Teeco Solutions August/September 2018

Teeco Solutions August/September 2018

Offering the Best in Tent Washing & Drying Machines

www.TeecoSolutions.com

HOW A BUSINESS OWNER NEEDS TO TRANSFORM INTO A LEADER THE EVOLUTION OF SCALING A BUSINESS

My 21 years of owning a business and the interactions I’ve had with other CEOs recently brought to light an interesting observation of how businesses evolve. In the early stages of a small company, scaling is always going to be limited to the skill set of the person who starts the business. Let’s take a look at a business as if it’s a house with two areas: a front and a back. Both sections are pivotal to keeping the house intact, but they serve different purposes. The front of the house is your customer-facing portion. Your customer service representatives, salespeople, and anyone else who is front-facing works here. It’s crucial that the dialogue, terminology, and experiences that occur here are consistent. Otherwise, you won’t be able to provide a unified front for your customers. Once the front of the house does its job and provides your product or service to a customer, the back of the house comes in and fulfills their duties. For example, let’s say your business is a bakery. Well, the front of the house is going to display that pie, but someone has to bake it. The back of the house is your operations and production. They process orders, create the product or service, and make sure it gets where it needs to go. When someone starts a business, its success is based on the skill set of the leader. The natural tendency of an entrepreneur is either toward the front of the house or back of the house. Most business owners in their early stages can succeed for a short amount of time managing both on their own, but the growth of a business hinges on the ability to find a counterbalance to the owner’s prominent tendency — if you’re a back-of-the-house person, you need to learn more about the front. If you’re a front-of-the-house person, you may need to focus more on the back. Many leaders can get past this roadblock, but they begin to struggle when their business reaches its next growth plateau.

Eventually, every business owner needs to take a step back and hire people who will augment their skill set and provide expertise in other aspects of the business. A growing company will always reach a point where it requires leadership at both the front and the back of the house. Perhaps the volume of sales coming from the front can’t keep up with the back. Or the production at the back is too far ahead of sales at the front. These failures eventually land on the customer, which creates a problem. The only option at that point is for the leader to step in and oversee both parts of the house. It’s not natural for an owner to detach from what they are naturally good at in order to learn the other half of the house, but to be an effective leader, it’s absolutely necessary. To become proficient at both sides of the house, you have to do a lot of soul-searching. It requires taking inventory of your strengths and weaknesses and finding help in the areas you need to grow. You also have to learn to let go of your desire to control, and for most entrepreneurs, this is the toughest part. You can’t keep doing everything on your own. 90 percent of businesses fail in the first five years. The ones that make it to 15 years and continue to grow are few and far between because most owners can’t let go. Making the adjustment from business owner to leader requires a mindset shift, and failure to do so is one of the most significant reasons companies stumble. And I’m no different. My shift from business owner to leader has been a little slower than I’d like, but I’m excited about the change. We’re developing good systems and accountability metrics. We are working on streamlining everything because we can always be more consistent. I love the direction we’re heading, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

–Steve Arendt

Contact Us • [email protected] • 877-712-9172 • 1

Published by The Newsletter Pro • www.TheNewsletterPro.com

4 BUSINESS LESSONS FROM YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS

GO ABOVE AND BEYOND FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS.

Lemonade stands are rumored to have originated with New York journalist Edward Bok, who, as a kid growing up in Brooklyn, sold ice water on hot summer days to thirsty passersby. When other water salespeople tried to move in on Bok’s profit, he got creative by adding lemon juice and eventually sugar to the mix. The result of this innovation? Sales soared. Lemonade stands continue to be a popular summer pastime for burgeoning entrepreneurs, and there are a few things we can learn from these humble business endeavors.

When Ann Handley’s daughter and her friend opened up a lemonade stand, they found a way to connect with their demographic. The location of the stand was frequented by many French-speaking Canadian customers, and since the friend was born in Montreal and spoke French, the girls greeted each customer in English and French. More conversation makes more sales.

ASK FOR REFERRALS.

BE ADAPTABLE.

Megan, kid entrepreneur and owner of “Dr. Megan’s Mad Mango Lemonade” in Louisiana, knows a thing or two about the value of word-of-mouth marketing. Megan makes sure customers have an easy time spreading the word about the refreshing lemonade. In her second summer running the stand, Megan says, “I advertised through Facebook and word of mouth. I created my own business page. I shared it with friends, family, and the community. ArkLaTex Horse Rescue advertised my stand, and I posted advertisements to many local Facebook groups as well.”

Warren Buffet has had business on the brain since birth. During his childhood, when he noticed that a friend’s house got more foot traffic than his did, the future tycoon moved his lemonade stand to the prime realty. Buffett obviously benefited from this innovation; the jury is still out on his friend.

FINISH THE SUMMER WITH A FAMILY CAMPING ‘TRIP’

Summer is drawing to a close, but there’s still time to make some great memories. Camping trips are a summer staple. Fortunately, you don’t have to drive hours into the mountains to find the perfect campsite. Your backyard is right there waiting for you! Here are a few tips to help your family say farewell to summer with a perfect backyard camping trip. Your back door is literally a few yards away, which can be great in the event of an emergency. But if the kids are running in and out of the house all night long, they might end up deciding they’d rather be inside playing video games after only an hour. Be sure to pack everything you would need if you were really going into the woods for the night so no one is tempted to go back inside. This means tents, sleeping bags, flashlights, PACK FOR AN AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCE.

pajamas, books, binoculars, a compass, water bottles, and a cooler of food with snacks and dinner. Treat this like a “real” camping experience right from the beginning!

— that is, until they actually have to sleep. After stargazing, some kids will want to stay up all night whispering and giggling in the tent, and that’s great! But other kids might decide they’d rather sleep inside, and that’s okay too. Your camping trip isn’t a failure because everyone spent the night in their own beds. It’s not about where everyone sleeps; it’s about how much fun your family had together before bedtime. The best part of backyard camping? It doesn’t take a lot of planning. Just grab your gear and your family and hike out into the great backyard.

FIGURE OUT THE CAMPFIRE.

Don’t have an in-ground fire pit? No worries! You can still enjoy hot dogs and s’mores with a charcoal grill or a store-bought fire pit. If you have enough room in your backyard, you could even try building a bonfire. Just make sure to check your city ordinances and get any necessary permits first. You can find advice for building the perfect campfire at REI.com/learn/expert- advice/campfire-basics.html.

REMEMBER: IT’S OKAY TO CALL IT A NIGHT.

For kids, the most exciting part of camping in the backyard is getting to sleep in a tent

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And What You Can Do to Protect Yourself

Today’s small businesses are woefully unprepared for digital threats. Cybercrime is at an all-time high in 2018, and yet a frightening number of small-business owners assume that their organization is too small to ever warrant the attention of hackers. From the perspective of cybercriminals, most small and mid- sized businesses (SMBs) represent the low-hanging fruit of the digital world: a modest pile of cash guarded by outdated or easily circumvented barriers. That’s why 71 percent of cyberattacks are directed at SMBs, according to Verizon’s annual >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6

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