Someone new to business ownership recently told me the following:

“Before I opened my business, I thought I was pretty well prepared. I had worked in this industry for quite a while so I knew I knew how to do the work and was good at it. I knew I knew how to be nice when talking to customers. I wrote a business plan and worked through the numbers with my accountant and banker so I knew what I needed to know about how much I had to sell to break even and produce a profit. I read everything I could get my hands on to guide me when I made the move. I talked to many others who owned businesses in this industry to determine whether I could succeed if I went off on my own. I saved money to give me a start and be a buffer until I was able to sell enough to break even so I was optimistic that my first year would go well.”

But no matter how well prepared you are, anyone who has been through the start-up phase of their own business knows that it is impossible to know what you don’t know and that you’ll find out what you don’t know pretty soon.

“But the stuff I knew was the easy stuff. It was the stuff I didn’t know that was hard. We were open just a short time when I started realizing I was spending most of my time trying to manage chaos. I found we needed to get better in so many areas. I’ve been listing the improvements we need to make as a company and all the skills I need to improve personally. I’ve been learning what I didn’t know – things like properly forecasting the inventory of parts and supplies, scheduling, customer relations – all new to me. Luckily, business is good so we’re not in trouble, but I know that, if we don’t get out of ‘chaos mode’ fast, it will be very difficult in not impossible to realize my goals.”

I have heard this same lament (with variations) many times from fledging business owners and, surprisingly, from old-timers also. Many stay in chaos mode their whole career, never growing much, always frustrated. Others work methodically through their list of “things they didn’t know” and eventually work their way from managing chaos to managing by intention. It takes time, persistence, hard work and a viable vision of the future.

I guess it would be easy if all you had to do was to work on improving the systems and processes in your business but, in a small business, it doesn’t work that way. Most owners of small businesses don’t have the luxury of time or capital to invest in endless management meetings, hire consultants, or even get away from the business to go to seminars or trainings to improve.

So you are juggling many tasks, wearing many hats because, in many cases, you are the sales department and the customer service department and the office staff and the production department and the maintenance department and the warehouse manager and you still always have to be pleasant to customers and rarely have time to get a day off to refresh. So how can you learn “what you don’t know” when you are doing everything and every single thing seems to be a priority?
Good question!

The first step is to list all the things you find you “don’t know” and need to improve. Use the “note taking” app in your smartphone or keep a little notebook and pen in your pocket. Every time you feel frustrated or see something you feel needs to be improved, no matter how trivial, put it on the list. After a week or two, start putting these “improvements” into logical categories, then relist them into priorities.

While some of these tasks might be quick and easy and take just one step to transform a mess into a smooth working task, others will take some time, some experimenting, and some reworking to ponder and organize. Some will be multi-step tasks.

Obviously you can’t fix everything at once and do all the other things that you need to do in your business so get out a calendar and budget time every week to set aside for business improvement tasks.

One of my clients, the owner of a company with four employees, comes in an hour early every Tuesday. We call it the “Hour of Transformation.”

It is the time he has set aside specifically to work on what he “didn’t know”. He has been doing this every week for six months. Some of the projects he has worked on are in marketing, office procedures, and inventory control.

Marketing: He has created a new pricing structure that gives customers low-cost options for those on a budget and high-service options for those who want more than a basic service and are able to pay for it. Then he put this structure into a graphic sales presentation to use when talking to the customer. The result is that he isn’t losing many sales opportunities because of price yet he is able to satisfy the less price sensitive customer.

Office: He is batching his bill-paying system. Instead of paying bills every couple days, he now batches the work on a twice-a-month basis and getting more done in less time.

Inventory control: He has created a minimum / maximum system that is reviewed every Wednesday afternoon so he never runs out of needed supplies and never has too much on hand.

Naturally, he isn’t done. He keeps his notebook constantly at his side so he is always finding things he “didn’t know” and adding projects to continually work on improving every facet of his company.
He says he has enough projects to keep him coming in every Tuesday morning for many years.

By then, he’ll be a “know-it-all!”

Larry Galler specializes in coaching owners of small businesses to grow their business through effective marketing, customer retention programs and systemizing their business practices. Explore how he can help you during a free coaching session by calling (219)464-9463 or e-mail larry@larrygaller.com. Visit his website at www.oneyeartogreatness.com.