I am so disappointed in the “training” that I find offered to small business owners all over the country. This training is hard for me to watch because it is so poor that most of it literally makes me ill.
Much of the “training” that I have seen offers touchy-feely concepts that are supposed to tune up your employees – or make you a cooler boss. Is being a cooler boss really what you need? Is that going to make your life and business easier? What do you complain about when you get home at night? Employees? Are they really the problem?
Do You Want to be a Cooler Boss? … or Get Training in Practical Business Techniques?
One very frustrated client said that he didn’t understand why his Operations Manager wasn’t spending most of his time doing quotes. When I asked the Operations Manager what was his most important task, he answered, “To make sure the clocks are set properly.” I can’t tell you how many owners have told me, “They know what to do. I just can’t get them to do it.” It seems a simple problem to solve, but time and turnover makes the simple answer difficult to maintain.
Small business seminars – typically offered at little or no cost through local or national government agencies should be focusing on smoothing out the systems that make it difficult for your employees to do the job you want them to do.
I had a manufacturing client once who was having a great deal of trouble getting his product out the door. He was about to lose an enormous government contract. He wasn’t new to manufacturing, and he was proud of his facility. But he had no system for production. There was no focus on “getting the rocks out of the way” of his employees. He had equipment in their way that they didn’t need. There were work areas that didn’t have adequate lighting. The chairs were uncomfortable and broken. And that was just the easy stuff.
One part of the process was very hard on workers’ hands, but there was no focus on building or adapting tools to ease that hardship. Naturally, no one wanted to perform that operation. And it got much worse than that. No wonder they were behind on shipments. This focus on touchy-feely team building is useless when the team playbook doesn’t include systems that produce wins.
If it’s Not Employees, it’s Money
Occasionally, I enroll in a rare seminar about how to get a loan, sponsored by a bank, and I wonder, “What were they thinking?” It makes me want to ask whether the banks are actually awarding loans based on advice provided in their seminars. If the answer is “Yes,” then I wonder if those banks are profitable! The problem with these seminars isn’t that the presenters are not knowledgeable or that the information is wrong. The problem, in most cases, is that it is presented in a language that bootstrap business owners don’t understand – and usually don’t need to.
Owners don’t need to know about debits and credits, but they do need to understand how to tell when the accounting doesn’t make sense. Right there is the gist of what banks look for when considering a loan request – does the accounting make sense? The seminars I’ve encountered never come close to showing owners how to prove that they know what they’re doing.
And T-accounts?! Under what circumstance would a business owner ever need or have time to work with T-accounts? I’ve frankly never seen even an accountant use T-accounts. What owners actually need is an Income Statement that fairly reflects what the business is doing. They need a Balance Sheet that correctly reflects what they own, what they owe, and simplistically what the business is worth. They need to be able to see, in an instant, whether the accounting might not be right or if something in the business has gone off the rails. Apparently, these trainers don’t know how to teach an owner how to convince a bank that they know what they’re doing.
Twenty years ago, a regional SBA director honored me with a three-hour audience to present my idea for small business training. At the end of the three hours, he said, “You’ve done substantial work that hits the nail on the head, but the SBA will never get into training like this again because the government was sued and lost. The training wasn’t good enough.” This current training, offered for free, doesn’t seem to be any better. Where does that leave intrepid entrepreneurs like you?
The SBA is a nonprofit. As are the SBDC and Economic Development councils and corporations as are most of the groups out there purporting to teach you how to be a better manager. Consider one key question: How does a nonprofit employee know how to run a profitable manufacturing or service business?
So, What’s the Solution?
I promise, I won’t ever talk to you about debits, credits, or T-accounts. But I WILL teach you more about your business than you ever thought you could know. You’ll understand what you need to do to win the loan you’ve been turned down for in the past. You’ll know how to tune up your systems and employees. You’ll understand the why, how, and timing of planning. You’ll make better decisions based on a clearer understanding of your numbers.
In the Profit Power Series, you will learn how to read your financials (in language you can understand), how to find problems with the accounting (does your bookkeeper not know what they’re doing or is it theft?), how to use your financials to find problems in your business (so you can target solutions), and how to interview and hire a bookkeeper who knows how to properly manage your accounting (so you can trust your financial reports).
You’ll learn how to set up systems that will endure employee turnover and forgetfulness. You’ll turn your “country club atmosphere” into a “lean machine” populated by employees who are worth more and are committed to your goals.
Once you’ve applied the Profit Power Series to your business, take the extra profits, pay your people more, buy the equipment you need, and take that long-overdue vacation.