WHO HOLDS THE KEYS TO YOUR BUSINESS?
All week I was looking forward to meeting with one of my long time clients. For years now we have met on a monthly basis to review the business; looking at the numbers and discussing things that may be going wrong and opportunities that might be taken advantage of.
This client happens to operate a service business in the Hobbies and Entertainment Industry. Like most businesses in that industry, he had taken a beating over the last few years. So having completed this month’s financial analysis I was excited to giving him some great news. He had smashed his budgeted profitability numbers for the month and was currently 41% above the projected net income for the year-to-date. Across the board the numbers said his business was showing improvements. All his hard work during the downturn was paying off.
After discussing the numbers with him, he informed me that there had been a development with one of his key employees. Over that last few years it has been my client’s goal to replace himself in the business so that he could either sell it or retire and have someone else run the business. With that he developed a plan to take one of his employees under his wing and teach him more about running the business. Now after all the time and energy training this employee, the employee has decided to move out of state in the next few months.
Needles to say, this was of great concern to my client who did not have a replacement for this key employee. As we discussed his options we began to explore an opportunity that might complement my client’s long term plans. It turns out that one of his technicians had shown some interest in taking on this soon to be vacant position. However, a major concern for this business owner was training the employee just to have him leave. So the discussion turned to how we can align the business’s goals with this employee’s personal and career goals. Thus we began to create a career path for employees to advance within the organization.
As this plan took shape we were able to identify key characteristics a newly hired technician would need if they were to replace the newly promoted employee. Essentially, he would be hiring with the intent to have new employees take over for other employees as they take on other responsibilities within the organization.
When hiring your next employee, take some time to find out what their career and personal goals are. Then consider how they align with what your business has to offer. Chances are, the more the two are in alignment, the more motivated, loyal and happy the employee will be. Happy employees tend to mean happy customers!
Happiness is having a spare key if you lose one.
