How did I get here?

How did I get here?

Like many garage owners, when I started out on the road to business ownership, I was a technician who wanted to do things differently. I saw how things worked from inside the dealer network and thought that there must be a better option for customers, and I was going to provide it. All I must do is work hard, show employees how it should be done and hey presto the business will succeed. My goal was to change the service level customers received and what they expected from their garage. Honest pricing, no overcharging or selling work that was not needed. No different to many of you reading this, I called it “changing the face of the Motor industry”, at least in my little part of it anyway. Did I deliver? Well, I think so but sometimes along the way I found myself getting a bit lost.

Time to explain.

Many of us go from “just fixing cars” to owning a LTD company, employing staff, registering for Vat, employing more staff, being the trouble-shooter, the cleaner, the IT person, the book keeper, the customer retention department, the customer complaints department, the HR department, the Service Advisor, collection and delivery driver and don’t forget the Technician!

Eventually a lot of these jobs get passed onto someone else, but I bet that at some point we have all done each and every one of them. It’s what makes you indispensable, right? Well, you should not be so indispensable, but that’s a discussion for another day.

 Given all the above is it any wonder that we lose our way and forget what our initial purpose was? I found myself being driven by the business for a long time. By that I mean customer and staffing demands, accounting, fixing cars and anything else you care to throw in. The days, weekends and long evenings all resulted in firefighting, just dealing with the next issue, putting the next pound in the bank to pay the next wage bill.

So, what happened and why?

 If someone is thinking “how did I get here?” I suspect they are not running their business based on their initial idea. How did it turn into this entity that is all consuming, and how did the mission statement get lost along the way? Firstly, it happens to a lot of us, you are not alone. If this has not been you, then well done, you are ahead of the game!

We try to do everything ourselves to save either money, time, or think it is just quicker to do it that way. I wish I had a pound for every time I have heard “by the time I have shown them, I could do it myself”. However, this becomes a self-perpetuating exercise, deskilling team members and often de-motivating them to just do and not think. After all, you make all the decisions don’t you! It results in more questions being asked about the task at hand and so more ‘just doing’ yourself. We find ourselves racing towards a single person business rather than aiming to make yourself almost redundant. Think about it, could it then run without you, leaving you time to focus on the business and of course deliver on its original mission?

Enabling employees and having a set process that is easy for everyone to understand and work with, makes for an efficient motivated team. Above all ensure everyone understands what the business is trying to achieve. If not all of the employees seem to be with you on your mission, do they actually know what it is? If they did, would it be different?

Ask yourself, “what were you trying to achieve when you started the business and is it still true today?” could you answer without thinking? How many people have their business mission statement written on a sign at their desk to constantly remind themselves of it? Especially when times are busy, stressful or just deciding on the next course of action. I admit that some businesses do change their direction, some must change for economic reasons, but a lot just get carried along on a wave and sometimes end up at sea.

 What next?

The exercise of seeing how your initial goal or mission fits with your current business is often an enlightening one. It can enable you to understand how you got to where you are, how your business is running and how it might change to improve. Highlighting process bottlenecks, training needs, equipment requirements, service level adjustments and improving your work life balance.

Having a business mentor often makes these exercises clearer. I hope you have found this useful and If you think you could benefit from help with anything mentioned in this blog, then contact me using this link or book a free initial meeting here.