Friday, February 20, 2009

Responsibility and Accountability

I had a very difficult day at work yesterday and I am going to use this post as an opportunity to vent some frustrations. One of my fellow counselors received a phone call from a very irate client. In a nutshell, this person used quite a few expletives in explaining that we ruined their business and the advice we provided is driving their company to bankruptcy.

This happens every so often in our field of work. We have clients who want to start businesses, or who are already in business, and they expect us to tell them everything they need to know to be successful. We do our best to help, but sometimes things don’t work out. While we can provide technical assistance and offer best practices clients should consider, we cannot guarantee success. We also can’t conceivably think of everything a business must know before beginning their business. Every business is different and has different needs.

Yet when things go wrong, the blame game begins and sometimes we become the chief culprit. It’s certainly not a pleasant position to be in, but I can live with the fact that I am sometimes going to be a scapegoat if things don’t go well for a client who sought advice from our Center.

Still, every time there is a problem, I look for the lesson learned in the situation. In this particular case, I believe the lesson learned is something that I have already discussed in a previous post – small business owners need to learn to accept responsibility and accountability for what happens to their businesses.

I remember a time back when I owned my first two bagel stores. I was at my Pennsylvania store and I was having a really bad day. My baker messed up our wholesale deliveries and I had to deal with a very good, but very irate customer. On top of this, I really didn’t like the way our bagels were looking. Some bagels were too light, some were too flat and some were too wrinkly.

I was in a foul mood and I was complaining to Anthony, one of my partners in the business. “Dave really sucks,” I said, “he can’t follow simple instructions, he doesn’t pay attention to detail and he just doesn’t care about the quality of his work.”

Anthony just smiled at me and said, “Who was the idiot who would hire someone that bad?” Needless to say, that shut me up quickly. I mentioned in an earlier post how I learned to take responsibility and accept blame for everything that went wrong with my business. On this particular day, I forgot that lesson learned for a moment. With just one simple, not so rhetorical question, Anthony reminded me about the true root of the problem; I was placing blame rather than accepting responsibility for a problem that I, myself, created.

For the most part, I have been much better at accepting responsibility, but I have to admit there are times that I have fallen off the proverbial wagon. I try to catch myself, but I guess it is just human nature to try to avoid accepting responsibility at times. Well, maybe it is just Rick nature, but in any case, I know that little gets accomplished when we place blame, and quite a bit gets achieved when we accept responsibility and start focusing on solutions.

I truly am sorry for all the mistakes I have made and it hurts to know that I may have been responsible for other's misfortunes. I know my regrets are not going to fix the problem, so all I can do is ask for another opportunity to be part of the solution.

Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr is attributed with authoring the “Serenity Prayer” which has been adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous. I cannot think of a better way to conclude this posting:

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Monday, February 9, 2009

One Size Does Not Fit All

I head off to Albany today for a meeting with my colleagues from all over the State of New York. On our agenda at this meeting includes a discussion on the current economic conditions and how we can best counsel our small business clients to deal with the changes in the marketplace.

In previous posts, I keep telling my clients not to pay too close attention to the news, as the negativity about the state of our economy is influencing a sense of panic that my lead to poor decisions. As I meet with my colleagues, I plan to share a similar message, that despite the challenges, there are always opportunities.

Yet we also need to be cautious and realistic. No matter what counseling we provide, we are going to be faced with clients who may not be able to survive the economic downturn.

Both my fellow counselors and small business owners need to realize that there is not one "catch all" solution to the challenges in this marketplace. If something is working today, it may not work as well tomorrow. As Will Rogers used to say, "even if you are on the right track, if you just sit there you are going to get hit by a train." Operating a business is a dynamic process that requires continued attention and different courses of action at different times.

We can counsel clients to keep better track of market trends, to manage their inventories better, get on top of receivables, develop more effective marketing plans and many other best practices. But each individual business owner has their own particular economy that they have to watch. Even in the same region, some sectors may be poised for great opportunities, while others are more susceptible to the changes in consumer spending habits. And what is happening today will surely be different tomorrow, so business owners have to be poised for change.

The best thing we can do is help our clients keep focused on their own particular markets. Our main task as counselors is to help clients deal realistically with their specific challenges they face and remind them to continue to look for areas for new business development. This is something that applies always, whether times are good or bad.

Before I head out on the road, I wanted to contradict my previous advice and share a link to this article from our local newspaper. Please pay close attention to this story!


Clinton County Sales Tax Way Up


As I've been saying, every economy is different and opportunities remain for small business owners. Seize the day and look for ways to grow your business.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Keeping Score to Win

Today I will be watching the Super Bowl along with millions of others. I thought it is only fitting to add a little sports analogy to my business blog.

The Cardinals take on the Steelers tonight and the team that scores the most points will win. It's pretty simple, we tally up all the touchdowns, field goals, point after touchdowns (1 or 2 point conversions) and safeties. The team that ends up with the most points in the one hour of playing time will win (unless it goes to overtime).

In business, there are also scorecards. These are what I refer to as the holy trinity of financial statements -- the cash flow sheet, the profit & loss statement and the balance sheet. Unfortunately, too many small business owners do not pay close enough attention to these scorecards.

The problem is that too many small business owners try to operate their businesses on an intuitive basis. I was certainly guilty of this in the past, and that is the reason why I did not maximize my the performance of some very successful businesses. Some business owners tend to focus on only their cash balance in their checking account or their year end profitability. Others may track their inventory levels or accounts receivable balances or maybe they judge performance by how much they still owe to the bank.

Still the fact remains that business owners would be more successful if they developed a more holistic understanding of financial statements, and more importantly, some of the key performance indicators that dictate success for their particular industries. Sometimes, cash flow decisions can hurt profitability or vice versa and business owners should think about both aspects when making business decisions.

Forecasting successful operations means keeping score and establishing specific measures of success. Business is definitely a competitive enterprise and with competition their needs to be some performance measures. Keeping score means tracking transactions, whether it is through a manual ledger or a computer accounting system.

I encourage all small business owners to revisit their business plans and set up specific financial goals for the next few months. Keep score and try to exceed those goals.

One of the benefits of keeping score in your business vs. the sports world is that you can establish your own goals for winning. You can set the profitability measures, the cash flow balances and the net worth you hope to achieve. Still, you have to keep score to win.