

5. Is your staff working efficiently? That doesn’t mean they need to work harder. No, it means you need to make sure that they are properly trained and that you identify and remove roadblocks that inhibit their abilities. Do they need your approval on everything? Train them, then delegate the responsibility and authority to make decisions. (See SBM #33 Responsibility & Authority) Creating templates and processes can reduce the time and effort needed deliver the final report or product.

6. Are you trying to provide too much to your customers under the “value added” premise when nobody cares? Working under the pretense of “more is better” when in fact “less is more” might be the better approach.

7. Do you update your clients with regular status reports, or do you leave your customers in the dark? Having a customer constantly looking for an update is wrong. A quick phone call, text message or email to update them on the status of a backorder or delay can diffuse a lot of problems.

Rest assured that any time spent on providing exceptional customer experience quickly translates into reduced customer churn, increased repeat orders and of course, improved financials.

What’s stressing you out?

Another way to improve customer experience is to consider what’s stressing you out? It’s usually a good indicator of what needs fixing. Specifically, where do you think you can provide a better customer experience? What are your pain points? These are the things that keep you awake at night. What are you doing about them? Be honest with yourself, because we can all do better. Let’s face it, there’s no point attracting new customers only to lose them because you fail to deliver.

So what’s your peeling wallpaper or burnt out lightbulbs? In many cases it’s not the things we hear about that need to be fixed. It’s the ones we don’t hear about that’s troubling. This is where the silent majority just walk away, never to be seen again.

Sometimes good enough, isn’t!

You may also enjoy reading SBM #74 Average or Great

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 #111 Practical Innovation

Tagged as: business, Canada, customers, entrepreneur, innovation, Microsoft, Practical, sales as a service, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute, wristwatch, WWI

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Too often innovation gets confused with invention, when in fact they are not the same. Unfortunately, we are bombarded with articles and warnings that in order to survive as entrepreneurs we must innovate or be left behind. Ok, I’m not sure that we would be left behind, but innovating or improving how we do things, is never a bad idea.

The goal for any innovation should not be for the sake of innovation alone but should either enhance the customer experience or increase our efficiency. If you can do both that’s even better.

Microsoft Office 365

A simple example where, in my opinion, neither of these goals are achieved is Microsoft Office. Over the past few years, I have watched as this software grouping has morphed into a bloated feature laden product.. What was once a simple dropdown menu style that allowed access to the most commonly used functions have disappeared under renamed menus loaded with icons that would have an archeologist scratching their head trying to decipher these hieroglyphics.

I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of the Office 365 install base are not power users, therefore these improvements or product evolutions, fail my innovation test. It neither improves the user experience nor increases efficiency for most of us as we waste so much time looking for a simple formatting function.

I’m sure that some power users need these enhancements that the product engineers dream up but for most of us it’s overkill.

A recent experience with an Excel spreadsheet or is it now called a workbook or a worksheet? Regardless of what it’s now called, I needed to unlock a protected spreadsheet. Because I don’t use Excel everyday, I needed to hunt down that function. Once upon a time, you could simply click on one of the dropdown menus and click on that function. Well no more.

After I don’t know how long of hunting and pecking through the drop menus and trying to decipher the various icons, I typed “unprotect” in the Excel search bar to no avail. Finally, I turned to Google for help and finally found the answer. Seriously, nothing should be that hard.

A simple solution might be to just offer the everyday user an option for a “Classic” menu that would offer the user the most commonly used functions within the complete Office 365 lineup. Now that would be an innovation!

Alternatives such as Open Office, Libre Office and Google’s Workspace offer a simpler user interface. Aside from being free, their popularity might be driven partly by their ease of use.

Small Business

Innovation for most small businesses does not have to be earth shattering. In SBM #36 Innovation, I mention that what we need to understand is that most successful innovation comes from either borrowing ideas from other industries or reconfiguring your existing products or services to tackle new markets or customers. Put this way, innovation becomes less daunting and can be implemented incrementally over time and does not require wholesale retraining of your staff and customers. Therefore, they are considered natural or logical enhancements.

Merriam Webster provides the following definitions which may serve to clarify the difference between innovation and invention:

Invention

“a device, contrivance, or process originated after study and experiment,” usually something which has not previously been in existence.

Innovation

for its part, can refer to something new or to a change made to an existing product, idea, or field.

They go on to provide the following example:
One might say that the first telephone was an invention, the first cellular telephone either an invention or an innovation, and the first smartphone an innovation.

The wristwatch

Another simple and great innovation is the wristwatch. Prior to the 20th century, wristwatches were only worn by wealthier women as a fashion accessory, whereas men had pocket watches. It took a World War for the wristwatch to become a mainstay accessory for men.

As the story goes, coordinating troop movements, bombardments and attacks required officers and soldiers to be always aware of the time. The process of fumbling for a pocket watch proved cumbersome due to the necessity of having to always check. That frustration was compounded during the winter months when wearing gloves.

Someone gave this some thought. They simply stole or should I say borrowed the wristwatch idea and adopted it for men. That way soldiers wouldn’t have to reach for their watch at all, as they were wearing it. A simple twist of their arm and they could see the time.

My experience

When I founded the Marketing Resource Group or MRG, I brought this essence of innovation to the consumer packaged goods and healthcare industries. Prior to MRG, I owned The Sales Support Company which was a contract retail merchandising company. In other words an outsourced sales force. I had 150 people working coast-coast performing various sales functions in our client’s smaller retail customers.

Because our merchandisers needed to travel from store to store to perform their duties, wages and travel costs represented a significant portion of our costs. Raising prices was difficult as it would dilute the cost/benefit argument we had put forth. So, after eight years sustainable profits were elusive, so I sold the company.

My innovation

One of the reasons that made my decision to sell The Sales Support Company easy, was that I knew the industry still needed to service these accounts but needed cost efficient solution, which I had been quietly testing for over a year.

Once clear of my obligations with my previous company, I launched MRG to provide our clients with an alternative solution to service these accounts.

So instead of having an individual physically visit a store, we began telemarketing these accounts as a means to communicate and solicit orders. As an aside, we provided other services that previously required a sales representative to perform, but now were done remotely.

I knew of only one company that was doing anything remotely similar and that was Kimberley-Clark, the makers of brands like Huggies and Kleenex.

The big difference was that they were selling their own products, whereas we would be a sales as a service model, representing any number of companies and brands, albeit never at the same time.

Aside from Kimberley-Clark this hadn’t been attempted before and therefore it took a bit of effort to get buy-in from our clients.

Eventually, we convinced enough clients of the merits and gained the necessary momentum to make it a viable business that I owned for 17 years until I sold it.

This innovation had numerous benefits and few downsides for our customers. Considering that we handled what I referred to as their orphaned accounts, those retail establishment that due to annual purchases or geographic location, received no sales coverage from their existing salesforces.

Foremost, our reach was unlimited. If they had a phone, we could contact them, regardless of where they were located, even in the Artic.

Innovation through adaptation

So let’s be honest. I didn’t invent anything here. I simply took an existing service, telemarketing, and applied it to an industry that wasn’t using it. There is a saying “good artist borrow ideas great artist steal ideas.

Is that not the purpose of innovation? How many so called innovations, add no value to the end user and only add confusion.

First and foremost, innovation needs to improve the experience. But change for the sake of change is rarely a good idea. The best way to determine the value of your innovation is to ask your customers and not just your power users.

Also consider that instead of more features, maybe consider fewer and see if that improves the user experience.

You may also enjoy SBM #107 Beware of the whale

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 #104 – Inflation the destroyer

Tagged as: business, customers, entrepreneur, Inflation, margin, professional speaker, profit, profitability, sales, small business expert, Small Business Minute, struggling

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Inflation is much like rust. Left unchecked it can quietly eat away at your buying power and can turn a profitable business into one that struggles and a struggling business into non-existence.

For many of us, you pretty much had to be a Boomer living in an industrialized world to fully appreciate the impact that inflation had during the 80’s. During that period mortgage rates skyrocketed to over 21% and unemployment exceeded 12% in North America.

As bad as that was, there were countries that faced 100% annual inflation back then. To put things in perspective, that meant that the price of goods doubled in a year.

The point of all this is not to provide an economics lesson, because I’d be the wrong person for that. No, this is intended is reinforce the need to be vigilant in managing your costs and pricing.

Regardless of your industry, you are probably facing cost increases in materials and wages. The latter because of the tight labour market, thanks in part to government social programs.

With all the things we must oversee as business owners, being a little more vigilant with all our purchases can become burdensome. However, with inflation starting to ramp up to serious levels, it’s more important than ever review your costs and adjust your pricing to protect your margins.

Too often I find small business owners struggle with increasing their prices because they are afraid of losing customers. Their internal dialogue usually centers around “I can’t charge them that much, that’s expensive, they’ll never pay that much!”

How is it that they won’t pay that much? Everybody is paying higher prices for just about everything they buy now. So, why should you be a martyr? Unfortunately, inflation is a perpetual motion machine that never stops.

The destructive power of inflation

What so many entrepreneurs fail to realize in a high inflation era, is that you need to keep your prices in step with the increases in your costs, otherwise it ends up costing you money and potentially your business.

Inflation can destroy your income statement in short order. When you look at the bottom line of many small businesses, there is not a lot left over after a year of hard work. The typical small business has a Net Income is way below 10% with many running in the 2-4% range. So, on a $1 million business that means your left with $20-40,000 or $10-20,000 on $500,000 and only $6-12,000 on a $300,000 business. Not much of reward for all the hard work.

Now layer on inflation at 4-7% that has recently been reported by various governments over the past few months and you will start to see the potential for margin destruction. But only if you don’t adjust your costs accordingly.

Business is not a charity

Using the previous examples, a 4% increase in inflation can wipe out the profit of most small businesses. Whereas a 7% increase you automatically go negative into a loss.

Look, nobody likes price increases, but it is a reality of our time. For the past 10+ years most of us have enjoyed a low predictable inflation rate below 2%. Even then I have encouraged small business owners to take annual price increases. Because 2% compounded annually equates to over 6.1% over a 3 year period.

Business is not a charity. You are here to make money. The more you make, the more security you can bring to your firm and your employees. The more money you make, the more you can pay your staff and yourself.

Some options

Being worried if your customers can afford the new price is noble but not realistic. There’s no point of losing money just to avoid increasing your prices. Yes, you can always offer a one time discount to your better customers as a way to ease them into the new pricing. But I stress one-time.

I also know that there always seems to be someone willing to do the job cheaper and to that I say let them. Every industry has someone who offers low pricing but it’s my experience that most don’t last long.

Alternatively, you can do what many consumer goods companies are doing, reduce the size of the product to maintain a price. Offering your customers a “lite” version of your existing product or services may be all you need to do.

Minor tweaks such as a decrease in reporting, a reduced delivery frequency or even quicker payment terms are just some of the examples. These small adjustments can be used to maintain a given price point.

Another thing to always keep in mind is if those customers are only shopping on price, you must ask yourself whether you want them as customers in the first place. Often, they are not loyal and will change suppliers for a nickel.

It has been my experience that profit margins are never high enough. So, increasing your prices to ensure inflation doesn’t destroy your company, is just smart business.

You may also enjoy Pricing for profit

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 #103 Complacency

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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.

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Work from home is not a new concept. People have been looking for any excuse to do so since the turn of the century. Initially, Friday’s was the defacto work from home day. It’s popularity was driven mostly to get a jump on the weekend, more so than trying to get distraction free time in order to get caught up. For evidence, just check the highway traffic on Friday’s afternoons during the summer, as people are fleeing the city.

Over time as work from home became more and more accepted, Wednesday also became popular. Wednesday is a natural work from home day as it not only breaks up your week, but for many was a legitimate opportunity to work uninterrupted. The mid week isolation gave individuals the chance to focus on major assignments or priorities. Of course, people raved about how productive they are working from home and most were.

So what changed?

For centuries people have been making their way into the office. Initially most could walk to their place of employment. But over time, as cities grew, public transit became the norm for those who had to travel greater distance than walking. Finally, as the downtown core in many cities became the commercial hub and with people moving to the suburbs for affordable housing, the car began to dominate as the preferred method to commute in many cities.

As this cycle of commercial intensification in the downtown cores and suburb getting farther away, going to work went from a simple task to a stressed induced war pitting driver against driver to see who can gain the best lane advantage. Depending on where you lived, this daily ritual could easily last from 30 minutes to over an hour, twice daily. So needless to say, people started looking for any opportunity to get the occasional reprieve from this daily grind.

But that’s not all!

Another major catalyst for what has become the Work from Home (WFH) movement, is the growth of the open office concept. Long before Covid-19 changed our world, companies of all sizes were jumping on the open office concept. Gone were the cubicles, the open office concept, embraced by the major tech companies, was the model to follow.

Contrary to what is expounded by management of the team building benefits of an open office, the real motivation is cost saving. Open office concepts save a lot of money because they pretty much eliminate the need for all but minimal leasehold improvements. Plus they offer a ton of savings on office furnishings.

What I find genuinely interesting with the open office concept, is that most senior managers all end up with offices. If it’s good for the goose, shouldn’t it be good for the gander? Of course, they justify it based on their need for privacy. Shouldn’t these managers be subjected to the same restrictions and annoyances they place on their employees?

To be sure the open office concept is not new. Just check on those black and white photos of the clerical pools of 1950’s, where there were rows upon rows of desks in large rooms. But those were days before computers and automation. Most of those jobs were repetitive task driven activities and although these individuals were knowledgeable, they weren’t considered knowledge workers. Most of those tasks of yesteryear have been replaced by automated solutions with little human interaction.

So many of today’s workers are considered knowledge workers and are required to think and make decisions. They need to be creative and require time to focus. The reality is that as individuals, we are creative at different times of the day. Some individuals are at their best creatively in the morning, some at midday and other late afternoon and not necessarily everyday. Let’s be honest, creativity can very spontaneous and generally can’t be scheduled. So reserving one of the “quiet rooms” located on the perimeter of the open office concept, at a moments notice, is not always possible.

At the end of the day, the reason why people want to work from home is that there are too many distraction in the open office concept. Whether those distractions are in the form of visual, auditory, or human interruptions they abound everywhere and everyday. There’s just no privacy. Interruptions by fellow employees appears to be the most frustrating issue reported, because there’s no place to hide or call your own. An attitude that, you’re at your desk, therefore it’s okay to talk to you, is the norm. You’re living in a fishbowl.

As a result, individuals are going to great lengths now to develop the virtual version of “do not disturb” signals and it is stressing them out. Wearing headphones and not looking up when someone goes by, is essentially an indicator that “I’m busy”, but even then many teammates are oblivious to these indicators.

As a curious individual, I’m hard wired to be constantly scanning my environment. Maybe it’s a hold over from the prehistoric days when you really had to be aware of your surroundings, otherwise you became somebody’s lunch. So keeping my head down all day, is as big of a distraction as being interrupted.

Is work from home any better?

For people around the world, this wasn’t a conscious decision. Covid-19 just forced everybody’s hand to work from home because there wasn’t much of an alternative. After three months, many are liking it, but many aren’t and as time moves on, there appear to be cracks forming in their new love affair with the work from home concept.

For those fortunate to have a spare room, the transition was acceptable. However, if a couple are both relegated to work from home, then someone is going to get stuck at the kitchen or dining room table. This is okay for a day or two, but for three plus months, I don’t think so.

So, if this work from home movement is to become permanent, how are individuals going to manage this? You can’t expect most couples to share that spare bedroom and work side by side, that’s just a recipe for disaster. Most individuals can’t afford a bigger house, so what’s the option. What about condo and apartment dwellers? No, work from home is not sustainable under many individuals current lifestyle.

Taken a step further and assuming an individual has the physical space to work from home, who’s going to pay for all the necessary upgrades to make it workable and at what cost? What about security and liability? What if someone gets injured? What if someone trip or falls going to their home office, where does the liability begin or end? Is that a workers compensation issue or a safety issue? Believe me, I don’t have the answers and I’m not sure anybody does at this point.

Let’s talk about team unity

In order to maintain communication and team unity, everybody jumped on the available collaboration tools available such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and albeit a little late to the party, Google’s Meet, just to name a few. For all the praise for the ease of use and quick implementation of these tools, it’s just not the same as an in person meeting.

Having participated in a few of these digital meetings, I’ve come up with some observations that I have no idea how they are to be solved. Granted people are getting far more comfortable on the platforms, but they are draining. Gone are all the physical queues we become accustomed to. When to speak, avoiding talking over someone paying attention are just a couple of the myriad of challenges individuals face on video platforms.

Because we’ve done it so long, most people are comfortable in live meetings, albeit bored on occasion. Being on a video conference requires 100% attention to the screen because you have 6, 10 or 20 people staring back at you for the duration, so you need to be on your best behaviour. Reports from individuals that are on video calls or meetings a good portion of their day, are reporting that they are exhausted, where they weren’t in in-person meetings.

Leaders checking in

Now I will profess that I subscribe to the Management by Walking Around style of management. I wasn’t aware that my style actually had a name until such time as I read In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Robert Wateman many years ago.

Essentially, it’s what the name infers. As opposed to a formal meeting, a manager wanders around checking in with their staff in an impromptu manner. It’s not about catching people slacking off, it’s about creating informal teaching moments. But at a deeper level, it’s about connecting with your staff by having more face time. The concept apparently originated at Hewlett Packer or HP as it is known today.

There was a study done by Leadership IQ on the Importance of Leadership. The report states that 50% of employees spend less than 3 hours a week with their leader. However, those that spend 6 or more hours per week with their leaders are

29% more inspired
30% more engaged
15% more motivated
10% more innovative

This level of engagement, although possible, will be difficult to achieve using video conferencing. Managers of all types will need to reinvent themselves if work from home is the new normal. I’m just not sure it’ll be as effective as face-to-face.

If this is ever going to work, managers will need to up their game and reinvent themselves. Team members will worry that because they are out of site, they’re out of mind and fear they won’t get the recognition they want or more importantly need.

Personal boundaries

The curse of the smartphone has stretched many peoples day, as emails or text messages come in at all hours of the day. As a result, many have defaulted into responding to them no matter when they come in. The justification is that it’s only one email and, what the heck, if I answer it now, it’ll be one less thing to do tomorrow. In addition, email and messaging has created a false sense of urgency and therefore an answer is expected immediately. This was bad enough before Covid-19 and I can only imagine what the new normal will look like.

Where all this really falls apart is if people are permanently anchored at home, they naturally loose their work boundaries. They’ll take advantage of doing errands that were traditionally relegated to nights and weekends. And they’ll justify it by they can catch up on their work later that night or weekends. Boundaries are going to get blurred by managers and employees alike.

Humans are social

Let’s remember, that for the most part humans are social and need interaction. That can’t be replicated on video or conference calls. There’s a potential risk that people will start to feel disconnected from the rest of your team as all those informal interaction become a thing of the past.

What companies need to be on the lookout for will be the potential reduction in innovation and creativity, much of which just happens when colleagues pump into each other at the water cooler or in the hallway. This can’t be replicated digitally.

Work from home has been tried in the past by some very large corporations and their experiments failed miserably. Granted the advance in technology will certainly improve the odds, but I don’t believe by much. IBM for all it’s technological know how, recalled about 11,000 of their employees back into the office 18 months ago after realizing they were missing out on the innovation that just happened through interacting in person.

What’s the solution?

When Covid-19 is in our rear view mirrors, I think most people will be back in their workplaces and rumours of the death of the office are premature. What might be interesting is a hybrid solution, whereby people will able to split their week or rotate days that they’re in the office. But for those companies, that are going fully remote, you’ll need to create some very unique skills in order to keep your teams organized, motivated and loyal. It won’t be easy

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Category: Operations

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

The Bad

The Good

How to Spot the Difference

Research their background

Look at online reviews

Ask questions

Knowledge

Set expectations

Get a quote

Check their terms and conditions

Take your time

Conclusion

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Putting lipstick on a pig

I ain’t buying the place

Out of sync

Do you care enough?

What you can do to improve the customer experience

What’s stressing you out?

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Small Business

Invention

Innovation

The wristwatch

My experience

My innovation

Innovation through adaptation

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

The destructive power of inflation

Business is not a charity

Some options

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

So what changed?

But that’s not all!

Is work from home any better?

Let’s talk about team unity

Leaders checking in

Personal boundaries

Humans are social

What’s the solution?

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

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