How Does Your Business Stay Relevant?

Examine How Relevant Your Business Has Become.

I think back through all the years of my business career and can imagine living almost seven lifetimes.  What about you?  How many lifetimes of business patterns can you examine in your own business career?  A few? I can think of my first set of business patterns.  Let's take a walk through history and examine some of those life patterns.  Let's see how each pattern was able to remain relevant to the business.

In the beginning, I was the son of an entrepreneur who directed me to practice all of these particular things to help out in the family business.  That was my first set of business patterns.  My first job was to deliver the furniture my family sold.  My business life began listening to how things should be done to please the process for attracting consumer sales.  These relevant and particular things were a major part of my first impressions to business leadership.  Please the customers.  That was the bottom line.

I remember being told to hold my hands on the outside of the furniture while I was delivering their new furniture so my hands hit the door jams instead of the customers new furniture.  We were never supposed to make any marks or cause any damage to the new furniture the customer was having delivered.  Scratching the back of our hands was far more desirable than placing an unwanted scratch on the back side of a new piece of furniture.  This was one of my first delivery lessons.  Consumers must be pleased at all costs.  That was the message.  My first lessons were related to the policies of customer attraction.  Look good, act professional, be polite, show ultimate care in the products they purchased, compliment their choice when it was delivered and thank them for their newly purchased items.  This was my first introduction to business relevance.

That was my first life in business.  I was young and specifically taught how to do these simple things.  My current question...how many business leaders continue to practice today this first rule of business relevance?  How many business owners have forgotten this simple step?  How many business models skip treating the consumer as someone very special.  In fact, let's go further into that line of questioning.  How many business models treat their customers as something they would scratch the back of their hand to please?  Is your current business model doing everything it can do to make certain your customer feels special and appreciated?  How far has your business traveled away from being this kind of close to this kind of relevance?  Think about this deeply.

I read the Wall Street Journal daily and I witness thousands of large corporations each month describe how they work to 'take' more advantage of the opportunities they can discover that their customers will be willing to support.  Is this kind of approach the same thing as scratching the back of your hand?  I think not.  These two approaches to customer attraction policies are completely separate scenarios.  Customer service has drifted away from where it used to be.  I see the current treatment of customer service as something quite a bit different than what it used to be.  Customer service has become modified to lower its level of consumer treatment.  It is now strategically designed to protect the energy and cost of the business offering the consumer tolerance of treatment policies.  It is very calculated in the world of business today.  How relevant is this method of approach?  To the consumer, not very.  To the shareholder, very.

I rarely see a business model treat all customer relationships as loyal and special.  When exemplary customer treatment is practiced all of the time, it is extremely rare.  That is exactly what helped my parents, who were self-taught entrepreneurs, to become a relevant piece of early business success in their community.  They began their trek with the consumer treatment well above what anyone could have expected.  Their customers were treated with respect, honor, dignity and expected in all cases to be loyal...even when they were not.  Loyalty was never a prerequisite for treating their customers well.  All customers got treated well.  No exceptions.  Good 'extra-mile' service was not just offered to the loyal ones.  It was offered to all of them.

Does this sound like any business model you shop with in today's marketplace?  I certainly do not see it.  I shop a lot in my travels.  I am rarely thanked for my purchases.  I am rarely given any special extra treatment.  I have rarely been given an extra mile piece of added on service with my routine buying patterns.  I am like everyone else in the confused market place of today, I am just another number.  Business models do not have the time nor the human resources to practice the things of extra effort in today's fast paced markets.  And as a result, those models are no longer relevant.  Where does your business model land on this scale of comparison?  Is it a one or is it nearing a ten?  Maybe it lands somewhere in the middle of the pack.  Maybe it is a five...average.

How does your business stay relevant?

Page two.

What Makes Work Become News?

What makes work become news?  Everything.

Each day upon arrival in your work environment new challenges show up.  Even though there are current challenges in process...new ones pop up.  For example, maybe an employee conflict between two staff members has been lingering in the halls for a little while.  Although simple to understand why this stuff flirts with continuing issues here and there, the conflict between the two just never seems to go away.  It occasionally takes control of your desk time when you least expect it.  You finally decide to nip this one in the bud today.  As you examine the facts and get the details to settle the score between these two nagging challengers, it leads you to some new areas of issues and determinations related to this challenge.  The bickering between these two employees is larger than you first imagined.

News takes over.  A new discovery becomes more important than the issue you first began to solve.  Now you discover the problem is much larger.  Time for more digging.  The need for more accurate information is pressing.  Sometimes these issues cannot be solved immediately.  Many of your daily challenges cannot be resolved and removed on the same day they arrived.  This one may be one of those continuing issues.  Time is not always in your favor when news of new challenges arrives.

Then another day gets started.  Yesterday's challenge between two bickering employees is still waiting for some answers about more details.  The search for additional details to help resolve that issue is in progress.  Yet another somewhat related employee issue comes to light in the research process spent on this issue while gathering more facts.  Now a third employee challenge of similar nature is on your table.  A line up of brand new news!  Work is all about processing news.  What once was nothing a couple of days ago is now a building pattern of possible problems in your system of employment.  Some unfriendly stuff is happening in the rank and file of employment sharing.  News is driving your day at work.

Before you know it, another day goes by.  With both feet firmly placed in the middle of this employee issue, you arrive to work to get this challenge finally resolved.  As you sit down at your desk, one of your major supplier representatives has notified your business that they plan to change the terms on some fees they charge for delivery.  The cost of delivery will increase 3%.  It appears as though they are making a policy change in this income stream.  This is how they plan to add income to the streams they currently share with you.  Unfortunately, you are one of their largest customers and this small increase of 3% means quite a bit of money to your business.  You ask your staff to gather some information to prepare for the phone call you plan to make with your representative from this supplier.  News again, takes over.

You quickly forget about the employee challenge on the top of your pile.  An annual increase of about $30,000 in cost just showed up with this 3% supplier adjustment news.  Thirty thousand dollars down the drain trumps a tiff between disgruntled employees, easily.  You shift gears and begin the work to prepare to salvage as much of that $30,000 increase in cost.  The news of that increase moves front and center.

At the end of the day, the employee issue was placed on hold.  Too many other supplier related challenges consumed your time.  While trying to resolve that increase in fees it was discovered that your alternate suppliers were not able to fill the gap of orders if you cancelled using your main supplier.  Your trump card to cancel vanished from your hand.  This was brand new news!

Switched suppliers is not an option.  Not yet.  The rest of your day was spent looking for a better supply line to fill your needs.  Your focus was pointed in the direction of saving $30,000 in the coming year.  It was work that was filled with a lot of news.  Some of your department leaders are not doing the kind of work to protect this business from issues and challenges facing the security of competitive supplies.  Again, new news.  Work becomes news.

At the same time all of this stuff is occurring some new information is coming in from your secretary.  She informs you that the president of your board of directors has requested a special executive session with you and your other board members.  The new subject for discussion in that session will be the idea of closure for one of your neighboring facilities.  It happens to be a facility that relates to the employee issue that has recently surfaced.  The news on that subject goes from bad to worse.  She sets the meeting time with you.

As you meld through the news on your employee challenge, the possible board proposal and the supplier increases in cost...you request the agenda for the up-coming executive session subjects.  Your secretary does not have that information.  You call the chairman of the board to gather that news so you can prepare the materials they plan to discuss.  The chairman shares the information with you.  The board is considering the closure of one division that has been a part of your strategic plan to dovetail into another department.  You have been working on this plan for a couple of months to bring the working concept of this idea to the board.  It is also part of the internal riff that is suddenly unfolding with your employees.  All of this news is channeling itself down a familiar path.  Stuff is happening that was not planned or anticipated.  It has become part of the daily news.

Work becomes news.  We manage news.  Every business leader is faced with news that unravels in each moving day.  News is how we see our working plans.  News is how we find the paths that work.  News is where the best discoveries find the surface.  What makes work become news?  Everything.

A great business leader has a firm grip on how to manage brand new news.  It simply is the thing they do best.  The business leaders who manage news in the best fashion are the ones who make the best decisions.  They are also the ones who come out with the best results.  Work becomes news.  They accept this role.  News becomes work.  This is usually how a day unfolds in a fast moving business model.  News travels parallel with the duties of the day.

Let's examine the alternative.

Page two.

How Does Debt Catch On Fire?

What's Your Excuse?

Most leaders of any business today do not need to worry too much about producing high volume.  The recession put a huge limit on increasing sales growth.  Although some companies were able to fair much better than others during this recession, most would agree that a large level of volume was lost.

Losing high levels of sales volume will force a business to learn more about how to operate lean.  This is one of the best benefits a tough economy produces.  It forces the business leaders to re-evaluate how they spend what they spend.  They are forced to become more efficient in their operating ways.  During a deep recession if they fail at efficiency, they may fail in the business.  This likelihood is very high even when their business model controls the lions share of the market.  When cost heavily outrun lowering incomes, junkie stuff happens.  When debt catches on fire no dominance in market shares can douse the flames.  Big companies burn hard, too.

How does debt catch on fire?  When someone you owe calls it in.  Nearly every business model in this world operates with a certain amount of ongoing debt.  The trick to managing debt is to keep it under what your business can afford.  Make sure your level of communication is healthy with those you owe.  You need to secure their fears.  Once their confidence crumbles, a spark begins.  When the tax man, the suppliers, the banks and the other lenders loose confidence in your ability to pay them back with some tolerable terms the fire begins to burn more heavily.  If that fire leaps above the rooftop of your business model, other lenders see it and begin their dash to save their own shares.  Before you know it, everyone is calling in their debts and your business flames up large enough to burn itself out of existence.

First of all, learn how to reduce and manage the debt you produce.  Secondly, make sure your debts do not exceed your ability to control their burn.  Thirdly, keep the small fires out of the sight of your other lenders.  Control the smoke.  Reduce the potential panic.  Lastly, work towards a more lean set of functions that drive your business model away from operating on the dependence of debt.

We are human.  Even the most disciplined business leaders have a certain streak of humanity resting inside their brains.  Our business leadership must remain disciplined to ignore the urge to operate casually.  When volume is running high, our time chips are smothered with the race to keep up.  A lot of attention to details gets left out.  Left out details can lead to unwanted consequences.  For example, inventory orders may not be double checked when placed which increases the chance for duplication, errors and incorrect items arriving.  This adds unwanted and unnecessary costs to the business bottom line.  Chasing fast growth consumes valuable time chips.  Little details get eliminated and left out.  Errors occur at a higher rate of speed.  These errors add unwanted and additional costs to the bottom line. The business finds itself performing under par.  This phenomenon is described by the phrase that volume can hide a multiple of sins.

However, because so much volume is occurring most business leaders do not force the efficiency factors.  They skip wasting time on the finer details.  They do not demand slower but more accurate work performances from their employees.  They get caught up in the laziness of performing the little stuff well.  Details of critical importance to the bottom line get easily omitted.

Remember, volume hides a multiple of sins.  Keeping up with the increase in sales usually becomes the main focus of the leadership levels of business attention.  This produces a quiet but real drain on the flowing of capital funds.  That drain is not usually recognized or realized until that volume slows down.  This is one of the most difficult things to do in a fast growing business model.  The art of properly managing huge increases in volume sales is a serious management responsibility.  I know we are slowly recovering from a tragically huge recession, but some business models are experiencing some interesting growth patterns right now.  This is a dangerous place to be.

In business, volume hides a multiple of sins.  Let's take some pictures of that view.  Every business leader who plans to successfully recover from this past recession must now begin the proper work to address this potential and growing issue.  As business leaders who have survived this recession, this current economic mess...did so by doing what was necessary to do.  Like it or not, every survivor did the right trimming at the right time in the right amounts on the right things.  As ugly as it has become, survival was the goal.

Let's see what we must be preparing to do next.  How do we prevent our debt from catching on fire?

Page two.

Finding Your Business Comfort Zone, A Dangerous Place To Live.

Jelly Fish Are Slippery And Can Sting, So Are Humans.

It feels good to take a healthy power nap.  It also feels good to take a very hot, long shower.  I think it also feels good to enjoy a well-prepared meal.  A back massage feels good, too.  I especially like a really good neck massage.  One of my favorite feel good things is to go on a warm, long Harley ride.  All of these things hit the comfort zone for me.

I also like for my business experiences to 'hit' stride with everything going smoothly and delivering good returns.  That becomes a great comfort zone, as well.  When my office work is completely finished on time, in routine and ready for the next step to begin, I am happy.  That is when my comfort zone is maxed.  When my staff and associates are productive, on point and settled in each day without conflict I am standing next to another area of comfort zone.  Finding your comfort zone is an important tool to knowing the current health of your business affairs.  Where are your comfort zones?

Some business leaders are not happy with non-conflict atmospheres.  They need conflict in order to feel comfortable about their business duties.  I have worked for many of these people.  They come to work each day with a chip on their shoulder.  It is usually a different chip each time, too.  Today they may be dissatisfied with the delivery system they have in place.  Tomorrow it may be how the invoices are being processed.  A different problem for each different day.  These types of business leaders have developed this leadership pattern of conflict as being the place where they feel the most comfortable.

Some business leaders are the most comfortable when they can get away from the conflicts their business model generates.  As each new day wears on, the problems that keep popping up drive them crazy enough to want to leave the office early.  They find unique excuses to get away.  They have meetings to attend, some appointments to keep and arrange all kinds of excuses to exit the building.  These kinds of business leaders work overtime on finding ways to 'get away' from the conflicts and decisions they face.  This provides comfort for them.

Everyone has a style of operation that produces what they feel the most comfortable in doing.  We all have our comfort zones.  Our comfort zones can grow to become our method of operations.  We live our business lives trying to circle these desires.  Without much notice, we arrange our working patterns around our desires to find where our comfort zones prefer to live.  If we like 'shooting the shit' with whomever comes into our office, we work to make that kind of event occur more often.  It will eventually dominate our desk duties.  Our comfort zones drive how we function in our business leadership roles.  Each of us will do what it takes to deny this predictable pattern.  I am guilty.

However, the truth is the truth.  I have certain characteristics in my management style that dominate how I function.  The most prominent ones lean close to where my comfort zones live.  I can be defined by the comfort zones I prefer to flex the most.  Those patterns become who I am, how I manage my business affairs and where my associates and staff learn about how I function.  I will telegraph the pleasure buttons I support the most.  I will eventually reflect what I prefer to do in my business day.  My comfort zones will see to it.

This is exactly what makes my comfort zones so dangerous to reveal.  In a business atmosphere, revealing my comfort zones can easily become a dangerous place to live.  It may tip my hand more than what the business plans should reveal.  It may also interfere with placing the right kinds of pressure on the right kinds of things at the right kind of time.  This is the place where some interesting magic takes place in every business model.  Be very aware of how your comfort zones relate to performing the stronger leadership tasks your business model needs to maintain.  In short, stay a bit more edgy and a little less predictable about where your comfort zones reside.

Find your comfort zones, but keep them aloof.

Here's why.

Page two.

What Kind Of Business Will You Have In 2013?

Be A Competitor!

When you put a wallet on the table to build your own business model, you discover a brand new world of realities.  If that business is a small one, the realities are smaller.  If that business is a larger one, the realities get more serious.  Taking a risk and building your own business is serious stuff, either way.

If you have been in business for awhile you do not need someone to remind you about taking risks.  Your life has been surrounded by risk taking adventures, some of them are higher than others.  Nobody needs to write a few words down to remind you about risk.  Risk has become your life.

One thing I know about the consistency of human beings, however, we can always count on the fact that they will get comfortable doing things they are used to doing.  Whatever the business leader decides to do with the motions they apply to their business model, for the most part, that is what they will become the most comfortable in doing.  The steps of actions they perform become their own personal MO, method of operation.

Each business leader has their own MO.  I have mine.  You have yours.  They are what they are.  It is within this set of particular MO's that we each develop how our business development unfolds.  Regardless of the turning of a new year, our standard MO's will continue to govern how our business model performs.  We will today produce exactly tomorrow what we have been producing yesterday.  A physical change in the calendar pages we flip has nothing to do with how we operate our wares and motions.  We will produce a series of results that will likely perform exactly the same way we have been performing in the past.  Changing into a new year has absolutely nothing to do with helping us change the pattern of results our current business produces.  The new calendar on my kitchen wall does not make any decisions for my business models.  Those decisions are made by me.

With these truths purely understood, how did 2012 work out for you?  Did your business develop some great results?  Did you have some volume growth?  Did you produce a healthy profit?  Were you able to develop a better staff?  Were you able to secure some great financing?  Did you capture a larger market share?  Did you invest wisely and improve your customer attraction policies?  Did you develop some new innovations?  Did you test market some new ideas?  Did you revitalize your hopes and dreams?  Did you reduce some of the lingering debt?  Were you able to refine your business plan?  Were you able to train others more effectively?  Were you able to delegate some stronger tasks to some credible associates?  Did you establish improvements next to the long-term relationships you own with those business leaders outside your business model who can help you grow?  Did you introduce any new ideas, new theories, new methods or any new products in 2012?  Did you add any new customer service benefits in 2012?  Somewhere along this line of questioning you better be answering some of these inquiries with a yes here and there.  If they are all coming up no, what did you do in 2012?  Did you get used to doing what you have become comfortable in doing?  Did you eliminate taking risks?  All of this inquiry leads to one simple question.

What kind of business will you have in 2013?

Page two.