“Three Types of Business Success”
Luck, Smarts, Hard Work
Figure out where you are and accept it, then use it to your advantage
Some business owners are not smart, did not have a lot of money and did not put in every effort to make sure they had a successful business. They were just lucky. I know it sucks to hear this but there are some people that do not deserve to be successful business owners. They had nothing to do with how well their business did. And the things they did do, for some reason, just happen to be the right thing to do. They are the lucky ones. They were in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing and happen to be doing it for the right customer and then BAM, the business took off and they ended up with this great business making all kinds of money, driving a Viper, taking off at 1 pm to play golf that afternoon and getting ready for his vacation to his new vacation home in Florida. “It sucks” I thought. This guy is just plain lucky. He is not smart, he is not working hard, his office is a mess, his shop is nothing special, the people working for him do not seem like they know what is going on, the sign on the door is old, the building is dated, etc. etc. He is just plain lucky. Those businesses are out there. They just seem to stumble into the right jobs, the right contracts, the right customers, at the right time, etc. It sucks. If you are one of these businesses, enjoy it while you can. With the pace of business now it will not last as long as you think. That means you need to start leveraging your success to create a solid business so you can enjoy your luck even longer. If you are not lucky do not worry about it. Just tell yourself that you will have more satisfaction with your accomplishments (if that does not work, sorry). I always had a hard time dealing with these “Lucky” businesses because I just did not feel like they earned it. It was not right that this company and owner are doing great. What did they do to earn their success and all of the business they have? Many times I would challenge the owner or the people in that company. I wanted to uncover a better reason for their success than just luck. I would ask more questions and talk to more people in the company to learn what makes them tick. What was the key operation, person, strategy or plan? What were they doing to bring in their business or keep that premier customer?But I never found it. Some businesses are just lucky. At the right place at the right time, and somehow they did the right thing. I guess you have to just accept it and move on.
Company D&K almost tripled their business in the three years. The owner worked less after the three years after I started working with them than in the beginning. He also knew less about his business. After that three years I knew more about what was going on in the factory than he did. He did not seem to care. They did a couple of things that other people did not want to do and he did them for two large customers. Those two customers got him other business. He had to hire a salesperson to handle the other accounts and business. He did not want to deal with more customers and he really only called on one of the two main customers. He even made that sound like it was a problem. He did not have to do much and business kept coming his way. I would ask about quality systems in the shop, how he is engineering things, how does he market the business, etc. No real answers. No real reasons for why this person had a successful business that was growing. He just knew that a lot of people were doing a good job for his company and it was going really well. He was just lucky, not smart, not a hard worker, just lucky. One thing I will say is these companies are usually happy places and the owners are usually appreciative of people helping their company.
If you are lucky you may not admit it because you want to think that it was all you and your decision making and that is OK. I have accepted you now. What you need to keep doing is poking your noise into other things to do. Use your business as a platform to venture into other areas to get lucky in. Do not go to far off your platform and talents because you may not have the smarts or work ethic to make something happen so stay close to what your business does well. Talk to your customers to see what else you can do for them. Talk to your suppliers to see what else they can supply or any referrals on new customers. Ask your employees to help find or develop new products to make and sell. Do not stop looking for something new because if you are lucky you will run into something that will be good for your business.
Smart people can have successful businesses if they realize what resources they have to work with and have the time to make things happen. I loved working with these businesses. They always wanted information and to do things right. They always have a plan. Many times that plan would change however there was always an end goal that was keeping them moving in the right direction. They were also looking for short cuts and work arounds because they knew they could out smart the traditional methods. These were then put into the plan. You can always change the plan because there was always something better coming up. This made it fun and a challenge. Fun because they were actually executing plans and doing things instead of just talking about it. Challenging because they always wanted more than what may have been realistic.The ideal situation in manufacturing is hard to create but the smart companies knew they were going to get close and be better than the rest. These companies and owners were organized and driven. They were always looking for and valued good information. They would spend the time to investigate or try something that would make them better. These companies ended up as the top companies. They were innovative, they were making the best products, they were impressing their customers and doing all the right things that manufactures need to do.These companies were leaders and often had the best customers and did the more difficult work. They wanted to be in the upper end and be a higher class of company.
Keep finding ways to do things better, faster and more efficient. But be careful not to have too many resources doing your investigation and fine tuning your processes. This can create too much overhead that can not be supported. Stay focused on actually making parts and creating profits. There is a balance and I have seen companies over engineer or over process a product or operation. Then the manufacturing cost does not fit the product and it becomes hard to make a profit. Always gauge where the cost can be justified and what the customer will pay for. Smart companies will have a plan that does not go too far or they will find a new, higher paying customer for the new, better product.
These are owners that will out work everyone. They are 7/24 on their business. They are more than dedicated. Most owners will come in on a weekend to make sure a project is complete for a Monday shipment. That is not what I am talking about. This is the owner that is all over everything and doing everything in the business. They love the business and do not seem to mind the hours (most of the time). They like working at their business and get a lot of satisfaction with the results. Most of these owners are happy because they see everyday the fruits of the labor.