One of the topics covered in the business courses I took while getting my 'higher edjumikashon' was about the common mistakes and problems in small businesses.
The course was being taught by a prof. who had written several books o the subject, and was also a consultant to one of the big banks. Banks know little businesses that succeed become big customers one day.
He emphasized the top mistake made by small business was what he called "The 'yes-man' syndrome".
A small business (especially a young business) owner is so focused on succeeding that they are afraid to say "no" when a customer asks them to do something for fear that the phone might not ring tomorrow.
The problem is the business soon becomes so swamped in work that production drops dramatically because vast amounts of time are being spent either explaining to existing customers why the work is late, or talking to new prospective customers they don't have the capacity to service anyways.
Unfortunately at that point in the businesses life cycle it rarely has the ability to bring on new staff or equipment to handle the influx of new work. The result is usually a bad one.
It is supposedly the number one cause of failure in start-up companies.
His advice was if you know enough about the work to go into business for yourself in the first place, then you know enough about the work to decide how much you can handle also.
A customer would rather you declined a job in the first place than take the job knowing you can't do it and fail to meet expectations and deadlines.
Think of it this way. Two slightly different versions of the same situation;
One: You go to a restaurant and the food smells wonderful and the place looks great, but the staff tells you their quite sorry, but it will be at least an hour for you to get a table, and even then the kitchen is swamped and the service will be slow.
Two: Same great restaurant, except this time you are seated without a word about the workload. After an hour of sipping a glass of water you finally snag a server. You order and get a fresh glass of water. Another hour later you again snag the server and they tell you something like "Yeah, sorry, it's really crazy in here tonight. The kitchen is going like crazy. I'll see how far along your meal is." then disappears again.
Which restaurant are you likely to go back to, and which will you warn your friends about going anywhere near?
A sawmill, or anything else is no different. There's a reason it's called a "service industry". People expect service, not excuses.
And that concludes todays free business lecture........
I hope you got your moneys worth out of it!!
