Edition 521 – What’s The Point?

A small business owner groans when a client’s caller details light up on their phone. The client is demanding, always wanting something done yesterday. They’re belligerent in the way they deal with the business owner, and often, they’re not great at paying their bills on time.

It’s just part of running your own business.

A second small business owner has a troublesome employee. Turns up late. Doesn’t concentrate on what they need to do, on a daily basis. They make mistakes. They upset the customers of the business, some to a point, who rant and rave about the poor service they’ve received, before departing in a fluster.

It’s just part of running your own business.

A supplier lets down a small business owner, by not delivering product on time. It’s got to the point in the past year, where there’s a reasonable amount of lost revenue, due to the fact the supplier can’t manage their order book. The lost revenue doesn’t just hit the small business now. Their customers don’t return, for they gave up once they’d received too many excuses, the same excuses passed on by the supplier.

It’s just part of running your own business.

Except, it’s not!

Why put up with lousy clients, who are rude to your staff, or don’t pay on time?

Why put up with employees that are forever grumbling about life in your business?

Why put up with suppliers who can’t deliver what they promise, in spite of your loyalty to them?

I’ve worked with family business for close to 40 years. I’ve been the owner of my own family business for 27 years. Let me tell you this! If you keep pandering to the crap clients, you’ll forever be surrounded by crap clients, and your business will never achieve the potential you hoped it would.

If you keep putting up with employees with a poor attitude, your business will forever underwhelm. Whilst you yourself may have a firm commitment to customer service, if that culture is not evident in the business, and if your staff don’t embrace that same ethos, you’ll forever be known as “that place”. The place where the staff are grumpy, or slow, or dismissive. Eventually, no matter how good your product or service is, if the experience is below par, customers will drift away.

If your suppliers continually let you down, then go seek alternate suppliers. Irrespective of how good their product or service is, if suppliers can’t deliver what they say they will deliver, when they say they will deliver it, you’ll forever be the public face of a business that promises, but can’t follow through.

Part of running your own business is about setting the standard. If you set the bar low, there’s not much for employees, or clients or suppliers to aim for.

If you set the bar high, you’re defining, clearly and succinctly, the type of business that you operate, and how you want to be known to the world. That way, you’re building your business legacy, daily.

Are you in control of a business you truly love and are proud of? Or do you simply own one that pays the bills and, by all accounts, ambles on from day to day, and settling for mediocre?

This Week’s Tip

“If you’re not operating the type of business that you’re passionate about, then why are you doing it?”