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May
12

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You Already Own Magic Bullets

Category: Being the Boss, Creating the Culture, Customer Service, Making Money Tags: , , , , Leave a Comment

Magic Bullets are already in your gun

Magic Bullets are already in your gun

Many Business Bulldog readers know that I like to build on what already works. I was asked by a franchisee recently what “magic bullet” I was going to provide that would increase his sales by double digits. I responded that any magic bullets would already be in his “gun”. What is the “magic bullet”? Let’s break it down into the parts.

When you say you want to grow your business, I have to ask “Why?”.

No, I am not making fun of you or trying to make a joke. I have reasons for every question. If you want to grow your business because you are ready for it, then I am ready to take you to the next level. If you are trying to survive and cover your costs, we are going to go in another direction.

Covering costs and surviving is a trying time for a business owner. Bad decisions are made when you are desperate. I want to see why you aren’t more profitable and what is working well. Both are needed to plot a path to growth. But, it is growth without adding any more to your costs or structure. No need to go further in debt to build a business. There are things you can do to grow without changing your budget.

The first “magic bullet” is to look backwards. Were you successful when you started and then things leveled off or slipped?

Enthusiasm is a great tool as long as you can maintain it. My new book, which should be for sale later this year, has a whole chapter on this kind of enthusiasm. Customers want to be part of something exciting. They feed off your passion for your new store and want to help you grow it. What happens after the newness wears off, though, is that the energy dies and so does your growth. Can you bring it back? Yes. Do you have the same level of energy that you started with? No. The way to bring the energy back to to share the responsibility and make your team as enthusiastic as you were. That way, you can have a room full of people who can show that you are still building a great business.

How do you get your team to be enthusiastic?

Stop pushing it. You are a great demotivater. Your stress bleeds onto everyone you come near. It’s like sneezing. No one wants to be near someone sneezing. So, stop pushing them to look, act, and sound a certain way. Let them be creative and they will impress you. This will only work if you trust them. That means that you have to trust yourself. Did you hire the right people for the right reasons? I bet you did. Let them show you what they can do to be passionate about your business. This is the number one reason why people stay happy at work. They are contributing and they make a small part of the business theirs by adding their personality.

Where do I go for new customers?

Finding new customers when you have been in business for a while is tough to see from inside your store. I am stunned by the number of business owners who follow paths and never step off them. You know the paths you follow. I bet you haven’t thought of it but, you are a creature of many habits and that is why finding new customers seems ridiculously tough. Get out! Yes, I mean it. Leave your store and go down one block from your store and ask someone if they know where to find your business. No, do NOT tell them you are the owner. No, do not give them clues as to where your business is located. Just ask where you can find a good deli, salon, dry cleaners, or whatever industry you are in. When they can’t tell you or they have a different place in mind than yours, you now know how well you have been marketing.

Tell me your story. Every business has a story…or should.

I don’t care that you are “The Best Deli in Town!” Every deli can be the best deli in town. What is your story? What makes you different? Why would I go there and spend money? That is what I want to know. If you can’t tell me a good story about your store, I can’t see you. You want a magic bullet? Here it is. I will go out of my way to visit a place that can spin a tale of wanting to serve me.

Ask for the sale and invite them back.

Is that too simple? Yes, I guess it is. But, it is the number one reason your sales fell. You and your team stopped asking for the sale and really asking for the customers to return. I worked with a haircare business that was rampant with employees who could not ask for the sale or invite customers back with any kind of drive. They have some great marketing, but they too will sink like a rock once the next salon moves in next door. As an owner, your job is to get the customer into the store. Your next job is to make sure your employees ask for the sale. When that doesn’t happen, you have random people walking through your store thinking about buying products online. Train and keep training and make your team know that anything less than asking for the sale means you are fired.

Inviting back the customer is under the same directive as asking for the sale. If you don’t do it, you are fired. I won’t keep someone on staff that doesn’t want to do their job. They are time wasters and need to go as fast as you can get them out the door. You are in business to sell and get customer back soon. Don’t let the excuses get in the way of your success.

There are more “magic bullets” but starting with these will get you on the right path. My question is: What do you need to change the direction your company is headed in? Send me a note at CEO@BusinessBulldog.com and let me know.

Bob Griffin
Chief-Bulldog-in-Charge

Jan
19

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Leading is Listening

Category: Being the Boss, Creating the Culture Leave a Comment

“Business Team With Leader” by cooldesign

One of the best jobs in my life is working with the Cub Scouts as a Den Leader.  I am not sure how I got the job since it is a volunteer organization and I don’t remember volunteering but, I am glad I get to be a leader and get the chance to spend more time with my son. I also get to work with kids that I have watched go from little guys to young men.  There aren’t too many things in their lives that will help them develop skills they will use for the rest of their lives and be able to pass along to their kids.  Scouting is a moral compass kids can can fall back on during the best and toughest challenges life throws at them.

I was not a scout growing up.  So, learning these skills in order to teach them to the den is something I take seriously.  But, the one skill that I had to learn more than others was listening.  A leader won’t survive without listening to his troops.  When your troops troops want to play X-Box and tell fart jokes when you need them to pitch a tent, you have to listen for them to be ready to follow.

How many of you have a story about planning an event or a product roll-out that goes horribly wrong because your team didn’t follow through with what you wanted?  I bet every leader has a similar story to tell (or yell).  The problem wasn’t your planning, it was your listening.

If I want to get the troop to work on their merit badge for athletics, I ask them questions and start a conversation.  I want to know if they are ready and understand the rules and what the outcome should be.  Remember, these are a gaggle of ten and eleven year old boys.  (Is gaggle correctly used for boys?  Probably not, but spend some time with them and gaggle sounds right.)  If you want to get them to move, you need to get their attention, allow for their input, listen to their “what if’s” and be prepared to rework your plans if their is a problem.

That last part of having to rework your plans is the one that drives most leaders crazy.  Why should a leader have to rework plans?  Shouldn’t the team just follow and do what they are told?   No.  It is a team.  You may be the leader in title, but only if they follow you.  So, close your mouth and listen first.

  • Plan the time to get the team’s input BEFORE you start.  They may think of something you didn’t consider.
  • Be prepared to make changes.  The best plans have flexibility to work around issues in order to get the best outcome.
  • Listen some more.  Even though you get their consensus, they are going to think of things along the way.  The best leaders can listen and react when things start to go bad or great.  Build on the successes and limit the bad stuff fast.
  • Open the door for someone to get credit for adding to your plan.  Giving kudos when it is warranted means the troop will give better input in order to get more credit for success.  Successes are easier to get when you have a team that all wants to win.
  • Listen to  non-verbal cues.  Over 80% of communication is non-verbal.  If you aren’t there listening for the cues (noises, facial expressions, talk between teammates, etc.) to tell you when you need to step in and ask more questions, you will not meet your goals.
  •  Build in time to slow down and regroup.  You will learn more at intermission about what already happened than any analysis after the fact.

Scouting has build some of the best leaders in the world.  There is a reason for that.  If you haven’t taken the time to learn something about scouting and what a great foundation it gives youth, please do.  There is something for everyone – Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.  Leaders of business can take a lesson or two from scouting.  If you spend much time with them you will see why it has worked for so long. 

The first step to being a success is listening.  Are you ready to listen?

Bob Griffin – CEO and Chief Bulldog
BGriffin@BusinessBulldog.com

Nov
25

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8 Failures of Leadership

Category: Being the Boss, Creating the Culture Leave a Comment

“Business Man carrying calculator” by ddpavumba

When it comes to managing a business or a project or anything that involves more than just you doing the job, there is a thought in leadership of the project that you should force the problem along until you have a solution.  It isn’t a good thought, but it happens daily.  Leading is a combination of giving a vision of what you want, making sure you have the right team to get it done, and guiding the team to success.  Even knowing this, there are ways to mess it up that have everything to do with being human and having predisposed tendencies.  

If you want to win at business, you have to avoid a few of the prevalent failures of leadership.

1. Fear of Losing
The first failure in management is fear.  It can be the simple, yet stupid fear of being out shined by lower level employees or it can be the fear of someone catching them being human.  Fear, in itself is a human trait.  Fear in business is a waste of time and energy.   The best leaders find ways to let others shine, especially people who work for them.  If you are in charge and are fearful of anything, you need to face it and get over it.

2. Threatening Leadership
I am pretty sure we have all worked in an organization that had threats as a daily part of the work-cycle.  Threats are another sad failure of management.  If you have to threaten people to do their jobs, they are in the wrong job and you most definitely are too!  There is NEVER a time when threats should happen in business.

3. Closed-Loop Listening
When you have a leadership team that looks for feedback only from the people around them and no further out than an outside consultant, you have a failure of management.  There is no leadership that includes not listening openly to everyone in an organization.   It is a Bulldog Rule for Business that you should know every part of your business. You have to hear the worst parts of your business and your leadership to be able to grow.

4. Promoting Failure
This is one that I see every day in businesses.  I had lunch at a well-known eatery and the manager was the worst person to have lead others.  He didn’t have the skills to ring up a customer or train his waiters to bring a glass of water to a customer.  He looked and sounded the part of a good manager, but he was soon found out to be incompetent by the staff and they ran right over him.  You don’t owe anyone a leadership job.  They have to be the right person to lead and manage the business.

5. Unwilling to Fire Faster
I am going to offer up that I am very guilty of this failure.  I have had several employees who I thought I could manage, train, coach, and lead to greater results.  It was a waste of my energy and the company’s money to keep them on board.  A great manager of mine from years ago told me, “All you need to lead a person is to teach them what to do, how to do it, and to find out if they want to do it.”  Finding out if they want to do the job, if their heart is in it, is crucial to leading.

6. Losing Focus on the Vision Statement
Business brings good things and bad things all in the same day.  If you can’t keep the ship clearly aimed at the path you want it to go and have given everyone in the organization a clear picture of what your vision for success is, then you have failed.  Find the vision, not the mission.  Missions take faith.  Visions paint to picture of what goals look like so everyone knows when you reach them.

7. Inconsistent Leadership
I’ve had bosses who were crazy.  I was never sure what would come out of their mouth and was either cringing or smiling waiting for the punchline.  It was a mess to try to find out any news from these people.  I didn’t know if I was helping reach goals or failing.  Being consistent in business is the key to keeping staff happy and understanding what you want from them and keeping customers coming back for what they know you can provide.

8.  Secrets
There are corporate secrets that must be kept quiet.  There are even little secrets that add suspense to a new product offering.  You want to have some secrecy to keep you ahead of your competition.  The secrecy that causes failure is closure of the executive team from the rest of the staff.  I will add the Board of Directors to that mess too.  When you close the loop and keep secrets that the team needs to give them a clear idea of their own growth in the company, you fail.  Employees want to know that there is life in the business and that what they are doing will lead them to higher pay and rewards.  When you keep secrets that keep them from understanding how the business is doing and where it is headed, you fail big time!

For every failure, there needs to be twice as many wins to keep you moving forward.  I will start the new year with as many wins as I can find.  I hope you can see these failures as a stepping stone to walk over and keep you going.  Failure is only failure when you stop trying.

Bob Griffin
Chief Bulldog and Founder

Sep
1

By

5 Steps to Hiring an Outstanding Team

Category: Being the Boss, Creating the Culture, Hiring Process, Saving Money Leave a Comment

 

The Right Hire

I often get the question, “How do I find the right people to hire?”.  It is something that every owner  struggles to handle and is a never-ending process.  When you have a vision of what your company looks like, you also see that the employees are on board with the vision and are willing to help bring you there.

What works and where am I going wrong?

The quick answer is that you didn’t follow the right steps to get the people you need on your payroll.  Breaking down your problem into piles and finding where to focus will give you what you need.

The right employee has equal parts of each section listed in the chart above.  If you do not support each part and communicate well to each part of each person on you payroll, you will have a losing team.  Remember, one bad hire can make the rest of your team stumble.  Hiring the right person can jump start the team.

1. Find the right person

Recruiting impressive people is the toughest part of being an owner.  You really should be a part of every hire or you are going to end up with a team that isn’t seeing the vision you have for your business.  There are as many ways to find the right employee as there are ways to find the wrong one.  Whatever works to get people to interview will find you the right employee.  The trick is to keep looking.

2. Find the right person with the right attitude

Attitude is the factor that is not taught in school.  I have seen many highly educated people lose out on jobs because they can’t stop waving their degrees around the room.  If you can’t get past the certificate tacked to the wall, then you can’t work for me.  The business world doesn’t give a damn what your GPA was or what your degree is in.  If you can’t deal with the tasks, the people, and the stress and still smile all the way through it, you are not worth hiring.  Hire for attitude.  It will make your business grow.  People spend money with people they like.

3. Find the right person with the right initiative

OK, so this one has more to do with YOU than them.  How is your level of trust?  If you can’t trust the people who are representing your business; who are the face of your business, then who do you trust?  Giving your staff enough leeway to be creative and find ways to increase profitability then you are going to lose customers.  Creating an atmosphere where people can trust that you are listening and willing to try what they bring to you is critical to finding and keeping the right employees.

4. Find the right training for the right person

I am constantly bewildered by companies that cut their training budget in order to save money.  That is like closing your shop for an extra day a week to save on payroll.  It’s stupid and a reason to sell your business and go work for someone else.  How do you expect to have a staff that works on the same vision for your business if you aren’t training all of them on what that vision looks like.  The key is to find the right training for each person.  I will add an article on training the right way later.  Some people need to see the vision in action, others can listen and learn.  The best way is to engage your employees in many different ways to solidify the training.  Show them, tell them, ask them to train you on what you want and see what works best.

5.  Look in the mirror!  Would you hire you?

I get in more trouble with this one than any other aspect of consulting.  If you wouldn’t hire yourself to be in your business, find out what part of steps, 1 through 4, you are lacking and fix it!  Great employees follow great leaders.  Great leaders do the right things.

Slow down and be patient.  Hiring wrong can do more damage to your business than not having enough people to help customers.  Make sure you are ready when you find the right person.

May
26

By

What’s It Worth?

Category: Being the Boss, Customer Service, Making Money, Saving Money, Training Leave a Comment

Percent And Dollar Symbols Image ID: 10052171 - stock illustration uploaded on 03 August 2011

I had a great question from a friend who is also a franchise consultant.  He asked how we know when something is worth adding to the services or products sold.  Up until he asked the question, I had mentally worked the ROI and figured out if adding another product or service was a profitable move or not.  As a consultant, I need to have data to show whether something is worth the cost.  That is where we need to work some math into the equation.

Often, the question comes in a bigger form such as when I get referenced as some to answer whether or not to buy a business, not specifically whether or not to add a product to an existing business.  Working backwards from the cost of time & effort back to the actual cost of the business is a fun way to gauge if a person is serious about being an owner.  Owning a restaurant is the number one business type that I am asked about.  I get the “I love the food, so it will be fun to work there” kind of answer.  I let them know that pizza, for example, can provide a good return on your investment, but cleaning the dumpster area behind the restaurant every week gets old fast.  Or, that working with hourly employees who see the job as a means to a paycheck and nothing else can be a challenge.  Hourly employees can work hourly at most any restaurant.

The best part of determining the real cost of buying restaurant is when you tell them that you a tied to the business 7 days a week.  If the manager quits or you are short staffed, you fill in.  There is no other way to make it work.  You can’t over staff or you lose profits and you can’t run the restaurant with too few employees because they are not going to put up with working harder.  Remember, they want a paycheck, not to make you proud of them for their dedication.  There’s a look in a person’s eyes when they realize the “sunshine and rainbows” story the sales guy told them isn’t reality.

Now, let’s talk about adding a product.

The data of the situation is what really matters.  If a product is good it needs to have three things working in its favor.

  1. It needs to have a built-in customer base.

  2. It needs to fit in with what you are already known for selling.

  3. It needs to sell fast and not take up too much space in the process.

These three points all come back around and need to have a positive answer to all three.  Only meeting one or two of these points means you will lose money.

I have watched a lot (and I mean far too many) independent and franchise owners add a product to their sales floor in the pursuit of adding dollars to their bottom line when they end up losing money by not having a customer base to buy it. Or, customers want the product, but they don’t know you sell it.  Or, they can find you and the product, but you lose because it takes up space from products that are you are know for and sits there longer than needed to turn a profit.  You need to be known for having the product, have customers ready to buy it, and sell it fast without losing ground on the products that you know sell well.

I am not a risk taker.  I will add a product when it meets the needs and passes my simple test.  Before then, you are risking losing more than money.  You lose your brand image when customers can’t tell what you are selling any more and they find another retailer to meet their needs.

The math comes down to the cost of the item plus the cost of the square footage needed to display the item times the time needed to make the sale.

Worth = (product cost + dollar cost to display in space square footage) * time needed to sell

If the product costs $100 and needs 1 square foot to display at a cost of $32 a square foot that equals $132 (in nice round numbers).  The time needed to sell it is the kicker.  For every month it takes for you to sell it, you need to add another $32.  Leasing space is a drain on profits even for online businesses.  Somewhere in the world there is warehouse of products that need space to sit before selling.  If it sells faster than one month, cut the square footage cost by dividing it by the number of days in the month.

I like simple math.  I am sure I am going to get comments about how the costs are a product of other factors.  You are right.  Employee costs, utilities, maintenance fees, and more all add to the cost structure.  If you want a spreadsheet to add all those things in, we can work it into the equation.  For a simple cost basis, we are limiting it to the basics needed to know if this product can replace space on a shelf or do we keep what we have there.

You can use this same “worthiness structure” for anything in your business.  I often use it when I talk to micromanaging owners who can’t seem to get out of their stores.  For them, the worth of their time inside the store versus finding a manager to replace them and getting out to find new customers looks like this:

Worth of bringing in one new customer = (average sale * the number of additional purchases over a year)

New manager payroll costs + training costs + time needed to get them up to speed / (the number of new customers brought in * worth of a new customer)

I could spend a lot of time doing math or I can take the pulse of the business and move on it.  Use the quick math and enjoy the increase in profits.  It’s worth your time!

Bob Griffin
Founder and CEO
Bgriffin@businessbulldog.com

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