Business Advice Required

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

@adiboy have you asked the staff what the issue is?

BTW, where is your business based?

 

[Benjamin Brain]

Hi @adiboy - I appreciate that you've already had a bunch of responses here.

I speak to lots of business owners and your situation is not all that uncommon. It's all too easy to become a victim of our own success and end up building a monster that is impossible to keep under control and sucks up all of our waking hours.

I'm not going to provide any specific advice, as it would be based on a number of assumptions, incorrect interpretations and a lack of knowledge of you or the business based on the limited information that you've provided.

Instead, I'll give you three book recommendations which I expect will help to bring about a few lightbulb moments and help you start to see a path forwards.

1. Traction - Gino Wickman
2. The New One Minute Manager - Ken Blanchard
3. The New One Minute Manager and The Monkey - Ken Blanchard

I hope things have improved since your original post.

 

[Mhairi Ramsay]

Just to give you a bit of background on this, I started my own website design and marketing agency back in 2017 from my dining room table with very little capital or investment and without having ever worked in a website design or marketing agency previously, although I do have significant knowledge of website design and marketing so it's not as if I was going into it blind.

Back when the business started out, it was very much a case of just trying to keep the bank balance afloat and most months in the first year of operating were a real struggle to pay wages and general bills, etc. It was pretty stressful, but we always managed to pull through. Initially, it was just me then after some time I decided to find a nearby office to rent out and hire my first staff member who was an apprentice at the time, but still within the business today as a Senior Consultant.

As we increased the number of clients we worked with and the size of the clients we work with, we increased the number of staff members internally, primarily hiring apprentices due to the low costs associated. Because at the time, hiring fully experienced staff members just wasn't an option for us due to the high costs associated so it's fair to say we tried to find the cheapest options.

Rolling forward a bit and just prior to Covid-19 impacting everything globally we were working with some really big clients which significantly increased our income as a small business and which allowed us to increase the number of staff members. During this time and mid-pandemic, we also decided to move to a much larger office and significantly invest in the overall equipment etc. It's worth mentioning that most of this was possible due to us receiving a bounce back loan, during the pandemic which we'll need to pay back for the next 6-years but nevertheless it got us to where we wanted to be as a business.

Today we turnover around £300k - £400k annually and I'm in a position where I have 8 staff members of which 50% are apprentices. The remaining 50% are made up of staff members who have completed apprenticeships previously and have since moved into full-time roles within the business. Each staff member tends to manage a specific service so for example we have someone who just manages website design projects, someone who just manages social marketing and so on.

Over the last 6-months, I just feel like things have gone from bad to worse. I'm continually stressed out, angry and upset at both work and home and I just don't feel like my team shares the same ethos or determination for the business as I do, besides a few long-term loyal staff members. I've outlined my issues below which I could do with some advice on:

• My staff members don't seem to have the skill set required to actually manage the services they manage on behalf of me or the business. I often feel like a lot of staff members have just fallen into these roles with unwarranted job titles such as Lead Consultant & Senior Consultant when in reality they are probably a Junior Consultant at best (without sounding too harsh).
  
  
• I continually need to chase people within the business for basic things such as managing their own tasks, workload and leads. Despite me continually asking them to do this, they stick to it for 2-days and then fall back into the same habit. This then means I often wake up really early in the morning before I start work to manage 8 other staff members' workload for the next few days.
  
  
• I often find myself chasing staff members to complete certifications and training which I have offered to pay for in addition to allocating time within work hours for them to train for but it's like they just don't care. They've had around 3 months to complete the training which takes 4 hours tops in order to get ready for the exam and only 1 staff member has managed to do this.
  
  
• I've recently had to take over one of our core service for a staff member who left the business and out of 8 staff members internally nobody has the skillset to manage this service. I've recently had to intervene in another core service as the quality just wasn't there, and most recently a staff member has handed her notice in who manages one of our other core services, of which I am the only one with the correct skillset to manage. I feel like I now have 3 core services to manage alongside the business which is something I just don't think I can do physically and mentally.
  
  
• When we started the business I would create processes and documents which really helped and we were really keen to enhance our marketing and branding on an ongoing basis. It feels like now everything is just at a halt and if I ask someone to work on something or enhance something it never really gets done or it's done to such a low standard, I end up having to do it so as you can imagine with so many other jobs that never really happens and it just gets abandoned.
• We were highly rated by clients in regards to our responsiveness and general customer service. I would often respond to clients over the weekend or out of normal working hours and they really respected that which went a long way in regards to building our business and client base. I appreciate not everyone agrees with that but as a start-up, you need to have some type of USP. These days, staff members will just sit in the car park until 1 minute prior to their shift starting, at which point they will come in and start making a coffee. 10 minutes later they are finally starting work and going through emails they received from clients the previous day. I honestly don't expect staff to sit reading emails outside of work but due to the nature of our business, I would expect them to respond to a client now and again, especially if it's urgent and not too late but it just seems like they don't share the same drive as me in regards to providing clients with a good customer experience.
  
  
• I've given staff members the responsibility to manage services and they just don't seem to be able to do it which has resulted over the last 12-months in a struggle to actually retain clients within the business, as they often cancel services because of either the lack of quality or lack of communication from the staff members managing the overall service. This essentially means we just run on a treadmill at the moment and for every client that we gain we seem to lose a client for some type of issue with the service.

Sorry if this seemed like I was venting my stress (I think I might be) I'm just getting to the point now where I just don't know what to do but it would be great to know if anyone has had any similar issues running a business or if anyone could provide some general advice which could help.

Thanks in advance!

So much advice has already been given that I am hoping you have plan now @adiboy but while most of the advice is great the struggle you will have is implementing it. My suggestion would be to find someone you trust or whose opinion you value in business or leadership and get them to come in and see things as they really are in your business.
Then with them you can create a plan to get the business where YOU want it to be.
You have decide if you want to be a great business leader (in which case get training for yourself) or to work in your own great business (get someone in to manage)
Most start-ups go through a similar stage so you are not alone and most of the advice will be coming from people who have had similar situations.

 

[The Byre]

1. Traction - Gino Wickman
2. The New One Minute Manager - Ken Blanchard
3. The New One Minute Manager and The Monkey - Ken Blanchard

I should have mentioned the 'One Minute Manager' series - I'm a big fan! That last one is called 'The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey' and the monkey is the problem in some process or project. Often, when a junior member of staff comes to you with a problem (the monkey) you can fall into the trap of taking responsibility for the next action and you end up finding the solution. The trick is to coach them into finding the solution all by themselves. The result is that you take over the task and are making yourself accountable to a junior member of staff and you are doing their work.

 

[MBE2017]

I should have mentioned the 'One Minute Manager' series - I'm a big fan! That last one is called 'The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey' and the monkey is the problem in some process or project. Often, when a junior member of staff comes to you with a problem (the monkey) you can fall into the trap of taking responsibility for the next action and you end up finding the solution. The trick is to coach them into finding the solution all by themselves. The result is that you take over the task and are making yourself accountable to a junior member of staff and you are doing their work.

My first manager taught myself to learn to find companies, products and solutions in our electrical industries bible, the blue book as it was called, due to its bright cover. Out of an office of approx 25 people, I was the main guys understudy, and the only one who followed his advice to use the blue book myself, rather than just ask where to get the product.

It meant I had to work harder and longer, but when my mentor announced he was leaving approx six months after I joined, to move to the USA, panic ensued amongst the office, all stating he was irreplaceable and the font of all knowledge, since it was much easier to simply ask where to look.

On his departure, I was suddenly the font of all knowledge, but limited my helpful response to “its in the blue book, start looking.”

 

[ExoPaul]

I see three things with this.
1 - They like the paycheck but aside from that they have no interest in you or your company outside of it paying the bills. It is rare to find a staff member that is highly loyal and puts the company at the heart of their life. So don't ever expect any employee to show the same level of interest in your business as you do, because they will probably be spending some of their time during the day browsing Indeed and looking for a better paid job similar to what they have.

2- You either need to get to grips with watching over them and making clear targets as to what they have to do, and issuing staff reviews regularly to highlight where they are going wrong, even giving formal warnings when they are slacking after being told a couple of times to do what is essential. They just need a good kick up the arse and if you can't bring yourself to do it, you need to promote or find someone that will do it for you.
They are NOT your friends, family or anything other than workers who bring in money to keep their jobs and your business afloat, and if they are not doing that then they need told they are not good enough.

3- If you are wanting to go really drastic then follow the approach of Sun-Tzu and the Art Of War.
One of his tactics was this:
On the training field, the Commander asked his troops to carry out drills. They did this but he noticed that several troops were slacking and not pulling their weight, taking it easy instead of rushing the training enemy, and generally not taking the training session seriously.
The Commander called them to attention and asked the leader to step forward. He told them the leader that the troops were not pulling their weight and needed to train all through the night. Some of the troops grumbled and rolled their eyes at the idea of having to do it at which point the Commander drew his sword... and beheaded the leader in front of them.
He then pointed his sword at one of those that were grumbling and ordered him to step forward, and then promoted the fearful soldier to new leader. He then asked if he was ready to train his men all night long and he quickly said "Yes sir!" and the rest of the men all stood to attention and took notice.
After that display, and knowing that if they fail, one of their friends would likely die and they may then be put in charge made them work twice as hard through the night and impressed the Commander.

To put that into context of your business, I don't suggest beheading all your staff... but maybe find the least productive one of the staff and then sack him or her. And then merge his job into the remaining staff and tell them that due to their lack of general productivity you have had to let him/her go and merge his tasks into their own, effectively making them work a little harder each day, and that if it carries on, more cutbacks may be required.
It may not do much for morale, but it will do a great deal for sudden improvement in how they regard their position in the company. And once they start to be more productive long term, then you can start to reward them and offer an environment where it is rewarding to be productive.

Incidentlly and off topic., I can assure you this tactic also works with children.
If you are at the end of your limit with them and they still behave badly... pick up their favourite (and replaceable) toy, iPad or whatever, and tell them if they don't behave, its gone!
If they argue with you in any way, smash it to pieces!
I can absolutely guarantee they will realise you mean business and they will have far too much to lose in future to be the one to win a petty argument about bed time or whatever.
Then after a period of time you feel they have learned their lesson and have shown much improved behaviour, treat them to a new iPad or toy to replace it. But only when you know that they have gone long enough without it that they can't bluff you to break it again knowing it will get quickly replaced.

 

[Dinky]

Let me introduce you to J. He was hailed as "The World's Most Dangerous Geek!" by Rolling Stone Magazine. He wrote an MP3 player that he sold to AOL for $60m.

Winamp was awesome! ?

 

[Dinky]

I should probably expect more from people who I pay or I can't progress the business.

Absolutely! Coupled with your modest salary for your long hours and your maximum effort vs lackluster staff, it sounds more like you are working for them rather than them working for you. I therefore agree with what others have said, time to get tougher!

A manager is a must if success to you means "large team and multiple offices", otherwise you are only going to get more of what you have now... more stress, frustration and misery! Or alternatively, downscale and go back to what you actually enjoyed doing, website design/marketing, and simply outsource when required.

I have a feeling many business owners fall foul of wanting the big offices and large teams etc, just to feel like they are a 'proper business/successful', which only leads to the sort of issues you face now, resulting in the sad the demise of many, either in business terms or owners mental health.

Best of luck!

 

[The Byre]

I can assure you this tactic also works with children. If you are at the end of your limit with them and they still behave badly... pick up their favourite (and replaceable) toy, iPad or whatever, and tell them if they don't behave, its gone! If they argue with you in any way, smash it to pieces!

That has to be the worst advice I have ever heard or read. Destructive rages by parents lead only to destructive rages by their children.

Winamp was awesome! ?

So you know who I was talking about. Is it just me, but don't you think he looks a lot like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo?

 

[Mark T Jones]

One thing about this thread - it absolutely screams business coach/mentor - and I don't say that lightly

 

[Dinky]

So you know who I was talking about. Is it just me, but don't you think he looks a lot like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo?

I didn't straight away, but your story was intriguing and so Googled it, but I was an avid user of Winamp way back when! Insane how much he sold it for!

Haha, he is absolutely Shaggy! Sadly this reminds me of when I walked into a bar with my friends in Latvia. My turn to get the drinks in, but that proved to be impossible as the bar tender couldn't stop crying with laughter declaring me Shaggy whilst shouting 'Scooby-dooby dooooo'!!

Long hair did not suit me! ?

 

[DW76]

It's interesting to read the wonderful advice from everyone here. Great job, everyone.
@adiboy Being a business owner or great leader is a learning journey. When things get too much for you to take, take some time out and think about your motivation - why are you doing what you are doing and what you wish to achieve. Your company needs a culture that motivates people who work with you and such a culture will be created around what you genuinely care about and wish to bring your impact. Vanity is never the answer as others helped to clearly pointed out. Look for people around you, the world around you.
Evaluate if the journey as a business owner or leader is right for you and if not, what else could it be. Success is not a path lay on the ground, it's the attitude you have to walk on the ground. Find your own definition of what a successful life means to you.
I also agree with other people's advice on temporally scaling your business down to a size you can handle and allowing you to take time to equip yourself with better skills and mindset for whatever challenge you might set out for yourself to take. Good luck.

 

[MBE2017]

So you know who I was talking about. Is it just me, but don't you think he looks a lot like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo?

Personally I think he looks more like a Lama.

 

[Mhairi Ramsay]

That has to be the worst advice I have ever heard or read. Destructive rages by parents lead only to destructive rages by their children.

Totally agree. Also giving this advice to someone who is struggling to hold people accountable is only likely to result in them becoming very harsh, very embittered and even worse at managing people. Not all people are good, but the majority are so don't punish the 85% good for the 15% bad.

 

[Benjamin Brain]

I should have mentioned the 'One Minute Manager' series - I'm a big fan! That last one is called 'The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey' and the monkey is the problem in some process or project. Often, when a junior member of staff comes to you with a problem (the monkey) you can fall into the trap of taking responsibility for the next action and you end up finding the solution. The trick is to coach them into finding the solution all by themselves. The result is that you take over the task and are making yourself accountable to a junior member of staff and you are doing their work.

I can see how you have exquisite taste in your non-fiction reading @The Byre ?

My favourite authors are Ken Blanchard and Patrick Lencioni because they don't simplify often over-complicated concepts and they're such easy reads.

Sorry to throw off the thread - just wanted to acknowledge your taste! ?

 

[PugwashEQ]

Great advice on this thread.

To add to the traction book (which is a riff on proper management consultancy advice but squarely aimed at SMEs you could also read Scaling up by Verne Harnish, another excellent read is "good to great". All of these define how to make a business work!

What you have built so far is not a business - its a collective of people. A real business has a set of repeating structures and processes that don't need management interaction but help and guide staff in delivering what customers need. The processes should allow you to change staff without affecting customer satisfaction.

its been said already BUT:
1. The staff are not your friends, you can be friendly but not friends (well it is possible, but only with a LOT of trust, respect and maturity on all sides)
2. YOU set the boundaries, expectations and outcomes and YOU have to enforce them
3. Your staff are there to earn a salary, they will not see the business the same as you. A lot of staff, especially younger ones, see a salary as an opportunity to do as little as possible.
4. EVERYTHING is your responsibility to fix, improve and make better. If its not working its because you haven't created the systems and culture to make sure things do happen,.
5. Your SOLE focus should be on delivering excellence for clients as cheaply as possible.

Once you realise all of these, you will realise you are in control, but you also have to make all the decisions. One of the key things to consider- you can find very cheap, motivated, hard working staff working from eastern Europe (its how we manage our websites, databases and SEO). IF it were me i would sack all of your staff and go hunting somewhere like here https://jobrack.eu/

Your ultimate goal should be to make yourself unemployed with a business that has zero reliance on you or your time....

 

[SillyBill]

I can see why you're upset, running 8 staff on a £400k turnover is the definition of a heart attack - it isn't worth it in my opinion unless something can change, fundamentally, and only you will know the likelihood of that. While I agree with the consensus that management needs to improve, I do recognise the frustrations, incidentally this is why I always maintain that you need to be making a decent profit to put up with it. And you are not. Resentment builds vs everything if you are earning peanuts. FWIW hiring staff is the absolute last resort in my business, we will literally go down every avenue before I'd concede to add someone to the payroll because it invariably adds complications as well as the solutions it brings (with the right management). I'd personally be looking to scale back to being a contractor looking at these sums, 8xless aggro no doubt and you'll be taking home as much, if not more. Your ego might take a dent but such is life. I've come across quite a lot of business people who never seem to make any money but employ vastly more staff than me, I've never understood it - are you a jobs factory or what?

 

[Dinky]

Your ultimate goal should be to make yourself unemployed with a business that has zero reliance on you or your time....

This is great advice! It took me a long time to come across/realise this, but finally I do and this is something I'm working towards.

With regards to hiring Eastern Europeans, why them specifically? The usual recommendations for remote employees is Asia, so just wondering if you had experienced with this, and why the switch/pros/cons of each please?

 

[PugwashEQ]

With regards to hiring Eastern Europeans, why them specifically? The usual recommendations for remote employees is Asia, so just wondering if you had experienced with this, and why the switch/pros/cons of each please?

This is quite a difficult question to answer.... we've used Indian contractors, Phillipino, Vietnamese, Czech, Ukrainian, Bosnian and Bulgaria.

If i was being really honest much of our preference for eastern European is our failing to understand asian culture, and perhaps to penetrate those potential employment markets well enough.

This is what WE found, its broad brush, and may be massively unfair to those markets (see "our failings" above). Indian programmers are widely brilliant- the problem is that the really good ones have really good jobs for Google and Amazon. what we found were left were the ones without proper training or experience. We also found that their default was to say "yes" to everything, even when they were well beyond their own capability- this was a frequent problem. This latter issue was a huge problem for us, as we don't have the ability to measure how well a tasks is being done until we can test the end result. If we were more experienced ourselves in coding, then i suspect we would have caught many of the problems.

With the Phillipines and Vietnam we just started to find the time difference too much- because we needed high levels of contact, being 5 or 6 hours apart from a time difference started to be really inconvenient. We found some really good people in the Philippines, but found they needed quite a lot of management to be effective (which again is fine and often normal, but for us, we don't have the management time....)

Eastern Europe hits the button for us- much much cheaper than the UK, a large pool of really skilled and experienced staff, who are often over qualified and therefore capable of running with projects, very hard working, and surprisingly close culturally (i suspect this is more a reflection on eastern European migration into the UK, than a reflection on our ability to understand THEIR culture). We've had huge success with Czech, Croatian and Ukrainian. latterly we have been mostly using the Ukrainian workforce- because why wouldn't you considering the current circumstances!

Hopefully no one takes offence at this reply- its very generic, and that's dangerous, but it does reflect our experiences and i absolutely acknowledge that much of the problems are entirely due to our (my!) weaknesses as a business owner and leader!

 

[The Byre]

I can see how you have exquisite taste in your non-fiction reading @The Byre ??

Having just reread the OP from @adiboy, I realise now that his situation is a perfect example of Blanchard's 'Monkey'. He is a textbook example! He has to stop picking up his staff's monkeys!

He needs to spend £3 and get a copy of that book TODAY! I'll make it easy for him - here - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143433820133

And don't lend it out - you'll never get it back!

 

[Benjamin Brain]

Having just reread the OP from @adiboy, I realise now that his situation is a perfect example of Blanchard's 'Monkey'. He is a textbook example! He has to stop picking up his staff's monkeys!

He needs to spend £3 and get a copy of that book TODAY! I'll make it easy for him - here - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143433820133

And don't lend it out - you'll never get it back!

Those damn Monkeys. They're everywhere!

 

[Gecko001]

adiboy has done a lot of things right as he has survived and employs eight people. That is to be applauded in my book. So do not put yourself down because you have not made millions. £400k turnover in the the design service sector is not bad.

I would not rule out taking a more hands-on approach despite what others have said. It might be a style that suits you. I have worked in successful firms in the design sector where the boss has been very hands on. One had over 150 employees and the owner could often be seen working on projects as a designer. He was popular with most staff, but did not hesitate to be tough when he needed to be, so as others have eluded to, you cannot be everybody's friend when you are the boss. I have also worked in firms which only had half a dozen staff where the owner had a totally hands-off approach which also seemed to be successful.

The apprenticeships perhaps should be looked at. Are they grant funded? If you are signed up to grant funded schemes it is very easy to think that they just run themselves when in fact oversight of the training should be firmly in the business's hand in my view. Also, do not expect too much of every keen young person to come through your doors. I was once told by an aging architect who had employed many draftspeople and architects over the years that you only get one good one in every four or five. That is perhaps a slight exaggeration, but not far off the mark as far as I am concerned.

 

[Business-I]

Have you thought about HR assistance