Everyone starts their business with the intent to win…unfortunately many a well intentioned business owner gets derailed along the way and it all comes crashing down.  Sometimes the best way to succeed in the long run is to identify the issues…what’s driving you towards a potential train wreck and then focus on fixing those issues first. 

To that end, I spent some quality time with my clients and Peer Group Advisory Board members and asked them what qualities or traits were required for long term success as a business owner…and inversely what qualities would guarantee a business train wreck in the long run. 

That led to the following list.  It’s a pretty powerful collection and odds are you’re dealing with at least a couple of these issues to some degree…but as they say, the first step in solving a problem is admitting that you have one!

Check out the list below and see if you might be headed for a train wreck…!

1. Don’t ever change

You’re old school and proud of it – that’s the way we’ve always done things!  Change is hard.

2. Make it up as you go

You don’t have the time or the patience to document things or develop repeatable processes (waste of time) so you and your employees just  play it by ear.  Of course bringing on a new employee takes forever…but at least you’re not wasting time.

3. Blend in

You make sure that you look and sound as much like your competitors as possible.  You copy their ads, you mimic their products and pricing and you make sure you don’t stand out in any positive way.

4. Keep your head down

You make sure to focus all of your time on fighting fires and being a hero in your business.  Why waste time on long range planning, looking at things strategically or mapping out what’s most important for your growth.

5. Be strong and silent

Knowledge is power and you certainly don’t want to let your employees or partners in on what’s going on.  Your leadership style is command and control and minimal communication – you don’t have time for telling everyone what’s going on, if they’re any good they’ll figure it out on their own.

6. Wait for the economy to bail you out

This downturn is totally out of your control and there’s no point in working too hard.  Your best bet is to just wait for things to turn around and play the victim in the meantime.

7. Exit plans are for losers

Why would you need an exit plan?  You’re not planning on going anywhere and besides you could totally sell your business for several million dollars anytime you wanted to (even if you’ve never done a valuation on it).

8. Quick to hire, slow to fire

People are people, anyone on the bus will do – you’re just looking for warm bodies to fill a seat and they all perform the same way.  If you do have a problem employee, it’s clearly better to just leave them alone and hope they go away on their own.  It’s painful to get rid of someone and you don’t want to look like the bad guy!

9. Be a world class juggler

A master at multi tasking.  If you and your team don’t have at least 20 critical priorities to work on all the time, there’s something wrong…and you definitely aren’t going to waste any time writing things down or prioritizing – where’s the challenge in that?

10. Live on the edge…

No money in the bank and payroll due in 3 days?  No problem, you’ll pull a rabbit out of your hat just like you have the last 6 times this has happened this year.  Can you believe some people think you should have 6 months of emergency reserves in cash?

11. Aren’t rollercoasters cool?

You enjoy the thrill of the hunt, landing that big client or opportunity.  Then you have to do the work.  Then you realize the works over and you don’t have any money left and you go off to hunt the next one. Not for you that boring steady recurring and predictable stream of cash.

12. Your customers are lucky to have you

Your customers don’t have any idea how much trouble they put you and your employees through.  They interrupt you, they ask for things, they expect help and support – that’s crazy!

13. Your employees like money

Your employees don’t really buy into what the company is doing and they don’t really like to work very hard…and they don’t seem to care about anything (except maybe money), but they do like to hang out and complain, but that’s how all companies are right?

14. Average is good enough

It takes a lot of time and effort to create a high quality product or service…besides you can just tell people it’s great (even though it’s average).  They’ll probably buy at least once, which is good enough to keep things going in the short term.

15. You’re really busy

People call you all the time, but they clearly don’t realize how busy you are. They send emails, they try to give you referrals or try to partner with you…you even have potential customers contacting you with questions, but you’re so busy you can’t get back to them. 

16. Work has to come first…always

This owning your own business thing is really hard and if you’re going to be great, you need to throw yourself 110% into what it takes to succeed.  Your family and friends will understand you not being around and you don’t really need any time off.

17. The ends totally justify the means

Sometimes it’s a challenge to keep all of the stories straight, but that’s far better than the alternative of just being honest with people.  A few people might notice that you’re not completely above board, but who could they possibly tell?  It’s not like it’s easy to share complaints or stories with the world these days?

18. It’s all about the money

Can you believe people buy your stuff?  If you ever win the lottery, you’re never going to do this kind of work again, but until then as long as someone will pay you for it, you’re in.  You don’t have to love what you’re doing…do  you?

19. You are an island

You know what you’re doing, you never have any doubts or questions and you certainly wouldn’t benefit from someone or a group looking over your shoulder, keeping you in line and helping you.

20. You already know that

People actually waste their time on books, training, workshops and that kind of bunk!  You’ve been doing this business thing a long time and clearly know all there is to know – which is why you’ve got plenty of time for reality television!

Take an honest look at the list – do any of these remotely sound like your situation?  If more than a couple of these make you feel even the slightest bit uncomfortable, then you’re going to have a hard succeeding in the long run.

What train wrecking traits did I miss? Do you disagree with any?  How do you stack up?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade Kansas City Business Coach

Photo is from Paris in 1895 and is public domain – you can learn more here

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I had a great discussion the other day at one of my Peer Group Advisory Boards – we were talking about rolling out a new marketing initiative and that it would be a real challenge.

At that point, one of the members used a phrase that summarizes one of the primary secrets of business success:

“If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.”

On the surface that sounds like a pretty obvious thought…almost a ‘duh’ moment.  But if you think about it a bit longer, it uncovers a lot of the issues that business owners face all the time.

Think about all the things that most business owners don’t like to do because they’re hard:

• Thoroughly interview a lot of people to make sure you end up with the best fit.
• Follow-up with everyone you met at that last networking event.
• Measure detailed metrics of your marketing initiatives so you can tweak the results over time.
• Meet with your employees at least once a quarter and make sure they have everything they need to be successful in the long run.
• Network, prospect, actively market your business…every single week regardless of how busy you are.
• Make sure every client has a great outcome and gets more than they expect.
• Create and update a detailed ‘profit plan’ that projects your revenue and expenses over the next 12 months.

That’s just a partial list, but everyone of those things is often considered to be ‘hard’ to do…and therefore most business owners don’t do them.  But the ones that do are raking in premium revenue and growing their market share.  They’ve learned the secret:

“If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.”

If you want to stand out from the crowd, if you want results that are above average, then the only way to do that is by doing the stuff that that everyone else thinks is too hard.

What’s something you should be doing, but you’re holding back because it seems too hard?  Share your thoughts in the comments below, I’d love to hear them.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business CoachSimilar Posts:

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I had the ‘opportunity’ to participate in Jury duty last week.  It was the 3rd time in the last 10 months that I had been called, but the first one that actually went to selection.  If you haven’t gone through the process before, you receive a notice in the mail and they have you call in the Friday before your date to find out if you need to show up that following Monday at the courthouse. 

Because my previous experience had been a non-event, I didn’t really clear my schedule other than that Monday…and unfortunately I had a pretty full week planned.  At least until I actually got selected for a jury!  Everyone will tell you their theory or favorite way to get out of being selected (including wearing red because it implies you are assertive, which attorneys don’t like).  In this particular situation, I’m not sure it would have mattered – the court was very aggressive with reasons why jurors should be excused, and even most that were excused were sent to another courtroom that was still short of jury candidates.  End result -  I was on a live jury for the first time.

Here’s what I learned from the ordeal overall:

The wheels of justice turn slowly…

I was on a civil suit that had been filed originally in May of 2009, so it took over 18 months to get to trial.  On top of that, it wasn’t all that complicated of a case.  The case centered on a commercial building lease and a perceived breach of contract.  We could have covered all of the important points in about 2 hours…instead it took 4 full days!  The only good news is that the jury deliberations took about 1/2 hour, and it was only that long because we had to figure out how to interpret the judge’s directions the right way.

It’s important to be clear…

The plaintiff was the owner of the building and the crux of their case hinged on the tenant not living up to the terms of maintaining the property.  Unfortunately the contract was terribly written and didn’t specify in any detail what maintenance needed to be done.  It’s difficult to declare breach of contract when there’s no clear language to hold people to (it also didn’t help that they waited 6 months to ask for money).

The importance of being clear was also reinforced by both lawyers…who seemed to go out of their way to be ‘NOT’ clear (and to repeat themselves over and over).  I know lawyers in the courtroom have to follow certain standards, but I’m pretty sure they don’t have to be obtuse.

Not to do business with a certain real estate investor…

The building owner who filed the suit not only bullied his partners out of their stake in the building, but clearly was suing the tenant as a way to make up for a bad investment decision.  He was in over his head, showed poor judgment several times along with a severe lack of management skills and then looked to the courts to bail him out…the case should have never gone to court in the first place, which is why there were almost no deliberations.  He made it very easy to decide for the defendant!

Appreciation for the overall legal process and the jury

It was really interesting to see all of the components of a full trial setting.  Obviously you see a glamourized version on TV or in movies, but it is enlightening to get to see things from start to finish.

I was also really impressed with the jury members – we had a diverse group ranging from a twenty something bartender, a former policewoman and an active practicing Doctor.  Overall it was a really sharp group of 12 individuals that really believed in doing their civic duty and doing the right thing.

I’m glad it’s over…but overall it was positive!

Unexpectedly missing 4 days when you are the sole owner of a business is pretty disruptive…both for me and for my clients!  I’m going to be making up for it for at least the next couple of weeks – but even with that issue, it was very interesting and I’ve got a new found respect for the kind of people that live in our county and the system that we are all protected by.

What about you?  Any good jury stories?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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We all love buying something with a great guarantee – it takes the risk out of an unproven product, it gives you confidence that the vendor really stands behind their work and it generates a lot of credibility that you are getting what you pay for.

Guarantees are a great thing…for the buyer, but not the seller…right?

Wrong! – Guarantees are great for both the buyers and the seller!

We had a great discussion this morning at one of my Peer Group Advisory Board meetings about one of the business owners rolling out a guarantee as part of his latest marketing campaign.  It was a tough topic with lots of things to consider.

Guarantees are scary things!

In this particular situation, the product is a service that’s delivered over a period of time (think training) and the overall success in large part is driven by the actions (or lack of action) by the customer.  Kind of a ‘you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink’ kind of thing.

If you look at a case by case basis, there’s no way to guarantee results for any given individual – what if they don’t pay attention?  What if they aren’t very smart?  What if they intentionally screw up?

However this client had almost 2 years worth of results that showed clients improved an average of 28% when going through his process!  Additionally, like many small business owners, client satisfaction wasn’t just a buzzword, this guy practically kills himself making sure his clients are getting the best of everything.

In short – he’s a perfect candidate for a guarantee because he’s already doing all the work that you need to do (and getting the results) to keep your customers happy, he just wasn’t getting any of the credit for all of that hard work!

As we talked through the idea, the rest of us could visualize the headline and the excitement but the business owner in question became more and more uncomfortable.  What if everyone decided to take advantage of the guarantee?  Studies have shown that the number of returns on products that are of reasonable quality is very low.  In this case, working with hundreds of clients, there had been less than a handful of serious complaints, but the fear of a run of money back is a scary one when cash flow is tight (and cash flow is almost always tight!).

Now – think about your business, your products or services…do you offer (and highly publicize) a guarantee?  If not, does it make you nervous to think about it?

Points to consider for a worthwhile guarantee

The best thing, in small businesses guarantees are often uncommon.  If you’re feeling nervous, your competitors are feeling exactly the same way.  If there aren’t many visible guarantees, then it’s a great way to stand out (and if there are a lot, you probably need one just to keep up).

Guarantees should be straightforward and have minimal fine print.

Guarantees should cover the results / outcome your customers are interested in the most (which may be different than what you’re selling) – see a great summary of what I mean in this article by Kevin Donlin on How to create a winning guarantee!

Your guarantee should be as specific as possible – ideally it should be something that can be measured objectively.

You don’t have to offer money back (although that’s probably the strongest position), you can also offer credits on future services, offer to make it right, etc.  If you’re up for it, make it memorable – something that people will really talk about (which is really the point).

Make sure that if you do have to honor your guarantee that it’s cheerful and hassle free.

When you’re just getting started, test out different guarantees to see which one gets the most response.

Make sure your guarantee is in writing – and in fact, make a big deal out of it.  You do great work, you’re standing behind it anyway – let people know and get more customers!

Start thinking guarantee!

Why go to all the trouble (and the perceived risk) of putting together a guarantee?  Because you could substantially increase your business!  Companies like L.L. Bean, Nordstrom or Eddie Bauer all had crazy growth – in large part of their no questions asked guaranteed return policy.

My client’s going to give it a try – let me know if you’d like an update once he’s given it a shot.  I think it will be a big deal, but the proof will be in the results.

I offer ‘Risk Free’ coaching – if for any reason you aren’t happy with what we’re doing, you can get a full refund on your first month, no questions asked.  I’ve considered some other ideas, but I haven’t landed on anything just yet.

Do you have a guarantee?  Have you thought about creating one?  I’d love to hear your thoughts or stories – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

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photo by Never Cool In School

There’s a lot going on with business owners these days – you’ve got the everyday challenges of just running your own business, you’ve got an economy that’s in the tank (and media outlets doing everything they can to make that as scary as possible) and you’ve got an election making a lot of noise and further distracting everyone.

But beyond all that, the problem I see with most business owners today is that they never take the time to look at the big picture.  They don’t have a focused view on where they’re going.

Let me know if you’ve ever heard this:

“That’s a great idea!  I just don’t know when I’ll get the time to do that!”

Or how about:

“I really should call my best customers, but I’m just too busy fighting fires!”

Now I’m all for hard work, but it doesn’t really matter how hard you work if you’re working on the wrong things.  And by wrong things, I’m talking about things that might be urgent but are unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

Time Management Matrix

For a better explanation of what I mean, let’s take a look at the Time Management Matrix that was popularized by Stephen Covey.

Most people (myself included sometimes) spend way too much time in Quadrants III and IV (I don’t know why they use the Roman numerals here…).  The fact is that it’s really easy to get sucked into ‘busy’ activities that make you feel like there’s a lot going on, but the reality is that not a lot gets accomplished.

Then there are those people that I think of as professional firefighters, camped out in Quadrant I – they are constantly dealing with a crisis situation, an urgent deadline or some kind of flare-up.  It’s usually perceived as important activities, but the real problem is that they only deal with crisis situations and sometimes, if there’s not a crisis, they will create one just so they feel productive.

Both situations cause a lot of problems, but the biggest issue for either is that long term important activities such as personal development, strategic planning, building relationships, etc. are ignored or at least given little attention.

So what’s the answer?

The Importance of Focus

There are people that will tell you that you can solve this problem by using better time management – however I’m convinced that you would just be treating the symptom, not the actual problem.

In other words, you might be able to do more unimportant work in the same amount of time, but that’s not really going to solve the problem.

No – the real solution is to develop the right focus.  You need a systematic way to break out of your current pattern and start doing things differently.  Here are the steps:

1.  Figure out what you want.  There’s an old saying that if you don’t know where you want to go, any road will get you there.  You’ve got to have a vision, a direction, a set of goals.

2.  Figure out where you are.  This seems simple, but it’s really important to have an objective and clear assessment on your current situation.  That’s the only way you can really…

3.  Determine what’s missing / what needs to be done.  Come up with a top 20 list of projects or activities that will help you get closer to your goal.

4.  On a related note, you need to identify what your constraints are relative to the list of stuff that needs to get done.  Do you need more skills? Better skills?  Do you need more people?  More money?  A better network?  Better cashflow?  What will be holding you back if you start down this path?

5.  Finally – you need to prioritize your really big list, pick the top 2 or 3 activities and get started.  At this point it’s all about taking action – the right action and making things happen!  This is where you need to be focused and accountable.

Now you can do this process on your own, but I guarantee you that it will be much, much easier to succeed at it with the help of someone else – whether that’s a Peer Group Advisory Board, a coach or at least a couple of good friends that can help hold you accountable and keep you focused.

Let me know if this approach makes sense to you or if you know of anyone that’s struggling with the big picture – comment here and let me know what you think!

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business CoachingSimilar Posts:

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