Hey reader,
Here’s something I’ve imagined (being the odd man I tend to be) that I bet you haven’t…
Imagine a bucket full of small pieces of white paper each with the name of a small business on it.
Something like:
- Window Cleaning
- Carpet Cleaning
- Residential Remodeling
- Printing and Apparrell
- Plumber
- Electrician
- Concrete
- Home Services
- Doctor
- Lawyer
- Chiropractor
- Architect
- Commercial General Contractor
- Moving Service
- Lawn and Landscape Design/Install
- Tree Trimming
- Underground Sprinkling
- Underground Pool builder/installer
- Home Staging
- Interior Design
- Fire Protection
- Life Insurance
- Restaurant
- blah blah blah
Get it? Like any type of small business.
Next, you get to draw ONE slip out of the bucket and your task for the next year is to be the CEO/leader of this business.
Some of these businesses require specialized licensing and knowledge (doctor/chiropractor for instance) so obviously YOU would not be the person actually providing the product/service.
You are the man or woman steering the ship. Not the one doing the hands on, nitty gritty dirty work.
Let’s assume that the economy is stable. Not going gang busters but not in a recession either.
The business itself is steady. It’s current CEO (the schmuck you’re about to replace) is not sipping on mai tai’s served to him by blonde, bikini clad babes in string bikinis after pulling up to his mansion in his lambo.
But, he’s making a decent income, as is the business itself. Decently profitable for the last several years.
Your goal is to turn this business into the one envied by all of its competitors. The one the other guys are trying to emulate. The gold standard of the niche.
Your goal is to put the systems and the people in place to turn this ho-hum organization into one that not only are the employees excited to show up and work at, but the customers love the experience and, AND you cause it to become enormously profitable.
Let’s say you would get a starting salary of $100,000 with bonuses commensurate with the revenue increase you generate. And, you get 18 months to do your thang before you performance is taken under review. At that point you get your bonus (if, indeed, you increased revenue) and the board decides whether or not to keep you on.
Doesn’t that sound like a freakin adventure?
Where would you start?
What would you do first?
Meet the employees?
Have a company picnic?
Take a look at the financials?
Start firing people?
I really think this would make for a fantastic reality TV show. Don’t you? How much more interesting to watch someone grow (or fail to grow) a small business using nothing but his brain than watching some goof ball woman date 35 different dudes and have to pick 1…. that she eventually dumps or gets dumped by because they’re both emotional handicapped (the reason they ended up on the show in the first place).
Anyways, do ya feel me? Am I the weird one?
I don’t know where I would start to be honest with ya…
I think I would probably meet the staff and introduce myself first. Then I’d probably cater up a decent lunch to butter everyone up a little.
Next, I would find and fire the best email copywriter I can find to start sending daily emails to the current list of customers.
Then, I’d find and hire the best web designer I know to fix (or build) the current website to make sure that there is email capture happening for everyone that visits.
After that, who knows.
I just know that building a list to start with and then staying in frequent contact with that list is the first thing every business needs to do.
I’m in the process of doing that with my own business and right here (with you).
But anyways, if you were in such a contest, where would you begin?
