Business Bulldog

Give Your Business Some Bite!

Apr
29

By

Are You The Right Owner?

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

Very often when there is a shift in the economy there is a desire for people to jump into business ownership. I know that is appealing, but it is not for everyone. Bulldog Rule #9 states, “You may not be the right person for the job.” As much as I can help a person be a good owner, they just may not fit the mold of being a good business person.

The world economy flipping upside down does not surprise me. There is a “righting” of the financial world every decade (sometimes a little longer) and the people who have been sailing through not paying attention to their business get knocked on their butt because the market changed. I want to point out that this has happened to countless big public companies in the last year and the formula for failure is the same.

Many people get into business for the wrong reasons. I have a friend that I worked as a consultant for who wanted to be a restaurateur. His plan was to work in the business with his wife. She was better at the back-office paperwork and he was better coordinating the operations. It sounded good, but as soon as his wife got tired of smelling like a french fry she moved on and then he lost interest. The business failed. There simply has to be a reason bigger than a dream that makes you an owner. Lost interest is why big businesses fail too. How many Boards of Directors but short term goals in front of a CEO and then wonder why the business failed in the long term. The CEO’s interest is in meeting the goal and looking good to the Directors and the stockholders. After the short term goal is met you see a lot of CEO’s jumping ship and a lot of employees scrambling to fix the mess in order not to lose their jobs. Interest in the entire business and the industry is critical to making a strong business and keeping customer share.

Business is all about change. The vendors change products, customers move, or even a news story that affects the entire industry could be the reason to be ready to move to meet the new demands. I worked in the ice cream industry for a few years and when the Mad Cow scare took hold it was a daily PR effort to get customers to the stores. No one got sick from ice cream, but customer perception of all dairy products was strong. Change happens and you are going to have to be face it. Most people hate change. If you can’t handle that kind of stress do not be a business owner.

Early in my career as a consultant I thought I could make anyone a great business owner. It is just following a basic formula that makes a business good. There is so much more to small business. Now my first statement to anyone thinking buying or starting a business is “Are you qualified?” It is a shocking question to someone who is new to business, but I am probably the only person around them to ask that question. No one is ready for business since you can not tell what the day will bring. The right person for the business may not be you and that is OK. It isn’t like love. It is most definitely better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, but to be a business owner and have lost is a pain that can hurt more than just you.

I want to finish with a saying that I heard many years ago. “The path to happiness is yours to walk down. It may not be the same one you thought you would be on, but it is the only one that will lead you to happiness.” Not once in that statement does it mention being a business owner. Find your own path to happiness wherever it leads you.

Apr
11

By

Paying Money To Make Money

Category: Making Money, Training Leave a Comment

There are a million things that a small business owner must tackle each and every day to keep things going.  How many of those items can you pass along to an employee to handle?

It sounds like a simple question that requires a simple answer, but many times we look at the job an employee does as either too vital to take them away from to teach a new job or not qualified to handle the job you want to delegate.

Many times we group tasks by job title and never look at the skills of the employees in other jobs. If you could spend one hour a day to teach an employee a part of your business that now takes you away from earning more money would you do it?

Think of it this way, if you can’t do the payroll and write the checks to pay your employees who is going to handle it in your absence? Your employees won’t work for you very long if they don’t get paid. Having one or two more people who can handle the jobs that keep your business going makes a big difference.

Now, I want to convince the rest of you who are Type-A personalities (the “only I can do the job right” kind of people).  How much is each job worth at your business. Payroll, scheduling, local store marketing, and more have a cost to them. What would you pay someone to do those jobs if you couldn’t do them?

How much is your time worth? Is it worth the time you spend on those jobs that do not bring you any money? Those jobs that are in the cost category on your P&L statement. Are you worth more finding new sources of income or are you saving more by doing them yourself?

The answer is clear that you are worth more, as the owner, going out and getting more customers and building your business and paying someone else to do the small jobs. It is easy when you are starting out to think that you are dropping more dollars to the bottom line by doing everything yourself. The truth is that you are the best face of your company and need to be the force in driving it’s growth.

Train your crew, give them time to get the job right, and then when you are comfortable letting them do the job get back to building your business. Your time is more valuable as the leader than hiding in the back office crunching numbers or out front sweeping floors.

Apr
11

By

Being Wrong Is Sometimes Right

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

I have been asked a few times about Bulldog Rule #15 and I want to take some time to explain it.  Most people think that being right is the only way to get ahead and build a strong business. This rule does not mean that bringing the right ingredients and service to the marketplace can somehow be cut back and you can still be profitable in the long run. There is never a reason or need to cut back on providing the best you can bring to your customers. That is not an issue of right or wrong, but rather of being a smart business owner.

Being “right” all the time means being the only one with the answers and not listening to the people around you who have great ideas to offer. It means that you are inflexible and unable to handle the fact that you are sometimes wrong.

Does this sound like someone you know?

I have learned over the years that some of the best ideas to grow a company come from the front line employees. These are the lowest paid employees, but also have more face to face contact with customers than anyone else in the organization. You may be the one who steers the ship, but they are the ones making it move. By listening to them and that they can be right about the direction of the company you are growing not only the success of the business, but also the culture of your organization.

Bulldog Rule #15 is also about admitting when you are wrong. How often do we look at things from a right or wrong perspective and miss the fact that the boss is human and can make errors. By being a true leader you have the opportunity to let your employees know that making mistakes is a path to finding great ways to do things better.

Be right when you need to. Let others be right when you can. In the big picture, focus on the goal of your business and not so much on being perfect.

Apr
2

By

How Much Do I Make?

Category: Being the Boss, Creating the Culture, Making Money, Training 1 Comment

There was a time when I thought like an employee.  Mostly because I was one and that was all the focus I had in business.  I couldn’t figure out why sales were good, but my paycheck was still small.  Does this sound like some of your employees?

The part that I was ignorant about was the cost of being in business.  Even though sales were higher than last year and things were looking good, the cost of being in business was going up each year and the sales increases just kept us in business.

How many of your employees really understand how much is left after paying the bills?  If you are hiding the numbers from your employees, you may be creating a rift between you and your team.  A rift that can sink your business.

A great exercise is to have a meeting with your entire team and ask them how much they think you earn.  (It is not as dangerous as it sounds).  The numbers they call out will be staggering.  More than one person will say “millions” and mean it.  They more than likely have never been an owner of a business and will not know the true costs you have to pay to be your own boss.

Now, let’s get them to see the big picture.  This is going to require that you have the actual cost of business per week ready.  Averages are alright to use.

Have a large sheet of paper or a dry erase board to write on.  Ask them if they know sales were for last week.  (If they do, it gives you a clue as to how closely they watch your business)  Write the number at the top of the paper.  Now ask them how much they think the utility bills for the store are per week.  Write the real number under the sales. Do the same with the weekly cost of insurance, payroll, loans, CPA costs, fees, product costs, etc.

Once you have the costs on the paper under the sales subtract the costs from the sales and write the number at the bottom.  That is what is left to run the business for the next week and some left for you.

This is the moment when most of your employees will get it and understand how much you do just to be an owner.  Some will shrug and not get it and the few remaining won’t get it at all.  For the majority of employees who get it and can see the price you pay, you now have allies who can help you move the sales forward and can build a stronger business WITH you.

Simple actions can bring big rewards and an exercise like this is a goldmine for you.  Try it soon.  Let me know how it worked.

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