In the April 2017 issue of Automatic Merchandiser I wrote the article “How Micro Markets Got Me Fired!” In that article I shared how our micro market division had grown and how I knew it was time to hire a full time micro market manager to take my place. I knew the markets had grown beyond the attention I could give them and that in order for me to maintain a healthy work/life balance it was time to take a backseat in this division to make room for someone else who could devote all of their time and energy to it.
The article looked good in print and I still stand by everything that was written; however, the manager I hired was a no show. Instead of going back to the drawing board and posting a new ad, I fell back into old habits and rehired myself. This has made the last few months at J&J a little hectic, to say the least. I got married (yay!), went on a honeymoon and came back to a colossal mess.
That makes it sound like I think I’m the glue that holds this place together. That is far from the case. Every one of our staff members work hard, every Skidmore (born and adopted) does everything they can each day to make this company a success. However, it’s been a little impossible to keep up these days. Not only have we been growing like crazy but it’s been a challenge, to put it mildly, to hire and keep employees, specifically route drivers. With every staff member, including myself and dad on a route for weeks, I was at my wits end, contemplating abandoning ship, when I heard a podcast that changed my perspective and gave me the hope and courage I needed to keep going.
The inspiration I needed
Before hearing the podcast I thought our company was doomed. It felt like failure was the only option as the workload seriously outweighed the amount of people we had to maintain our level of “koala-t” service. But then I heard David McKeown speak on the different stages of business growth and development and felt like a life preserver had been thrown my way. McKeown lists multiple stages of business growth and decline but I’d like to focus on the third stage, referred to by McKeown, as White Water.
In White Water you’ve made it through two other stages of business growth
1. Start Up
2. Fun – In Fun you’re, well, having fun. You’re starting to turn a profit. You don’t wake up in sweats wondering if you are going to make payroll and you don’t have to decide between which distributors to pay on time. In fun you say yes to every new opportunity and you solve issues through acts of heroism. Fun could also be called firefighter mode because when an issue arises you run to put out the fire and save the day for your customer.
But then something changes. You’ve continued to grow and because you were most likely a visionary starting a business you also believed that you could still manage the growth yourself. But you can’t. You need to bring in more team mates and you need processes and procedures to be in place, that most likely never got implemented during fun because you were too busy putting out fires as they arose. In Fun we are more reactive than proactive.
McKeown states that being in White Water is a lot like flying a plane with a broken landing gear. You say to your co-pilot “I can fix the landing gear once I land the plane.” The problem with that statement is that you have to fix the landing gear while still flying the plane and in business you have to continue to grow while navigating your way out of Water White, which according to McKeown is done by implementing processes and procedures.
McKeown also lists four different types of people:
1. Visionaries
2. Operators
3. Processors
4. Synergists
To find out which you are visit: http://predictablesuccess.info/quiz/quiz.php?id=13
If you’re a visionary/operator like me (which I’m guessing many of you vendors are) you’re going to need to enlist the help of a Processor to get you out of White Water.
Like a true visionary, for a long time I believed I could do it myself, even after April’s article where I acknowledged I knew I no longer could, I still took it upon myself to be the hero. And now 4+ months later I’m dealing with the repercussions.
I placed an ad on Indeed today for a Micro Market Manager and a Processor to come in and help me. I used to view help as a sign of weakness believing that if I was more capable I wouldn’t need help, if I was more organized I wouldn’t need help, if I could just stay up later and get up earlier I wouldn’t need help, etc. Now I’m trying to appreciate myself for who I was made to be. Accepting my weaknesses/strengths and bringing in team members to fill in the strengths that I lack. I’m writing this today hoping to save you from yourself. And to give you hope that if you’re in white water, there is a way out.
The next stage of business is called Predictable Success, I hope to see you there.
Jennifer
For more information on the concept of White Water you can listen to Episode #43 of Buiding a Storybrand at http://buildingastorybrand.com/episode-43/
You can also visit predictablesuccess.com to see what stage of business your company is in and to see which personality type most represents your role in the business. For more articles like this go to www.thevendorsdaughter.com or subscribe to The Vendor’s Daughter (the Podcast) on itunes.
