Author Archives: mschultz

Do Your Employees Really Care About Your Business?

On my way home from the office I dashed into the drugstore for what I thought would be a quick in-and-out. Au contraire. Six people waited in line of me, while one lone clerk worked at the register.

I briefly considered turning around and going right back out again. But I became fascinated watching this solitary clerk handle this stressful situation.

He cheerfully ai love my job.jpgpologized to those of us waiting, at the same time he completed a complicated transaction at the register. As he rang up each customer, he greeted every new person who came in with a warm “Welcome!” and told each person who left, “Have a great evening!”

Two young men came in carrying backpacks and without missing a beat he welcomed them and told them they would have to leave their backpacks at the front counter. He worked quickly, with a cheerful smile, and looked directly at those of us in line.

He was a one-man band of great customer service!

He was alone in a stressful situation. He could have easily shrugged and said to himself, “What do I care if a few customers come in without a welcome? They’ll never know the difference. Why should I care if a few items are shoplifted? My manager should have made sure I didn’t have to be here alone!”

Instead he single-handedly carried out several roles at once andndash; greeter, cashier, customer service clerk, and security guard andndash; all with a genuine smile.

As I left the store, I knew several of my clients would love to have him work for them!

The most common complaint I hear from women business owners is that employees don’t show the initiative or the enthusiasm this man showed.

They act like they don’t care.

So how do we get employees that work with the kind of spirit the drug store clerk has?

1) Be clear about your expectations. Before you hire, make a list of your expectations for that position, in addition to the responsibilities. Be completely honest with yourself. One position may need someone who is fun-loving, flexible, cheerful, and creative. Another may require someone who is quiet, likes to work alone, gets every detail right. Be clear about what you need.

2) Interview carefully. Don’t reveal so much about the position that the candidate thinks they know the “right” answer. Ask questions that draw out the candidate’s true behavior and attitude. Instead of asking, “Are you good at customer service?” ask, “Tell me about a time when you had customers waiting. What was that like for you?” Instead of asking, “We’re busy around here–do you like to be busy?” ask, “Tell me about your perfect work environment.” Keep probing until you get more than a vague answer, like, “I’m a people person.” Ask questions and let them reveal who they are. If you don’t hear the answers you need, don’t invent attributes for the candidate that they don’t have. My favorite life coach Mary Tucker says, “When people tell you who they are, believe them!.”

3) Don’t settle. Period. If you have nagging doubts, listen to yourself. Yes, it’s difficult to have a position unfilled. Yes, it’s time consuming to interview multiple candidates. But as my recruiter friend Chuck Smith says, “Never hire from a candidate pool of one.” Don’t adopt “stray cat” employees.

4) Be specific. If you expect employees to be cheerful under stress, to juggle multiple tasks, to give Ritz Carlton customer service, tell them what that looks like and sounds like. Instead of saying “Dress professionally,” tell them “No tank tops and no flip flops.” Instead of saying, “Give customers great service,” tell them “All customer calls are returned within two hours.”

5) Coach and correct as you go along. Don’t wait for a performance review to give feedback. As one of my clients said, “Have every crucial conversation within 24 hours.” Address problems is when you see them, not months later. Employees are either unable to do the job or unwilling to do the job. If they are unable, they might be teachable. If they are unwilling, move on.

6) Appreciate the behavior you want to see. One simple fact: people continue behavior that’s reinforced. Let your employees know when you see them doing the right thing. Appreciate their effort and say “thank you” or “good job” when they handle something well.

Employees can’t read our minds (thank goodness!) Don’t assume that your definition of “good service” is the same as theirs. If you want employees who care about your business, you have to be clear about our expectations and what that behavior looks like.

Here’s hoping all of your employees have the same spirit and work ethic as the drug store clerk!

Put Your Money Where Your Goals Are: 11 Tips on Budgeting

If youandlsquo;re alive and breathing, you are hearing plenty about the federal budget right now. And deficits. And state budgets. And more deficits.

Budget.jpgEven the optimistic optimists would agree it’s not a good situation.

I’m constantly surprised at how few business owners actually prepare a budget. Maybe we only associate the word with bad news, and then avoid it.

But don’t let all that dreary deficit talk turn you off to the entire subject of budgeting. Avoiding a budget for your business can get you into the kind of trouble our state and federal governments are in. In the business world, deficits are called “losing money!”

Not good.

Check out these eleven simple tips to get you in the mood:

  1. Your budget is your friend (really!). The purpose of a budget is to guide you to spending your money intentionally. Done right, it will help you see where you might be overspending and under-spending.
  2. Put your money where your goals are. Your budget should reflect allocating resources in areas that will lead to your goals. It’s not just a replication of how you spent money last year.
  3. Don’t overcomplicate it. Keep it simple so that the people who use it can understand it.
  4. Your budget is a living document (like your strategic plan!). It’s not going to do you any good if you never look at it and compare actual income & expense to what you planned. Track your performance monthly and see where you need to adjust.
  5. It’s not etched in stone. It’s numbers in a spreadsheet, and can be changed. If you see trends as you go through the year, you can modify your budget. (For example, right now gas prices are rising. How will your budget need to be adjusted?)
  6. Select your method. A top-down approach means you use last year’s numbers and increase or decrease as your goals and plans dictate. Or you can apply a certain percentage increase or decrease if the specific line items from last year reflect your current strategy. With a zero-based approach you start from zero and add on what you will need for the coming year. If your business model or strategy has changed significantly, this is the method to use.
  7. Plan A and Plan B. As we’ve all seen, the economy can be unpredictable. Be prepared and have a budget that reflects less than optimal conditions, along with a more optimistic forecast.
  8. Garbage in, garbage out. Your budget is only as good as the data you entered into it. Good recordkeeping and accurate bookkeeping are essential. It’s time to get organized and keep good financial files. If you need help setting up a system, it’s worth every penny to have a professional bookkeeper or CPA help you get it set up.
  9. Do a cash flow budget. The first rule of business is: Never run out of cash! A cash flow projection details the amount of cash you collect and pay out. For young businesses, plan on doing a rolling sixteen week projection. In this budget, you track your anticipated sales and income from other sources and contrast those numbers against how much you expect to pay in labor, supplies, and other expenses.
  10. Plan your capital budget. The capital budget helps you figure out how much money you need to put in place new equipment or procedures to launch new products or increase production or services. This budget estimates the value of capital purchases you need for your business to grow and increase revenues.
  11. Inc Magazine offers a variety of tools and templates (some free, some paid) to help with budgeting, sales forecasting, and cash flow projection. Go to: http://bit.ly/g2JTMs

Now you’re ready!

Carve out a couple of hours to yourself and start by exporting your previous year’s income and expense statement to an Excel spreadsheet. Work with the numbers in Excel and when your budget is ready (no deficits!) plug the line item totals into your financial software.

Voila! You’ll have a budget! Remember, it’s just adding and subtracting. Don’t make it harder than it is.

andcopy; Darcie Harris 2011

Any Porch in a Storm (or Tornado!)

Tornados are part of the standard fare of springtime in Oklahoma. Truthfully, most of the people I know get a bit desensitized to the tornado warnings. tornado.jpg

Me too. But sometimes we get a wake-up call.

A colleague of mine was driving back to Oklahoma City from the south part of the state when the warning sirens went off. Listening to the radio, she could follow the storm’s track.

She thought she was driving right into it, so she turned around and went the opposite way.

Then the storm changed directions. She turned again. And again. Turns out there were multiple potential funnel clouds, going in various directions.

Having grown up here, she instinctively looked for the safest place to pull off the interstate and park: lowest level, away from power lines.

That’s when she spotted a farmhouse, and ended up on the porch of a total stranger, asking if she could join them in their storm shelter.

It’s one thing to knock on a neighbor’s door and ask to borrow a cup of sugar. It’s another thing altogether to ask a person you’ve never met if they can keep you safe during a storm.

There are many “tornados” in the business world, things that threaten our safety.

Customers’ needs change, financing options become limited, technology fails (always when we need it most!), marketing efforts wither, key employees leave (and become your competitors), even good news like record-breaking sales put a strain on the system.

How comfortable are you asking for help when you need it? How do you know if you have become desensitized to the “storm warnings?”

Every business person needs a support system. Smart business leaders get their support system in place before the warning sirens go off.

Help is all around you. Look for people with the experience, connections and perspective that you may lack within your company. Here’s a short list of ten external resources you can turn to:

  • Management consultants
  • HR consultants
  • Financial consultants
  • CPA’s
  • Attorneys
  • Bankers
  • Peer advisory groups (like EWF andndash; okay, that was self-servingandhellip;)
  • Business coaches
  • Industry experts & trade associations
  • Customer councils

When you have tough decisions to make, when you are lost in the weeds, when life goes off course, you need people who will challenge your thinking. You need people who are not desensitized to the “storm warnings” you may have overlooked because you live with them every day.


Whose porch do you end up on when you need help?

What Are You Worth?

Let’s talk about a delicate subject. Money. Your money. What you make, your own compensation. I know, it’s not polite to talk about politics, sex or money, but I’m tired of seeing tired of seeing women business owners shortchange themselves (literally!).

What do you believe you deserve to be paid? Seriously, what do you think your compensation should Currency.jpgbe, based on your expertise, wisdom, knowledge and all the blood, sweat, and tears you have put into your business.

Is that what you’re making? If so, you can quit reading right here, because the rest of what I have to say is for the thousands of women business owners who are not paying themselves what they are worth.

Ask yourself, “Would someone buy my business and run it for the same compensation I receive?” If the answer is no, it’s time to make some changes.

I often see women business owners generate enough revenue to hire the people they need, purchase the equipment they need, spend the marketing dollars they need, and simply take what little is left over at the end for themselves. If that’s what you are doing, it’s not a condemnation of you. It’s a clue that something in the business needs to change.

I’m suggesting that if there is not enough to compensate you for what you are truly worth, it’s time to re-examine your business model and face the brutal fact that if your business can’t compensate you, you need to find a business strategy that is more successful.

Of course it is common in the start up phase to take little or no compensation out of the business or to put profits back into the business. But at some point that has to stop. At some point you need to balance the needs of the business with your personal needs.

Looking at what you deserve to earn provides a fast (although sometimes painful) wake-up call that will lead you to make the necessary changes in your business.

So here’s what I want you to do.

  • Decide what your compensation should be. This can and should be based on a variety of factors. Here are two articles that can help you determine what makes sense: http://bit.ly/EntrepSalary & http://bit.ly/NFIBcomp.
  • Print out your 2010 budget. Okay, I know, you don’t have a budget. Pull up your 2009 income and expense statement and export it to an Excel spreadsheet.
  • In the line item that says “Owners Salary” plug in the number you answered above. Doesn’t matter if it’s $24,000 a year or $250,000 a year. Let’s just see what happens.
  • Now look at how that affects your bottom line. My guess is that you have a big, negative number under net profits now.

What you have just seen in that big, negative number is the reality of what you need to fix to make your business worth your time and effort.

What needs to change in your business for you to finally begin to earn what you are worth? How does putting your desired compensation into your budget as a legitimate number change the way you think about your business?

It’s only by paying yourself what you are worth that you will have an accurate portrayal of the true costs of running your business. It’s time to ask yourself what you are worth and design a business model that compensates you at the level you deserve.

A Table, A Bathroom and A Risk

I undertook quite a project this fall when I purchased a grand old home that had been converted to office space years ago. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it was charmed by the beautiful woodwork and hardwood floors.

downstairs bath cropped.jpgI knew it could be the perfect place for my office, but it definitely needed a facelift. The colors were dull, the kitchens and bathrooms were dated (I don’t even want to talk about the urinal in the upstairs bathroom), and the floors were worn. But I knew it could be transformed. (Some of us fall in love with “possibilities.”)

I had a vision of how the finished building would look and jumped in.

I chose contractors and paint colors, then made the rounds of antique stores, looking for interesting tables, mirrors, and other fixtures to complete the vision.

My first purchase was an old table to replace the seriously ugly vanity in the narrow downstairs bathroom. Just the right size and shape for the small space, with graceful legs and stretchers, I could picture it painted glossy black, topped with a vessel sink and an ornate mirror.

But here’s the best part. It was only $50! It would be a stretch to call the place I found it an antique store. More like a “collectables” store. Okay, more like a flea market. Nevertheless, here was the perfect table at an unbeatable price. What a find!

I sanded, painted, distressed, steel wooled, buffed and polished until it was perfect.

Then came the time to move it from the workroom into the bathroom so that the plumber could set the sink the next day. Only one small problem: the table wouldn’t fit through the bathroom door. Okay, so we’ll take the door off, no big deal.

Now we could get it into the narrow bathroom, but it couldn’t be turned to sit flat against its freshly painted wall. We tried everything — lifting, turning, sideways, vertical andndash; but unless this table could magically bend, it couldn’t be placed where I had planned. I thought all my hard work and pretty plans were about to go down the drain.

In the words of Jim Collins, it was time to face the brutal facts. I had three choices. I could start over and find a smaller table for the bathroom. I could cut a hole in the wall (hmmm, old plaster wallsandhellip;not a great option). Or I could cut the legs off the table so that I could get it turned into position, then glue the legs back on.

I took a deep breath, got the saw, and just kept telling myself, “It only cost $50. It only cost $50.”

IMG_2512.JPGIt worked! If you saw this table-turned-bathroom-vanity today, tucked firmly in its place with its vessel sink and ornate mirror, you would never know what happened.

Cutting the legs off the table was a risk. Maybe the legs would be sturdy, maybe not. Maybe the table would be ruined, maybe not. But it worked. Maybe I was lucky. Let’s just say I’m a big fan of Gorilla Glue.

I bet you face those kinds of situations every day in your businesses.

You have an idea, a vision. You can picture how it will turn out. You plan, you measure, you work hard.

Then you hit a bump in the road. Things didn’t go like you planned. You hit an unexpected obstacle. A key employee leaves. A competitor comes to town. Costs go up. The market shifts beneath your feet.

Now what? Do you go forward or pull the plug? Do you pursue your vision or give up? Do you play it safe or take a risk?

A few important questions help you evaluate the risks you face:

  • How important is your vision? More than any other factor, a bold vision is what fuels taking a risk. Take a hard look at your vision and your strategy for accomplishing it, then ask yourself, does this risk, more than any other, move you closer to your vision?
  • What are the alternatives?
  • What happens if you don’t take the risk? Can you still accomplish your vision?
  • What exactly are you risking? Can you live with the loss?
  • What can you do to mitigate the risk? That doesn’t mean settling for less. It means doing all you can to make the risk pay off.
  • How will you know when the risk is too great?

Life throws us curveballs. When you’re faced with a risk, look at all of your alternatives. Weigh the options. Weigh the risks. Look at best case outcome. Look at worst case scenario.

Then make your move, with no regrets.

Get your free podcast, Four Ways to Conquer Self Doubt, and lots of other free learning titles HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ladies Room: Women Working With Women

A TALE OF TWO WORKPLACES: A friend of mine works in a medical office. The entire staff is female, the doctor is male. One co-worker is a passive aggressive martyr who alternately brings people special gifts, then goes unresponsive, withholds information, and does sneaky things. Another co-worker complains regularly because she feels unappreciated, has frequent emotional meltdowns, shares intimate details about her personal life, and obsessively focuses on little issues, like which coffee filters they use.

Fun place to work, right?

In contrast, a woman I kwomen working with women.jpgnow runs a business with a work force that’s 85% female. Their teamwork has allowed them to be successful through both up & down markets. When the workload is heavy, they all rise to the occasion. They have an incredible retention rate; many employees have worked there over 20 years and many have relatives or friends who work together. They are seen as leaders in their industry. And their entire leadership team is not only female, they are related!

What’s the difference?

We’re all familiar with the horribly negative stereotypes about women working with women. We hear about women not getting along at work and we roll our eyes and say, “Too much estrogenandhellip;what else can you expect?”

GENDER DIFFERENCES

Well here’s a newsflash. Women are different than men, so they behave differently in workplace than men.

Research shows that female brains are wired to empathize while male brains are designed to understand & build systems. Studies of children show that girls are more likely to seek consensus & be more concerned with fairness rather than competition and that take turns 20 times more often than boys. The relationshipandmdash;not winningandmdash;is the goal.

Generally, women seek friendships based on intimacy & understanding, whereas men like to sharing activities. While men’s self esteem is typically derived more from their ability to maintain independence, women’s self esteem is maintained more from ability to sustain intimate relationships.

In total: women have a greater awareness of emotional climate, are more relationship driven & have communication, connection, & responsiveness as primary values, as opposed to competition, winning.

EXPECTATIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS

Those are all great qualities and, when used appropriately, contribute to women’s success in management. But strengths overused become weaknesses and work against us. When we expect these wonderful relationship qualities that are intended for friends & family to carry into the workplace, we create unrealistic expectations for ourselves and others.

At some point, we have to be about the work, not just the feelings, not just the relationship. To get past the negative stereotypes, we have to change our expectations.

What I see at the core of the negative stereotypes is not women working with women. It’s about people working with people. Imperfect human beings working with other imperfect human beings. We’re all different. We have different needs, different communication styles, different life experiences and different hot buttons.

So why do we look at these situations & see them as being about women? We’re quick to assume that the issue is womenandmdash;too much estrogen–when we haven’t looked deeply enough at the problem.

IT’S ABOUT LEADERSHIP

The problems in the first workplace I described are not the result of women working with women. They are the result of a workplace with several emotionally unhealthy employees & a very weak leader who won’t address problems. He sets no limits, will not coach or correct employees with no consequences for bad behavior, or accountability. The problem is flawed leadership, not too much estrogen.

The second situation I described is about a workplace with a very capable woman as president who has worked hard to become a great leader. She has a management system designed to address problems, and a commitment to coach, train and develop people. There are clear goals, expectations, consequences and accountability.

Surely we can all agree to stop perpetuating the negative stereotype by making oversimplified assumptions that workplace problems are a result of women working with women. We can also make sure we are not acting out any of those unfortunate behaviors ourselves or acting in a way that perpetuates the problem.

Let’s commit ourselves to improve our leadership abilities so that we can address workplace situations rather than assume they can’t be changed and blame the problems on women working with women.

In the words of one of my favorite leaders, Ghandi, “Be the change you wish to see.”