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What is Your Least Favorite Job?

You are an independent business owner. You wear many hats. You do many jobs. It is the nature of the beast. Let me ask you one question…

What is your least favorite job?

What is the one hat that you dread wearing the most? What is that task or duty that you fear, that you would rather put off, that you just wish it would go away?

Let me ask you another question…

What would you do with the time you have left over if you didn’t have to do that job?

Everything can be hired out. There is someone capable of doing whatever it is that you don’t want to do. For a price, of course. But, there is someone. The only question you really have to answer is whether the time you have left over can be productive enough to afford the person you hire.

Just remember when you calculate the “afford” part you include your lack of stress, your better sleep, and your peace of mind. Sometimes that is worth far more than the salary.

Give up the one job you hate the most and you will find you have more time and energy to do the things you love.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, that even includes the hat of hiring and firing. Many successful business owners hire a manager to run the day-to-day operations and they spend their time marketing, buying and paying the bills. Yes, that includes paying the bills. Other business owners want to run the day-to-day operations and hire an office manager or AR/AP person to handle all the invoices and bills. Yes, that includes a tech person, a warehouse/receiving clerk, a gopher, an event coordinator, or a marketing/advertising coordinator. Owning and running a small business is supposed to be fun. Do the fun stuff and hire someone else to do the stuff you hate.

Asking the Right Question

Seth Godin writes one of my favorite blogs. His post for today was so short and sweet and thought-provoking that I want to share it with you…

Question the question
The best creative solutions don’t come from finding good answers to the questions that are presented.
They come from inventing new questions.
-Seth Godin

Here are my thoughts…

The question most retailers ask is…

How can I get more traffic, more customers, more sales?

Here is a new question worth considering…

How can I create an experience so incredible that people want to come back time and again and bring their friends with them?

Here is another question…

What did I not do to the best of my ability last year?

Here is yet one more question…

How can I make the customer experience not only better, but more consistently better?

I bet if you answer any one of those last three questions, you’ll find the answer to the first question.

Merry Christmas!
-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, I ask those questions every year for my business. Yes, I will be giving you the answers at the class Tim Miles and I are teaching at Wizard Academy January 29-30. Yes, you will learn enough to make a huge difference in your business – a double-digit difference if history is any indicator.

Don’t Hide Your Agenda

I was about to write a blog about the importance of the little details, like a clean bathroom, and how even those small things need to be consistent with your branding, your Core Values, otherwise they could undermine all the good you do.

I saw a headline and a survey that said 62% of customers think a dirty restroom is a sign of poor management.  Odor, dirty or clogged toilets, and bathrooms that looked old were the three most common problems.

Then I read the source… A plumbing supply company.  Made me pause for a moment.  Made me wonder if there was some sort of bias in the survey.  Made me wonder if there was a hidden agenda.

You, too?

And that, in a nutshell, is why consumers don’t trust us.  They think we have a hidden agenda.  That Hot Toy list that Toys R Us recently published? I watched it get trashed in a blog for being self-serving.

What if the plumbing supply company said… Hey, we’re in the bathroom supply business so we did a poll to see what the main complaints were that people had about public bathrooms.  Not surprisingly, smell and odor was number one.  We also learned some other interesting information about bathrooms.  They make a big impression on your customers, both good and bad.  Sure, we’re telling you because we want your business.  More importantly, we’re telling you because we want you to stay in business.  Without you, there are no public bathrooms for us to update.

Wouldn’t seem so self-serving, would it?  Just by being up front and honest about being self-serving, they sound less self-serving.  Ironic? Yes. People trust an open agenda.  They distrust a hidden one.

How can you be up front and honest so that you don’t seem to have a hidden agenda?  Here is one way we do it.  I constantly tell customers that we will help you install your car seat no matter where you bought it.  I then tell them up front that I have an ulterior motive for doing it.  If the car seat is installed safely, your child is safer.  If your child is safer, your child lives longer.  If your child lives longer… wait for it… you have to buy more toys.

Always gets a smile (we’re here to make you smile, remember?).

Be honest about why you do what you do.  Tell your ulterior motives.  Tell the downside.  It helps build trust instead of destroy it.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS But please be sure to clean your bathrooms!  It does make a difference.  In the book Retail Superstars George Whalin talks about the bathrooms as a positive feature in a number of the stores in the book.

Fake It Til You Make It

When you smile, the simple act of your muscles pulling the lips upward sends a signal to your brain.  Your brain begins releasing Endorphins that lower your stress.  It also sends a signal to your brain to release Serotonin, which boosts your immune system, gives you energy, and makes you feel good.

Even when the smile isn’t genuine.

Isn’t that cool?  You really can fake it til you make it.  Fake a smile and in short time you will feel better.

You can do the same thing with other body language poses.

Power posing is another way to fake it til you make it.  According to a Harvard study, when you strike a power pose, a pose where your body is open, not crossed, and in a larger than life position (think Wonder Woman with her hands on her hips), you increase your levels of testosterone while also decreasing your levels of cortisol.

What are the applications of this for independent retailers?

First, remind your staff to smile no matter how they feel.  Just that act alone will make them feel better soon.  Plus, that smile is infectious.  If they smile, the customers will smile and soon everyone will be feeling better.

Second, teach your staff how to Power Pose every morning before the day begins.  Have them hold that pose for a couple minutes before they hit the sales floor.  Their energy will be better, they will have more confidence, and they will seem more likable and approachable.

Yeah, body language actually does make a difference, both inside and out.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  That picture is from the Monroe Chamber of Commerce Business Summit.  I had everyone Power Pose at the beginning of the talk.  Got the energy of the crowd up before I launched a new motivational talk – Better Your Business by Being Your Business Better which includes elements of Understanding Your Brand with more examples of how it works in real life. If you would like your organization fired up and working towards a common goal, contact me.  The presentation takes an hour (there is a 30-minute Reader’s Digest version if you’re strapped for time) and will do far more than just raise your testosterone or lower your cortisol.

Starting or Finishing?

I asked some fellow store owners for their thoughts on the following quote:

“Don’t worry about finishing, just get going.”

Is this appropriate advice for a retail store?

Their thoughts were quite interesting.

Many people loved it, felt that it embraced their entrepreneurial spirit.  To them it meant to quit worrying about results and just start doing things.  You’ll adjust as you go along.  If you don’t get going, you’ll never finish anyway. Anything is better than sitting still.

Others hated it, felt that starting something without a plan or and end in sight was foolish and a waste of time.  You’ll spend far too much time, money and resources without seeing the proper return on investment.  I know one employee who left a retail job because her boss was far more interested in starting multiple projects without ever seeing one through to fruition, which drove this employee mad.

After thinking about it for a while and reading what others had to say, here are my thoughts…

On one side I believe you need to think about finishing so that you don’t waste your efforts but on the other side some initiatives just need to get started and then they’ll take a life of their own.

More importantly, however, I think this is a good statement for finding out an important character trait of a potential employee. Someone who takes umbrage with this quote might be more apt to do one thing fully to completion, whereas someone who embraces this quote might be more apt to come up with creative ideas and new initiatives.

Most importantly, I think every business needs a mix of the two mindsets, someone to get projects started and someone to see them through to fruition.

Stop.  Think about where you landed the first time you read that quote.  You might want to find someone on the other side of the coin to balance you out.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  I would venture to guess that most business owners fall somewhere to the side of agreeing with the quote.  That’s the entrepreneurial spirit in us.  But you do need finishers.  Seth Godin has a term for the person who sees things through to completion. He calls them Linchpins.  If you are not (yet) a fan of Seth’s, you might want to check that book out.

I Went to Harvard

Well… umm… I went to Harvard yesterday… while I was in Boston visiting another toy store owner.

I thought about applying to Harvard when I was in high school.  I had the grades.  I had the test scores.  I had the extracurriculars.  I only needed to take three more tests and I could apply.  Problem was, I knew that even if I got in, I wasn’t going to go there.  I had already been accepted to the University of Michigan, which meant I had season tickets for football.  Plus, I didn’t want to take any more tests.

But it sure would have been nice to say…

“Yeah, I turned Harvard down.”

Today, however, those same grades and test scores and extracurriculars probably wouldn’t even get me into the first cut in the application process.  The stakes have gotten higher.  The bar has been raised. What I did in the early 80’s isn’t enough in 2012.

The same is true of your business.

The stakes are higher.  The bar is raised.  Your customer service has to be amazing and unexpected.  Your product knowledge has to be over the top and relevant.  Your inventory control has to be fine-tuned and adaptable.  Your marketing has to be refreshing and memorable.

What you used to do isn’t good enough anymore. 

I was thinking all of this while walking around the Harvard campus knowing that I was smart enough to go there 28 years ago. But I better get smarter if I want to be able to compete with those kids today.  Being smart back then isn’t enough in 2012.

What are you doing to get smarter?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  The one thing I do have over that kid back in 1984 is that I am a much better student today than I was back then.  I had the grades to get in to Harvard, but I’m not sure I had the study habits to stay there.  Now I’m trying to learn everywhere I go.  And I promise to share what I learn with you right here on this blog and in the Freebies section of my website.  Maybe we can all get into Harvard some day.

Working ON vs Working IN (Part 2)

At the panel discussion at the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA) this past week, we discussed the concept of working ON versus working IN your business.  To clarify the concepts I asked the audience to define which of the following were IN and which were ON.  The results were interesting…

Marketing & Advertising – ON
Hiring the Staff – ON
Training the Staff – IN/ON
Buying – IN/ON
Receiving Merchandise – IN
Stocking Shelves – IN
Selling – IN
Bookkeeping – ON/IN
Financials – ON

As you can see, there were mixed opinions on Training the Staff, Buying, and Bookkeeping.  Some of it was based on what a manager can do, versus what an owner can do.  I think some people felt that managers can only work IN the business.  Do you agree? (I don’t.)

My own personal belief is:

IN is anything done that moves your merchandise out the door.  So Receiving, Stocking and Selling are the IN’s.
ON is anything that gets the merchandise you sell (buying), the people who sell it (hiring and training), and the people to whom you sell it (marketing and advertising).    ON also includes taking care of the money your business provides.

(But what about Bookkeeping?  I’m still on the fence about that one.)

Using that definition, how much time do you spend ON versus IN?  In our panel, the average was about 80% ON and 20% IN for the first 11 months of the year, and then swap that for December.  You, too?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Not only do I think managers should work ON the business, too.  I highly encourage it.  They take more ownership for the success the more they have a hand in creating that success.