In my previous post I wrote about the problems that business owners encounter when they start the businesses. As a follow-up to that post and a continuation, today I am writing about these problems that I personally experienced in the business. These are not just the generic topics but the actual problems that I encountered. Today I'll discuss the first four and the balance on my next posts.
THE OWNER AND THE LABOUR/STAFF
What I notice is that the owner has the background of the business and he knows exactly why he started the business in the first place. As an owner, you did the research, plan this concept, market the concept and finally make it a reality. When you do all these things, unfortunately you are only and your prospective future staff members are not there. When you want execute and start the business then you had to employ people who will assist you in developing your business.
Thats when the problems start. Your staff were not there when you start and they do not have the background that you have. Even if you try to explain to them, sometimes they don't see the way you see. Unfortunately when you have staff that sometimes does not understand your business, they are bound to kill your business.
Another issue that I notice is that when you want to start a business, make sure that you differentiate the owner-business and labour business. For example, my business is a car wash, in order to wash cars I will need additional staff to assist me. In this case, I was not even part of the team that washes the cars since I am full-time employed. The worse part of all is that my car wash is not a normal car wash, but an advanced car wash which does not use water. So imagine, I am running a specialise business yet I am not hands on. The point is unlike a normal business where anyone can run like for an example a spaza shop, it's easy to appoint someone to run but a specialise business, you need to be personally hands on during the infant stage in order to make sure that it develops.
MARKET PREFERENCES AND KNOWLEDGE
As I explained above, my car wash is not a traditional car wash which uses water and soap, but it's a waterless car wash. During my market reaserch, people I spoke to knew about the type of service I was talking about since it's a new concept but in big towns it is already there. When we introduce this business concept, there are very few people who knows about it which makes it difficult for us to penetrate the market. The knowledge of the market is a very big problem since it will take time for them to understand the concept. On top of that, the market have different preferences when it comes to new products and it's not an easy task to convince them to see the difference between your product and your competitors.
THE IMPORTANCE OF A FIXED BUSINESS SITE
During my preparation and planning, my car wash intended to be a mobile car wash with no fixed site. The intention was to go direct to the customers instead of the customers coming to the car wash and wasting hours for the car to be cleaned. But the customers who we were suppossed to go them, do not wash the cars daily and what about other customers who are not office-bound? Well the answer to that was the presence in the shopping parkings. So I thought I had it all planned, but I was wrong. The idea is not wrong but the problem is the understanding of the idea. The concept and the idea has not change but what if the other side change personnel? What happened here is that one of the parkings where we wash cars has changed the site manager and this personnel does not understand the idea and he is not willing to listen. The worse part is that this was the busiest parking. When you have a fixed site, that's when it comes in and it would have been easy to move your customers to your site. But this option of fixed site would mean we are no longer different to the traditional car wash where the customers need to you and wait for their cars spending hour doing nothing.
INTERGRITY AND TRUSTWORTHY
As the business owner, you start the business with the aim of making profit otherwise you will start a charity. So if you are not personally hands on and you rely on your staff to take care of the business, you are likely to experience cash or stock embelzment. Your staff there also work in order to earn salary which will feed them and their families. In my case, when I start the business, I make sure that I involve family members to help in the business. People are human beings and they think the same, so even if the member steal, they won't kill your business like an outsider. Then what happened if the family member is not availble or no longer available?
That's exactly what happened to my car wash. My brother who was running the car wash had to leave the town. I was then had to rely to other staff members who were not family members. Initially they were doing fine until they bring their own family members to the business.Then the sales started to slow down, yet the products didn't go down. On top of that the patterns changed, the car that used to use 1 full tank for the full month started to use the full tank within a week. The speedometer showed that the kilometers travelled per day were ridiculous compared to the radious and trips it's supposed to travel.
Fortunately when I started this car wash, I spoke to my colleage who had a car wash before but it closed down because staff were stealing and the business was running at big losses because of stealing and high fixed rent. So I had already planned for this problem well in advance even though my staff was not aware. As a result when this happened I just told my staff that I can see that the sales are down and product usage its not down. I then showed him that the output from these product is supposed to be how much.
THE OWNER AND THE LABOUR/STAFF
What I notice is that the owner has the background of the business and he knows exactly why he started the business in the first place. As an owner, you did the research, plan this concept, market the concept and finally make it a reality. When you do all these things, unfortunately you are only and your prospective future staff members are not there. When you want execute and start the business then you had to employ people who will assist you in developing your business.
Thats when the problems start. Your staff were not there when you start and they do not have the background that you have. Even if you try to explain to them, sometimes they don't see the way you see. Unfortunately when you have staff that sometimes does not understand your business, they are bound to kill your business.
Another issue that I notice is that when you want to start a business, make sure that you differentiate the owner-business and labour business. For example, my business is a car wash, in order to wash cars I will need additional staff to assist me. In this case, I was not even part of the team that washes the cars since I am full-time employed. The worse part of all is that my car wash is not a normal car wash, but an advanced car wash which does not use water. So imagine, I am running a specialise business yet I am not hands on. The point is unlike a normal business where anyone can run like for an example a spaza shop, it's easy to appoint someone to run but a specialise business, you need to be personally hands on during the infant stage in order to make sure that it develops.
MARKET PREFERENCES AND KNOWLEDGE
As I explained above, my car wash is not a traditional car wash which uses water and soap, but it's a waterless car wash. During my market reaserch, people I spoke to knew about the type of service I was talking about since it's a new concept but in big towns it is already there. When we introduce this business concept, there are very few people who knows about it which makes it difficult for us to penetrate the market. The knowledge of the market is a very big problem since it will take time for them to understand the concept. On top of that, the market have different preferences when it comes to new products and it's not an easy task to convince them to see the difference between your product and your competitors.
THE IMPORTANCE OF A FIXED BUSINESS SITE
During my preparation and planning, my car wash intended to be a mobile car wash with no fixed site. The intention was to go direct to the customers instead of the customers coming to the car wash and wasting hours for the car to be cleaned. But the customers who we were suppossed to go them, do not wash the cars daily and what about other customers who are not office-bound? Well the answer to that was the presence in the shopping parkings. So I thought I had it all planned, but I was wrong. The idea is not wrong but the problem is the understanding of the idea. The concept and the idea has not change but what if the other side change personnel? What happened here is that one of the parkings where we wash cars has changed the site manager and this personnel does not understand the idea and he is not willing to listen. The worse part is that this was the busiest parking. When you have a fixed site, that's when it comes in and it would have been easy to move your customers to your site. But this option of fixed site would mean we are no longer different to the traditional car wash where the customers need to you and wait for their cars spending hour doing nothing.
INTERGRITY AND TRUSTWORTHY
As the business owner, you start the business with the aim of making profit otherwise you will start a charity. So if you are not personally hands on and you rely on your staff to take care of the business, you are likely to experience cash or stock embelzment. Your staff there also work in order to earn salary which will feed them and their families. In my case, when I start the business, I make sure that I involve family members to help in the business. People are human beings and they think the same, so even if the member steal, they won't kill your business like an outsider. Then what happened if the family member is not availble or no longer available?
That's exactly what happened to my car wash. My brother who was running the car wash had to leave the town. I was then had to rely to other staff members who were not family members. Initially they were doing fine until they bring their own family members to the business.Then the sales started to slow down, yet the products didn't go down. On top of that the patterns changed, the car that used to use 1 full tank for the full month started to use the full tank within a week. The speedometer showed that the kilometers travelled per day were ridiculous compared to the radious and trips it's supposed to travel.
Fortunately when I started this car wash, I spoke to my colleage who had a car wash before but it closed down because staff were stealing and the business was running at big losses because of stealing and high fixed rent. So I had already planned for this problem well in advance even though my staff was not aware. As a result when this happened I just told my staff that I can see that the sales are down and product usage its not down. I then showed him that the output from these product is supposed to be how much.
