What's The Next Step? I Need Help.

Find The Source Of Your Business Fire

Did you ever wonder what goes on in the mind of a business owner who is struggling with the business they own?  I do.  Sometimes I feel like a first responder at an accident scene.  I see some wreckage and I move to find where to help.  My instincts immediately move closer to find the business leadership when I see signs of business trouble.  I quietly examine their scene to see if they recognize the fires are burning out of control.  You see, every business manages small fires.  Challenges lurk around every corner in all business models.  Nobody escapes this truth.  Smoke flows from one office to the next as each leader works to find ways to put them out.  That is exactly what good businesses do for a living.  They put out fires.  I look for the smoke that looks like it is out of control.  I look for something brewing in that business that can damage its long term future.  I look to see if and where the fire is burning out of control?

When some serious smoke finds its way out of the hidden halls of the shops, showrooms and back office spaces of a business model I tend to walk closer to it.  I go looking for hidden trouble.  I search for the source of the fire.  I was always told that where's there's smoke, there's fire.  Guess what?  It is true.

Most business owners would just as soon hide their business fires.  They even hide the ones that require more help to put out.  Sometimes their water bucket is not large enough to arrest the size of the flames.  It is so hard for a business leader to admit their fire is burning out of control.  They have always managed these small fires in the past...just fine.  Then it begins.  The fire gets out of control.  It consumes and damages some of the very crucial stuff the business needs to protect.  The business begins to spiral out of control.  It happens.

When the business gets out of control, the leader usually panics and hides the fire.  They try to salvage what is not yet burned.  Unfortunately, managing the wreckage a big fire produces tends to consume the time of the best staff, suppliers and institutional support.  The energy of the business begins to sour.  The stingy fire becomes a permanent smell.  The business finds itself operating in pain, long term.  It is now pushing behind the eight ball.  It is trying to keep from losing its ground.  The process becomes exhausting.  The spirit runs tired and becomes easily consumed with the other ashes.  Everything looks like trouble.  The leader tries hard to cover it all up.  Nobody wants to wear this kind of business blame.  Nobody.

Big fires are hard to get under control.  The leaders try extra hard to push away the first responders.  It takes a while for the rescue crew to find how to get in.  In the meantime, damage is continuing on.  The source of the fire is running out of control.  Most business owners disguise the source of the fires that burn this damage into their business models.  It is a common thing to witness.

Very few serious business problems come from the bottom up.  The more serious business problems come top down. The business leadership usually causes the worst fires.  This is also the main reason why the leaders disguise the source of their most serious business fires.  They do not want to become caught holding the match that struck the flammable stuff.  What's more, they are likely the reason why fire prevention was ignored.  This keeps the first responders outside the core of the business model guessing where the source really remains.  It protects the image of the business leaders.  This image usually runs higher than the need to arrest the fire.

The first step to business repair is to weave about the halls and find where the most deception is taking place.  This is usually where the first responder, the repair specialist, will likely find the source of the fire.  The business leaders tend to give out the best clues by funneling the path of the needed repairs with deceptive finger pointing.  The leaders holding the matches usually move the repair work in the direction away from where the source began.  They tend to protect who holds the match.  In my three decades of  business experiences, this is a very normal pattern to see.  If you plan to repair the broken work of a business model, keep this truth close to your side.  The leaders will deceive you in their efforts to protect how much they were involved.  It will aid you in getting to the source of the problems much sooner.  When a business is in great need for repair, sooner is always better.  Find the source quickly, before the whole house burns down.

For those of you who are leaders of business that are experiencing some out of control fires, listen up.  Get past the hiding of the truth.  It is a very damaging game to play.  The sooner you get some corrective actions put in place the sooner your business will deliver what you have always expected it to deliver.  Sooner is always better.  This is true even if it needs to crush your ego a little bit.  A bruised ego does not feel good but it pays well.  I think good pay is one of the reasons why you elected to go into business for yourself.  Is it not?  Fess up, reveal the source problems and allow the repair guys to do what they do best.  Then begin to receive what you always believed your business should return.  This is how you find the fruits of what it can deliver.

Page two.

I Hate It When Someone Tells Me What To Do.

Good Ideas Often Find Their Beginning In The Minds Of Others!

One of the children playing next door uses her age to manipulate her two older sisters.  I can see them playing down the hill about a tenth of the mile away.  One thing cool about being uphill is that noise travels uphill very well and very clear.  The wavelengths of sound have no interferences to break them up.  They arrive to my yard in clear tones.  I hear just about everything those children say when they are outside playing in the yard.  For the most part it is a very cool discovery.  They are pretty good kids.

One of the more fascinating parts of listening in on the volley of conversations between these three sisters is to hear how they use their words to 'work' on each other.  They play with a good deal of creative manipulation.  It gets real clever, even at this young age.  The youngest one has learned the art of manipulating her young age very well.  She plays out to be very innocent in her acquisition process.  She usually wins.  She has become very good at her skills.  The two older siblings get taken for a ride more than half of the time.  What's more, the baby has figured out how to manage the parents in a dispute.  It is clever stuff.

There is another factor I find interesting about this unprotected lesson I receive from these three children.  I am also able to get a good sense for how their parents say and do the things they practice, as well.  I hear how the parents think and how they use speech to manage conflict and cooperation.  It simply comes from the children's mouths and actions.  The children only practice what they have witnessed.  If the parents are abusive, so will the children behave.  If the parents use foul language, the children will also.  If the parents use divide and conquer techniques in their leadership patterns, so will the children.  It is simple to detect.  It is simple to see.

My parents, for example, hate it when someone tells them what to do.  They have always hosted that kind of slant in what they do all through their lives.  It has become a lot of who they are.  This characteristic is certainly not a flaw of life that many others have somehow missed.  In fact, it is quite common.  Millions of people hate to be told what to do.  Millions of those people are parents like mine.  I am a parent.  I hate to be told what to do.  We pass this stuff on.  We are not any different than that small family down the hill.  All of us are prone to behave the same way our parents taught us to behave.  Those three little girls downhill of my home play and do the very exact same stuff their parents do.  We are all by-products of our social heredity.  That little sister has learned the art of doing what her parents allow her to do.  It is not bad parenting.  It is life and human beings.

When a business leader hires the next employee to do a job that needs to be done, early life patterns become part of what that leader has agreed to manage when they hire who they hire.  We all bring our past experiences forward when we go where we go, when we do what we do.  That becomes how we manage where we are.  It is not rocket science.  It is not a flaw of society.  It is exactly the very thing that makes humans become humans.  Some day a business leader will need to hire that little girl who has learned the art of clever manipulation.  When she becomes of age to work, she will be seasoned very well at what she does to win her ways.

Page two.

Business Repair, Not As Pragmatic As First Thought!

Sometimes It Becomes All About Me!

How is your family doing?  Communicating well?  Is everyone respectful with each others dreams, work, lifestyle and choices?  Families can be a bit funny.  They can subvertly demolish one of their members dreams and never notice it.  It can happen in a silent process.  It can become unnoticed to the one who delivers the crushing blows and as a result, the structure begins to deteriorate on the corners and around the edges of the family bond.  How is your family doing?  Are the dreams being supported and nourished?  Or are those dreams swept under the rug and walked on?

That line of questioning seems to be a bit personal.  Most of us are offended by stuff like that.  We would prefer to keep our private stuff, private.  We especially do not want to talk about this kind of tough stuff.  This is not the kind of business talk we prefer to support.  That stuff is private.  Family junk is private stuff.  Business junk is private stuff.  Only the troubled people of the world wear this kind of stuff on their sleeves.  The wise ones suppress it well.  Right?  Or at least we think this is how it is done.  Wisdom tends to work in peculiar ways.

Junkie stuff comes with all relationships.  We know and accept this truth.  Even families wear uncomfortable personality stuff.  We all get that.  We all deal with junkie stuff in our personal lives.  We have brothers and sisters who do not understand us, respect us or communicate well with us.  Some of our parents ignore who we have become.  They do not want us to be who we have become.  In some quirky sense, some of our best days with our families are days we spent apart.  Many families live in this kind of reality.  They conjure up images about how the other members live that are untrue, inaccurate and disrespectful.  This is how many families coexist in their growing up worlds.  They spin out incorrect images about the relationships they have and do not have with the other members in the family and in the end, those images become misaligned to the point that they hold very little accuracy about how this family is actually structured.  The family unit grows up surrounding incorrect images about who they really are.  Many families live in a world with this kind of breakdown.  They begin to live in a world of illusions.

Guess what?  This is exactly how a business leader develops a leadership role that produces terrible long term results.  The leader becomes inoculated with the process of supporting wrong images about what should be done.  Bad habits occur.  Bad habits become the rule of operations.  Eventually that business leader functions their business lives completely immersed into a series of patterns that are completely incorrect and ineffective, but yet, are very complicated to identify.  They operate their business style in such a complicated set of emotional surges that even the best counsellor can become terribly confused about where to begin.  This is exactly how many families live out their related lives.  Mixed up and mixed out.

Business repair is not as pragmatic as one might first suspect.  In fact, it is very complicated stuff.  What needs to be done is usually one of the most obvious things to see.  Getting to doing that obvious stuff is where the business gets lost.  Between the obvious stuff that needs to be done and the work that supports seeing it gets done is a bunch of wrong images about how to accomplish that stuff.  Those wrong images are deeply real.  They are dominating the decisions that must be altered.  They are surrounding the wrongs with so much protection that even the Indians can no longer be mentioned when they are attacking the cowboys in the wagon because the cowboys ought not to be there in the first place.  It all becomes so intertwined within the political messes we produce that thwarts us away from doing better work.  This is how a business goes astray and why it remains steadfastly determined to fail day after day.  It has nothing to do with not knowing what must be done.  It has all to do with protecting our egos.  Business acts a lot like families sometimes act.  Incorrectly.

Page two.

Three Parts To Profit, One Part To Losses.

I am a sucker for simple solutions.  Most of the time, simple works better.  The problem with that approach is that complex problems do not always find long term correction with simple band aids.  Even so, I try to grab the first easy band aid in reach.

This truth remains with business leaders as well.  They have extremely full plates to mange.  Most of their plates are balanced on top of some spinning sticks.  Those sticks need someone nearby to keep them wiggling every once in awhile to keep the plates spinning fast enough so they do not tumble off the stick and hit the floor.  When one stick slows down, the leader must turn around and wiggle that stick just a little bit more.  The success comes from keeping all of the plates spinning fast enough so they do not fall off the sticks.  When a business leader gets too many plates spinning at one time, the chance increases that one will fall.  There just is not enough space and time to manage all the plates on those sticks.

The first part of profit is to recognize when it is time to delegate some sticks of management to someone else.  When too many sticks become part of your limited day, some plates are destined to fall.  Make sure you work your leadership in a fashion that helps you define who you can trust.  There will be times when you need to turn over some spinning plate processes.  Having a good list of trusted associates helps to make the delegation process work well.

The first part to profit is to recognize who, what, when and where you will delegate important tasks to someone else.  Once you perform that step, get the heck out of their way and allow them to manage that task on their own.  If you have a problem with that responsibility, maybe trust is not really there.  Trust is a serious subject and carries with it a whole seminar of words and discussions.  Learn the art of trust and manage it well.  If offered properly, you will discover how quickly and easily your business will grow.  It can lead to some very handsome profits.  This is especially true in a recession.  Someday I will explain that theory as well.  It has to do with buffering pressure away from you so you can work on your business instead of in it.  Recessions have a tendency to kill the spirit of the leader.  Creativity goes out the window when the spirit is crippled.  And so on.

The second part to profit is to make sure you know when you have stepped on the feet of those working to help you win.  Never skip this step.  The only business leaders that skip this step are the ones who always find themselves chasing the eight ball and never winning big.  Those are the ones who step on those who are trying to help them win.  They are the ones that refuse to recognize how they have stepped on the feet of their assigned associates working to solve challenges in their own fort.  It is an abusive process that often times goes unnoticed.  The only notice usually given for this kind of internal terrorism is the fact that this business practice keeps profits away.  It runs as part two on the list that can improve and produce improved profits.  Recognize when when you have stepped on your associates feet.  Admit it, correct it and acknowledge it in a professional way.

Part three.

Page two.

What Do Lawyers Have In Common With Failing Business Leaders?

I bumped into an old classmate from high school the other day.  It was a chance crossing that ended up very good.  We did not immediately recognize each other.  She was the first one who suddenly recognized me while at that same time, with her surprised response, I then recognized her.  It was a nice crossing.  It turned into a couple of hours of career discussions.

One of the things that happened during this chance crossing was the discusssion about how we took time to catch up on our professional lives.  It was an interesting set of historical sharing.  I was surprised at all of the chapters she has lived in her life during these past forty years.  It was a very large 'wow' process.  She is a legal consultant for lawyer firms.  Her personal life was littered with a long list of challenges and tragedies.  We had a lot to talk about.

She asked me what I had been doing in my work for the past forty years.  I shared how nearly half of those years were spent repairing 'near-failing' business models as a retail consultant.  She was very interested in that work.  She described how the both of us walked our careers down similar paths.  She advised lawyers on how to improve their law practices.  I advised business owners on how to improve their retail practices.  We discovered how the two careers were doing the same thing, just in different industries.  We got involved in the discussion about our similarities.

Once we connected with these similarities we began to compare notes of discovery.  It was of no surprise how each of our career practices actually parallel the other with the same kind of consulting approaches and working patterns.  We essentially performed the same kind of tasks in our careers.  We faced the same amazing challenges.

Guess what?  The challenges I was faced to over come in my work with business leaders was strikingly similar to the same kind of challenges she had faced in her career with practicing lawyers.  Our work was met with the same obstacles.  We had fun discovering those similarities.  Each discovery of similar patterns became our opening for some healthy laughs.  We both poked fun at the kinds of tandem things we discovered that were part of our career challenges.  We had fun reveiwing the fun in them.

As we parted from each other and returned to our original paths I began to think about how much value this chance meeting could offer to my next blog post.  The common things I face that hinder my work were the very same things she ran into that always hindered her work.  I found those similarities quit interesting.  They were worth sharing.

What hurdles have I faced in my business repair business that are strikingly similar to the same ones she faced in her lawyer repair business?  Let's discover those similar attributes on page two.

Page two.

Why Is My Business Still Struggling?

It Goes Beyond A Rock And A Hard Spot

Holy cow.  I think by now my revenues should be 'out-running' my cost of business and my income should be getting larger each month.  Why is that not happening?  Is this economy really causing me all of this grief in lost profits?  What the heck is the matter?  I should be doing better by now.  Right?  How many business owners are facing these kinds of questions?  I work with a lot of them that are asking these exact questions right now.

If the truth were to be examined, how many business owners feel this way right now?  How many business owners are quietly asking themselves if they need to make some serious changes in the way they are operating?  How many business owners right now are questioning their business model?  How many business owners are working their hearts out only to get a little bit deeper in debt, right now?  I know and work with a lot of them that are quietly asking these kinds of questions of themselves.  These feelings are dominating their working environments.  They are growing tired of chasing down all of the 'out-of-control' business stuff that should be in better shape and making them more money.  I sit in business offices and listen to the distraught conversations about how tough it has become to function well and how difficult it has become to profit comfortably.  It is not a rare pattern.  It is not a quiet subject.

For the most part, small business owners are growing more disillusioned with every passing day about how much work they put in for the return they hope to see.  Some are fighting within, trying hard to eliminate the wrong and unproductive work patterns they seem to be performing.  They are trying to eliminate how they are traveling down some paths that need large improvements.  For the most part, I meet business leader after business leader who has no problem expressing how discouraged they have become with the idea that their incomes are shrinking while their risk, leadership demands and work loads are increasing.  Most are not happy about this ever-increasing challenge.  They are not liking this pattern.  I see and hear about this frustration every single day in my business travels.  It breaks my heart.

First of all, one; it is true.  Secondly, it is repairable.  Get serious about identifying it so we can begin the repairs.  Profitability is not only possible right now, it is very doable.  Your incomes can and should be improving.  If they are not, something needs changing.

Yesterday I was sitting at the front desk of one of my clients.  The office was empty and I was speeding along to repair some posting errors in their bookkeeping system.  I had discovered a pattern of posting that was going to eventually create a major headache for their business results.  I was scrolling around the computer screen looking for all of the connectivity they had developed that would add too much challenge to their future profitability.  The posting of some of their expenses and sales revenues was atrocious.  There were patterned errors in posting that would mislead them to believe they were doing much better than they truly were performing.  I was busy making notes and discovering ways to incorporate the best repair for this office staff.  While I was busy developing a mental plan to define how they must properly approach the best corrections for these wrongs, a customer walked in.

I was alone for that moment in the business office.  It was just myself and that new customer.  I have been inside this business model just three days after I had agreed to help them work out some posting errors.  The customer had no other reason to suspect I was not employed to take care of her inquiry as she walked in.  I offered to help her out.  It was a simple gesture and a very common thing to do.  The office staff was gone from the office at that time.  They were gone working on other things in another section of the business.  They actually left me up front in the customer service area, alone to deal with any customers that might walk in.  Guess what?  One walked in.

The protocols for performing proper business procedures was clearly and completely amiss.  It was lackadaisical and aloof.  This kind of casual respect for consumer approach is all too frequent in most business models.  We become too busy chasing our mechanical tails to address our guests as properly as we should.  

When that customer walked into that office, I was busy thinking about how to develop a business plan to correct some of the procedural bookkeeping ills I was witnessing.  I wonder how many business models are operating with this kind of challenge lurking inside their wares without the view of the damage existing that will soon surface to create a company loss?  How many business owners live their daily lives not seeing the errors their models perform?  I am not talking about mis-spelled words.  Those kinds of errors are trivial.  In fact, I am not talking about the troublesome bookkeeping errors, either.  I am talking about the more serious stuff business models do that hurt their growth in so many quiet ways.  I am talking about the errors committed in failing to improve consumer attraction policies.

This example is a perfect case to examine.  I find these errors typical.  The accounting was weak.  They were making serious errors in their bookkeeping methods.  The procedures were designed incorrectly.  As a result, double posting was occurring.  They were actually recording retail sales in duplication by using a double entry bookkeeping system that increased the human factor for unwanted, yet undetected posting errors.  The point of sale software was not compatible with their accounting software, as a result, they transferred the data from the sales software to the bookkeeping software manually.  The system for performing that transfer work was poorly designed and mishandled by undisciplined office staff.  Need I say more.  It was a huge business problem for the owner.

Last year this business model had a record year in sales.  It is also dealing with a multitude of late payments, poor expense controls, some serious money mismanagement issues and many 'over-run' payroll costs.  In short, the business model is failing.  The owner is frustrated and has pushed his frustration to the point of speeding up employment turnover within his office staff.  He has hired five office managers in two years with similar results, a mess in the accounting methods.  Consistency and accuracy have been seriously compromised.  It has now grown to dominate unwanted movements in his business model.  

When posting errors occur, especially in the revenue areas, incomes can become inflated.  False growth becomes real growth illusions that ultimately govern how we spend what we think we have.  Debt grows out of control.  It is a simple pattern that can become hard to repair.  Eventually, the business gets too far behind to properly capitalize the good business it is performing.  The tail begins to wag the dog.  This is where this business owner has arrived in his business model.  Now, here I am, three days into my evaluations and facing a new customer who comes through the door with nobody around to help her out.

The real problem for this business model has finally arrived.  We now have become relegated to poor service.  Poor service has taken charge of the business movements.  This unwanted pattern is so typical of those business models who get too far behind the funds they need to operate well.  Poor consumer respect inches its way to the front of the business bus.  Sooner or later, that poor service slips forward enough and climbs into the seat of that steering wheel and drives that business bus.  Time is the only thing remaining between operations and failure.  This business model represents all of those who are on the path of failure.  It has nothing to do with the economy.

Page two.