The preview of coming attractions.

Can you hit a target you don’t see?

Obviously not.

Everything great that has ever been built or come to life was created twice – first in the creators mind, and then in reality.

Use your imagination – it’s the preview of your coming attractions.

Spend time with it.  See it clearly.  Then write it down and draw it.

Believe in it.

Then get to work.

How does your business make people feel?

Business is not just what you can do, it how you make people feel.

If employees feel good, they will stay and perform better.

If customers feel good they will come back and refer their friends.

If you got a “feeling statement” instead of a financial statement each month, what would your grade be?

How can you improve? 

What is upsetting people?  What would make them feel good?

Employee – "Behavioral Rental Agreement"

“An employee is a behavioral rental agreement” – Barry Shamis

You are paying people to behave in a certain way while they work on your team.

Do they perform the minimum behavior, or do they give their head and heart and do their best?

That depends on who you hire and what you do with them after you hire them. 

It depends on leadership.

Control freaks don't scale

Control freaks don’t scale because –

They are one person and have only so much time in a day.

They become the bottleneck at the top of the bottle.

Other people, especially high performers, don’t like to be micromanaged and leave.

Are you a control freak or can you let go?

When employees fire their supervisor.

When employees leave, they aren’t so much leaving the company as they are leaving their immediate supervisor.

Do you have departments where the supervisor chases people away?

High Employee Turnover = Low Experience

It takes time to get good at something.  If you don’t figure out how to make it work for employees so they stay, you’ll have to figure out how to make customers happy with inexperienced employees.

You must succeed at one or you’re dead.

Your choice.

Employee Turnover Rate

If your employee turnover rate is high and employees don’t stay long, you are always rebuilding your company from scratch.  Recruiting and training are expensive and getting people to know and trust each other and work well together is almost impossible.

A little employee turnover is good.  Especially if they weren’t the right person in the first place, or if they are stuck, a drag on culture, or not growing with the position – especially in key roles.  New employees bring fresh energy, skills, and perspective.

Assuming you hire well in the first place, the “goldilocks turnover rate” is a low one.

Own Thy Home

Sometimes it is best to rent.  When you rent your space you can move out as you grow and not have to deal with buying and selling your building.

By owning your space however, you may be able to have the same payment AND build equity.  One half to two-thirds of your payment may be principal.  Over time you are building lots of equity and one day be able to harvest it.

Of course, you are responsible for the big repairs.  A roof can cost a fortune.  (Stay away from flat roofs if you can.)  Repaving the parking lot can cost a lot, and replacing the HVAC units can be a very big cost too.  If you rent, these are taken care of by the landlord.

I own nearly all the buildings I occupy.  It suits my long-term view of business ownership and growth.  Time flies.  Today, I have zero in mortgage debt.  This makes my breakeven lower, and my margin of safety if business cycles down much larger.

I’m a buyer.

Say NO to be Better at YES!

The more things you say YES to, the more diluted your effort and the more splintered your time.

Say NO and protect the things you said YES to.

Everybody wants business owners and leaders to be involved with them and to help them.  But you can’t do it all.

Saying NO is okay. 

It’s only uncomfortable for a few seconds, and then it’s good.

Raise your prices.

John is struggling.  He sells 100 units a month for $100, and makes only 1% profit, or $100 a month.

He is afraid that if he raises his prices he will lose business.  But what is happening now is not working.

So, John raised his prices to $110.  He lost 15% of his customers who only liked his low prices.

So now John sells 85 units a month for $110, but makes 16%.

John now makes $1496 a month – 15X what he used to make.

John now invests in more marketing and in adding value to his offering, attracting more clients and better employees.  John can grow even more.

John is happier and excited.