Hello and welcome back! I am still a little sick sounding but don’t be worried I am feeling better even though I don’t sound the best!
A few weeks ago I talked to you about the three biggest blocks restaurant and business owners have and what to do about them. That episode and this episode both stem from a new project I am working on called Theresa Cantley’s Restaurant Growth Formula. It is amazing to me when I talk about these concepts how much it just clicks with people, and I get comments all the time of people saying things along the lines of, “I didn’t even realize I was sabotaging myself like that!” mental blocks are a funny thing. So, today’s episode is going to be branching off of those mental blocks and what happens when you don’t get out of that funk.
In the last episode, we talked about the mental power we all have and how what we say to ourselves sets the tone for what we are able to accomplish. That is going to tie in to today’s topic as well.
Onto today’s topic. People get stuck all the time in this idea that things have to happen in a certain way or need to be done in a certain way. I hear it from business owners all the time, I need to do it this way because this is how yoga studios do it, or restaurants, or a retail store. I am here to tell you no, I am here to introduce a paradigm shift. I want to help you create a better future for yourself!
So we’re going to start digging in and I’m going to give you these five mistakes, but I’m also going to give you the things that you can actually do to get out of making those mistakes. So if you identify with any of these, you’re going to get some help as to what you can do differently and start taking action today. As soon as you get off this podcast, as soon as you stop listening to this podcast you can start taking action today if you are one of these people that are making these five biggest mistakes. So let’s get started!
Number one, some people don’t take ownership of the vision for their business. Let me break down what I mean here, these people haven’t written down or sometimes even defined their goals, values, and mission for their business. Or, they have it written down but they haven’t even looked at it in years. Or, they haven’t spoken their values to anyone, including their employees.
Guys, this is like starting on a road trip with no map or GPS! You have no guiding force in your business to be able to make decisions. You have nothing to look forward to. You have nothing to be able to visualize and move in that direction. The vision is really the foundation of your business, followed by, your mission and your core values.
When I talk to business owners I ask them, what is your vision? What makes you different than they business two doors down? Most of them don’t have an answer for me. When I say vision I mean long-term, not today, not this week, I mean years from now! And when they can’t answer me, well then I know they haven’t clearly defined it. So if you haven’t, if you’re one of those people… You are solely responsible for that. You are responsible for the why, and the what, in your business. Why are you doing what you do and what is it that you do that makes you so different?
So, if you haven’t clearly written down your vision and your mission and your values, I highly recommend taking a full day. Not an hour, not two hours, taking a full day and really laying out what is it that you really want to do and why are you doing it beyond the money. You start a business to make money. I mean, yes, that is the ultimate goal. But if you start it and all you’re focused on is money, it’s never going to work out. So take some time and really lay out what your core values are. Because whatever your core values are in the business need to match the core values of your team, your leadership team, your employees, and you’re entire organization.
Number two is not managing your numbers and metrics in your business. There are two reasons people don’t manage this. One, people don’t understand what it is they are looking at, so it’s hard and they don’t want to do it. Two is because it takes time, and most people feel like it is time that’s wasted. A lot of people think that their business is working well so they don’t need to take the time to do break down the numbers. Or, people tell me that they have someone else looking at their numbers, only to find out they aren’t looking at the right numbers. Looking at and understanding these metrics is really important and gives you an idea of what you need to do going forward.
Every business goes through seasons, we talked about this a few episodes ago, seasons in your business. If you are in a slow season then you need to refocus, figure out your plan based on your metrics and be able to move forward. If you are in a busy season you still need to plan ahead for your upcoming slow season. You have to know these metrics to be able to make decisions in your business that drove you toward your vision.
What kind of point-of-sales system are you using, whether you’re a restaurant or a retail store? What kind of a CRM, customer relationship management system are you using? What email software are you using? If you have an accountant, go back and ask the accountant for a profit and loss statement, a cash flow statement, even a trial balance report just so you can see what your numbers are and ask them to explain them to you. If they can’t, you need to get a new accountant and if you don’t have an accountant, I highly recommend that you find somebody extremely reputable that you can work with and that is going to be a partner with you. Not just do your taxes on an annual basis, but be a partner with you and give you advice on a quarterly basis, on a monthly basis as to what is best for your business.
I also highly recommend google analytics. It’s a free tool. Make sure it’s installed on your website. If you have a web developer, they can actually work with you to understand. There’s a lot of free information on Google to understand Google Analytics, but really focusing on what metrics do you need to measure in your business and what is important. Number three is hiring on-demand and also hiring solely on skill. People wait until someone leaves, a key person or a couple of staff members and then they go into crisis mode and panic mode. It should never be, I mean if you use the word crisis mode, I’m going to highly recommend that you wipe it from your vocabulary. Things are never a crisis. Yes, you have situations that all of a sudden get heated and important, but it’s never a crisis because anything and absolutely everything can be fixed and can be figured out. On top of waiting until the last minute to hire people also pigeon-hole themselves into who they are hiring. I hear this all the time, “I have to hire within the industry, I can’t hire someone who hasn’t worked service before.” You can teach anyone skill, but you can’t teach work ethic. You can’t teach attitude, you can’t teach values, you can’t teach any of that. So, when I working with people, we focus on building what I call your vision and employee flow. We look at what areas need to grow in order for the overall business to grow. You are the visionary and you create and support “the why” your employees bring that vision to life. If you are just hiring based on skills and not on values or vision, then you aren’t hiring in the best way for your business.
You can teach someone how to do inventory. You can teach someone how to receive product. You can teach them what ingredients go into a recipe and howto measure stuff out. You can teach all of that, but you can’t teach work ethic. You can’t teach attitude. So figuring out, taking some time to detail out because you’ve detailed out your vision because that’s number one, right? So then detailing out like I said, what I like to call a vision and employee flow
Number four, I see this all the time, forgetting about the customer and thinking, that in the restaurant industry, that the chef is the most important person. In the retail industry a lot of times they focus a lot on the merchandising. They focus a lot on the managers, like having the right management in the position. And while those things are important, the key person in your business is the customer. So making sure that you’re building a customer experience that attracts people and makes them feel good. What goes into that is making sure, yeah, that you do have the right chef, that you do have the right management, that you do have the right visual merchandising in place that appeals to your customer. But even beyond that, you want to make sure that you’re connecting with them and you’re building a customer experience that brings people back time and time again. When I teach building customer experience, we focus on what the experience would look like before they become a customer. Your customers have no idea who you are before they start shopping or dining with you. But you need to know what kind of customers you are trying to attract and keep with your business long-term.
Last, number five is not having a marketing plan or a business growth strategy. Relying on fate, luck, the fact that you’re a local business and people just know that you’re there. Relying on, “I’m just going to put more coupons out.” or “I’m just going to have an ad on the radio.” or “I’m going to run an ad in the newspaper.” and not having a fully laid out marketing plan and business growth
strategy that encompasses building a signature experience. You want your business to really be set apart from absolutely everybody else. And you can see probably how all of these things tie together. All of these things go together and they are the common mistakes that people make and with marketing and a business strategy, people that I’ve seen that I’ve worked with, people think that I post on Facebook every day and that’s all I need to do.
That’s not all you need to do because social media can go away at any time. You don’t own your likes, you don’t own your comments. People shy away from email list building when in reality you need to have social media, you need to have email list building. You need to have a connection plan. How are you going to reach and personalize the connection with your customers? Those are all things that you need to put in place and have a plan. It doesn’t have to be this super complex plan, but you have to have a plan in place. You have to have a plan to engage with people, to know what you’re going to be posting about on a regular basis.
And if you’re looking at all this and you’ve listened to this whole episode and you’re saying, “Oh my gosh, I haven’t done any of this.”
I need you to give yourself a break and actually congratulate yourself and celebrate the fact that now you’re aware of it.
You can’t fix and you can’t change what you aren’t aware of, but now that you’re aware of it, you can. So hopefully this episode helped you so that you know maybe where your… Maybe you still haven’t removed some of those three biggest blocks. And that’s why you’re making these mistakes. Because we don’t want to be an average business owner. We don’t want to be an average restaurant owner or shop owner. We want to be an iconic restaurateur or an iconic retail owner, retail shop owner, or just an iconic entrepreneur. We want to be different and in order to be different, we have to do, we have to make sure that we have the right plans in place, the right actions, we’re taking the right actions, and we have our vision fully solid so we know where we’re going. So I hope this episode helped you. And until next week, have a great rest of your week and make sure you are taking baby steps every single day to move you forward towards the things that you want to achieve. So bye for now and hopefully next time I will not be sick. All right. Take care.
If you enjoyed this episode and in some way, it inspired you to start taking action, I’d love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Send me a DM on Instagram @theresacantley and let me know what your favorite part was.
I would also love if you subscribed to the podcast and left a review at https://theresacantley.com/itunes
If there is a topic you would love me to talk about or a question you may have, send it to us at theresa@theresacantley.com and we’ll feature it on one of our future episodes.
LINKS:
Episode 33 – The Power of I AM
Episode 32 – The Three Biggest Blocks that are Keeping Your Restaurant Stuck
Schedule a call with me – Click Here!
Connect with me on Instagram & Facebook!
Join me for Theresa Cantley’s Business Growth Formula – Click Here!
