Almost every shop owner I speak to tells me he or she wants more business. But when we start talking about business growth, I begin to hear reluctances. Too much growth means hiring more people, which means more paper work, more reports to the government, more insurance, and on and on. It also means more capital investment to cover additional equipment and to cover accounts receivable during the interval between the time parts are purchased and checks arrive for completed jobs. Everyone wants to grow in profitability, but very few want to face the costs and pains of growth.
In the end it all comes down to how much of a burning desire a shop owner or manager has to expand and grow his or her shop. A famous writer of the 1920's, Alfred North Whitehead, wrote: "The vitality of thought is in adventure. Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them. When the idea is new its custodians have fervor, live for it and, if need be, die for it." When most of us started our business, we had that burning desire and determination to make it go and grow. Perhaps we just had the enthusiasm of youth without painful experiences to water down that enthusiasm. But we did have a vision of the business we wanted to create, and we had no reluctance to have Unlimited Growth!
So where did all of that enthusiasm go? It's likely that some of our visions were unrealistic dreams that crashed when they met the reality of competition, government regulations, unreliable employees, unpredictable finances, faulty equipment, irrational customers and unrealistic insurance appraisers and adjusters. But many of us had enough enthusiasm, enough drive and determination to push on through those obstacles and continue to grow.
So now here we are today. We've grown to a certain point, but is there still enough drive and determination to grow more? Some of us have peaked and actually fallen back a bit. Others seem to have stagnated, staying more or less at the same point for years -- maybe even enjoying the pause. And a few others continue to grow, but very slowly.
But is that enough? As the writer said, "The vitality of thought is in adventure." Is the game still exciting? Can we still fire up the troops with a vision of greater growth, more jobs, better pay, more recognition? Or has everyone settled into a mental rocking chair of comfort and complacency, just doing enough to get along -- with no more challenge or "fire in the belly?"
"I owe, I owe, so off to work I go..."
I'm sometimes surprised when I find out what really motivates many people in business. I find fear more often than excitement and love of the business.
Many fall in the category of "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go." A large mortgage, equipment leases, bank loans and more drive a business owner to carry on to meet all of the obligations. Amazingly some work to feed a gambling, drinking or drug habit. And then there is the old saying that applies to some of the guys: "Behind every successful man is a woman with nothing to wear." For women business owners, perhaps it's just the desire to have "something better to wear." More money is certainly a valid motivation for many, but I doubt that money alone will beat the power of a burning desire to see one's vision become a reality.
Keep the dream burning
This past year I saw John, a Hispanic man who put three children through college and provided a good living for his family and employees working out of a small 12,000 square foot shop, expand into a 30,000 square foot former industrial park. John's son, Danny, had just finished his degree in business and was coming on board. I was there the day they opened the new shop. John's eyes sparkled with the excitement of seeing a dream come true. No longer cramped in a tiny space, shuffling vehicles back and forth to get jobs out, John was thrilled with the opportunity to grow. His joy was in the realization of his dream.
I also followed the week to week progress of another shop owner whose shop expanded from 16,000 square feet to nearly 50,000 square feet. With more than 40 years in the industry, George focused all of his resources on expanding into the spaces both on the right and on the left of his shop. As he took me through the buildings in various stages of construction, I felt his great satisfaction of realizing a dream he'd had for years. Somehow he had kept that burning desire alive all of these years.
Are you an elephant with a shackle?
Another famous author and chairman of the Encyclopedia Britannica's Board of Educators, Mortimer J. Adler, wrote an article called: "Success means never feeling tired." In the article he said, "Failure is probably the most fatiguing experience a person ever has. There is nothing more enervating than not succeeding -- being blocked, not moving ahead. It is a vicious circle. Failure breeds fatigue, and the fatigue makes it harder to get to work which compounds the failure."
When our enthusiastic goals and dreams have faded long ago, it may be necessary to look back to the time when they were still alive and well. Take a look at what happened to diminish the fire. Time moves on. Things change. The obstacles that arose way back then may no longer be there. When it comes to obstacles, we can be a lot like elephants: they rarely forget what they've learned and they're reluctant to break out of old habits. Elephant trainers use this peculiarity to keep elephants under control. A young elephant has one leg shackled to a heavy chain connected to an unmovable stake in the ground. This trains him to stay in one place when the shackle is on. Now for the strange part. The elephant never forgets. Later, when the elephant is full-grown and could pull the stake out, he doesn't do it. Trainers have found that all they need to do is put a light chain around the elephant's foot, not even attached to anything, and he'll stay put.
The shackles and failures of the past are long gone but we may still be bound to the stake of prior limitations. To rekindle that fire of early enthusiastic purpose, it may be time to re-examine obstacles and stops that occurred along the way and see if time and change and new technology may have removed those barriers long ago. A little over a year ago, I wrote an article called "Looking Backwards for Marketing Success." Call me or send an e-mail to request a re-print of that article. It is also now a chapter in my latest book, "Strategies for Greater Body Shop Growth."
Rekindle that early fire and you may find you still have the drive and determination to press for the unlimited growth you once envisioned.
Tom Franklin has been a sales and marketing representative and consultant for forty years and is the author of the books, He can be reached for questions or comments at (323) 871-6862, by fax at (323) 465-2228, or by E-Mail:
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