Edition 542 – MANAGING THE CONTROLLABLES

It’s the economy.

It’s interest rates.

It’s inflation, driven by the conflict in the Middle East.

It’s consumer confidence, now with house prices tanking as a result of recent Government tax changes.

Small and family business owners like to complain about what’s happening elsewhere, outside their front door, to lament what is happening in their business right now.

Here’s a tip. Stop looking at external factors.

Here’s another tip. Manage the controllables.

Almost every business I’ve been inside of the past few months has experienced some degree of bumpiness. Of those, every single one of them has not been managing their controllables. They’ve not been looking at what they can control, and how they can influence their own business performance, by having a firmer hand on the wheel.

Like the business that has a very lucrative revenue stream where they don’t physically touch the product, but it generates almost as much revenue as the side of the business that takes up most of their showroom space. Earlier in the year, I indicated my concern about the stagnating numbers in that side of the business. Actions were agreed upon, then not followed up. Now, with the end of financial year numbers out the door, the numbers have gone from hovering to slipping.

It turns out that no one has been actively managing this lucrative side of the business since January. January for goodness sake. That’s 8 months. Not sending the texts, that sparks the customer to say “Yes” in reply, that leads to an easy sale. For a product that goes from supplier direct to customer, yet they can clip the ticket on.

They haven’t managed a controllable.

Or the client that has persevered with an underperforming employee for way too long. Various performance management programmes have been entered into, then not followed up. Things are allowed to slip. Turning up late is accepted. There’s a flow-on effect, being the other staff start to think the underperformer is a protected species, so they feel it’s OK to not perform themselves, to the standard that is expected of them. Meanwhile, the owner’s frustration builds and their fuses shorten.

Lance the boil, I’ve been saying for too long, until they finally did. Gone. Done. Out the door.

There was a controllable inside their business, which they didn’t control. Now, they’ve taken back control. The message wasn’t lost on the rest of the team either.

Is business bumpy at the moment?

A few things not quite going your way?

The year already not panning out as strong as you’d hoped?

Perhaps you need to stop looking out the window, and start looking within. Look at your controllables. And how you can manage them.

This Week’s Tip

“Turn off the news. Stop listening to supposed pundits and broadcasters.
Turn on the music, and start listening to yourself”.