Mikey P said:
Lets imagine that you could go back in time and you were once again a young handsome owner of a thriving carpet cleaning business in Pitchfork Colorado.
Your old business to be exact.
In this scenario you've magically (sorry) retained your wit, wisdom and wonderful outlook on business and the joy of being human.
I'll assume you've learned one or two things since you bilked that poor sap of his money for your early retirement, so I want to know what you would have to change about your old biz, what you'd want to change and what you'd refuse to change.
And..
How hands off could (or would) you be and still have it running @ near 100% efficiency and productivity now that you have become the king of the CC Gurus?
1. Have to change? Very simply, my attitude. To have kept my company AND my sanity (not to mention my family) long term I would have had to change emotionally. I was too focused, too obsessed and too compulsive with my company. All of these things are needed during the start-up phase of a small business. But after you are past those first few critical years (and especially if you are going to keep at this business long term) you need to move into a more balanced life.
2. Want to change? To achieve the above “have to change” goal I would want to grow my company’s gross to take my business to the next level of management depth. At the time I sold my business we were 1.3 million dollar yearly company in today’s dollars. However, if we had grown (profitably) to close to the 2 million dollar mark we could have afforded more professional managers that would have helped me solve #1 above.
I would also diversify more into higher profit niche markets such as hardwood floor renovation, area rug cleaning and deck restoration. I would assign a different brand manager to each diversification or two and make them responsible to grow both the brand and their profit-sharing.
3. Refuse to change? I would never change the culture and systems that set our business apart- an obsession with “managing the experience” of the customer so that a high percentage of them became Cheerleaders for my company. This focus on the Emotional Dynamics of working with the home owner’s fears and concerns attracted higher quality employees and helped us finish jobs quicker, more profitably and with far fewer call-backs AND with the right systems is “scalable” to a rapidly growing company.
4. How "hands off" could I be? I think this is as much a product of someone’s personality as it is their financial returns and the management quality of their business. Sioux’s nickname for me is “Micro” (short for “Micro-manager”) simply because I am famous for stating the obvious to her in maddeningly simple matters. I’m not sure I could ever be totally hands off living the good life while keeping an ownership interest, which is one of the reasons I decided to sell “my baby”.
Thanks for asking, Mike, and for helping me write my next ICS column! (494 words which means I am halfway there toward my requirement of 1,000 words per column. Even though much to Marty's chagrin I consistently test the patience of my editor with 1500 word submissions. And I'm not even getting paid by the word!)
Mikey's "Dear old friend"
Steve “Island Boy” Toburen
http://www.StrategiesForSuccess.com
PS All things considered, am I sorry I took “early retirement” at 38? No, simply because while I loved my company there were other things I wanted to do with my life and since I wasn’t sure I could conquer my #4 issues above the best thing to do was cut the cord.