2. February 2010 by Bob Griffin.

I was looking around my house for new items that would help me convey a sense of team dynamics to a group I will be speaking to later this week.  I have a speech I will use about the disconnect in most teams and how the dynamics of getting a team to embody a message is difficult, but not impossible.  Great speech if I do say so, but it was missing an element.  Something for the audience to “visually” hold onto while I made my story come to life.

I thought about using a knife since you need to cut through the clutter of “stuff” that gets in the way of delivering and receiving a message.  Can you image a speaker holding a knife in front of a group talking about slashing through the outside junk that builds up between you and your employees?  I came to the quick conclusion that they would wheel me out in a straight jacket if I did that.

I thought about bringing a peach.  Peaches smell nice and no one will think I lost my mind.  (That last sentence will not stand on it’s own)  Anyway, back to the peach…sometimes you need to gain a person’s focus with something that draws on one or more of their senses.  Peaches smell nice, taste great and feel soft and comfortable.  Most people know the taste of a peach and can see themselves eating it.  The point of using a peach is to say that there is a lot of reasons to just focus on the outside, tasty side of a peach, but if you want to grow, you need to dig through that part and get to the core where the pit is.  You can either focus on the one peach (the comfortable side of business) or you can focus on getting the team to put the pit in the ground and have each member of the team add their skills to growing a peach tree (the business) that will give you peaches (money) for years.  I am not sure I would be able to make a good point of team dynamics by talking about a peach, but it is a good visual…and tasty.

I kept wandering around my house thinking about how to get a message across to a group of people who are glad to have a job, but want to do as little as possible to make a living.  Then it hit me.  No, really it hit me.  My son threw a ball at me and yelled “catch!”.  How’s that for finding a visual?

Once I regained my senses and reassured my son that he was not in trouble, I looked at the ball and and I went through what happened.  In one word and in one action, my son made the point he wanted to get across to me.  “Catch the ball!”  Often I will clutter up my own words, actions, and attitude with too much stuff.  Stuff is the junk that makes every simple thing more complicated.  Holding the ball, I figured it out…toss simple, clear, understandable ideas to your team.  If they don’t get it, then get rid of them.  They aren’t trying and you do not have time to slow down for them.

Clear messages are the thing that most people have a hard time with when they want something done.  The best leaders make a clear statement.  They don’t spend time trying to get you to understand the history of why they are making the statement.  They just talk clearly, with one idea and one message.  I wish someone had thrown a ball at me when I was younger.  I would have saved piles of time and effort.  I probably would be a lot further ahead in life and business had I been jarred with a round object hurled at high speed.

Great team dynamics happen when you slow down and clear out the “stuff”.  Stop wasting time with explanations or trying to fit every message to everyone.  Either they trust you or they don’t.  Follow up on your directions and you will see who is listening and part of your team and who is not.  There is no way to please everyone and there is no way to have a group of people who are not on the job to follow you and find success.  Don’t feel bad for the ones who don’t get it.  They need to find their own clear message…with a different team.

By the way, I am going to use the ball.  I had already eaten the peach.

Posted in Creating the Culture, Being the Boss, Training, Making Money | Print | 55 Comments »

22. January 2010 by Bob Griffin.

Draw three circles - one around the next.  This is all the business model you need to create a dynamic growing business in this depressed economic environment.

Three circle?!?  Yes, three circles.  The diagram should look like a target.  Once you understand this model, you will never be lost in what to do next.

Inside the first inner-most circle write the word “Leadership”.  We always start with leadership.  Getting to the core of the brand starts with looking at the face of person or people who are leading the organization.  As you know by our rules, either you are the right person to be in the inner-most circle leading the charge or you are not.  It is not about ego or power, but about having the most effective person in charge of the operations.  There are too many businesses that fail because they have the wrong person in charge.  How many of the businesses in your area have closed because of poor leadership?  Most, if not all.

The next circle is the team.  Write “Team” in the circle that goes around the leadership.  It is amazing that so many people are lost when it comes to hiring and training the right people.  Is it fear or something else?  We have seen clearly that most people are not trained in how to hire well or train someone to do a job effectively.  As Noel Guilford wrote in the last article, “Hatch an Egg - Build a Leader”, you want to create your own team of leaders to grow your business.  Hiring in someone who is well suited to the job means that they are capable of doing the job.  However, they may not do things your way.  After all, they were trained to do things at another company. Are you willing AND able to hire someone who is capable and spend the time and energy to train them into the employee you need and a leader in their field?  The questions to start with are “What is the nature of the job I am hiring for?” and “Is this the right person to train into being the best employee for that position?”.  You will be burned by hiring and spending time training someone.  That is the nature of business.  Get over that and keep working.  You would not let your competition tell you how to be successful, so why would you allow a bad hire limit you?

The outer-most circle is local store marketing.  Write “Local Store Marketing” in this circle.  The first two circles are focused inside your business.  They are the core of the business.  Can a business grow with just the right leadership and the right team?  Yes.  It is the foundation for all great businesses.  Without the first two circles, you have no business at all.  The local store marketing circle is the relationship you want to have with your customers.  It is the public relations, the couponing, and the message you want to send to people in the area you want to spend money with you.  Failure in this circle does not necessarily mean that your business will fail.  It does mean that you are limited to word of mouth advertising. This can also include bad reviews or anything anyone wants to mention about you.  Get the inside of your store operating well and then get out and brag about it.  Be known for something great.  Shameless promotion for the sake of yelling about your store is the worst kind of marketing.  GO for something that people will think of when they think of your business or your industry.

Three circles are simple and encompass the entire method of controlling a business.   I have always been able to help a business grow when we break the effort down to these three parts.  You will jump back and forth as things change - and things will most definitely change.  Change is the only constant thing you can count on in life.  Reexamine your leadership often.  Look at the goals you set for your team and make sure everyone is on board to reach them.  Do the right kind of local store marketing.  All of these things are the parts of your business that you can handle.  You can not change the economy or your competition.  You can handle your business as a professional. 

Draw three circles and start growing your business now.

Posted in Creating the Culture, Being the Boss, Making Money | Print | 93 Comments »

7. January 2010 by Bob Griffin.

There are two types of owners that need to grow their view of the business they own.  One type of owner spends a lot of time on numbers.  They see the trends and how the customers respond to the marketing or employee efforts.  The “Number Cruncher” is a good master of his domain.  He is up to date on what has happened in his business and what works.  He can plan and explain his business in terms of dollars and cents.  Why is this not a big enough view?  He is good with changing to a new plan.  He can see what works and plan, but moving to a new plan is outside his view.  Limits like this are part of an old way of doing business.  I grew up in this format.  I am happy to look through these eyes.  I also know that if I want to make stores successful I need to look bigger and make changes quickly to stay ahead of the competition and fire up my team.  Numbers tell no lies, but they also do not inspire growth.  People do.

The second type of owner is the marketing guy.  He can tell you what works and why.  Coupons, discounts, and media buys are part of his lexicon.  There is no way he is going to let a customer get away without knowing what his business is all about.  Branding is a key to his success.  Finding new ways to communicate to customers is his passion.  This guy is his own best marketing…just ask him.  Why doesn’t this work well.  If you are focused on marketing outside your business, you may the operations  and the reason customers come back.  Ever watch a commercial, try out a new business and then never go back? Why?  The hype did not match the service, the products, or a combination of both.  Marketing is critical, yes critical, to every business.  It just can not be the beginning and the end of the game. Save marketing until you have something to brag about.  Then yell it!

Look at the whole picture.  Crunch numbers to see what works best.  Take the best parts of a campaign, product, or service and build your store around it.  The best businesses ask more questions than make statements.  Every question or answer should bring more questions or answers.  Look bigger.  Dream about where your business can grow.  Do not EVER be comfortable.  Comfort is good for a blanket, but bad for a business model.  Be ready to change.  Look inside your business first to ensure that when you go out and invite customers in you are ready to make them say “WOW”.

Posted in Marketing, Customer Service, Creating the Culture, Making Money | Print | 87 Comments »

2. January 2010 by Bob Griffin.

When we talk with owners, there is a need for them to ask certain questions immediately that always makes me think they may or may not be ready for the next step in the evolution of their business.  The issues are money and time.  If you want to have a strong business, you need to spend either more money or more time or both.  If you are not ready to do so, please find the time and money and then find the help in getting started right.

Business owners have a desire to fulfill a vision for what the business should look like and sometimes miss the basics of how the business should run.  I do not blame them for that fact.  If you start a business from scratch, even a franchise, requires that you are a real estate expert, contractor (or at least oversee the contractor), and the middleman between the business and the government agencies that require that you have permits and fees paid before you are allowed to make any money.  Transitioning to from that to handling the day-to-day operations can be a dilemma when the store opens.  At this point, they either invested well enough to hit the ground running or they stumble out of the gate.  You spend a lot of money and time getting things rolling.  The last thing you want to think about is how much more time and money it will cost to get the business open and keep it open, but that is where your thinking should be.

More often than not, owners stumble on day one.  The problem starts with having the basic operations knowledge and then translating it to a function of getting the job done by leading the team and communicating the vision.  Working in an industry for more than a year is a sure fire way to learn from the ground up.  This gives you a chance to work as a leader, find the answers on how things should work, and how to communicate effectively to employees.  Most entrepreneurs do not spend that kind of time or want to make that kind of sacrifice.  It is the difference between being in business in five years or dying out your first few months.

One problem that I see very often is - Ego.  When someone wants to start a business they say it is for the money.  That, unfortunately, is only half the reason.  The other reason is that it is something that will give them the ability to tell friends and family that they are a business owner.  Most people you see each day do not own a business.  They are happy to work for someone else, but do give credit to others who jump over to being an owner.  Ego gets in the way because the owner wants to be the owner more than the operator of a business that may require them to be on the front line.   Do not think you can delegate to a successful business.  Bulldog Rule # 14 - The right people never want to work with the wrong people - hits the nail on the head.  Make sure you are the right person to lead…not yell at people and be angry or make the place a “work-hell”.  Otherwise, you will spend more money to hire the right person to lead.

I have been enjoying reading for the millionth time The E-Myth Revisited by  Michael E. Gerber.  He makes many valid points on hiring people who can be trained and can follow your lead.  This requires that you have a training program for them to follow and are able to lead someone through training to be the best employee for the job. You can’t have a big ego and lead employee through training (no one would follow).  Creating a great training program removes you as the main focus of the business and makes the system most important.  I was also reading What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell where he made this point.  He interviewed Ron Popeil, the founder of Ronco and the Inventor of many products you probably have in your kitchen.  I was impressed with the way  Ron took the interest off himself and made the product the star.  Coming from a family of salesmen, that was always the formula, but for someone without that kind of knowledge and with an ego going into business, it is easy to see where a person can slip up and make the product or service second to the messenger.  Lose the ego and make the system follow the sale.  You may want to take a vacation.  If the emphasis is on you and your ego, what happens when you are not there?

Great leading through training requires a few items:

• Each job has a cost and an outcome.  List the parts of the job and the desired outcome.  Be prepared to change the training and the costs as your business grows.  There is never just one way to do a job and costs change over time.
  
• Be a coach, a mentor, and a teacher that someone would want to learn from.  This implies that you can lead through teaching.  If you can’t or are not very good, find someone who can.  Yes, this costs more money, but it will save you from wasting time and money in the long run.
• Invest money and time early in the game to make more later.  When you spend, spend wisely.  Getting the ship headed in the right direction from day one is the best way to jump ahead of the competition and find better people who want to work with you.
• Fire yourself if you need to.  Being an owner does not mean that you need to be the leader of the organization.  Set the tone, set the budget, keep up with the data, and get the heck out of the way.

There are great ways to make a great business and they all come back to spending your time and money in ways that make you more down the road.  Be prepared to keep spending time and money on training, firing/hiring, better information, and better processes.  The investing does not stop when you start making a great paycheck.

Posted in Customer Service, Training, Making Money | Print | 6 Comments »

27. December 2009 by Bob Griffin.

The article I wrote on compliments has been downloaded and printed a few thousand times I want to add to it to ensure you have the tools to help this value-adding idea to your own business philosophy.  There is more than just being polite to getting compliments, although that is a good place to start.  There is an  ideology that many small business owners and managers fail to notice and so fail to foster in their employees.  Business Bulldog, Inc. was started to help get businesses back to the basics and grow with time-tried, recognizable ways of growing.  It is what helped start the best businesses around.  It is also the path that businesses that do not worry about what people have to say about them use.

To just read the above paragraph and think you understand how to get compliments would be a mistake.  There is a school of thought that guides the best in business that must not only be understood, but lived. It is something that all good people know in their heart and live by.  It can be broken down to one simple, yet profound word.  It usually makes owners cringe and fail to see it’s worth and for employees to throw out of their vocabulary after the first hour on the job.

Trust

Compliments are broken down into three parts: the actions that bring about a compliment, the action of giving a compliment, and the context in which it is received.

Very often we hire “warm bodies”.  I mean - the people needed just to keep things going.   They fill a spot on the schedule, but do not really make things better.  Kind of a “space filler” on the payroll.  I call them a waste of space since I would not hire someone I did not see helping the culture of my organization.  All employees are a representation of the brand.  If you do not think so, you are in for a rude awakening when things go bad and you need everyone to step up and help with jobs they do not normally do or were hired to do.  Want to see just how cranky the person who normally unloads trucks can get when asked to answer a phone?  A quick check - - would you be comfortable letting anyone in your organization tell a news reporter about your business?  If that answer is no, you have “warm bodies”.

“Warm bodies” are the reason most places do not get compliments.  They drag down the rest of the employees who want to be proud of the company and the job they do.  I have seen far too many organizations that think that is the only way to keep the business going.  The reason I have heard is, “Employees do not want to do any more than they have to.  You have to push them to get anything done around here.”  That is the business with the going out of business sign on the front door and the merchandise being stolen by employees when the boss turns his back.  The culture there is “I don’t trust you”.

So, how do you start trusting people when your organization is geared to pushing and dragging crew to do their job?  The first step is to change the way you look at your business.  Why did you get into business?  Was it for a short term gain or for the long haul?  Businesses built for the long haul are the only ones we work with.  Why start with you?  Because you are the driving force in your organization.  If you make it important, the employees will see it as important.  Make your actions compliment worthy.  The rest of your team should see this as a clear path for them to follow.  It is also easy to see where your weak link is when you are acting professionally and expect others in your organization to act similarly.

We have mentioned a few times that getting compliments should be an easy task for your customers.  How many businesses do you visit each week that do not have a way (an easy way) for you to give feedback?  That is where you need to spend a few budgeted dollars (or for our international friends euros, dinars, etc.).  Find ways to get customers to give you their honest opinion.  Walk around your store and ask, place a phone call to a recent customer, give surveys, or have a third party ask.  I do not recommend using it as part of a promotion - you give us a score and we will give you a chance to win a prize.  There are too many ways for that to muddy the message.

Finally, how are you going to receive the message.  By that I mean, what are you going to do with the information?  If you are going to just look at it and thunder orders to your front line crew, forget it.  You don’t make changes that matter by pushing your team.  Either they are part of the answer or you are fooling yourself into thinking you are a leader.  If you want to use the information to make changes that will change your business, post the best examples of compliments that show the path you want your team to follow.  The feedback that is not a compliment is valuable too.  Use it to make changes, but do it as a team.  If you have field people, get them in the office for a meeting and have them brainstorm was to make the customer’s experience better.

Trust is an amazing thing when you have it in your business.  Trust your employees to do the right thing.  Trust your customers to give you meaningful feedback.  Finally, trust your team to help you build a stronger business.  Compliments can be an amazing part of your brand image.  It is tough to tear down a brand that has dedicated followers.  Just remember to start the path to compliments inside your business.

Posted in Customer Service, Creating the Culture | Print | 57 Comments »