Edition 458 – It Starts At The Top
On the final leg of our recent overseas trip, we chose to stay in a different part of Los Angeles to the past. We’ve chosen Manhattan Beach, south of Venice Beach, previously, as it’s a vibrant, safe and interesting part of LA, and a short hop from LAX.
This time, we chose a hotel on the famed Sunset Boulevard in northern Los Angeles, as it was in the shadows of the Getty Museum, and that was in our travel plans.
I’m glad we chose to stay there, not because of the location, nor the quality of the accommodation, nor the facilities. It was all about the ability, as a business advisor, to observe a business that completely lacks leadership, which itself arose as a result of the business owner falling out of love with the hotel.
From inattentive front desk staff, who failed to look up from their screens first thing in the morning as we walked past, to waiting in the restaurant for ten minutes before someone stepped out of the kitchen to serve us, we being the only patrons in the restaurant, our stay was a real study of a business where most employed there, were disinterested in what they did. That’s not to mention the tired rooms and the lack of security onsite, late at night, which felt like cost cutting, more than anything else.
I mentioned all this to our driver, Sammy, on the way back to LAX, he being the same gentleman who collected us from our flight in from Miami three nights beforehand. He was the most professional, attentive and genuinely hospitable person that we came into contact with during our time at the hotel. It turns out, at this stage of his life, he’s happy to run people around in his Cadillac Escalade, and not have the responsibility he once had as the 2IC to the hotel owner, when it was a much larger organisation.
Sammy confessed the hotel owner was close to 70 and that none of his family were interested in taking over. In the process, the owner had lost interest in the hotel, and in the business of being a hotelier.
In every business I’ve come across in my almost four decades of working with family business, when the owner gets bored with the business, there’s only three alternatives:
- Get out – meaning, they need to sell the business, and maximise their sale price, whilst they can; or,
- They need to learn to ski downhill fast – meaning, that before long, the business will be unsustainable financially, and will either need to be sold by the owner, or it will be sold from underneath them, by an insolvency expert; or,
- They need to reinvent the business, and be excited about taking it on that journey.
Sadly, I’ve seen #2 arise too many times, mostly I believe, out of hubris.
Those that choose #1 are smart, as they realise it’s time to cash in their chips, and do something different with their lives, whilst still clearing a decent sized cheque.
Yet, the most interesting and exciting engagements I’ve had over the years, in this space, are those that choose #3. These are the people who have decided, before it’s too late, that they need to do something different, and they need help to do it.
So, in these first weeks of 2025, take a moment to think about you and your own business. Does it excite and interest you like it did at the start? Are you enthused each day, when you walk in the door, about what lies ahead? Or, are you still working it, because it pays a decent salary, and provides some other benefits, albeit they haven’t changed in quite a few years?
This Week’s Tip
“There’s 5 early warning signs that demonstrate clearly, when a business owner is bored with their business, and when trouble is on the horizon.”