Success in Small Business
What does your path to
success look like?
Deborah Rechnitz
Copyright 2020 by Deborah Rechnitz
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations.
This is a work of nonfiction. Nonetheless, the names, personal characteristics of individuals, and details of events have been changed in order to disguise entities or protect the privacy of the authors clients.
First published, 2020
Deborah Rechnitz
Australia & USA
Email:
Independently published
Printed and bound by Amazon
Dedication
Max Rechnitz
This book is written in memory of my Dad. He was the best mentor anyone could have hoped for. We spent hours discussing our clients, their hopes and dreams, their current challenges, and not only what they needed to do but also how best to communicate with them and potentially motivate them to move forward with their final resolve.
In client meetings he was the quietest person in the room. He listened, intently. He was thoughtful and analytical, but when he spoke everyone listened.
Contents
1 Introduction
Ive worked with hundreds of business owners for nearly forty years. Ive spent an average of twenty years with many of them, often visiting them quarterly. This book is all about these clients. Their stories are not identified individually, but the stories I share are a culmination of many clients thoughts, hopes and dreams and how they struggle and succeed or fail with the challenges they face as privately owned companies.
Ive learned... that clients can't see Mt Fuji, Mt Rainier or any big mountain when theyre too close to it and small businesses are full of big mountains.
Ive learned... that everybodys different. Their hopes, their dreams, their current situation, their marriage status, their age, upbringing, and values all differ.
Ive learned... that there is no magic bullet to solve many of their issues or to reach their goals. If there was, everybody would know it and follow it.
Im hoping through this book you might learn a little about yourself, how you compare with others, and find some hints or answers to your frustrations, hopes and dreams. You may see some similarities or differences in these stories to your situation to help shine a light on your business.
How would I know?
When I say Ive worked with hundreds of small, privately owned businesses, I mean really small from one employee, to ten, fifty, and up to several hundred.
Im the daughter of a brilliant consultant (Im a little biased). Im the daughter of someone who was unsuccessful with a previous, non-family partnership and never wanted anything to do with employees. Nevertheless, we built a fabulous partnership with nothing ever in writing and I went on to have seven employees; thats a lot for a boutique consulting firm, much to the chagrin of my father. The company name was Methods for Management and it always seemed an appropriate name as we constantly worked at developing methods for management.
Most consultants either have a process or a product to sell. Either way, its finite. Consultants follow a process that leads them to a conclusion, or they have the conclusion and convince you its best for you. This may explain why many consultative projects fail to meet expectations in the long run, particularly for smaller businesses. If the consultants happen to hit a home run, they hope to have a good referral. In any case, its a bit hit or miss.
Nearly all of my assignments were long-term assignments. They were not just a single project. The clients and I took a multiyear perspective on the business. The specific assignments may have been different, but the long-term nature of them provided a better chance to get to know the owner and sometimes the key employees. These relationships would generally last a minimum of a year and sometimes over thirty years. The average was twenty plus years. Thats a long time for any consultant. Some might say too long, but only if you get engrained in the organization and start thinking like them instead of staying independent. The key is never losing your outside perspective.
In small businesses, it is the owner who has created a culture, has a personal and unique decision-making style, and impacts how decisions are implemented. Our consulting started with what the business hadafter all, in nearly all cases the owner wasnt going to leave. Its his or her business. Nearly all of my clients were men, so well default to that term.
In the initial stages of an assignment, I spent all of my time and energy understanding the owner, his family, and his key staff who were often tied by the apron strings to the owner (that is, whatever the owner said staff did). There might be some give and take, but at the end of the day the employees knew who signed the paychecks. If they werent happy, their only choice was to leave. So, not to digress too much, there was no standardized process. There was time spent in the business, at dinner, and with spouses and kids to understand who this person is, what drives him, what gets him up every morning. Is it money, love of the business, being important in the community, a future for his kids? The list goes on.
In a small business you frequently dont have anyone to talk to about the really hard questions like laying off a long-time employee and the heartache involved, or firing a key manager because of the Peter Principle (discussed later). These are the very people you might have shared your thoughts or concerns with before, but are not able to now. You might have a spouse to bounce ideas off, but who is not always available or cant give you the type of feedback youre looking for. This is where close advisors come in. They do have their uses if they really understand you and your objectives and can put aside their biases like business brokers or investment advisors. Some advisors have experience in small business themselves rather than bankers and the like who may not. In any case, avoid using advisors you always agree with and strive for some dissonance in your business life to constantly motivate you to consider your alternativesno matter what your current situation is.
Extreme clients
I would identify some of my clients as neophytes. Neophytes are those owners who are really new to their industry. These are scary clients. They may hire a consultant for advice but take 100% of it! Rarely a good move. Advice should not be taken in a vacuum. It must be measured against the owners intimate knowledge of his operation, his personal priorities and the unique characteristics that he may only know and understand. Only with this data, balanced by some outside advice, can good, solid, and successful decisions be made.
On one unique assignment, I provided guidance to a neophyte. The result was that every one of my recommendations was accepted. This is an unusual outcome for a consulting assignment. In addition, all of the suggestions were immediately implemented. Also, unusual, but as a new owner, he had nothing to offset the information he was being given. The really good news, of course, is the recommendations were appropriate and there was a successful outcome, but still a surprising transaction. If you are a neophyte, please consider your own position, your own industry, and draw from any of your previous experiences you can. Then consider the content of this book.
