By MARK RIFFEY for the Flathead Beacon
If you happen to pay attention to any of the business turnaround reality shows on TV (I see them on rare occasions), you’ll know that the pattern is the same for most of them – regardless of the type of business.
Typically, there are some quality and cleanliness problems, a management issue or two (or five), a lack of performance that’s often attributable to training and consistent systems and processes, and last but not least, a lack of attention to the numbers.
In some rare cases, the businesses seem to be more of a hobby or an escape than an actual business – a situation that never escapes the consulting expert, and always infuriates them.
On the rare occasion when I see these shows, three things always come to mind:
- How could they have let the situation get this bad?
- How could they not see these obvious problems, much less fail to address them?
- How do business owners who read my stuff feel when seeing these shows?
If you haven’t seen one of these shows, here are the things you should be looking for in your business’ reality.
Filth
One of the universal failures of the businesses in these shows is that they’re consistently filthy. Some are worse than others, with some downright unbelievable.
The reason this can get out of control in your business is the gradual creep of muck. You get used to a certain level of clean and it never again seems to be the kind of clean you’d want to see in a place you’d visit.
My wife and I visited a Cajun restaurant in the south earlier this year and found the dining room’s tile floor filthy. It was hard not to wonder if they simply got used to the dirt.
How are you doing on the filth factor?
Management Vacuum
Another consistency of the businesses profiled in these shows is a partial to total lack of management.
Sometimes, the problem is the owner(s) acting as if the business is a hobby (and often creating a massive distraction – much less money suck), while in others, it’s a failure to delegate and then use the time savings to actually manage the business. Managers in these businesses often have owner-instigated conflicts that prevent them from exerting any authority on day to day operations – making them ineffective at best.
Do any of these situations sound familiar? Ask your manager(s) about it. If you sense hesitation…
Systems and Processes
One of the most common problems in these businesses is a lack of order and consistency. Many of them have no point of sale system or have nothing more than a cash register to balance at the end of the day.
In the episodes where food and drink are part of the business, food and drink costs are always out of control and highly variable from serving to serving and drink to drink.
They not only have inconsistent production (and thus inconsistent quality), but they also tend to have no measurement / tracking / purchasing controls in place. They have no idea how much they’re spending on food and drink or if they are even turning a profit.
Key to the resolution of these problems is creating systems to manage and track materials, sales and purchasing. Yes, I know… this seems like Doctor Obvious speaking, but you would be surprised at the times this has been missing from businesses in these shows (and in my personal observation).
Do you know how much that $8.95 meal costs your business? Don’t serve food or drink? You still have production costs of some kind.
Training
A tightly integrated issue with systems and processes is staff training. Inconsistency in these businesses starts with a lack of systems and processes and ends with inconsistent (or non-existent) training of the staff.
A universal component of the reality-show-fix is a combination of new systems, processes and staff training on those systems and processes.
Systems and processes combined with training breed consistency, which breeds quality.
Watching the numbers
Beyond cost of production numbers, a common issue for these reality show businesses is a disconnect between what the business is doing sales and cost-wise and what the owner(s) / manager(s) think the business is doing.
Do you know what your real numbers are?
What’s the reality at your business?
Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a strategic, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site, contact him on Twitter, or email him at mriffey@flatheadbeacon.com.
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Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a strategic, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site, contact him on Twitter, or email him atmriffey@flatheadbeacon.com. Check out the Flathead Beacon archive of all of Mark’s blogs.