Montana Jones

Inflation sucks

Me:

Even with all the other expenses going up, at least fuel is dropping.

She:

But we are still be paying those energy charges that were added. You remember the laundry added twenty bucks to our bill for the trucking cost? Well, they aren't taking it off even though gas is back down.

Me:

True. And we can't do anything about it. And it sucks.

Labels: bills, business, conversation, economy, expenses, fuel, gas, inflation, laundry, sucks

Posted by: Montana Jones / 8:35 PM 2 comments

Learning experience

Me:

I'm looking forward to B_'s first birthday party. How's our little guy doing?

He:

He is smiling, pooping and climbing up things. He got this bump on the head here when he tried to climb the rock out front.

Me:

Awww, did you take a bump to the noggin? Sounds like a learning experience to me.

She:

He is learning to stand up and to fall over.

Me:

Roll with it little buddy. You are going to have many opportunities in this life to discover that our best learning experiences are also a little painful.

The meeting earlier in the day was decidedly tense. We were determined to do our business on our own terms. BP_ and I had been preparing for weeks. Months in fact. We had the issues spelled out as clearly as possible. We had our goals defined. Our talking points were rehearsed. We were confident. We were prepared to meet anger, antagonism and personal attacks. We even had secret signals ready to help each other out if things started to go badly. It is a difficult thing to confront someone else, demand respect, and insist that they make sacrifices to change the status quo. As with most battle plans, ours did not survive the first contact.

Higher Power chastised us first thing for the stern tone we were taking in our written statements. A lot of people in that room were expecting the worst and in shields up mode. We were able to stand our ground quite successfully. They conceded many points we were not expecting. We conceded on points as well. I learned some things.

I learned that preparation is everything. Even though the battle plan was down in flames in the first moments we still had our goals, resources and a solid knowledge of the ground we were trying to cover.

I learned that while long standing issues are best resolved before they are long standing, sometimes they become long standing because of talking softly. For right or wrong, we had to remind some people that we also carried a big stick.

I learned that if a long standing issue is not getting resolved, being stern and wielding the big stick will suddenly get a lot of attention pointed at the issue. Sometimes more attention than expected. If you are sure you are in the right, and you will know if you did your preparation correctly, you can stand your ground confidently.

I learned that when you rock the boat it makes a lot of people very uncomfortable. Rocking the boat can make yourself very uncomfortable as well. I learned that I do not want to rock the boat very often.

For good or ill the stern tone worked. I don't know if it is the same thing as respect, but I do know that I was taken seriously and the outcome of the meeting was favorable to us. It is a day I will remember for a long time. The experience was a little painful. One year olds are not the only ones that ache for a while after a learning experience.

Labels: ache, business, confidence, conversation, learning, meeting, rock the boat, stern

Posted by: Montana Jones / 5:17 PM 0 comments

Eating Crow

Me:

I went ahead and hired X_

He:

Really?

Me:

Yeah, I didn't want to waste time beating the bushes hoping for someone better. I figure the devil I know is better than the devil I don't.

He:

There is that. Yeah, you could do worse than X_. Sometimes you have to eat crow.

Me:

I understand crow goes well in a cream sauce.

He:

Sauce it up however you can. Add lots of pepper and plenty of wine.

Labels: business, conversation, crow, decision, employees, hireing

Posted by: Montana Jones / 7:40 AM 0 comments

Things I have learned about running a business

I have friends that want to start a small business. I want to give them advice and help them understand what they are getting into, but they are optimistic and enthusiastic and somehow think my insights don't apply to them. I sigh and roll my eyes at them just as they sigh and roll their eyes at me. We are very good friends.

Thinking about the adventure they are undertaking has given me a lot of insight into the adventure I am going through. It has helped me understand some things I have learned. So whether you take it or not, here is my advice for people starting a new business. The things I have learned by running a business.

Everything takes longer than you think it should.

Almost everything I have tried to do in my business has taken longer, and sometimes a lot longer, than I thought it should. Things like hiring employees, changing the menu, printing business cards, making repairs. Nothing terribly hard, but they just take longer than I think they should.

Sometimes it is because you end up waiting on other people. You Email out a question to someone and they take several days to respond. People have to check their schedules, finish their projects, do something in their lives before they can give your issue any attention.

Sometimes it is because you are busier than you think you are. Most jobs have a regular routine with lots of things to do and fitting that one new and extra thing into the schedule is just plain tough. It may be a simple thing, but you still can't stop everything else just to do it.

Sometimes is because of something unpredictable. Road construction delays the trip to the bank or forgetting that one important document and having to go back for it. Your delays could be from illness, or snowstorms or other more important things cropping up. The universe just messes with you sometimes.

I have seen this phenomena before when I was someone else's employee. It was a minor nuisance then, I thought it was an example of the business not being as well run as it ought to be. Now that I am the employer I see it more and more in almost every aspect of the business. It is not just a nuisance, it is a serious obstacle that needs to be planned for and dealt with.

When you are planning your business and your schedule, budget extra time for everything. I don't care what you are trying to get done, be it great or small, everything will take longer than you think it should.

Pay yourself and value your time.

The pay yourself part is hopefully common sense. It is a key point to starting a business in the first place. I have heard from some entrepreneurs the idea that they can just live from the company bank account as needed. When business is good they will draw more cash and live well, in poor times they will draw less for themselves. I'm sure there are many small business people that live this way successfully, but I think it defeats an important part in business decision making; the value of your time.

My philosophy is to put myself on the payroll as the business manager and draw regular paychecks just like any other employee. This has advantages in budgeting, both business and personal, and it makes accounting and tax preparation a little easier. If you ever want more money when the business is doing well, there are ways to get it. Bonus checks or dividends are easy enough.

The real advantage to being on the payroll is that you will know very precisely the value of your time. There are a million things to do when you run a business. Everything from balancing the checkbook to sweeping the floor. If you are paying yourself $10 per hour you can put value on each of those tasks. You can ask yourself "is it really worth it for the business to pay $10 per hour to have the floor swept?" If there is another employee that makes less that $10 per hour it usually makes more financial sense if the lower wage employee did the sweeping while the higher wage employee handles more valuable jobs.

I have seen many business owners trying to save some payroll money by doing the menial chores themselves. Perhaps it saves money, but it also costs time that could be spent on something more profitable.

Another example of the value of your time is in chasing pennies. Comparison shopping can be a fools errand. Say you need something done, like servicing all the fire extinguishers in the warehouse. Start by checking the yellow pages for someone to do this. The first price quote is usually higher than you were hoping for. It is a small business after all and money is tight and if we can just knock a little off this price, things will be better. So you call another service and another and do an internet search and really research that whole fire extinguisher thing. When you finally settle on a contractor you can pat yourself on the back because you got the best deal you could get and saved thirty bucks off the first guys rate. Except for the fact that you blew all afternoon doing it. At your $10 per hour wage it ended up costing $40 of your time to save $30 on an invoice. There comes a point where you will need to quit chasing a good deal because it ends up costing too much. The only way to know where that point is and make a good business decision is to put a dollar value on your time.

Don't take shortcuts.

I remember back in school getting writing assignments. We were supposed to turn in an outline and then do it again and turn in a rough draft and then do it again and turn in the final copy. Talk about a sucky homework assignment, you have to write the same stupid thing three times. A friend of mine had the perfect system for doing these assignments. He would just write the paper. Then he would go through it and take out every third sentence to make the rough draft, and then he would edit that down to the first sentence of each paragraph and make the outline. Submit the parts at the appropriate deadline and you spend way less time doing the homework.

People that know about quality writing are probably squirming at that description. The reason the teacher was so emphatic about the long and ugly process is because those are the steps that are required to produce good writing. The point to the assignment was never the final document, but to learn the process for creating a high quality written work. My friend never understood why he got poor grades in english class and to this day his Emails are painfully difficult to read.

Business is the same way. Making the deposit to the bank is not the point. Closing the sale is not even the point. When you are in business you are going through a process. Planning, supplying, creating, fixing, polishing, selling, servicing, and finally putting the money in the bank. Each step is crucial to what you do before and after. Then you have to do it all again to keep the revenue up. How well you succeed has everything to do with the process and nothing to do with your prowess at making bank deposits.

Some might say that they are improving efficiency, but be very careful that what you are really doing is efficiency and not a shortcut. Efficiency improvements are a similar change to the process, but with a very different outcome. Some rules of thumb: Efficiency will cost you something; shortcuts won't. Shortcuts hurt the quality; efficiency won't.

You can always tell when a business takes shortcuts in their process. These are the businesses that the quality is just not there, or the service is wanting, or you walk away thinking "I can't believe I wasted time on that piece of crap."

This is your business for crying out loud. You should be proud of how well it runs. Your reputation depends on how well you do your job. There are people, customers, employees, suppliers, that are relying on you to do a good job. When you shortcut everyone can tell. Your employees don't want to work as hard, your suppliers stop caring and your customers stop buying. It hurts your business, your reputation and all the people around you when you shortcut the process.

Plan your work and work your plan.

When you first start your small business, you will need a business plan. The only ways you can get by without one is if you are filthy rich and can finance the whole enterprise out of your own pocket, or if the business is so small that you can finance the whole enterprise out of your own pocket. For everyone else you need either bankers or investors to supply the needed money. These bankers and investors won't give you a single damn dime until they see the (formal and written) plan for how you will earn the money to pay them back. In my opinion, if you can't spend four weeks making a business plan you do not have the patience or attention to detail needed to run a business for a year.

The business plan is just the start though. When you get into the nitty gritty details of running a business, having a plan is huge. Sometimes it is as simple as planning the route you will take for your daily errands. When you need to hit the bank, the hardware store, the Costco and the grocery, there is usually a route that is most efficient. It helps to have a plan for what you need at each stop too. The big picture needs a plan too. When you need to do hiring, advertising, procurement and maintenance there is usually an efficient order to do them in. Having a plan for how you will execute each of these items is also pretty key.

Working without a plan means you do things less efficiently and sometimes do things two or three times. This makes your work more expensive and that is death to a small business.

In high season for my business, I depend on a lot of people being in the right place at the right time. That calls for planning. Dinner goes into the oven at a certain time, so supplies have to get delivered at a certain time. For that to happen supplies have to be acquired at a certain time. To make that happen they have to be ordered at a certain time and knowing what to order involves an inventory at a specific time. All these little micro deadlines need to be planned in advance or everything goes to shit in a big hurry. Dinner becomes a fiasco without a detailed plan. Because I spend so much time planning I spend less time dealing with crisis. And because I follow the plan religiously everyone else's job becomes predictable, routine, and dare I say, easy.

Some of these plans get written in big formal looking documents with cover pages and appendixes. Other plans get written on posty notes. Some plans are verbal agreements between people. I have never seen time spent on planning wasted. When you try to do something without a plan, that is when time gets spent fruitlessly.

You are not really the boss around here.

A successful business is all about people. There is the business owner. Sometimes multiple owners. There is staff, could be large or small. Then there are the suppliers. The goods you sell come from someone else. Even if you sell a service you will still need supplies, so the people that supply you count. And then there are other support people around the edges; the landlord, the accountant, the lawyer, the banker. And let's not forget the government. The taxman, the police man, the city council and the governor all have an interest and a say in your business. Last, but not least, let us also count the customer. Every business involves a lot of people.

The smallest business I can imagine effects the lives of only three people (not counting the taxman). A business owner who is also the sole employee and accountant working out of his own home and keeping his money under a mattress. He will need one supplier and one customer to be in business. While I can imagine a business of this small size and structure I cannot imagine what the business does and I would be surprised if the business owner can even earn a living.

A more typical small business will touch the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of people. My own small business has multiple owners, multiple managers, dozens of employees, dozens of suppliers, a reasonable cadre of support from accountants, lawyers, bankers and so forth, and a good deal of oversight from regulatory agencies. When I make a business decision it can touch the lives of easily a hundred people. This does not even take into account the thousands of customers I serve. There are lots of small businesses that touch more people than mine.

There is a romantic notion that the boss is lord of his business realm. That his needs and decisions are the only ones that matter and he can use his capital and decision making power to lord over employees and all that interact with him. Rubbish. Anyone that runs a business this way, especially a small business, is in for troubled times.

The people of a business bring with them a complicated web of cause and effect. For example, if the boss decides to change the budget by cutting wages, then the help becomes disillusioned. Since the boss is not looking out for them they either quit or productivity goes down or quality goes down. This ripples through the company and everyone from the secretary to the customer has to deal with a change in how things are done. So in making decisions, the boss needs to watch out for the interests of the workers if things are to run smoothly. And also watch out for the suppliers interests and the accountants and the city council and so on. Every one of those hundreds of people has the power to make the business owners life more difficult and the power to hurt the company.

When running my business I very rarely feel like the lord of my domain. Sometimes I don't feel like the boss of anything. It is more like everyone else is the boss of me. When I make a decision it is rarely about what I want; it is usually about what is best for the people around me. Strangely enough, that is as it should be for the business to succeed. Business is about people after all. My life does not get easier until I put effort into making life easier for the people around me. I don't succeed until the people I rely on succeed.

Labels: advice, boss, business, employees, Employment, entrepreneur, how to, job, plan, shortcut, small business, time

Posted by: Montana Jones / 9:39 AM 3 comments

Vice President

She:

Wait, I don't get it. Don't you have to be a shareholder to be a director?

Lawyer:

No. You have to be a shareholder to vote for the directors, but a director does not have to be a shareholder.

She:

So we can put Jones on the board of directors?

Lawyer:

Yes. In fact you have to do either that, or elect someone else, or amend the corporate bylaws so that there are only two directors. You will have to do one of those at this meeting.

Me:

Just one question? What does a director do? What are the responsibilities?

He:

Not much. The directors just tell others what to do.

Lawyer:

The board of directors will set the direction for the company. They will approve requisitions and purchases and so forth. Legally they will have the right to speak for the company, like in securing a bank loan or some such thing, a director can sign those documents.

He:

Mostly they just appoint officers and employees to do the actual work.

Me:

So the board of directors basically sits around and thinks big thoughts, then tells everyone else what to do.

He:

You got it.

Lawyer:

The directors will also vote for officers, which your company needs three; a president, a vice president and a secretary/treasurer.

He:

Sounds like a summer club house where the kids get together and say "Hey I'm gonna be president and you be vice president and we aren't gonna let girls join."

Lawyer:

Yeah, it's a lot like that only with more money involved. So how do you want to arrange officers?

She:

Well, I'm happy with how you have handled the secretary/treasurer bit, why don't you just keep that up.

He:

Okay.

Lawyer:

So who gets president and vice president?

Me:

You have seniority, you be president.

She:

Okay.

Me:

Wait. What does the president and vice president do?

Lawyer:

Mainly the president will run the meetings and the vice president will take over in the presidents' absence. The officers also have some powers, you will have the ability to call a meeting of the directors.

Me:

So I can call you guys together if I ever want to show off how many Jell-O shots I can do?

Lawyer:

Yep.

Me:

Sweet! I'm in.

Lawyer:

Congratulations on your appointment Mr. Vice President.

Me:

Thanks. Do I get a special hat or a cookie or something?

Labels: business, conversation, corporation, director, lawyer, meeting, money, shareholder, vice president

Posted by: Montana Jones / 12:19 PM 0 comments

Programming the credit card machine

Guy:

[on phone] Hey, this is Guy. I need you to pull up account XX. Okay. Yeah, we are doing the transmit and it is asking for a password… Okay… Well can we just get rid of that? I've done over 80 of these on the SUX1000 and I have never had to use a password to transmit before… Uh, huh… So I need to tell the customer to just live with it?

Me:

Oh fucking hell.

Guy:

Yeah, do please ask someone. And another thing, we need you to update the address... On the receipts. Yeah, these receipts go to customers and he wants a different address on there... It's box 000... Oh, you can't use a post office box?

Me:

Oh fuck. They are just wrong.

Guy:

So you can put the P.O. box on a second line? Okay, just do it. Oh, you CAN put the right address on? Great thanks.

Me:

And the phone number. Get the right phone on there too.

[later]

Guy:

Okay, lets give it a test. Is that the right address and phone on the slip?

Me:

Yup.

Guy:

And see, it's a one button transmit now too.

Me:

As it should be.

Guy:

At first she wasn't going to do it but when she started hearing all the swearing in the background I think that motivated her.

Me:

Whatever it takes. It's my money not hers.

Labels: business, conversation, credit card, customer, machine, money, motivation, phone, programming, swearing

Posted by: Montana Jones / 9:14 PM 0 comments

That legislature

Me:

So is your staff all lined up for the summer? Everyone ready to go?

BP:

Oh, let me tell you. I had everything ready and all lined up and then, well… You see, K_ works as a _ for the legislature and the damn legislature didn't do their jobs. They have to go to this special session now.

Me:

Yeah, I saw that.

BP:

I haven't heard from K_ yet, but his schedule may be shot. He is so angry. I am angry.

Me:

Everyone is.

BP:

All they had to do was work together and get the job done and they couldn't. And now they have to go do a special session because they were more interested in posing and posturing than in getting the work done. It makes me so mad. All of them; democrats and republicans. None of them could work together.

Me:

I have some opinions about that myself.

BP:

And it is going to cost the taxpayers $37,000 or something to do this special session and no one knows yet when it will be.

Me:

It's in the Montana constitution that the legislature is supposed to make a budget. It's the law. I think the governor should have 'em all arrested and make them finish the budget in jail.

BP:

I think the special session shouldn't happen. At least not on our dime. Make them do coffee roundtables until they have the budget done. Make them do it with Email. Make them finish the job at their own expense and don't let them get together again until it is done and ready to sign. They should do it all with Email, send as many Emails as it takes to get their work done. Just send that damn budget back and forth until they grow up enough to do their job.

Me:

That's a good idea.

BP:

But anyway, my staff is on hold until I hear from K_ about what his schedule will be. And I don't know when he is going to call. He was really looking forward to getting out here this summer and now who knows. And all because of that legislature, it affects us you know.

Labels: budget, business, conversation, governor, legislature, Montana, opinion, politics, special session, staff, work

Posted by: Montana Jones / 8:55 AM 0 comments

Minimum wage sandwich

Me:

I'm already thinking ahead to how we will have to raise rates in 2008.

He:

You know, we didn't used to have to change rates so often. We could go for four or five years before we needed a rate change.

Me:

Well, from watching the last couple years I am convinced that rates will have to go up every year. It's a hassle.

He:

Yeah, food costs are going up, and that minimum wage is going to cost. You know, I have as much empathy for the people living in the ghetto as anyone, but hell, you don't get them out of poverty by lifting up everyone. Raising the minimum wage only makes everything cost more. The cost of every sandwich.

Me:

Around here wages were already up anyway. Doesn't help us.

He:

That's how you can tell what minimum wage is you know, the cost of a sandwich at a restaurant.

Me:

Hmmm, really?

He:

Yup, that's how you tell what the local economy is like somewhere. Go to the lunch counter and order a sandwich, or a hamburger. A basic working mans lunch sort of thing and it will cost roughly what the hourly minimum wage is in that area. Not a McDonalds or fast food, but a sit down sandwich.

Me:

I never knew that. Sounds about right though.

He:

And the minimum wage change is just going make every sandwich more expensive.

Labels: business, conversation, cost, inflation, minimum wage, money, rates, restaurant, sandwich

Posted by: Montana Jones / 8:35 AM 0 comments

Their loss

BP:

I'm not going to use that Missoula company anymore.

Me:

The one that screwed up last year?

BP:

Yeah. They never shipped the right orders at all last year. And they didn't cash one of our checks.

Me:

Really?

BP:

Having seen the place I can believe it. They have no clue what is going or coming, incredibly disorganized. I have a check out to them for $350 that hasn't cleared the bank.

Me:

Their loss.

BP:

Oh totally. And now I know I can't rely on them for supply. I might make one stop there in the spring and pick up a bunch of products off the shelf but I will never try to get a delivery from them again. I can get products somewhere else.

Labels: business, conversation, disorganized

Posted by: Montana Jones / 8:52 PM 0 comments

Tell it like it is Sarpy

Ever since the Missoulian posted their uninformed editorials about how higher wages are the magic bullet solution to employment problems, immigration, free trade and whatever else ails you, I have been hot under the collar about this issue.

Sarpy Sam calls it like it is with an excellent write-up and analysis of some current legislation being worked on. Bottom line, it's anti business and bad for Montana.

Kudos also to the Montana Main Street Blog.
More Ways to Sue Employers
Legislative Attacks on Business

Labels: business, Employment, legislation, links, opinion, work, workers

Posted by: Montana Jones / 5:32 PM 0 comments

My current pet peeves about serving the public

If you don't know what you want, I don't know how to help you. I do enjoy talking to people on the phone, I am a fountain of information and I enjoy sharing it. But I get peeved if you want me to make your decisions for you.

I operate multiple hotels. Saying "I'm staying at your place" or "I want to stay at your place" leaves me pretty clueless about how to help you.

Be specific. Asking for a reservation "sometime in August" is bad. Asking for a reservation "on the first available Thursday in August" is better. Asking for a reservation "on August 8" is best. Every time I try to do something for you with vague instructions you call me up and make changes because I didn't get it right. This is your fault for not telling me what you wanted.

Likewise I cannot plan your vacation itinerary for you. Hire a travel agent or personal assistant. I'm just some guy on the phone and the only thing stopping me from misguiding you for my own entertainment is that I might want to make more money off you next year. And just so you know, the more difficult and time consuming you are the less your money is worth.

No, I cannot give you any good advice on getting from place to place. I am somewhat knowledgeable about how to reach me from various starting points but I am pretty useless when it comes to navigating around Montana in general. If you tell me you want to go from Yellowstone to Glacier through Miles City I am going to nod, smile and tell you that is a great route.

That said, no I don't think Calgary, Boise, or Salt Lake are the best airports to fly into. All the major cities in Montana have airports. We also have television, internet and paved roads.

I don't care about your vacation plans, how long you are staying, why you are coming, who you are visiting or what route you are taking. I'm glad you are excited to visit Montana and these are fine anecdotes to chat about casually but they are useless and annoying interruptions when it comes to getting our business done.

If you want to discuss an existing reservation, one of the first words out of you mouth ought to be the reservation number. That is the best way to tell me who you are. The second best way is to tell me your name. I get peeved when you call and ramble on about whatever problem needs solved. What happens next is I ask for your reservation number and then I make you repeat yourself because the ramble made no sense without the details. Thanks for wasting our time.

Your arrival date, while important, is pretty much useless for looking up your reservation. Don't bother telling me, writing it on your check, in your Emails or other correspondence. Your reservation number or your name is much more useful.

I understand that your friend has invited you to stay as part of her reservation. But it is her reservation and not yours. I cannot make changes to it without her permission. It's her contact info, her credit card and her responsibility. You are just some random person on the phone to me. I need to hear it from the reservation holder if you want to add eight more people.

That said, I am still happy to take your money. But if you change your mind the refund is going to the reservation holder. That is just the way it works.

If you don't like that, you may make your own reservation and become the responsible person. No I will not make your reservation for your friends room. When you make your own reservation you get your own room. That is just the way it works. If you want to share a room with your friend perhaps you should communicate with them and work out which of you will be responsible for talking to me.

When one person in the party drops out, calling me and telling me to cancel a reservation is a bad idea. I am likely to do as asked and cancel the reservation. This means everything gets chucked in the trash and everyone in the group is out in the cold. It would be better if you ask to change a reservation. This really is just a semantic thing but like all businesses mine uses some specific language to mean specific things. Cancel a reservation means 'remove and destroy the entire reservation' which is a little different from 'change the party size'. I have a big red button on my screen that has the word CANCEL in all caps. When I hear the word I start to aim for the button and once it is pressed it can't be un-pressed.

If you want to move your reservation to a different date, please don't call and make a new reservation and then as an afterthought mention you don't need the previous reservation any more. That is twice as much work for both of us. Changing an existing reservation is much easier.

No one owes you anything. I am more helpful to cheerful and fun people than I am with demanding or angry people. And in both cases "no vacancy" means there is no vacancy.

And what is up will all lower case Emails? Even your name! Is the shift key that hard to master? Is all lower case the new black and uber stylish or something? Like using dots instead of dashes in a phone number? But to lower case your name? I'm sorry, but Jones is a much more dignified name than jones. If you are too lazy to use the shift key on your own name it makes you look bad.

Labels: business, hotel, information, pet peeve, rant, reservation, service, work

Posted by: Montana Jones / 9:10 AM 2 comments