Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all we had to do to
build a successful business is work hard? While I do believe that the harder
you work, the luckier you will get, every business and its people will
encounter plenty of hard times along the way. Although it doesn’t feel like it
at the time, those challenges are all part of the game of business and exactly
what the doctor ordered to build the character and survival skills you need to
survive long term.
Have you ever had an employee come to work for your
company with the idea that, because you have been in business so long, you are
flush with cash, and your company just sails along through beautiful waters?
Then, once he finds out how tough you have to dig every day to survive, he wonders
what he got himself into.
Some just can’t endure the rough times and will run like
scared rabbits for the door! Luckily, others stay, even in the hardest of
times. I guess some people don’t believe there are actual day-to-day struggles a
business faces that may cause it to fail. Well, these people are living in a
different world than the one that my companies compete in! In my world, I need
and look for survivors.
We brought in a CFO who left a really good job to
join our team in 2008. Wow, was timing bad for him! As soon as he arrived, the
bottom dropped out of the construction market, which every company I own was
centered around. With his understanding of numbers, I am sure he could see that
we were bleeding like a pig with his throat cut. I often worried that he may
throw up his hands, say “uncle,” and leave, because this guy had not had a
chance to experience any good times with us.
During his first three years, we had to make tremendous
changes and cuts, some I never thought I would do, but it was all about mere
survival. During that time, he never wavered though, worked even harder to
prove to the financial people that our company would survive when others in our
industry weren’t, and I’m sure he lost some sleep (but probably not as much as
I did).
Things are a little better now, but not without the help of him and the
rest of the management team who stood by my side. If I would not have
experienced it firsthand, I would never believe the character this has built into
my CFO and the managers who dug in their heels and stayed the course with me.
And, the best part of all, I believe they are now equipped with survival
skills.
The only way a football team has a winning season is
through tremendous pain during training and daily workouts. For great
employees, managers and owners, these painful daily workouts are no different
than athletes. They are just more mental than physical effort to get through the
painful times. In either case, those that work the hardest, and can endure the
most pain, will obtain character and survival skills it takes to develop a
winning team.
When you put it all together, it makes sense that
most businesses don’t survive long term. According to the Small Business
Administration, only one-third of family-owned businesses survive the
transition from the first to the second generation. If you happen to survive
that phase, according to the Family Firm Institute, only 12 percent of
family-owned businesses stay viable into the third generation, and only 3
percent are alive at the fourth-generation level and beyond.
I believe a large
part of these slim success rates is due to the successors not having to endure
the hard times that Dad or Grandpa did. Therefore, due to the blood, sweat and
tears already shed, along with the equity already being in place, when hard
times come, the successors don’t know what to do as they didn’t personally have
to work through the lean years to learn true survival skills.
So, remember this, your
business needs those who believe in you, regardless of how hard times get. If
they don’t want to deal with the hard times that are present daily or sure to
be coming, then you are alone. You just don’t know it yet. Search within your
organization (and outside it, if they are not within) to find not only the best
qualified people to help you succeed, but those that believe in you regardless
of how hard things seem during those daily workouts. These people will build
character and develop the survival skills it takes for a company to survive
long term.
Damian Lang operates four companies
in Southeast Ohio, including a masonry contracting firm. He is the inventor of
many labor-saving masonry systems and equipment he and his customers throughout
the country use. He is also the author of the book “Rewarding and Challenging
Employees for Profits in Masonry.” To order a copy of his book, or to network
with Damian on these tips or tips you have and would like published, contact
him at dlang@langmasonry.com or 740-749-3512.
All rights reserved, ©2013 Damian Lang, President of Lang Masonry Contractors, Inc., and EZ Grout Corp.
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