The role of the owner is to provide the skills or purpose to employees and infuse a results-driven culture into the business.
A businessperson who is an entrepreneur can generate purposeful action within their business whether or not they are physically present. Entrepreneurs focus on the business. They can, with a couple of phone calls, generate income. They lead, inspire, and generate purpose amongst staff. They do not need to work in their business, but may choose to do so.
Who is responsible for every result within their business - they are.
- That their business is all about them - physically, mentally and spiritually - but does not mean they have to be in it 24/7.
- That business is energy - vibrations must be positive and strong.
- The difference between effective actions and efficient actions.
- The power of leverage (Pareto's law).
- That there is no such thing as competition (certainly not at the top 1%) - they create their own outcomes.
Ultimate café owners I have worked with have certain common traits. They:
* are willing to listen in the first place, and accept instruction.
* possess an enquiring mind
* are always prepared to take on more
* work on becoming or being positive
* are not aggressive, but solidly confident when going about their business - unassuming and humble would be another description
What's more, despite the overwhelming numbers of coffee shops and cafés, there are very few of them around - only 1%. This is great news for you, since it will be rare indeed that you will set up your business next to one. You have a 99% chance of locating yourself next to the 'average' performers who are no competition at all. Capturing the market from them is as easy as a turkey shoot.
The traditional picture most people have of an Ultimate businessperson is the Lt. Colonel George Custer model - the type who brandishes his sword and wildly throws himself into the fray! Someone who is aggressive and loud, who sounds like they know what they are talking about, and who generally likes the sound of their own voice.
This picture could not be further from the truth. Ultimate café owners always strategise and plan before taking action. And when they do act, it is in an organised and timely manner. They command respect because they are the business - they know it intrinsically - and this consummate confidence is obvious to staff and customers alike.
Of the remaining 99% of business owners - the 'average' business owners, there are two main types. They are:
1. The business owner who needs to be in their business simply because nothing will happen if they are not. Some characteristics which identify them are the following:
Things will fall apart if they step out. While they may be deluded into thinking that they are a businessperson, in reality they are simply another, albeit more glorified, worker in the business. My exposure to businesses across the globe has taught me that the majority of owners feel and act this way.
They fight hard every day just to keep up with the myriad of tasks thrown at them from morning to night, always fighting rear guard actions, rarely feeling like they are on top of things. They feel as if they merely hold down a job, and a pathetic one at that.
They are the first 'worker' in and the last 'worker' out. They are very quick to blame everyone (mostly staff) and everything (mostly other competitors and the state of the economy) for their mediocre results.
And because they feel and behave this way (precious little positive energy), so do their workers. You can feel it immediately as you step into their business. No wonder that most employees do just enough to get by. In fact, it's all they can manage under the circumstances.
They get used to only ever achieving 'average' results, and come to believe it is all they can expect.
2. The owner who abrogates their responsibilities all together, and expects their business to operate by remote control. This type of owner is possibly the most toxic to a business. These are some of their characteristics:
The majority are happy to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a reasonably successful business, expecting the status quo to continue without direction or input. To me, they have 'more money than sense'.
They put managers in place - dramatically increasing the operational expenses of their business without setting in place a sales growth strategy to counter this.
They fail to make decisions in a timely manner, and when ultimately forced to, expect immediate positive results - because so much of their money is 'on the line'. In many cases, when their expectations are not met, they explode into tantrums which two-year-olds would be proud of.
Sure enough, within a short space of time, sales slump. Their business becomes a mere empty shell and they degenerate into a state of despondency and pessimism. They claim they tried everything but nothing worked!
For these businesses, moving beyond customer expectations is just not possible. Becoming an Ultimate business requires being on top of every little detail. It is about creating a proactive culture which can only happen if you are free of the daily minutiae of business.
If you happen to be sick of not being able to leave your business (even for a day!) and constantly worry about something going wrong, or you are simply sick of feeling like your business is not getting ahead, all is not lost. It is never too late to take the focused and purposeful action needed to transform your business!
Wanting mastery over your business will eventually see you redundant in your business. Over time you free up more time to work on your business. And practice makes perfect - the more time you spend working on your business, the more time you end up having.
Consider the following analogy. Before you can captain a team, you must first become the best player, not just physically, but tactically. Only when you lead your team to a number of victories can you contemplate 'retiring' as captain and becoming a coach. The coach of a team is not required to run onto the sporting field, but they are responsible for the training and on field results of the team. Everyone seems to know this about sport. I am encouraging you to think this way about business.
Your job is to become the 'coach'. And only when you work on your business, not in your business, will you have achieved this. That said, there is no shortcut to getting there. It is the price you have to pay if your aim is to become an Ultimate, rather than an 'average', business owner.
George Sabados is the worlds leading motivational speaker to major coffee retail and franchise chains around the world. He can inspire and, most importantly, instruct coffee focused businesses in how to generate explosive sales growth and profitability in the shortest time possible - his 3 levels of mastery guarantee massive change in 12 weeks! First and foremost, George is a retailer and knows how to focus a business on being a stand out to customers, resulting in instant local market leadership.
Rather than simply a "voice" without experience, George has been a leading figure in the global espresso movement from successful international barista, successful retailer, international roaster, international cupper, writer, public speaker and most importantly, coffee entrepreneur. He is without peer in experience and outside the box thinking within the international coffee industry.
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