A Resourceful Way to 'Rescue' Your Business
Six business improvement processes that will make your business a sustainable success
Resourcefulness can come from very unlikely areas. Take watching TV as an example. Most hard working business people I know would scoff at spending any amount of time camped out in front of a flat screen. Even worse would be watching reality TV.
It’s amazing that reality TV has stayed in the public’s view for so long. Most reality TV shows serve little purpose other than to spotlight the dysfunctions of people’s lives or put them through humiliating physical experiments. There is, however, one reality show genre that seems to reveal some genuine examples of resourcefulness- ‘rescue shows’! Rescue shows have maintained steady popularity. Like all reality shows, these ‘fix it’ shows thrive on a high level of drama. They also incorporate a fair amount of constructive learning. For the resourceful business owner, shows like ‘Bar Rescue’, ‘Restaurant Impossible’, ‘The Profit’ and others reveal a repeatable series of steps needed to identifying problems and create solutions for turning around a failing or underperforming business. |
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If you can watch them long enough and separate the family fights from the actual insights, here’s what you can learn:
Business Improvement Process #1: The Signs May Be Obvious Depending on your business, if revenue and client traffic have been going down, don’t wait for a Hail Mary from the economy. Step one in any business improvement process means taking an objective look at the condition of your business. As the owner, you need to be the first to do this. As time goes on, customers and employees will lose confidence and quit caring if they believe management is blind to what they see right in front of them. It’s hard to fess up to any form of deterioration in your operation but waiting won’t make it go away. Business Improvement Process #2: Take a Long Look in the Mirror John Taffer of ‘Bar Rescue’ and Robert Irvine of ‘Restaurant Impossible’ waste no time dealing with owners who have disengaged from their businesses believing that everything is fine in their absence. As a business owner, you cannot phone in responsibility for running things or accountability for doing the job. Step #2 of your business improvement process is to look in the mirror and be honest about your role in the situation you find your business in. These problems tend to start at the top. So should the solution. Business Improvement Process #3: Reintroduce standards into your business If your restaurant is serving questionable food from outdated menus and the condition of the kitchen would gag maggots, figure out why your standards have fallen and what level they need to return to. If you run other types of businesses like home improvement services or jewelry stores, check the condition of the products and services, and the way they are being serviced up to the customer. Step #3 in your business improvement process is to introduce new standards of performance throughout your business. They should be clear and relevant to your staff and important enough to you to see they get followed. Business Improvement Process #4: Provide training and coaching to the staff Employees bring all kinds of abilities, experience and personal quirks with them to the job. What they may not always bring is the right combination of skills to meet your standards of performance. If you want them to meet your expectations, train them. Good employees will return the favor by working harder to deliver the results you want and stay with you longer. Step #4 in your business improvement process should be to make training a regular part of your company’s culture. Your employees are your most expensive resource. Invest in them if you want superior returns. Business Improvement Process #5: Upgrade your facility and your operating practices There’s nothing worse than working in a place that hasn’t changed since Reagan took office. Your employees have little choice in the matter as they must show up to keep their jobs. Your customers, on the other hand, can and will go elsewhere. Loyalty only goes so far if your business’s environment detracts from the experience of doing business with you. Also look at your operating practices. Are you stuck in pre-technology mode? If so, you’re sacrificing huge opportunities for efficiency and cost containment. Step #5 of your business improvement process should focus on bringing your place of business and your business practices in line with what today’s consumers expect. Thinking you can stay in business by avoiding upgrades that the marketplace demands is penny wise and pound foolish. Business Improvement Process #6: Implement systems that support measuring and monitoring If you can’t measure the outcome, you will never improve. Everything from operating costs, employee performance, customer satisfaction, marketing and operating efficiencies should be monitored by you and measured for effectiveness. Getting your business turned around is one thing, keeping it there requires strict oversight. Step #6 of your business improvement process should include adopting operating processes that deliver your desired outcomes first time, every time. Pay particular attention to costs, employee performance, your marketing and the customer’s experience of doing business with you. How much would you patronize Starbucks if it took their baristas several tries to get your favorite latte right? Conclusion Business owners who reach superior levels of success rely on their business improvement processes like breathing air to stay alive. No one has more invested and stands to lose it than the owner of the business. Stay in tune with these vital areas and you should never fall far off the mark. If you already have, don’t wait until you’ve racked up huge amounts of debt. Bring someone in from the outside to help you fix things. If you need a business professional to help you tune up your business, this is a service I provide. And what makes me more attractive than John Taffer or Robert Irvine is that I don’t do it on national TV! |
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Client Success StoryTom Sell, owner of Complete Marine Freight in Miorca, Spain tells his stroy of achieving massive growth.
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What's your opinion? Let us know what resourceful ways you've been able to improve your business?
About the Author:
Steve Smith is an experienced business & executive coach and President of GrowthSource Coaching based in Orange County, CA. Steve works individually with business professionals who want to achieve top tier effectiveness in the organizations they run. Steve graduated from Frostburg State University with a degree in business management. In his spare time, Steve writes articles from a variety of business publications, travels with his wife on his motorcycle and cares for his adopted greyhound.
Steve Smith is an experienced business & executive coach and President of GrowthSource Coaching based in Orange County, CA. Steve works individually with business professionals who want to achieve top tier effectiveness in the organizations they run. Steve graduated from Frostburg State University with a degree in business management. In his spare time, Steve writes articles from a variety of business publications, travels with his wife on his motorcycle and cares for his adopted greyhound.