Thursday, September 1, 2016

Running A Business Into The Ground - Great American Dream



Running A Business Into The Ground - Great American Dream


You`re excited because you have just launched your first business, you have seen many of the same business that you chose come and go some failing completely and closing up but you still have that sense of pride that comes with making your very own business come to life, that gut feeling that you can and will make it.

You hire a small staff that you assume has a good background in the service you are providing. The first month is awesome, people are coming and checking out everything, money is coming in.

Now its six weeks into this new business and the traffic is slowing down, some people even voicing their disappointment, but as the proud owner you shake those few complaints off.

A couple more weeks pass and there is only a handful of people coming in, the bills are beginning to come in also, but with no money how will you pay those bills? 

What to do?! 

To run a good business you must have an excellent manager! 

The staff CAN make or break your business. Whether they are rude to customers or if they are to nice. 

Let me explain.

For instance : 

Once I walked into Taco Bell and asked " what do you have good today?" 

The cashier said while making this horrible face " I don`t know, I don`t eat here!" 

I smiled and replied " you don`t eat her, nether will I!" I turned and walked out.

That was a bad call for the cashier to comment like that because it was a loss of money for that business, whether she liked the food or they were dirty she should have never said she did not eat at the place of her employment. 

Another....

Running a roofing business is not just hard but a demanding job that needs all of the employees attention, they could fall or hurt themselves. 

This man went to this roofing company and hired them to do his roof, about half way done the man walked up mid day and was talking to one of the employees and he smelled alcohol on his breath, this was not a good impression of the business now that he found out the employees were drinking on the job.

The man put the word out, This company allows the employees to drink on the job. 

It was not the owners fault but POOR management, the manager should have fired that employee, but now the word of mouth is out and his business WILL suffer because of this one person.

A retail store.

Walking in the door you should be acknowledged by a member of the staff, if you need help someone should be there to assist you. If no one cares, then that customer will walk out that door and go to your competitor. 

Once again, one person can make or break your reputation as a good quality place to shop.

Same goes for an online business.

When you put your hard earned money into setting up a site and then you walk off allowing a couple people to work it you depend on good management for your site.

The first couple of months things are doing good,but all of the sudden people no longer are coming to your site. 

Some even make complaints because of the staff but the owner has turned a deaf ear to those complaints because the staff is assuring the owner its just one or two people, get over it.

Soon the staff has ran off all the people that was making the owner the money. 

Just remember, whether its a restaurant or an online site, the staff must be trained to be kind to ALL. After all its YOUR money and not theirs.

The old saying is " The customer is always right!"


By Andria Perry
Photo By Andria Perry

19 comments:

  1. When it comes to making an online business successful, a lot depends on the business owner's purpose, as well as whether his employees can carry out that purpose to his satisfaction. Traffic (the customer) is one marker of how well that is happening. Traffic will go down if the online business isn't providing what the customer is looking for.

    This is why some online businesses do better than others. Failure to thrive has nothing to do with management. At least, not in my own experience. Success comes from offering a product or service that customers (people coming to the website by way of Google search) perceive to be valuable.

    Complaints from customers may or may not be valid. It depends on the nature of the complaint and whether catering to that complaint helps the owner fulfill the purpose of the business.

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    1. Management is a huge part of online writing sites.

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  2. Online businesses are very different to offline businesses in the terms of growth. It's about the traffic. The customers aren't quite the same. I think I know the site you're aiming this towards and to be honest the writers aren't the customers. The readers are the customers. It's up to the site to determine who the readers are and make sure the content is there for those people. That doesn't mean all the writers are going to be the best fit.

    And sometimes writing sites need to change depending on the type of traffic they're seeing. If they're not getting the views, they need to change the type of content they share to boost the views.

    For any online business, the site owner needs to know who is likely to visit and what reason the visitors are there for. Then the owner can produce content and products that work for the audience.

    That old saying "the customer is always right" isn't really that true, especially in the way of online businesses. Complaints happen. Business owners can't cater to every single person. We can't make everyone happy but we can make the majority happy to help the business grow and expand to like-minded people.

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  3. That is so true, your stuff and make or break your business

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  4. I completely agree.

    Just like any store who has sales clerks asking if you need help repeatily or following you in the store. It makes me stop going to the store. A store that use to do this but no longer in my area is Fashion Bug.

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    1. We have ace hardware and they will drive you crazy, picking stuff for you. I have NOT bought stuff there because of that, BUT if I go in and I do not know how to do something they will show me, sometimes its wrong though.

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    2. Thank goodness our Ace Hardware is not like that at all. If I want or need assistance I ask for it. When I get followed around and constantly asked it makes me feel like I am being watched as if I am doing something wrong.

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  5. I have owned my interior decorating business for 51 years and hubby and I do all the fabricating of the treatments in our workroom. People have asked why we don't hire others to do our work, that's the answer right there. It's our work, our name and if we hire people and they make mistakes, it comes back on us.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. And that is why you are still in business!

      I once tried to hire help to manage the rentals, they ran them into the ground but not reporting drug addicts and the like.

      I have had this business for 21 years.

      I helped with the other roofing company for 30 years and the man retired and closed it.

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  6. I agree, it definitely takes a team w mgt and staff working together to ensure the best probability of success. Personnel issues can run any biz into the ground, on or offline.

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  7. That's why I intend to keep my backyard nursery at a manageable size for just me.

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    1. Good idea. Mine is about to become real, I am tired of the rentals.

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  8. We were in the restaurant and catering business for 10 years and let me tell you it is hard to get good help. I think customer service, quality of products and consistency. staff and managers need to work together and be on the same page, these things will make the business successful.

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    1. AGREE! I have always owned and ran my own businesses, since age 21 and I am 51 now.

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