National Clothesline

urviving the tough economic storm we are now in requires changing the way you run your business. Making changes will require breaking out of your “comfort zone.”

As a management consultant for over 20 years, I have been privileged to work with business owners with a wide range of management styles. No matter what their management styles, all hired me because of a common desire to make changes in the way their companies were operating. Recently, I was engaged in a consulting project where the owner started to get cold feet as he and I discussed the personnel changes that had to be made.

All of a sudden I was hearing things like, “Even though he isn’t a great supervisor, he can fix things” and “She feels that we can’t go any faster at tagging-in but she’s been with us for nine years.”

This business owner brought me in because he was not happy with the quality of the work being produced and he was not happy with the productivity of his staff. When he realized that change was inevitable, his first reaction was to protect his “comfort zone.”

From time to time we all drift into a comfort zone. Sometimes this is the result of things going so well that we think we are invincible.

Sometimes our comfort zone is the result of things being “just ok.” In these cases we perceive that the pain of trying to change things is not worth the risk. After all, change might make things worse.

In some cases, our employees push us into our comfort zone by constantly insisting that everyone in the organization is doing the best they can possibly do.

The trouble with comfort zones is that they develop in a very subtle way. As the comfort zone becomes more comfortable, we begin to avoid uncomfortable situations. Some situations are unavoidable, such as customer claims or a problem with a vendor. To avoid such situations we can delegate these functions to others in our company.

Other situations are easier to avoid, especially employee issues. In these cases, we can simply choose to look the other way — making our comfort zone a very dangerous place to hide.

When a business owner wakes up and realizes that his business has become stagnant and things are beginning to look run down, he intuitively knows that changes must be made. Making changes in your business is a very serious undertaking.

Before you can start to make any changes, you must muster up the courage to look at the realities that surround you. If things are not the way they should be, there is a reason.

You cannot shrug your shoulders and say, “Oh well, it’s the economy!” or “It’s the competition!” or “I can’t find good help!” You must identify the problems and find out why they exist.

Maybe it’s time to quit

There are no business problems that cannot be solved! Maybe the best solution is to close your doors and go out of business. Today, there are many drycleaners who should take a serious look at this option. If you are not making any money and not paying your bills, there is no point in prolonging the agony. Close the doors and get a job.

Taking a real hard look at your organization to determine what changes need to be made is the first and ultimately the easiest step.

The second step is to determine what changes will be the least costly in time and money while returning the best results — improving customer service and quality of work; cutting costs; etc.

It is an economic reality that drycleaning customers are bringing in fewer pieces. This means that you need more customers to maintain the same piece volume of a year ago. Piece counts are down all over the country.

Who’s making money?

Most drycleaners who are experiencing higher dollar volume are the ones who raised prices. Monitoring and comparing your piece volume is the only consistent way to measure your true change in volume, month-to-month and year-to-year.

In tough economic times like these, it is easy to retreat deeper into your comfort zone. When this happens, you need a reality check!

The catalyst for this reality check may be a group of your peers or a trusted friend — and you can consider me a trusted friend! No matter what gets you started at taking a good hard look at what’s happening around you, the follow through is on your shoulders.

Back to those key employees who have helped you slip away into your comfort zone through their insistence that everyone is doing the best they can. I have worked on many projects where an employee has convinced ownership that you cannot expect quality work if you want your people to be productive.

I have also worked on projects where the Customer Service Team Leader was convinced that $1.40 for a shirt is too high a price and that “our customers can’t afford our high drycleaning prices.”

In these situations, the employees were more persistent with their attitudes than the owner was. As a matter of fact, these employees wore the owners down with their persistence.

Furthermore, (this is a recording) I have never seen a drycleaner go out of business because of high prices!

When you make up your mind to make changes in your business, you need to determine which key employees are with you and which are not. To figure this out, you must listen to your employees like you have never listened to them before.

When you talk to your employees, talk with your head not your heart. Also, before you talk to them get the facts. Find out what your highest price competitors are charging and shop the quality of their work. Measure the productivity of your employees in every department and write down their name and the things they need to improve on. Key areas are; attendance, quality of their work, productivity and attitude.

As you work on this list don’t start making excuses for their poor performance. When the list is complete sit down with the person who needs to improve the most. Resist the urge to sit down with the employees who are the easiest to talk to.

Explain to each individual where they need to improve their performance and let them know that you expect improvement within a week — their job depends on it.

Keep in mind your performance and the performance of your managers is no better than the performance of your worst employee. In other words, by allowing under performers to remain in your organization you also become an under performing employee.

You cannot win in the game of business if you remain hidden in your comfort zone. Now more than ever is the time to make your great escape!

In the game of business the more you know the better you can play the game.

Alan Robson is a private consultant dealing with the specialized needs of the drycleaning industry. Contact him by telephone at (941) 408-8819 or send e-mail to him at: alan@bizbuilderonline.com or visit the Biz Builder web site: www.bizbuilderonline.com.