2011 September

Should My Business Be Concerned About Going Green?

Here’s another question from an EntreLeadership Podcast listener:

One business question that I’d love to hear discussed is at what size of business do you start to worry about your business’s environmental impact? And how much money do you spend to reduce your environmental footprint? Is a certain amount of money spent on showing how “green” you are worth it in the PR side of things?

The idea of going green is completely subjective to how important you believe it is, and what business you are in. If it is a moral obligation to you, then size doesn’t matter, the sooner the better. You can make simple changes in products you use in your office like cleaning supplies, recycled paper, no Styrofoam cups containing CFC’s, only filtered water machines instead of bottled water, etc. There are tons of little things you can do.

Choosing vendors who do the same will also become important to you. These are simple changes that will cost you a decent amount more, but will satisfy the need to feel green in your office.

If you’re a company that produces a product that is having an effect on the environment, then it’s a different story. Obviously you would be working inside EPA guidelines or hopefully you wouldn’t have a business. So taking it a step or ten further is now dependent on how it will affect your bottom line?

• How much you spend is important. There’s a saying in ministry, where there is no margin, there is no ministry. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to spend so much money on your already approved product to make it green, if your bottom line disappears. If you can’t afford to keep the doors open, you don’t need to continue to crank out the product. Find an additional percentage that is acceptable to spend to make the product more green, and keeps you happy about the net profits.
• How it affects your sales matters. If going green will increase the gross and net sales of your product, green it up! Get as much PR out there as you can and get movement as fast as possible. Keep in mind, if you lose $1.00 per item by going green, then selling 10,000 more, without decreased expenses, will only cause you to lose $10,000.00. Therefore, it again is a balancing act with the impact to the bottom line.

Either way, stay in business first, then decide the amount of the bottom line you want to change.

Question: How do you feel about your business going green?

Commission vs. Profit-sharing

Commissions should be paid whenever you can show how someone has generated revenue for the company on a consistent basis. So much that is violates the law of common sense to not have it as a commissioned role. All other positions can have a profit-sharing plan attached.

In How To Do Profit-sharing and How To Do Profit-sharing Pt 2 , I explain how to implement a system that works. The whole goal is to incentivize your team to cause expenses to go down and revenues to go up, which, in turn, creates profit. As the team starts to take responsibility for how the company is run, they begin to see increased paychecks. This creates buy-in and ownership by team members.

In a medical practice, you can easily point out the areas where the team can cut expenses. But finding increased revenues is a little harder. In pediatrics, the most effective way to increase revenues, in my mind, is to absolutely super serve the customers. There’s probably not a single parent who doesn’t know other parents with kids the same age as theirs.

Therefore, as you go over the top serving your little patients, parents will spread the word on how well you take care of their children. Like a great mechanic, every parent needs an excellent doctor, and they have no problem referring one to their friends. The more referrals, the more revenues. Super serving = happy parents = referrals = profit-sharing in their checks. The more profit-sharing, the more incentivized the team becomes.

However, profit-sharing can only go so far. The rest of the incentive comes when you consistently show your team that they are doing work that matters. They are doing something that is bigger than them. As they begin to understand, your team will work more from passion rather than just working a J.O.B. That’s when you will really start to see your business take off.

Question: How do you incentivize your team?

Related articles

• How To Do Profit-sharing (ChrisLoCurto.com)
• How To Do Profit-sharing Pt 2 (ChrisLoCurto.com)
• Q & A On Profit-sharing (ChrisLoCurto.com)
• Q & A On Profit-sharing Pt 2 (ChrisLoCurto.com)
• Why You Must Hire Correctly! (ChrisLoCurto.com)

Stop Talking!

I happened to stop at a sandwich shop the other day. It’s a great chain with really good sandwiches. As I walked in, I quickly realized that I was the only customer there. But it was after lunch, so I bet it was hoppin’ a bit earlier.

There were three young folks working: two guys making sandwiches and one girl at the register. The guys seemed like they were having a good day. The girl just looked at me funny. I gave my order for three sandwiches, and the guys jumped right on it. (No, they weren’t all for me…just two of them. OK, just one.) Once I paid, I noticed that a couple of firemen and a young girl were in line behind me ready to order.

As they placed their orders, one of the guys had to run to the back to get something, so the girl took his place. It was then that she began to complain! She grumbled about something the company wasn’t doing, and it was loud enough for the customers to hear.

You should know that this is one of my pet peeves! I can’t stand when team members complain with customers around. Push aside the fact that it’s a severe gossip issue, no customer wants to hear it. And every time it happens, all I can think about is what’s wrong with their leadership.

There are many reasons for gossip, like lack of character, integrity, etc. Gossip is a cancer and needs to be IMMEDIATELY cut out! But there’s one main reason that I have found that team members gossip—the feeling that leadership won’t listen to what’s going on.

At EntreLeadership, I get the opportunity to talk with both leaders and team members. When the discussion of gossip comes up, I dig really deep to find the root cause of it. Almost every time, the team members feel like they are trying to correct problems and nobody will give them the time of day. When this happens, they feel the need to tell someone else in order to be validated. They need to know that someone else understands the problem and the necessity to fix it.

This situation can be resolved pretty easily in most cases—TALK TO YOUR TEAM! You have to get in there and find out what’s going on. There is no leadership error that I hate more than a leader who won’t actually talk to their INDIVIDUAL team members and get a pulse. I capitalized “individual” because I know too many leaders who get a pulse from team members about OTHER team members. It is ridiculous and is another post some time.

“Well, I don’t want to talk to them because they’re just always so cynical!” Seriously? That’s your answer? Great job leader! You know, I once heard Jim Collins say that a cynic is nothing more than a passionate person who is tired of being let down. Why don’t you try getting out of yourself and discover the inner champion of your team member? Who knows? You might be impressed. Worst case, you find out they do suck, and you get rid of them. Most likely, I believe, it won’t be the issue. You’ll find that you’re the problem. OUCH!

The title Stop Talking! is for the team member who’s complaining, especially with the public within earshot. If that’s you, force a time with your leader to get them to listen. If they suck, and they can’t give you the time, go someplace where you can be a champion! Don’t stay and become a cynic!

Question: What do you think causes team members to talk like this?

How To Avoid Emotional Fatigue In Business

Fatigue of any kind is highly likely for an entrepreneur who’s wearing many hats and trying to grow a business. Eleven years ago, Dave hired me to run a business. I basically lived at our old office then. I would work every day until 10 or 11 p.m., and all day Saturday and Sunday afternoons. I did everything I could to make that bottom line bigger.

I made sales calls all day long, while people were available, and switched to the administrative side of the business at night and on the weekends. My goal was to create enough revenue with my efforts, so I could hire a salesperson to replace me. That first hire gave me most of my nights and weekends back. After hiring two salespeople, I had enough revenue coming in to hire an admin position. This allowed me to focus more on the business instead of in the business.

Was I tired? Heck yeah! As I traveled around the country doing events, I would find myself getting really frustrated and…snippy. I could feel the emotional fatigue draining me by the end of a season.  Fortunately, I found a few things that would turn it around.

• ZZZZZZ – The biggest culprit of emotional fatigue for me is being tired! No matter how good things are going, I get emotional if I’m tired. Sleep is an absolute must.

• Cut it out! – I find that drinking caffeine to keep you going actually has a bad effect in the long run. It’s OK if you only need the boost for a short while, but most people burning the candle at both ends tend to drink caffeine all day or night. The consistent highs and lows definitely affect your emotions. Drink as much water as you can. Hydration is essential.

• Road Trip!!! - I discovered long weekends. I made it a point at the end of every season to take at least one four-day weekend. I would either get away or find something to do around the house that was mindless. A quick trip to a resort/bed-and-breakfast/cabin recharged me enough to get back on track.

• Turn ‘em off! – You have to have down time that doesn’t include phones and computers—at least not where work is concerned. In fact, there are many studies that suggest computers mess with your melatonin levels, leaving you tired and unable to rest well.

• Run Forest! – Get out and exercise. You don’t have to run a half marathon…although it’s not a bad idea. The more you exercise, the more you release endorphins into your system. They are like a happy drug for your body. The more, the merrier. (It was unavoidable. )

While most of these ideas seem time-consuming, especially when extra time is something no entrepreneur has, they are critical to your health and business. If you don’t take the time to prevent, you will take the time to fix. There’s no way around it. The truth is that the happier you are, the more productive you are.

Question: What do you do to avoid emotional fatigue?

Related articles

• Run Forest! (ChrisLoCurto.com)

Difficult Relationships, 5 A.M. Grumps, and Those Irate Wal-Mart Customers

Here is an inspiring guest post by Chadrick Black, author of The Greatest Harvest. You can follow him on Facebook. You can guest post, as well! Read how to here.

“We often talk to and treat others the way we talk to and treat ourselves.”

The above statement enters my mind each time I observe irritated customers degrading an employee at our local Wal-Mart. Some deliver on cue, eloquently expressed profanity and rage, demonstrating this is not the first time their opinion has been expressed in public. Others show sophistication comparable only with the sophistication involved in making Rice Krispies Treats.

And yet, some demonstrate that a temper tantrum in Wal-Mart is not just an issue I sometimes have with my three-year-old. Forty-year-olds still have them. And during these times, while other bystanders may feel uncomfortable, I strangely smile as my mind rewinds to 1999 and the origin of that opening statement.

When most people see their alarm clock turn 5 a.m., they are relieved that another hour or more of sleep is available before the day begins. But in 1999, 5 a.m. for me signified that, for the next eight hours, I would receive overdoses of criticism, profanity, tears, shouting, begging and depression. And that was just from the other counselors at the drug rehab center I worked at!

The clients, who were typically court-ordered, delivered the real challenges. (You know, the best part of waking up may be Folgers in your cup, but it sure isn’t a court-ordered drug addict in your office at 5 a.m.) Therefore, if you ever find yourself in a position of working drug rehab at that early, early morning hour, standing behind the person at Wal-Mart serenading the checkout girl with insults or just have difficult relationships in your life, my observations below are for you.

• Observation Number One: Drug addicts, in general, are not morning people. (Nothing more needs to be said about this one.)

• Observation Number Two:  If you think it is tough maintaining your composure with that guy at the office or your insensitive neighbor, try meeting a drug addict at 5 a.m. to discuss their “feelings.” (Their options were meeting me or prison, and they usually had to think about it.) I recollect being called names that reached so far into the depths of profanity that I had to look the words up to learn their meanings after the client left. He called me a what??? Oh, that’s what that means! Cool!

• Observation Number Three: Everyone has the right to have a bad day, but the definition of “bad day” is subjective. You believe you are having one because you had a flat tire on your way to work. And then a client shares that their drug habit began as a way to cope with the death of their child from cancer, and today would have been that child’s sixth birthday. Trust me, you forget about your flat tire. Again, the definition of “bad day” is subjective, and it is important to keep your problems in perspective.

• Observation Number Four: When you work in a drug rehab center that opens at 5 a.m., almost every customer is bringing the heat. How do you deal with it? You stop thinking about how the customer is treating you and start focusing on why they are treating you that way.  That is where the solution is found. And the best tool you have to extract this information is kindness. Plus, the old saying holds true: “Nothing is personal until you decide to make it personal.”

After a few months at the center, I concluded that the people who did not like me at 5 a.m. usually did not like themselves at 5 a.m. People who did not respect me at 5 a.m. did not respect themselves at 5 a.m. People who were rude to me at 5 a.m. were usually rude to themselves at 5 a.m.  But in the end, what I really learned is that the time of day had nothing to do with it.

I realized we often talk to and treat others the way we talk to and treat ourselves. And many times, the best resolution was simply being kind to the unkind, encouraging to the discouraged, and occasionally keeping my opinion to myself instead of firing it off recklessly like bullets from a six-shooter at the O.K. Corral.

As your personal, social, and professional relationships become more complex, it is important to remember that you may not know the silent battles faced by those around you, but God does. He sees the big picture. He sees what is driving someone’s anger, sadness and depression. He knows the root cause of why someone becomes irritated over small things.

So when you feel like a victim and solicit God to comfort you by shooting lightning bolts from the sky at your attacker’s head, imagine God responding: “If you think the way they are treating you is bad, you should see how they treat themselves! But I know about battles they’re fighting that you don’t. And that’s why I sent them across your path today; for you to share your love and compassion, not your criticism and opinion.”

I find it ironic that I made about eight dollars an hour at that job but ended up receiving a million-dollar lesson in learning how to summon courtesy; even when it seemed impossible. And those lessons learned during that time have impacted my present business and relationships more than my college degrees ever have.

I will leave you with an important quote I often relied upon during that particular point in my life—something I hope you will take with you as a tool to help deal with your difficult relationships, 5 a.m. drug addicts and those irate customers at Wal-Mart.

“Your life may be the only Bible some people read.”