The phone rang.
“Hello, Robin Martin from Robin Martin Business Consulting speaking”.
“Hi, My name is Bart. I own a small business and it’s not going so well at the moment. I don’t really know what I need to do to sort it out and I wonder if I could take advantage of your free initial consultation and a report?”
“Sure”, I responded, and we made arrangements to meet.
At the meeting I took the time to introduce him to myself and my business and cover off my history including relevant experience, skills and expertise. I told him about the recent projects I had completed and we discussed the results I’d accomplished for other clients.
He was reassured that I had the necessary skill set to add value to his business. Bart then shared his background. He talked me through his family situation and the roadblocks and challenges that he needed resolved in his business.
He mentioned…
- He was a qualified plumber – after initially working for someone else he started his own business which he’d been running for the last 6 years
- He had a family and lived in Queenstown, but lived in rented accommodation and had no savings
- He felt he had no personal life as he was always working – either on the tools or business administration
- He wasn’t making nearly as much money as he thought he would
- He was having upset clients as he tends to always be running late – possibly due to bad planning and no system to look after his clients
After probing, I elicited further important facts and details…
- Bart’s goal when he started his own business was to make more money to support his family. But it simply hadn’t worked out that way.
- He had no life plan. No goals. No business plan. No contingency plan. No insurance and no capital.
- He lacked the funds to invest in his business and he needed a new van to replace the one that just conked out.
- Bart’s cash flow was not good as his customers were late in paying and thus he could not pay his creditors and because of this, his suppliers had put him on ‘cash only”.
- Bart had no insight into his business. He had no up-to-date accounts, he had no idea of his profit margins, (he priced his time at a rate he thought he could get away with as opposed to having a robust rational pricing structure).
- There were no clear differences or unique selling proposition between him and his closest competitors rendering him just one of the pack.
- He didn’t like doing crucial administration because he preferred being working with tools. Bart liked the satisfaction of fixing a problem, not the tedious paperwork that was associated with fixing problems.
- Bart didn’t understand his current position and he didn’t have a road map of his future – he was just barely hanging on by his nails.
Once I had a sound understanding of the most critical issues, we agreed he needed a plan to work to, and a regular weekly review meeting to measure progress towards his goals. One meeting later and we’d agreed on and launched a personalised and specific course of action.
Within 6 months, Bart saw real and positive change. After just 12 months, with expert input and continual guidance, he’d managed to overcome the worst of his challenges and roadblocks.
Bart now has a profitable business, happy customers and a happy family. He’s investing in his business and seeking a new staff member to look after his growing list of satisfied customers. His credit rating is back to normal and his bank had just approved a mortgage for the land he had bought to build the family home on.
That all sounds a bit naff and too good to be true, but I get this scenario in various forms every week.
There is something wrong out there: People can be amazing at certain aspects – plumbing, vet, nurse, etc…, but being a skilled plumber doesn’t necessarily equate to being good at running a business.
These are often completely different skill sets and while people may invest in training in the trade they intend to sell, they often don’t invest in the skill set needed to sell or market that trade. Many often don’t realize that they lack these necessary skills until it’s too late.
We need to ‘Engage the Disengaged’.
We need to give SME owners the skills to run their own business.
The assistance I give is like a paramedic in an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff – I can help struggling business owners fix the issues but it’s better to have a fence at the top of the cliff so that no one falls off in the first place. We need to create a course to assist SME owners to learn the necessary skills to be able to run successful profitable businesses and have a satisfying personal life.
To that end, (after many scenarios like that above), I’m working with a group of people to create a formal Level 5 Diploma in Business that will be very practical, appeal to SME owners, give the owners an incentive to complete the qualification and at the same time upskill one of the economic backbones of the New Zealand economy.
The intention is to improve unemployment through business failure intervention, increase productivity and earn support from locals who are sick of poor service and sub-par product offerings. The Diploma will appeal to any Business Sector with core subjects (Hard, Soft, Electronic ) as well as electives that are suitable to the sector your business operates in. We hope to see a Level 5 Diploma in Business recognized at an international level in the future.
Your feedback would be valued. If you have any ideas or comments please give me a call to discuss them.
Robin Martin
P.S. This article is part of my Secrets of Success series, aimed at helping business owners and entrepreneurs with some of the key components of business success. The insights I wish I’d had at the start of my business career. I hope that by passing on these little gems of knowledge I can give you some support and help you along the pathway to growth and prosperity.
