Badass Business Owners: Tips for Small Businesses Serving their Communities

Episode 34 – The Local Small Business Coach Podcast

Today's Topic: Q & A Help! I Keep Losing Employees

In today's episode: We have question from a listener who is losing employees and wants to know how to figure out why and how to change it.

Shownotes:

Welcome back to the Local Small Business Coach Podcast, I am your coach Tammy Adams.

Today we will wrap up our week of employee turnover episodes. Now you are probably wondering what sparked this theme week in the first place. Well, actually, it was a question that I received last week from Jesse. When I was thinking about how to respond, I realized that the subject was much deeper then the answer I would give to the questions, so why not make it a theme week so we could cover the other key things every small business owner should know.

If you haven't had a chance yet, listen to episode 32 where we discussed 7 Reasons Your Turnover Might Be High and in episode 33 we discussed 4 Ways Turnover Costs You Thousands of Dollars a Year. The reason I did these prior to today's question, was I felt that they would give you a little background into why I am answering the question the way I am. Not to mention why I feel this topic is so important.

So how about we jump right in? Jesse asks…

I'm hoping you can help me out. Over the past year I have had a hard time keeping employees. It seems that every time I hire someone they either quit or I end up firing them due to their poor attitude or the crappy way they do their job. This is getting frustrating and I've tried everything. Any thoughts on how I can fix this? Jesse

Hey Jesse, thanks for the question. Hopefully you have actually listened to those last two episodes and you've already been getting a few ideas but let's dive in a little deeper shall we?

First, I can only imagine how frustrated you are. It is a pain in the kester to have to keep hiring people. Even though I have hired thousands of people through the years, I still hate the process. I hate having to take time away from other things I'm working on to sit through interview after interview. Especially when I usually know 5 minutes into the interview, that I'm not going to be hiring them.

But, I did learn early on that it was a necessary evil. Every time I hired someone for the wrong reasons, I always paid the price. So even while I hate it, I make sure to do it right so I don't have to do it again soon.

But let me step back first.

If your employee turnover is as bad as you say it is, odds are you have a few areas you will want to take a look at. From the way you ask the question a few things come to mind immediately.

The first, was what we were just discussing. Are you just hiring anyone or are you putting the time in upfront to find the right people? What is your interviewing process looking like? Are you asking questions that matter? Are you having them tell you about past experiences vs just giving you an answer that sounds good? Are you asking questions about customer service?

Once you hire them, are you throwing them to the wolves or do you have a true onboarding process? Experience has shown that if we show that we don't care about them in those first weeks, we have already set the tone with them that we won't care about them later so why should they care about you?

Since you mentioned that they had that type of attitude, I think there might be opportunity in your onboarding.

However, there is another reason employees just don't care. How are they treated day in and day out. Jesse, I don't mean to come across harsh but I'm going to for a few minutes. You need to look in the mirror first. Why are these people not connecting to you and your mission? Just like we've talked about in prior episodes, when you respect your leader and you love working for them, you bend over backwards to make them proud. When you don't have that respect for them, you just don't give a crap.

How are you speaking to them? Are you listening to ideas and questions? Do you check in with them and ask how they are doing. Oh, and act like you mean it? Or do you just see them as a revolving door so why care about them?

I firmly believe that how you treat people is the #1 key to reducing your turnover.

Think about it. If you hire a great person and you don't care about them, they will eventually not care. However, even a poor hire will bend over backwards to do well or at least as good as they can for someone they like and respect. Treating people well will actually offset a lot of other poor practices. So it is critical that you do a "self-check" first. You need to figure out how much of this turnover is coming from your employees "firing" you.

As part of this self-check, I want you also look at how you are doing with your accountability. Now, I'm not talking about your firing process. Sounds like you are letting people go as much as they are quitting. What I'm talking about is setting expectations and then giving them the tools to accomplish those expectations. When I would investigate problem turnover stores, I often found that while the store manager would tell me how they had no problem firing folks they rarely could tell me the process for communicating the job expectations and the vast majority of the time, they were poorly executing the mandatory training programs.

Jesse, I challenge you to revisit your processes and see if they are being executed correctly but both you and any shift leaders you might have.

Sometimes we have shift leaders or managers that we put in charge of this and just don't follow up to ensure it is done correctly. So you will want to look at all avenues.

Now, for any of you that are struggling with high turnover, I would look at these 3 key areas we just discussed.

• Your hiring process and the types of folks you are hiring
• How you are treating your people
• How you are training and setting expectations

While there are many other things you can dive into, these three areas will address about 80% of your problem. Tackle these, and I think you will see huge improvement.

Later you can keep dialing it down deeper.

** For the full show notes click the link below!

HELPFUL LINKS

Podcast Website: LocalSmallBusinessCoach.com

Leave your Message on the website with the Speak Pipe Button or just email me at [email protected]

Episode Show Notes: Episode 34 - Local Small Business Coach Podcast

Our Training Materials for Local Small Business Owners: TrainingforLocalSmallBusinessOwners.com

Starting a Local Small Business Website: StartALocalSmallBusiness.com

Episode 33 – The Local Small Business Coach Podcast

Today's Topic: 4 Ways Turnover Costs You Thousands of Dollars a Year

In today's episode: We will walk through the 4 ways that turnover is impacting your sales but also your profits and how you can stop the bleeding.

Welcome back to the Local Small Business Coach Podcast, I am your coach Tammy Adams.

Today we are going to play off our last episode where we discussed 7 reasons your turnover might be high. You might recall that we went over the most common reasons your employees or team members might quit or end up getting fired.

In this episode, I really want to discuss, why it is critical that you continually pay attention to your turnover and why you need to keep it as low as possible.

What a lot of business owners don't realize is, high turnover actually can cost them thousands of dollars in lost sales and profits!

Let's take a look at a few of the major areas high turnover hurts your local small business. Or for that matter, anybody's business.

Let's start with the most obvious and work our way up

1. Cost of Hiring

When you lose someone, you need to replace them. We all know that. But have you ever put pen to paper and thought about what it costs for you to hire a new person? In order to do this, you need go back to something we discussed in the past and that is the cost of your time. If you time is worth $50 an hour for example and you have spend 5 hours on interviews and the hiring process, then you are already at $250. But that isn't all. Take it to the next level.

What could you accomplish in those same 5 hours? How much in sales are lost due to you not working on money generating activities? For example, if you spent 5 hours on marketing, what would that return on investment be?

Now, you need to avoid the trap many folks fall into. They realize they don't have 5 hours to hire the right person so they shave that down to an hour. The problem with this is, you are back in the vicious cycle of turnover as you might recall the #1 reason for high turnover is bad hires. So you MUST avoid trying to cut corners on your hiring.

If it takes you 5 hours to find the right person, then this cost will pay back in dividends down the road due to reducing the turnover problem. But more on that shortly.

1. Cost of Onboarding & Training

Now, once you have hires these new folks, the next major expense you will have is your onboarding and training of them. Now you have time dedicated to their orientation, onboarding and training. You have the cost of another employee being pulled off what they would normally be doing so they can train the new person.

Depending on your set up, you also have costs in training materials, uniforms, tools, etc. While sometimes you can reuse, for some of you and for items, you are starting over with each person.

Don't forget, you also have an employee who is working at 10% compacity when they start. While they do grow each and every day you still have losses as they get up to speed. Which brings us to our next item.

1. Cost of Poor Customer Service

This one has two angles. First, let's continue down the path of the new employee. Since they aren't fully up to speed on their training or ability to help folks, you are losing sales due to them not being able to help as many folks as a fully functioning employee, nor are they at the level of doing add on sales or full packages. While they might give excellent service, it is normally at a much slower rate than you need. But the good news is, this gap should close quickly as they grow.

However, I want you to look at this cost of high turnover a little differently. Where you really have a high turnover cost in poor customer service is actually prior to the turnover. Think about it, many of the reasons we have turn over are due to negative reasons. Poor hiring, poor training, poor attitudes, lack of caring and lack of leadership, often leads to people that don't care. When people don't care, they don't give great customer service. When they give poor customer service, your sales go down. When sales go down so do profits. You can only imagine how many sales are lost due to employees with poor customer service. This alone can add up to thousands a year per employee.

1. Cost of Not Caring or Not Knowing

And since we are talking about it, let's go over why your profits go down. We just discussed how poor service costs you profits but think about all the other ways your profits suffer.

Do you think employees with poor attitudes or poorly trained are doing their jobs to the standards you expect? If you have a food business, do you think they really care if they put the right amount of cheese in that taco? If I go back to my ice cream days for example, if an employee was doing huge scoops they were shooting the costs of goods up. But why would they do this? Either A) We never trained them to do it right in the first place or they just didn't give a crap. Heck, they might even give away product to their family or friends?

These folks who are part of your future turnover are costing you tons of profits through their poor attitudes or poor job performance.

So those are the big 4 as I call them. Let's recap real quick. You are loosing thousands of dollars in sales and profits due to..

• The cost of hiring
• The cost of training
• The cost of poor service
• The cost of not caring or not knowing

How do we come up with thousands of dollars?

To help give some meat to this, let's take an example of just one employee.

** For the full show notes click the link below!

HELPFUL LINKS

Podcast Website: LocalSmallBusinessCoach.com

Leave your Message on the website with the Speak Pipe Button or just email me at [email protected]

Episode Show Notes: Episode 33 - Local Small Business Coach Podcast

Our Training Materials for Local Small Business Owners: TrainingforLocalSmallBusinessOwners.com

Starting a Local Small Business Website: StartALocalSmallBusiness.com

Episode 32 – The Local Small Business Coach Podcast

Today's Topic: 7 Reasons Your Employee Turnover Might Be High

In today's episode: The loss of employees can be tough on your business. Constantly hiring and training new folks can be costly and time consuming. In this episode we walk through 7 reasons your employee turnover might be high.

Shownotes:

I want to dedicate this entire week's worth of episodes to your employees or as I like to refer to them your team. Now you may have heard some places are no longer calling them employees but rather team members to help promote the whole team concept vs the individual contribution. Ultimately it is up to you if you want to refer to them as employees or team members, the important thing to remember is that you respect them and you take really good care of them. They will not be hurt by one name or the other but they will not accept being disrespected.

The reason this even became an issue in the first place, was to drive that "team" feeling as I mentioned. Then for some reason, the word "employee" became a negative term. Folks felt they needed to be a cool kid and join the crowd with this new term. To move away from the employee / boss combo vs the team / leader combo that seems more positive.

But as I mentioned, most folks don't care if they are treated right. If they aren't treated right, then they will leave. Which we will get into in a few moments. But ultimately, don't get hung up on this. Go with what feels right. But like I said employee, team member and probably a few other ones that have been floating around are all fine. More likely you are going to hear me float in between the two words employee and team member. So don't get hung up on it.

For today's topic I want to discuss 7 Reasons Your Employee Turnover Might Be High.

I think we can all agree that employee turnover can kill you. Not only due to the time it takes to find the right person, but also the time it takes to train them and for them to learn the job.

On our next episode, we will go into more detail on how turnover is costing you thousands of dollars each year, but for today, let's take a look at 7 reasons why folks decide to leave you in the first place.

1. You Hire the Wrong People

Too often we hire folks that fill a spot or a need and not necessarily the best qualified person. I've hired thousands of people through the years and I can tell you, there are a lot of people that interview well but are nothing like the person that shows up to work. It takes time to spot the warning signs that might show up.

For example, if you are interviewing someone and they just roll their eyes or get annoyed at the interruptions that might happen, then how will they deal with the interruptions they are bound to get during the normal business day.

Now don't get me wrong, I prefer interviews in a quiet setting but the reality is, many of you are doing these interviews in your lobby.

Also, ask questions that require more reality based answers vs theory. Everyone will tell you they are great with customers. They would be stupid not to. But have them tell you how they have dealt with folks in the past. Great customer service they have already given. If you hire kids for their first job, you can still talk about how they handle helping people. Do they help folks at school, at church, in clubs, at home?

And NEVER EVER EVER hire people because they fog up the mirror and you are desperate. You will pay the price in the long run.

We will do future shows on hiring but you get the idea.

1. Lack of Training both at hire and ongoing

Do you hire people and throw them to the wolves? Or do you have an official onboarding process you use? Do your new folks go into a training program or mentorship to learn the job you hired them for? Or do you use the "sink or swim" method?

But training doesn't stop with bringing them on board. Training means you have an ongoing program to help people get better at their job. When a new task is introduced, do you teach them the expectations and give them the tools to do it? Do you know most people fail in their job due to lack of training or at least poor training?

Either they will quit due to being frustrated or you will fire them for doing their job poorly.

1. Treat Them Poorly

This one is a no brainer. If you treat your people poorly, they will not stick around long

** For the full show notes click the link below!

HELPFUL LINKS

Podcast Website: LocalSmallBusinessCoach.com

Leave your Message on the website with the Speak Pipe Button or just email me at [email protected]

Episode Show Notes: Episode 32 - Local Small Business Coach Podcast

Our Training Materials for Local Small Business Owners: TrainingforLocalSmallBusinessOwners.com

Starting a Local Small Business Website: StartALocalSmallBusiness.com

Bonus Episode 4: Success Saturday

Today's Topic: Finding that Daily Motivation

In today's episode: We talk a few moments about finding that daily motivation to keep going and chasing out dreams and success

HELPFUL LINKS

Podcast Website: LocalSmallBusinessCoach.com

Leave your Message on the website with the Speak Pipe Button or just email me at [email protected]

Our Training Materials for Local Small Business Owners: TrainingforLocalSmallBusinessOwners.com

Starting a Local Small Business Website: StartALocalSmallBusiness.com

Episode 31 – The Local Small Business Coach Podcast

Today's Topic: Q & A: How Can an Introvert Drum Up Business?

In today's episode: We discuss the various ways that an introvert must conduct business. While they don't go out and shakes hands and kiss babies, there are other things they can leverage to drum up business.

Shownotes:

Welcome back to the Local Small Business Coach Podcast, I am your coach Tammy Adams.

Time for another question from one of you. Today's question comes from Jason and his question is one that I can totally relate to. Since this is something I struggle with at times with as well.

Jason writes:

Tammy, do you happen to have any advice for an introvert? I know I need to get out there and talk to people to create more sales for my business, but I just can't seem to do it. Do you have any pointers? - Jason

Boy, do I feel you Jason! As a fellow introvert, I struggle with this every day. The interesting thing is, I have fooled many people through the years. When I was at Home Depot, I was always part of those personality tests that everyone likes to give. People were always shocked that I flagged as an introvert as they would have sworn I was an extrovert. I would actually get into debates with people. They would be confused by my ability to speak to my team or doing training events as meaning I must be an extrovert.

What most folks don't realize is, introverts have the ability to speak to people about things they are passionate about. They can do this with one or many. Normally these groups have already been formed or they are already a captured audience. What introverts don't want to do is go out and seek new relationships. If they had to go out and collect these people, it would never happen. But hey, if they were already there, that works.

Just know, that even if they must speak to a group, they will be dying inside but can pull it off as long as it is a topic they are passionate about like I mentioned.

But if you ask an introvert to just go up to random folks and start a conversation, we just can't do it. You would think it would be easy since we are good at one on one and it isn't a group but trust me it isn't. We might stand there for 20 minutes trying to talk ourselves into it but in the end, we just walk away.

The extroverts out there, are thinking "what is so hard"? Just talk to them. They don't bite. But to us, they just might. LOL

Now, one would think this skill would give extroverts the leg up in business. I'm sure in some cases it does but believe it or not, some of the best business people out there, are introverts. The key is to leverage what you are good at. Recognize what your strengths are and how you can get the most out of it.

Jason, Extroverts might win the race when it comes to getting out there shaking hands and kissing babies, but as an introvert that isn't in your wheel house. I'd like to tell you that you will never have to speak to another person but we both know that perfect world doesn't exist. LOL

Two things come to mind that I personally have used through the years.....

** For the full show notes click the link below!

HELPFUL LINKS

Podcast Website: LocalSmallBusinessCoach.com

Leave your Message on the website with the Speak Pipe Button or just email me at [email protected]

Episode Show Notes: Episode 31 - Local Small Business Coach Podcast

Our Training Materials for Local Small Business Owners: TrainingforLocalSmallBusinessOwners.com

Starting a Local Small Business Website: StartALocalSmallBusiness.com

Episode 30 – The Local Small Business Coach Podcast

Today's Topic: What Are Loss Leaders and Why Your Small Business Needs Them

In today's episode: We discuss what loss leaders are and how they can help you drive your sales and more importantly your profits!

Shownotes:

Let's dive into today's topic. – Loss Leaders.

Now, unless you come from a big box retailer, you might be wondering what the heck a loss leader is. Basically, a lost leader is a product or service that you have that you know you will not make any money or at least a very little amount, but you know it is a gateway to additional products or service that will make great add on items or project completers.

For example, a home improvement store will sell drywall around cost but they are hoping you will get the drywall mud, tape and tools which typically has a much higher margin thus more profit.

You see this with the dollar menu at many fast food places. These items are not high margin but they are gateways to frequency and upgrades or add on items.

Each business needs to have a loss leader or two that they can use in a similar fashion.

Your loss leader can do one of the following:

1. Drive traffic to your business since you will be the best price the best in town
2. Be a Project Starter that you can pile on top of
3. Increase frequency of use

Let's take a look at each and what might work for you and your business.

** For the full show notes click the link below!

HELPFUL LINKS

Podcast Website: LocalSmallBusinessCoach.com

Leave your Message on the website with the Speak Pipe Button or just email me at [email protected]

Episode Show Notes: Episode 30 - Local Small Business Coach Podcast

Our Training Materials for Local Small Business Owners: TrainingforLocalSmallBusinessOwners.com

Starting a Local Small Business Website: StartALocalSmallBusiness.com

Episode 29 – The Local Small Business Coach Podcast

Today's Topic: Think Like a Leader Not a Manager

In today's episode: We discuss the differences between leaders and managers. Too often these roles get confused. Those with successful teams understand that the importance of being a leader and leading their teams and only managing the tasks.

Shownotes:

You don't manage people; you manage things. You Lead People - Admiral Grace Hooper

Welcome back to the Local Small Business Coach Podcast, I am your coach Tammy Adams.

Today we are going to discuss something that is near and dear to my heart. Something that I feel is critical to your business's success. And this is a subject that I think so many people get wrong, not only in small business but in any business. I have watched many leaders through the years not under the difference between being a manager and being a leader.

There is a quote that sums up what you need to remember:

You don't manage people; you manage things. You Lead People - Admiral Grace Hooper

As I mentioned, I've seen many people that assume they are the same thing. That a manager is a leader and a leader is a manager. The reality is, they are completely hats that a business person will wear. As a local small business owner, these are two roles you will want to make sure that you fully understand. Let's take a closure look shall we?

When to Wear the Manager Hat

The manager hat comes easy for everyone. After all, most of what we do, will fall under this umbrella. When we are working on our marketing we are wearing our manager hat. When we are doing the actual tasks of the business we are wearing our manager hat. When we are working on our numbers or ordering inventory, we are wearing our manager hat. When we are doing our bookkeeping or invoicing, we are wearing our manager hat. You get the idea. Whenever you are working on any task within your business, you are wearing your manager hat.

When to Wear the Leadership Hat

Now, let's look at the leadership hat, typically it will involve your interaction with your people. However, the leadership hat is more than this, which we will discuss in a few minutes. When we think of leaders, we think of people that inspire, people that provide direction and people that fire us up and motivate us.

You are wearing your leadership hat when you are speaking to your employees. Think about it, you are trying to inspire them to give great customer service, to have the best store or maybe the best company. You are providing them the expectations and more importantly the "why".

Another aspect of leadership has to do with your role in the community and with your peers. You are wearing your leadership hat when you setting the example with other business owners and with how your community will view you and your company. Your company's brand and reputation is all about the leadership you provide it. So it is important to recognize that even one person local small businesses have a need to understand when they are wearing their manager hat vs their leadership hat just as much as a brick and mortar or any other team business.

Why Do These Terms Get Confused?

What causes folks to confuse the manager hat and the leadership hat, is how we use the word manager. Think about it, we have store managers, assistant managers, department managers & office managers. We use the word manager over and over when we discuss who leads our teams.

When your employees go home at night, they talk about their "manager" not their leader. But the ironic thing is, they are actually discussing what type of "leadership" they had that day from their manager.

An example might be: "Today my manager yelled at me to clean the lobby". Yes, the manager was discussing a "task" if it were, but the what the employee was upset about was how this person provided "leadership". If they were asked to clean the lobby and explained why it was needed, the odds are it would not have been dinner conversation that day.

** For the full show notes click the link below!

HELPFUL LINKS

Podcast Website: LocalSmallBusinessCoach.com

Leave your Message on the website with the Speak Pipe Button or just email me at [email protected]

Episode Show Notes: Episode 29 - Local Small Business Coach Podcast

Our Training Materials for Local Small Business Owners: TrainingforLocalSmallBusinessOwners.com

Starting a Local Small Business Website: StartALocalSmallBusiness.com

Bonus Episode: Success Saturday - Build Your Own Dream

Stop Building Other People's Dreams and Build Your Own

Today we discuss why you need to build your own dream and stop building someone else's dream.

HELPFUL LINKS

Podcast Website: LocalSmallBusinessCoach.com

Leave your Message on the website with the Speak Pipe Button or just email me at [email protected]

Our Training Materials for Local Small Business Owners: TrainingforLocalSmallBusinessOwners.com

Starting a Local Small Business Website: StartALocalSmallBusiness.com

Episode 28 – The Local Small Business Coach Podcast

Today's Topic: Q & A – Any Advice on How to Save My Business from Failing?

In today's episode: We take a question from Tina who's business is starting to fail due to a competitor who opened and she can't seem to get back to where her business was in the past.

Shownotes:

Welcome back to the Local Small Business Coach Podcast, I am your coach Tammy Adams.

If you are here in the states, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Even if it was just a day off for you, I hope you enjoyed it.

Guess what today is? Yep, it is time for our weekly question. When I shared my business failure back in episode 24 it was a difficult thing to admit to myself, not to mention to share with you folks. But ultimately, I knew if I could help just one person with their situation, then it would be worth it.

While it has only been a week or so, the feedback has been positive and I hope the episode will continue to help others. I'm sure we will continue to dissect the learnings in the future. With that said, I thought I thought I would pick a question that came in from someone fighting that struggle today.

I want to thank you for sharing your story about your failed business. I am currently going through this very thing now. I feel like I work 24/7 and can't seem to get out of a hole that I have put myself in. When I started my business several years ago, I was growing each year and making a decent amount of money. Unfortunately, a competitor opened a couple of years ago and I haven't been able to recover. My business has been down 30% from previous years and I'm afraid that I will not be able to hold on much longer. Should I just call it a day and close up shop or should I continue to fight? I just know I'm tired and I'm not even sure I have any fight left. - Tina

Hey Tina, I can only imagine what you are feeling. I remember those same feelings. During my last year, I felt so drained and second guessed myself and my decisions all the time. However, even though I was on the fence about if I could make it or not, the one thing I didn't do is give up. I knew I would go down swinging. Even when I thought I didn't have any fight left, I knew I had employees and customers counting on me. This provided me the energy needed to keep pushing.

You didn't mention what type of business you have so I'm going to be a little more generic but my thoughts should still work.

Let's tackle what seems to be your biggest hurdle, the competitor that has chipped away your business. Thirty percent is a hefty drop, not going to lie. But I'm curious if it has been a steady 30% loss from the beginning or if it was higher at one point? If it was higher at one point then we at least know you are headed in the right direction and we could focus on how to move that needle even more. However, if it has been a steady 30% or even worse, still sliding, then there might be some bigger issues than just your competitor.

Let's take a look at that angle first, shall we?

If your business keeps sliding, then your competitors have figured out a better mouse trap. Maybe their products are better or their services. For some reason, they are hitting your customer's needs better than you are.

Tina, your mission if you are willing to fight longer, is to find out what they are doing better than you. First and foremost, look at two key things: Customer Service & Quality. Why these two? Because, people will pay more if they are getting excellent customer service and great quality. Don't assume it is price. It might be these items.

I've seen many folks falsely believe it is price, so they lowered their prices to combat. Since the core issue had nothing to do with price, it actually just compounded the problem. So now, not only were they were losing customers due to customer service and / or quality, they pushed their sales even lower by dropping their prices. I'm not sure if you did this or not but if you did, then don't worry, you can always fix that later. But first, you need to focus on how you can stand out from this competitor those two key issues: Service and Quality.

One thing I've learned about new competition opening, is that you always have the initial dip in sales due to what I call the looky loo syndrome. People are always excited by what is new and shiny. They will always give it a try. Whether they stay or not, is up to you and that competitor.

When I was with Home Depot, we knew that we would have an initial drop in business, but if we continued to offer great service and showed why they loved us in the first place, they would come back "home" if you will. Even better would be if that competitor stumbled.

Fast forward to when the competition opened with my ice cream store. This time it was a yogurt place. I told the kids that worked for me to focus on the experience our customers had and keep the quality of our product high. Folks would miss us and come back. Sure enough, after losing the initial 40% we crept back up and within two years we were back to where we were when they opened.

Now this brings us to the second situation you might be in.

Hopefully you are crawling your way back. The problem might be, it isn't fast enough which is why you feel like you might not make it. So the question becomes, how can you speed it up?

I still recommend that you make sure your customer service and quality are top notched. If not, put a plan together to make this a top priority. Then you will need to figure out how to get the word out in the community. Unfortunately, your most powerful ally in this will be word of mouth from your customers. If you can get them sharing their experiences on Facebook. If you can get your customers to do some reviews for you or testimonials, even better. Anything you can get add to your website or any other websites will help. Yelp, Google, etc will all help when folks are investigating why you.

The next thing you need to do it find out if they have a product or service that makes them the ideal go to vs you. Have they figured out something special or that you were missing in your mix that this competitor is now providing?

If you haven't already, you need to study this competitor. Ask around, what are people liking. Look online, what are people saying? Even if these folks are awesome, you need to get to their level in your customer's mind.

Tina, your question wasn't really about your competitor but more about your business that is failing. But hopefully you can see, part of your problem is your competition. If you decide to hang on and fight, then you will need to address how you will continue to recover from this competitor opening.

So I guess the next question becomes, should you keep fighting or should you call it a day?

I'm always a champion of the underdog so my first thought is to keep pushing. But the reality is, that isn't always the best option. I know when I look back on my situation, I realized I should have ended mine a year or two sooner. If I was honest with myself, I got hung up on getting back my lost sales but the problem was, even if I did, it still was not enough to create a living.

My question then becomes, if you could get back to your old sales and profits, is it enough to make a solid living? If so, then at least you know you are working towards having a business worth having. However, if you were barely surviving before the competitor, then I think you already know your answer.

I found I knew deep down what I should do, yet kept thinking the outcome was going to be different this time, even though that was more in my heart vs my mind.

What you will want to do is put pen to paper and analyze what you need in sales and in profit to keep the business going. You also need to identify what the timeline you are looking at to achieve it. If it is going to take you 3 years to get to this point yet you only have the financial resources to last another year, then staying in business might not be the best plan of action. Now if you can find other ways to remain financially stable while you rebuild, then it might be worth riding it out.

Tina, I wish it was a simple answer but it rarely is when it comes to a business's survival. I'll tell you what, I'm going to reach out to you so we can discuss in more detail and see if maybe we can brainstorm a few ideas. I appreciate you being open and honest and sharing this painful time in your business. I know first hand how difficult it is to reach out and actually admit you are facing this difficult time.

My message for anyone out there who might be in a similar situation is to try and take a step back, pull out any emotion you might be feeling, which by the way I know is easier said than done, and spend an hour or two with a clear logical mind and crunch the numbers. Not just your sales and profit but expenses and costs. What would you need to tweak, to change, to right the ship? After you spend that first hour, spend a few more to develop a gameplan.

When you have laid out the plan, you need to determine if the business is worth saving. If it isn't, then make plans on shutting it down or possibly selling it to someone. There is probably something there that someone else might see as the seed to start their business or an existing business looking to expand.

Now, if after laying out the plan you realize that you are fired up and can see the light at the end of the tunnel then I say go for it! However, have some check in points along the way. Some milestones to see if you are on track. You need to have some exit points that make sense if you aren't.

Don't get me wrong, I want you to believe in your heart you will make it, however, I also want your feet securely grounded in reality.

Well, that wraps up another Q & A. Don't forget that if you have a question you would like me to answer, shoot me either an email at [email protected] or head to the website LocalSmallBusinessCoach.com and leave your question via the speakpipe button. Please know that I get back with everyone, regardless if I use the question on the podcast or not.

So until next time, remember, if you like what we are taking about, then make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode, if you love the podcast and what we are talking about, then please leave a 5 star review so other local small business owners know this is a podcast that they can't miss.

Meanwhile, I wish you the best in your business and remember: Great Customer Service, coupled with Great business practices will set you on the path to Great Profits!

Bye for now…..

Episode 27 – The Local Small Business Coach Podcast

Today's Topic: Is Your Local Small Business Growing or Dying?

In today's episode: We discuss why you want to identify if your local small business is in a dying stage or a growing stage. We walk you through the 5 things to look for in both stages

Shownotes:

Welcome back to the Local Small Business Coach Podcast, I am your coach Tammy Adams.

Hopefully your week is going strong with lot of business. I also hope that after our last episode you have been putting some thoughts into what you want your 2017 business goals to be. So, have you set those target sales and profit goals for next year? Which processes you will improve and what are your plans to develop your team? Don't forget, you have one more month to finalize those goals. Don't procrastinate, do it now.

Not only is this time of the year a great time to think about your goals for the new year, but it is also a great time to analyze your small business and ask a very important question:

Is Your Local Small Business in a Growing or Dying Stage?

I'm going to assume that some of you had an immediate answer pop in your head. Maybe your business has been going bonkers so you know your business is in the growing stage. Perhaps you've been losing customers and sales have been sliding so you are facing a dying business.

For the rest of you, I'm going to wager that you are landing somewhere in the middle. Neither dying nor growing. The problem is, you can't be stagnant. While it might be very subtle, you are headed in one direction or the other. You challenge is, you must identify which way you are headed.

Let's take a closer look at the signs you should look for.

If your business is starting to die, you are going to see these 5 warning signs:

1. Word of mouth for your business is not positive. You are seeing some negative online reviews or maybe your customer complaints are higher than normal. Folks are sharing with family, friends and neighbors that they should use or go to other businesses.
2. Sales are flat or dipping – If your year over year sales are flat or sliding backwards, then this is an obvious sign. While flat sales still might be good sales, there is no growth going on, unless of course profits are up. Don't get a false feeling of growing business if your sales are strong yet are same as the month or year prior. This is an early warning sign that is often missed.
3. Lack of Innovation or New Ideas – When you started your business you had a lot of great ideas going on. You were probably trying stuff to see what worked and what didn't. You listened to new idea. Over time, a business can stop creating new ideas thinking that what they do is good enough. Problem is, this just isn't true. There is a reason that Nike has a new line of shoes each year, why Coke & Pepsi still put out new flavors or takes on their sodas. They know they must always be looking for the next big thing.
4. Morale is low – Not just yours but more importantly your people. Remember, your team is the first line of contact for your customers. If your team is negative and unhappy, your customers will feel it. And no one likes to shop or use a business that is depressing and just not fun to visit.
5. Poor Cash Flow – Believe it or not, there are businesses with great sales yet they are poor at the end of the month. Just like a doctor who makes $200,000 can still be broke, so can a $200,000 business. It is only a matter of time before something can happen and poof, it is all over. Just like that doctor who can go bankrupt even though they have a great income, so can a business with great sales.

Now that we know what to look for to identify if you are in a dying stage, let's take a look at 5 ways a business in a growing phase has going on and how you can go from dying to growing!

1. Growing businesses are trying new things. They are trying new products or services. They are adding on related items to not only grow sales but profits as well. Maybe they are trying new ways to market their brand. They might be stepping out of their comfort zone and trying social media.

1. Encourage your team members to share their thoughts, their ideas. Ask them what they think the customers are wanting or asking for. Let's face it, they are the ones that are belly to belly with the customers and they are experiencing it every day.

When I worked at Home Depot, the founding father, Bernie Marcus, was a master of this. Every store visit he would break away and just talk to the customers. He would not only find out things about that particular store, he was also looking for trends from store to store, market to market. It was fascinating to find out the things he pick up from this exercise he did from day one and long after he left as our CEO.

1. Hire talent that "isn't like you". One of the worse things you can do is hire people that are just like you. Now, before you even say it, yes, you want passionate people that love customers. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about hiring people that have different experiences and perspectives. You want new ideas and different ways to look at things. You will be amazed at the ideas that come from fresh perspectives.

1. Stay as debt free as possible. Control your cash flow. Grow at a pace that allows you to fund as you grow. Do not take on debt that you can't repay quickly. Never trade debt for sales. Taking on $500 in a debt payments makes no sense if it doesn't bring you way more in profit. Grow at a pace that you can bootstrap along the way and make sure you set aside a portion of your profits to reinvest in the business vs taking on this debt.

1. Keep your customer service your #1 priority. Make sure that you take all feedback seriously. Especially any critical feedback. Your customers are trying to tell you something. React and show them you are listening. Make sure your team is on the same page. Talk about customer service during the interviews, talk about it during orientation, talk about it daily. Hold people accountable to it. Make it fun and enjoy. Remember, great customer service will be shared over and over with family, friends and neighbors. On Facebook and in the grocery store. Your customers will keep your business growing for you as long as you give them a reason too!

Ok, this is a shorter episode but I do want you to put some thought into where your business is today as you head into the new year. Then when you sit down to create those business goals, you can incorporate some of these ideas in so that you ensure that your business is continuing to grow. No one wants a dying business. So you must ensure that you are pushing forward these growth tactics we discussed.

** For the full show notes click the link below!

HELPFUL LINKS

Podcast Website: LocalSmallBusinessCoach.com

Leave your Message on the website with the Speak Pipe Button or just email me at [email protected]

Episode Show Notes: Episode 27 - Local Small Business Coach Podcast

Our Training Materials for Local Small Business Owners: TrainingforLocalSmallBusinessOwners.com

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