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As a business owner, you know what it’s like to lie awake at 2 a.m. Maybe it has happened when you are excited and full of new ideas for your business. More often, it’s because you are worried about issues you will face the next day. Sometimes, it’s because you just woke up with the solution to a problem. I’ve experienced all those emotions about my businesses over the years. Awake at 2 o’clock? is where I share them with you, and hopefully help with answers that will let you sleep.
John F. Dini, CExP, CEPA
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Small business owners are the Hunters of the 21st century. We are 3% of the US population, and yet we create over half of all American jobs. As Hunters, we may not be inclined to manage by the numbers or stick to systems. Are you a Hunter or a Farmer?
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How prepared are you to exit your company?
The Assessment breaks down the four major categories of exit readiness; Finance, Planning, Operations and Revenue/Profit.
Tag Archives: entrepreneurship
The Migration from Service to Knowledge
As I have pointed out frequently in this space, the Baby Boomers’ entry into entrepreneurial business moved the core of the American economy from products to services. (see www.theboomerbust.com) Multiple dynamics created the shift. Boomers were degreed at four times the … Continue reading
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Empowerment Requires Encouragement
We all want employees who are empowered to think. That doesn’t always turn out the way we hoped. Last week the news feeds carried a story about a Girl Scout in San Francisco who set up her cookie table in front … Continue reading
2 Responses to Empowerment Requires Encouragement
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Measurement Isn’t Necessarily Management
“You manage what you measure” is axiomatic in business ownership. “Employees respect what you inspect.” Understanding performance and productivity by comparing it against past performance, industry norms or internal benchmarks is useful, but measuring something doesn’t mean that you are … Continue reading
4 Responses to Measurement Isn’t Necessarily Management
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I would agree that putting too much credence into deep numbers analysis is counter-productive. Mark Twain’s quote that, “There are three kinds of lies. Lies, damned lies and statistics.”, comes to mind.
However, over time analytics can indicate trends in employees. One who consistently performs below other employees in whatever KPIs are being measured, needs remedial action. Trends can indicate employees who have a propensity for too much, or too little, risk. And so on. . . .
While it is no substitute for management, experience or intuition, there is a role for analytics.
David Basri
http://www.pointent.com -
You assertion that “you manage what you measure” maybe accurate in the extreme of over measuring and producing an avalanche of data that hide the reality of a situation but “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” seems to be a bigger problem with small businesses.
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Yes. The quantitative stuff that’s easy to measure is often not the important qualitative stuff to measure.
When you measure something in your business…you’ll probably get the behavior you expect, and then some…
• Is the measurement of “sales time with customer” getting higher sales? Lower sales? Or, more sales of easier-to-sell stuff?
• Is the measurement of “customer service time,” driving faster service, or more errors and irritated customers?
• Is the measurement of ancillary sales creating an erosion of the core brand?
• Is the measurement of errors, increasing the inspection costs of a process?
• Is the measurement of an already low “bad debt” cost driving policies hurting customer relations?Measurement of stuff in your business can be good. Just be careful about what you measure, and how it’s implemented. Be sure to ask…
• What’s the goal?
• How much will it cost to measure it?
• How will it help the customer and the sale?
• And, what will be the unintended consequences?
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The Tyranny of The Bad Customer
“The customer is always right,” or at least that’s what most business owners profess to their employees. We post it for all to see. “Customer satisfaction is job one.” “Our boss is the customer.” The most important person in our … Continue reading
One Response to The Tyranny of The Bad Customer
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This is a great article and absolutely accurate! I represent a number of small to medium business owners and have owned businesses for many years and I find the credibility associated with online ratings to be quite shocking. As the owner of a law firm I continually stress about having a client get angry about a result in court one day and write a nasty online review the next, especially on a site that doesn’t allow users to delete reviews.
I have one client in particular that has had to reinvent and re-brand his business a few times because of online reviews and another client that was the victim of a consumer complaint site and is spending thousands of dollars trying to resolve the claims, most of which are wholly unfounded. Yet another client had the ex-husband of a girl he went on a few dates with post that he was a pedophile and claim that his business utilized fraudulent practices and was being investigated. Sadly, those posts will probably never come down because no one wants to spend thousands of dollars suing someone who will fight a silly fight and declare bankruptcy at the end of it all. Unfortunately for one of my client’s ex-employees, he is willing to spend any amount of money to get her to remove comments she made online after he fired her.
I would be surprised if employees or employers have analyzed the potential liability associated with posts and responses, or really any content they put online about another person. It is my opinion that most businesses should have new-employee trainings about this topic so as to avoid future problems.
Business owners certainly do not often consider the impact online reviews can have on the sale of their businesses. Buyers can decrease the purchase price substantially if they have to fight bad reviews because getting enough good reviews to offset one bad review is time consuming and costly. Whether or not the review actually impacts the business is irrelevant in negotiations because a seller can’t really prove otherwise.
Something new that is happening in the law is the use of reps and warranties associated with goodwill and how future reviews impact present covenants. We will be seeing a lot of litigation in the future over poorly written or understood reps and warranties in purchase agreements.
Great article John!
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Bah, Humbug! Remembering Fezziwig.
Last week was the 170th anniversary of the publication of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (December 17, 1843). The immortal words of Ebenezer Scrooge are ingrained in the memory of the entire English speaking world. I’d venture to guess that “Bah, Humbug!” … Continue reading
2 Responses to Bah, Humbug! Remembering Fezziwig.
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“God bless us everyone!”
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Nice read! A Christmas Carol is indeed one of the best stories of all time. Happy holidays!
Hi John,
I think few business owners would call micromanagement a good thing, if you put it in those terms. The trouble is finding the balance between delegation that keeps your business strong and creates a product you can continue to be proud of and realizing that all of this does require some amount of letting go. I’ve left this comment over in the BizSugar community as well where Christi Brendlinger was good enough to share this post. Wonder if you or she or both could share some guidelines with our community about exactly how you go about striking this difficult balance.
It’s a great question, Heather. I think there may only be a state of imbalance. Either you are giving employees too much leeway, and suffering the occasional setback because of it, or you are trying to avoid the setbacks, and reining them in. The “balance” lies in determining how much of a mistake a company can afford in the name of learning.