Finally finding “the one” – the person your company has missed for its entire life – makes an incredible difference.
This missing piece allows you to overcome the barriers between reliable and exceptional success.
It’s like a business version of a romance novel, but very real.
But who is “the one”? Well, that all depends on you – the owner/founder. This missing piece revolves around something you don’t excel at, that you undervalue, that you lack experience with, or that you feel stuck doing which makes you borderline miserable while you handle it.
The People to Add
In many cases, the missing piece is an operations director who installs proven best practices. The result for my clients who go this route? Profits increase by 2-3 points in excess of the amount of their new OD’s compensation package.
That financial benefit also brings you the joy of increased personal freedom. It gave one of my clients the amazing chance to not work weekends for the first time in their life. For another, it allowed them to go on more memorable vacations for longer periods of time.
In other cases, the missing piece is a business manager or CFO to handle the world of administration – letting the owner focus on what they truly love: attracting new guests. The time they once devoted to insurance, accounting, and talking to the bank, they now spend doing what they love and having a lot more fun at work.
Increasingly, the missing piece is a learning-and-development person. In a world where fantastic guest experiences raise all-important guest count, my clients look at adding someone who redesigns and reinforces educating team members in an innovative way – delivering results that significantly exceed leaving this up to unit managers.
Some of my clients add culinary expertise when their tired menus lead to concepts that find it hard to keep up with the competition. With more discerning and educated guests opening your menu in your dining room every day, refreshed culinary talent can be the difference between attracting and repelling diners.
Finally, other clients hire a company president to completely take the reins when ownership does a gut check and has a willingness to really let go.
How It Works
A lot of my advisory work revolves around identifying the right position and person to add to my clients’ teams. I collaborate with recruiters to identify, enroll, and hire these people. I also coach these new leaders on how to adapt and integrate and also coach owners on inspiring and developing people who rise to a level in their area that my clients have never supervised before.
If you could think of one person to add to your organization who would elevate your success, who would it be? I can read your mind as you tell yourself, “In a flat market, I don’t want to spend the money.”
The money currently leaks out of your P&L and you can’t see it. Each of these people – when hired and onboarded correctly – stops those leaks, and paying for themselves is just the beginning.
