I thought I was a good communicator, not so much! At one time in my career, I was a partner in a manufacturing company with a multi-million dollar annual budget.  I pride myself on being a good communicator and I was, at work.  I remember one particular month when we experienced a $20,000 operating loss.  I was frustrated with our poor performance and called all managers into an executive meeting to assess the root cause of the problem and to develop a strategy to correct the operations so we would not have to experience this type of loss again.  I was satisfied we had the problem identified and a good plan of action going forward.  Nonetheless, I was still very frustrated with our poor performance. Later in the day when I arrived home my wife was at the kitchen counter preparing our meal for the night.  She sensed that I was frustrated and asked what was wrong.  I said, “We had a terrible month and lost $20,000.” I immediately went outside to “shoot some buckets” in our driveway.   This was one of the ways I de-stressed at the end of the day.  After a while, I was feeling much better […]

How do you build loyalty in your organization?  One morning Jake came into my office.  He sat down and with a serious look on his face said, “Gary you’re going to have to fire me.”  Of course, “I asked why?”  We had just purchased the company and when you do that you get, “the good, the bad, and the ugly” of the old company.  Jake was definitely part of the good.  He was a certified welder, trained in the military, and a genuinely nice guy. He said that he would not be able to pass the drug test.  We did pre-employment drug testing but did not do it for employees who came into our company through acquisition.  We did do random drug testing and Jake was certain when his number came up he would not pass.  I asked him, “Do you want to leave the company?”  He emphatically said no, but what were his choices.   He knew that everyone was subject to the random drug testing, even the owners, so he was certain we would not make exceptions.  He was right. But in my mind, we did have some options if Jake was willing to comply with certain rules.  […]

I’m much smarter in a room full of people! As I work with small to mid-size businesses, I struggle to convince the business owner that he or she would be much better off with an advisory team.  As business owners we think we are pretty good.  We are!  That’s how we get to be business owners.  But that sense of confidence can also be a deterrent to business owners increasing the owner’s equity in their organizations. A client once said to me, “I can’t talk to my employees, I can’t talk to my spouse, I can’t talk to my banker, who can I talk to about my business challenges?”  This is a problem in a lot of smaller organizations and the answer is “your advisory board”. For most advisory boards of smaller companies the board members are volunteers.  For starters, I recommend inviting your banker, your lawyer, your CPA, and old sage (retired) business professional you know, maybe from your church or Rotary Club, etc.  In my experience an odd number of members is best for voting and I would keep it small to start, seven members at most.  These people may not know your business as intimately as you do, but […]

Does your Company have a GPS and if so, do you use it? A few years ago I bought a GPS for my car and I liked it so much I bought one for my wife’s car also.  Eventually we got GPS service on our smartphones and we tend to us that GPS more often.  I recently bought a car that has a GPS as standard options and I like it even more.   It works best when there is a detour or when I am going to a new client’s office and I don’t want to waste time guessing what route to take.   In Q4 or early in Q1 I work with my clients to create an annual operating budget.  We look at past performance, we look at all costs (valid numbers will work the best but don’t let iffy numbers stop you), we look at revenues because most business owners will track revenue fairly accurately but may fall short on tracking operating costs.   We identify profit centers for the business and determine the gross profit per profit center best we can with the data we have.  The more valid the past data the more accurate the pro-forma annual […]

Are you leading your organization to its full potential? Often I am asked to facilitate “Leadership Seminars” for managers of organizations.  One of the best books I have found for training managers in leadership is; The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell, ISBN 0-07-141861-X.  In his book Colin Powell introduces the reader to his twelve leadership secrets.  One of his leadership secrets is; “Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off”. In my career, I have bought businesses and in doing so, I have had to change cultures and assess the full potential of new employees who joined our team through the acquisitions.  One such employee was Mary (of course, Mary is not her real name).  The company culture prior to the acquisition put a high value on the quantity of work an employee put out, not necessarily the quality of work.  Mary had been with the previous owner for many years and was a valued employee because she did a lot of different tasks in the office.  So many tasks that Mary was unable to do a majority of them accurately, but Mary’s “Old Boss” rewarded her and other employees based on their volume of work. The new culture I wanted […]

Profitable Business Model First, Marketing Second. A friend of mine who owned a restaurant on the north side of town called me and asked if I would stop by because he had a few questions.  I agreed and when my schedule allowed I planned to stop into his restaurant (close to lunchtime because he had great food).  I met with him and his wife who both worked in the business at the time.  He said his sales were down and he wanted to ask me questions about how he could increase his sales.  I asked, as I usually do, if I could see a financial statement.  He showed me his year to date profit and loss statement.  I did a few calculations and said it looked like he was working very hard generating little profit.  He said things were going OK and all he needed was more sales.  At that time his wife, who I sensed was getting frustrated with her husband, began to tell me how they were working too hard, not making any money, and it was making life difficult at home also.  Eventually my friend agreed that they were struggling. I did some more calculations and suggested […]

Who are your “Leaders’ without Stripes”? When I am asked by business owners to assist with changing the culture within their organization, I often ask, “Do you know who your “leaders’ without stripes” are?”  Business owners are some of the most prolific people within the organization.  They are constantly coming up with innovative ways to improve their businesses.  While working with one business owner to change the culture in his organization I observed this exchange… The business owner delivered a speech to the organization describing a new policy to improve their culture.  A young apprentice was walking back to his department after this meeting and asked his foreman, “What do you think?  I think “The Boss” has a great idea there.”  The foreman has been with the company for a long time and has seen a lot of “stuff” come and go within the organization.  His response to the young apprentice was, “Listen, you work for me!  This is another one of “The Bosses” ideas that will fissile out in a week or two.  You do what I tell you or you’ll answer to me!”  The young apprentice agreed and stepped in line with his foreman. The question becomes, “Who […]

Every Business Owner Should Own a White Shirt! I once had a client who owned an auto repair business.  He was a very good mechanic and worked on cars all the time.  You could often find several cars and trucks in his back yard waiting to be worked on.  As his family grew, his wife wanted the vehicles out of the yard.  His solution was to start a business and open a shop of his own.   He called me because his banker was asking him for accurate financial statements. He would work 12 hours a day under the hood of a car and then spend a half hour every other day trying to get caught up on his bookwork.  I would visit him every week on a specific day, let’s say Tuesday, for 90 minutes.  During our initial conversations, actually all the time we worked together, he would give me grief that I wore a white shirt.  As you know, he would say, anyone who wears a white shirt all the time definitely is not working.  He would wear the typical blue and grey stripped mechanic’s shirt covered with grease and dirt stains.  Often times when I first came to […]

People and Aluminum are different, Go Figure! A few years ago I was coaching an owner of a fabrication business.  He is one of the smartest people I know, and a very talented fabricator of aluminum products.  I watched as he created precision bends and welds on the materials he used in his trade.  He had a very good business but he did have a challenge with keeping good people.  I was hired to help him understand why he had such high turnover rates, which as you know costs organizations time and money. One day I witnessed him speaking harshly to an employee.  After the fact we talked about what spurred his emotions with that individual.  In fact, I was told by other employees of the firm that this type of behavior from “The Boss” was common place and was one of the main reasons people left the company.  The owner explained how frustrated he was that he had to tell his people again and again before they understood what he wanted on the fabrication floor. I asked him to bring me a piece of scrap aluminum, which he did.  It was approximately a foot by a foot square.  I […]