It's Your Business Archives - Page 3 of 16 - Transmission Digest
The Fine Art of Listening (and Asking Questions)

Why is it so hard to get people who are supposed to be taking in facts, sorting them out, and returning useful information, to listen? There are any number of reasons ranging from lack of proper training to thinking they know more about the issue than the person explaining it to them, to bad attitude, to burnout, to over inflated ego, to daydreaming, to pretending to understand when they really don’t. You name it and you’ll probably be right.

Expansion: To Open More Locations or Not

The excitement that comes with being successful at your first location is awesome. You feel like you can beat the world because it means you’ve accomplished something that most small business owners can’t. It’s something to be really proud of when we realize that about 80% of startup businesses go under within the first couple of years. That leads to the inevitable question that almost all successful small business owners ask: “If I can do this well with one location, couldn’t I make twice as much money with two, or three times as much with three?” The answer unfortunately is “no” in most cases, and here’s why.

Finances: Dealing with the Money

No matter what the product or service might be, and no matter how large or small the company, the goal is always the same: to make a good profit. Profit dollars drive everything. They allow for employees to make a good living, for new equipment to be purchased, for expansion to take place and for the owner to make a good return on investment.

Deciding Your Role in the Business

Ever tried fixing a car with not enough tools or the wrong ones? It’s hard, if not impossible, to do it right. The same goes for managing a business. If you aren’t properly equipped you probably won’t do a very good job. In management the tools are quite different. There are no wrenches or hammers. The tools consist of what you’ve learned and how you apply that knowledge.

New-Employee Orientation: Inspect What You Expect

Hiring a new employee begins a relationship with someone who was, more than likely, a total stranger to you not very long ago. Even if you conducted a very well planned interview process you still don’t know very much about this person and he or she probably knows little about you and the way your company functions. Without many preconceived notions, this is a great time for you to make a strong impression on your new hire.

Best & Brightest: Questions & Assessment

In the previous installment we discussed the hiring interview. I mentioned that it would be best to have a set routine and agenda for the interview with questions that will paint a general picture of the prospect for you and more specific questions tuned to the position for which you are hiring.

Hiring the Best and the Brightest

Hopefully your recruiting effort brings you a number of qualified applicants for any job you have available. Your next challenge will be to choose the best person or people from those candidates.

Recruiting: Attracting the Best Candidates

Recruiting new employees has a whole lot in common with finding new customers, which is something we, as owners and managers, do every day. We are continually selling people on why they should use our services. We advertise, ask for referrals, market by getting involved in the community and generally try to show that we are a good, honest and trustworthy business, that it’s safe for people to use when they need help.

Recruit People Best Suited to Work For You

My ex-partner, who had been in the business more than 30 years when we teamed up, described the auto-repair business as a constantly revolving door in which employees continually came and went. In training me to become a good manager of business and people, he stressed that I had to learn how to accept that fact of life and move forward with my business plan no matter how many employees I had to hire and train only to see them eventually go their own way. He taught me that I had to, as much as possible, leave my emotions at the front door. I wasn’t supposed to feel bad about losing an employee who I had put a whole lot of time and effort into. I was just supposed to go on to the next one. Although I understood that he had been burned so many times over the years that he trained himself not to care or show it if he did, I had a problem with it. I wanted to know why they left and if there was anything about my management style that was making them go and, if so, how could I fix it.

Finding & Developing Your Personal Management Style

You are a unique individual. There is no one else exactly like you in the entire world. The way you look and act, the way you think and feel, they are all yours. You have certain strengths and weaknesses that have helped and or hindered you your whole life. One of the keys to being a successful manager of people and business is to recognize and build on those strengths and work toward eliminating as many weaknesses as possible.

More Manager Success: Made Not Born

So far we’ve learned that successful managers have integrity, are improvers of themselves and others, have relatability, are good listeners, keep their promises, have compassion and can empathize, but not sympathize, and are well organized and in control.

What Successful Managers Have In Common

Managers who succeed in growing profitable, enduring businesses tend to display similar traits. They have the ability to see all sides of their problems both professionally and personally and are constantly working toward finding and executing solutions. They know that they can’t do it alone, that they require the help of everyone in their business and in their personal lives, so they train themselves to work with others in varying circumstances.