Most small businesses are family affairs. Even if its just the owner with no other family. There are emotions, family problems, ego-tied actions, and more.
These businesses are great businesses... but be ready. Here are few thoughts to help worker/acquirers in these businesses
1. 70%+ of owner net worth is the business itself.
They feel a lost customer or sale, a mispriced item, a wrong margin, a bad review, or any negative hit as a threat to their financial security and future well-being.
The thought "what if this continues" is always there
2. Owners see the success of the business as their personal success. Some take it to identity.
Realize, when you are talking about the business, you are talking about a piece of themselves, not just an asset they own.
Its more like discussing their heart than their car.
It isn't to make things easier
It isn't because is new or tech-forward
It isn't an end of itself
Its a tool... One of many...
For the purpose of building Capacity
As business expands, your resources become more scarce.
You have less time
- to do all things you want to do,
- to make the decisions you need to make
- to service your customers the way they deserve to be serviced.
You can buy your way out of this by hiring people and buying equipment.
However, the paradox of business is this - the faster you are growing, the tighter cash usually is.
So the businesses that need cash most, have it least!
When looking at a procedure, there are tasks that must be done at that moment, and ones that can or are done at the moment.
By removing all "external" tasks and delegating or move to when there is available time, you create a more steady work flow
2 Ex. Shipping a SKU
When shipping a SKU we need to enter the customer we are shipping to. We can't do this earlier because we just found out where to ship it (a customer order).
Using two warehouse guys, we could ship over 4000 SKUs to over 120 customers, and have parts coming in from over 3000 suppliers globally
we did not use a lot of automation, or any robotic, or conveyor belt type set up.
Our secret was two things
Communication
Systems
We did the same thing the same way every time, and the systems were set up to take into effect all the upcoming processes and set the next step up for success... like dominos.
we automated a lot of the communication, notifications, and the sharing of information.