Running your own business, how do you stay sane! :-)

sassyblue

Okay, just a little rant on my part after a cr*ppy few months of this recession, but would appreciate any words of wisdom...

How do you stay sane?!

I liase with customers who want the moon on a stick from our maintenance men - but only want to pay a pittance for them. I'm suffering from customers who want to cut costs because of the recession, which of course l understand everyone is the same, but then one gets himself a new flash car. (okay, l don't know how he's paid for it but it's a bit of a nerve to stand there telling me how much it costs when he's begging for cost cutting).

And the staff!!! God give me strength....

I only have 5 employees but to be honest l'm fed up to the back teeth with them, they're always on time and mostly do a good job (which ll should be grateful for - no l AM grateful for ) but it's the carp that comes with them, there's one who thinks he can run the company better than me, another who thinks he's got the best of everything, his friends are better, his car is better and one who you have to keep half an eye on all day otherwise he'd stand talking....

I don't earn a massive amount either, we're a small business and it's tough out there but sometimes l wonder why l bother, all l seem to have is people moaning at me for something....

Why do l bother?! (rant hopefully over :rotfl:)

BigAunty

How do you find the pareto principle that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle

So would your company run better if you got rid of the 20% of customers and staff that were causing you aggravation for little return?

"In business

The distribution shows up in several different aspects relevant to entrepreneurs and business managers. For example:

• 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers
• 80% of your complaints come from 20% of your customers
• 80% of your profits come from 20% of the time you spend
• 80% of your sales come from 20% of your products
• 80% of your sales are made by 20% of your sales staff

Therefore, many businesses have an easy access to dramatic improvements in profitability by focusing on the most effective areas and eliminating, ignoring, automating, delegating or re-training the rest, as appropriate."

BigAunty

By the way, when I worked in business consultancy, I admired the approach of one programme manager who stopped the endless parade of issues being raised by Junior consultants. His stance was "Don't present me with problems. Present me with the solutions." He would turn the issue back on them and ask them not to present complaints but to come to him with constructive solutions to issues they identified - problems were for them to resolve, not to handover to him. Great idea?

Mistral001

Sounds like the OP needs a little peer-to-peer company. Is there a trade association you can join or even an Federation of Small Businesses branch that has lots of local meetings. Or local Chamber of Commerce.

paulwf

Would some mentoring or training be of help OP? For example in sales it is natural for customers to ask for a discount. If they can see you dithering and entertaining the option of a discount then they will cease the opportunity to get as big a discount as possible. If on the other hand if when they ask you can say immediately and confidently "sorry we are unable to offer a discount as we don't wish to cut our quality of service" then you stop that conversation dead and most people will stop asking at that point.

With staff it sounds like they see you as being a little too approachable and on the same level as them. Perhaps you need to take a step back and be a bit more assertive so they see you as the boss and just get on with it? Don't get me wrong I don't think you should stop being nice to them but managers do need a slight level of detachment from staff.

Apologies if I'm stating the obvious, it just sounds from your post that you need to get slightly tougher with customers and staff.

paddyrg

Can you do a re-org to divide and conquer, help the guys recognise their positions a bit better. Maybe take the talky one and make him a 'team leader' of some sort - but his pay is conditional on the team performance, incentivising him to pull his finger out. It would also help distance you from the team enough for them to realise you are management and focus on customer management.

As for customers - this is a great time to reorganise prices for 2012 - create a new rate card (ie your opening gambit for negotiations) and offer discounts in terms of extra services based on volume of business. Order 5 xyz's get a 6th free as opposed to offering a 20% discount on an xyz, for instance. Superspecial customers get 2 free. The important part though is that it resets expectations about the price for the job, and it maintains cashflow, keeps people working, and means your customers still get to feel the big man by bargaining a better deal out of you.

Whilst you're having a sort-out, how about you sign people up for a retainer plan which features a quarterly check-up and so many hours preemptive maintenance at a decent package price - again keeps the cash flowing and more importantly it means your people are always on the clients mind if they see them every 6 weeks/quarter - so if a big job is identified or comes up you're in the ideal position to bid.

cavework

Just imagine working for someone else and having no control over your income.
Works for me everytime
xx

motorguy

How do i stay sane?

Well, if i didnt have Geoffrey the invisible Giraffe for company i think i'd go mad.

heretolearn_2

if you ever figure out the secret, let me know! I see a lot of people who are setting up businesses and come for consultations, I always ask why they want their own business and they nearly all say 'because it'll be great to be my own boss' and I have to control myself from falling about in hysterical laughter.

There are good days and bad days. Overall it's good otherwise we'd all give up and go and get a job. Like today, I left at 1pm to go and sort out Christmas and home stuff, you can't just do that on impulse as an employee. sure, I still do about 55 hours on an average week, but at least I can be flexible about it to a certain extent.

Credit control/negotiating fees is def. the worst part. I strongly believe a good 30% of our clients think we should work for them Free of charge as a favour! And get dead stroppy when we are so rude as to insist they have to pay, and at a rate that means we wouldn't go bankrupt in two months flat. Our problem is we are in competition with useless one-man band unqualified blokes working from their back bedroom. People don't seem to understand that there's a reason our fees are higher than that blokes, no matter how much we talk to them about the benefits of using a proper firm. they still try to demand that we match those stupid prices and get very indignant when we won't. It wastes so much time over and over again. *sigh* That's my biggest frustration. I've started saying 'So you want Mercedes quality but you only want to pay for a rusty old banger...right, do you think that's going to happen? as the best way to make them stop. And either agree or go away.

BigAunty

sassyblue wrote: »

...

And the staff!!! God give me strength....

I only have 5 employees but to be honest l'm fed up to the back teeth with them, they're always on time and mostly do a good job (which ll should be grateful for - no l AM grateful for ) but it's the carp that comes with them, there's one who thinks he can run the company better than me, another who thinks he's got the best of everything, his friends are better, his car is better and one who you have to keep half an eye on all day otherwise he'd stand talking....

... all l seem to have is people moaning at me for something....

Research and initiate some kind of structured company improvement/quality programme that addresses staff development, business growth, client satisfaction, etc?

I'm not familiar with this area but I know a lot of companies have a continuous staff/company development programme that covers things like training, customer improvements and so on.

Some are pitched at low level, encouraging staff to suggest improvements and the management get them involved in not just identifying them, but in doing them, too. I know the 'old fashioned' way adopted from Japanese companies is the 'quality circle'.

Perhaps some members can suggest the structured ways that let staff feel part of the company and pull together rather than just whinge at management, all that stakeholder stuff?

Even a structured regular team meeting rather than ad hoc whining has got to be better, as long as it's chaired and recorded correctly, getting the staff to take ownership to resolve issues rather than hand them on.

sassyblue

Many thanks to you all for the constructive advice. I know my biggest problem is that l am too nice I don't want to be a b*tch but then sometimes you have to be more assertive, l know this is something l need to work on....

BigAunty love the idea of making them find the solutions.... l have to say they usually do but the other day was a BAD day - l guess we all get them from time to time.

paddyrig, good idea about the freebies but this is breakdown maintenance so as and when required, if l could incorporate that somehow it may be worth thinking about....

pgilc1, :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: I love, love, love it. Think l may have to have my own Geoffrey the invisible Giraffe for company.

I love my job, l love what l do, it's just some days.....