The 3 B’s That Could Kill Your Business
November 29, 2007
There are 3 B’s you must keep out of your business - unless you want to suffer the consequences. These are backstabbers, blackmailers and blockheads.
At Kwik Fix, we’ve been lucky enough so far to avoid employing people with the above characteristics. But, just before I left Rainbow International, I spoke to a franchisee who unfortunately possessed all of the 3 B’s. And the sad fact is, he could have ruined the business for the entire network. And all because the company encouraged backstabbers, blackmailers and blockheads.
If you think I’m exaggerating the effect of employing any of the three B’s in your business, read on to discover just how harmful it could be:
We’ll call the above mentioned franchisee Mr B for simplicity. Now as you can imagine, one of the most dangerous things about franchising is that if a franchisee screws up badly, it can have a negative impact on the whole network. And of course, you wouldn’t expect a franchisee to screw up deliberately, because he’d be harming his own business too. If he did, he must be a real blockhead right?
Unfortunately Mr B was a blockhead, backstabber and blackmailer rolled into one. And here’s why:
1) He was a blockhead because he allowed his staff to make harmful videos about his own company, at work and broadcast them on You Tube. The videos were so bad that any customer viewing them would never have used Rainbow International again. And if an insurer, or competitor had seen them, the whole network would almost certainly have lost a big contract.
The videos featured idiotic practices such as a member of staff sitting on the toilet (with his trousers and underwear down). Staff smashing up customers furniture with a sledge hammer, dancing about on it and even pushing along furniture with a pick up truck. Now, I should imagine that much of this furniture would have been flood damaged, but this showed a massive lack of respect for the customers belongings. And the company logo was used throughout the videos, so there was no doubt as to which company was involved.
By the time I discovered the videos on You Tube, I only had a couple of weeks left with Rainbow. But, I was so upset that I had to turn one of them off half way through. I was worried that a) Some of my former customers would see it and think this is how Rainbow behaved throughout the network (and of course it wasn’t). b) The people who were buying my business would see it and be put off (and I wouldn’t have blamed them). c) A major insurer would see it and cancel a national contract, which would have had a detrimental affect on the businesses of the remaining franchisees.
2) He was a blackmailer: I emailed the franchisee involved as soon as I discovered the videos, and also two managers at Rainbow because I was desperate to get the videos removed at once. When he finally called me the following day, I expected him to want them taken down too. In fact, I thought he’d be devastated to discover that his staff had risked jeopordizing his business. So you can imagine how shocked I was to discover that he actually knew all about them, and had given his staff permission to make the videos at work and broadcast them on You Tube.
When I suggested that the videos be removed immediately, the guy said that would inconvenience one of his staff members on a Sunday. He then went on to tell me that he was very important and well thought of, whereas I was not.
Incase you don’t know, Rainbow are owned by ISS. And Mr B told me that he was so important that he had the direct line number to the office of one of ISS’s Directors and he had been told to call whenever he wanted something.
Now, the trouble is, when a blackmailer is given too much power, he doesn’t have to actually have anything on you to get away with the blackmailing. If he’s allowed to get away with what he wants, he can just make something up.
But, his tone changed dramatically when I told him I only had two weeks left with Rainbow anyway. Removing power from a blackmailer can be amazingly satisfying. Plus, he also had the videos removed immediately. In fact, I watched them being deleted on the computer screen whilst he was still on the phone.
So, how did he get away with all this? Because the company allowed and encouraged backstabbers.
3) He was a backstabber: When Mr B realised that I couldn’t be blackmailed and he’d just shot himself in the foot by threatening me, he attempted to get round me by sharing top secret info with me. He explained how he and three others had secretly arranged a meeting with the Director of ISS in attempt to have the Managing Director of Rainbow International sacked, and they had been successful.
Now, their reasons for doing so had been fair enough. They blamed him because the network had not been paid by RSA. He’d insisted upon collecting payments centrally and not put staff in place to do so.
But the way it was done was sneaky and ISS should not have encouraged franchisees to go about it in this way. For a start, they should already have been aware that their franchisees weren’t being paid anway. It is one thing to buy a business and not actually be involved in the day to day running of it. But to invest in a business, then forget about it completely is foolish.
And to encourage Mr B to backstab and give him a number he could use whenever he wanted anything was just plain stupid. Can you imagine how much trouble the business might have been in if he’d been able to get away with blackmailing me, and left his damaging videos on You Tube?
After Mr B had told me his story he explained that he was very important, and if I kept my mouth shut about the incident, he would be very grateful and would owe me a huge favour. Well, I could’ve called in that favour - I could have asked him to use that direct line to make sure that I got any outstanding payments that are still owing to me.
But, I don’t want favours from idiots who try to blackmail me. And I should be able to get paid what I’m owed without using some exclusive direct line number. And people like Mr B should realise that you should never try to blackmail a blogger who has principles.
Have you ever encountered people like this big, arrogant assh..e in your business, or at work? How did you deal with them?
The story doesn’t end there. After I’d finished writing this post, I decided it would be wise to check that Mr B’s staff had not put the videos back on You Tube. One of them had in fact made a video specially for me, shot straight from his boss’s office. If you really want to see if you can find it here: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=4101132
It isn’t really worth watching, but basically he accuses me of trying to lose him his job, and brags about how I failed. And he’s still going to go on making videos.
It’s a bit sad that Mr B didn’t have the sense to educate his staff on the danger their videos had put his business in, not to mention the livelyhoods of many other franchisees. And also that he allowed them to make another stupid video in his office. But, of course he can do what he wants - he still has that direct line number.
Do You Dream About Your Business?
November 29, 2007
Have you lost sleep, due to business problems? Do you dream about your business? Have you ever analysed your dreams, to see how they relate to your business problems?
A couple of nights ago, I woke up during a vivid nightmare. I dreamt that I’d got out of the bath, and for some reason, I then walked out of the house in my bathrobe. I walked round to the back door to discover that I was being burgled.
The nightmare was both scary and bizarre. And I always get up as soon as I wake up. So I shot out of bed pretty quickly as I was concerned that I really had been robbed. Thankfully I hadn’t. But unfortunately, I realised it was only 2 am so I began to try to analyse my dream, and realised it probably relates to my business.
If you have strange dreams, it is often worth analysing them, as they may relate to difficulties you are having in your business. And even if you don’t get up when you wake up, as I do, it is worth keeping a notebook by your bed. No matter how vivid a dream appears to be, it’s memories will often fade away if you don’t write it down or talk about it immediately.
So how do you go about analysing your dreams? Well, I’m not expert by any means - but here’s how I analysed mine:
First begin with the main theme of the dream: Mine was about being robbed. So, I asked myself whether I worry about my home being broken into and it’s fair to say that it’s nothing I worry about a lot. So I then asked myself if I worried about being robbed in another way, or if I’ve felt robbed recently.
Well, I was actually robbed before I left Rainbow - I had an awful lot of equipment stolen. But, I felt that the dream related more to bad debtors, as they have been consuming a fair bit of my time recently. Since starting Kwik Fix, we’ve been very careful - re: folks who try to get out of paying. You always get the odd one, and I’m happy to say that we’ve managed to collect in every penny so far.
But, unfortunately, I still have many aged debts from when I was with Rainbow. I’m trying to tackle them one at a time, and unfortunately - the first one I chose to tackle has been difficult and my solicitor has now taken out a winding up order against the other company.
As the business who owes me is a limited company, I have been able to get hold of their abbreviated accounts, from Companies House. And I’m not happy to note that they’ve been repaying themselves the money they put in to the business to begin with in large quantities. Now, they are not personally liable for any debts, so if they manage to strip the business of all it’s assets before they are wound up, I’m unlikely to get any money. So, I suppose the fact that I feel robbed doesn’t come as a surprise.
Next begin to dig a little deeper: What elements of your dream surprised you? Did any part of it seem a little strange or bizarre?
Here’s the list I came up with from my dream and the way I interpreted it:
1) The house wasn’t the one I live in now. It looked more like a flat I lived a few years ago - the worst place I’ve ever lived in!
I’m wondering if I worry on some level that if I don’t manage to collect in money owed to me, that I could wind up living in an equally awful place in the future.
2) I did initially challenge one of the burglars as soon as I saw him, which is something I never thought I would do - for safety’s sake.
I think this probably symbolised the fact that I am more outspoken now than I used to be. At one time, I would avoid rocking the boat, because I like life to be simple. For example, I would grit my teeth and put up with bad service and disgusting food without saying a word. But now, I complain a lot.
Now, nobody is perfect, and I always accept the odd cock up. But I can’t stand persistently bad service and I still think we put up with way too much in this country - particularly in restaurants. Standards are way higher in the States. So I don’t put up with it. Most recently, I had such appalling service in a restaurant that I visit often that I told the so called Manager that service is only bad when he is there. And that his staff are lazy b…..ds when he is on duty, because of the example he sets.
Sometimes I wonder if I don’t go over the top a bit when I complain and whether my life wouldn’t be easier if I kept my mouth shut. So maybe me challenging the burglar in the dream reflected my concerns. Perhaps I worry that complaining will put me in a dangerous position?
3) I came across a policewoman, after I was robbed, but she wasn’t much use at all. And she kept trying to call for back up, but nobody answered the phone - she even tried calling 999 and nobody answered!
I think this is related to my general mistrust of people in authority. I began legal proceedings against this company a year ago, but the courts have really messed me about. So, it is fair to say that I don’t have a lot of faith in the judicial system right now.
4) At one point, I came across the burglars. They were parked in the middle of the road in a limo. One of the occupants was a woman and she denied the things were mine. I got into a big scuffle with them and managed to grab some of my belongings back.
I believe the woman in the limo probably represents one of the Directors of the company who owes me money, and the limo represents her extravagence. Many times, when we have called to speak to her about the debt, her admin person has told us she has gone on a trip to London. You probably already know that London is a pretty expensive place to visit, so her continuous extravagence annoyed me, given that she couldn’t even pay her debts. And her behaviour in the limo probably represents the many lies she has told us when we’ve called to chase up the debt.
5) The contents of the bags I retrieved from the burglars were things I no longer wanted that I threw out earlier this year!
This part of the dream was truly disappointing. Am I trying to get back, or hang onto things I don’t really want? Does this relate to my business? I’m not sure? I am in the process of selling something privately that I don’t want to own anymore, to raise funds to expand the business. And at one point, I considered not selling at all.
But, when I examined my reasons for not wanting to sell, I realised that it was not the fact I didn’t want to sell that was bothering me. It was the fact that I’d made a mistake in buying to begin with, and by selling, I was admitting that mistake to myself. And also, I guess I don’t like having to sell things to help grow my business, just because I am unable to collect in money owing to me.
Do you have strange dreams or nightmares? Have you tried analysing them? Have you managed to work out how they relate to your business, or your life in some way? Please share in the comments section.
How Do You Motivate Yourself When The Going Gets Tough?
November 28, 2007
When the going gets tough in business, sometimes it can be hard to motivate yourself. I often go through phases where I feel like giving up, or at the very least consider the possibility of a whole brain transplant.
So how do you keep yourself going?
Let the music guide you: I just found this motivational music compilation by John from Duct Tape marketing. If you’re motivated by that type of thing you should check it out. At the very least, it will definitely cheer you up. Click here to listen.
Get a kick up the butt in your mail box: I subscribe to Richard Denny’s daily motivational quotes and they often give me a kick in the right direction. If you’re inspired by quotes like the following gem, click here to read some more: “Some people dream of success….. while others wake up and work hard at it. Richard Denny.
Let other people’s cock ups inspire you: You might feel as though you have the world on your shoulders. But there’s always been someone else in a worse situation. And reading about how they overcame it can be truly inspiring. For example, Ian Denny’s was in a business equivalent situation of a ship teetering on the edge of Niagara Falls. But he managed to turn things round and you can too. Read how he did it at Phoenix From The Ashes.
Brainwash yourself: We use self hypnosis downloads regularly - and they work. Click here to check out the huge range of self hypnsosis downloads available on this site.
Is Your Marketing Message Clear?
November 28, 2007
Is your marketing message clear? Can people tell exactly what you’re selling by browsing through your brochure or website?
You may think they can but don’t just take it for granted. For example, I thought our Kwik Fix website was pretty straightforward and explained our services clearly. But, I realised I was very wrong when a company called, after finding us on the Internet and asked us to rent them a huge industrial drain clearance machine.
Now, we don’t rent out equipment and whilst we do clear domestic drains, we don’t do industrial ones. But, somewhere on our site, we must have given the impression that we do.
And we’re not the only company to make this mistake. Recently I was comparing cruise prices. And I came to the conclusion that Cunard were complete robbers, because their brochure prices were significantly higher than the prices available on Internet travel sites.
It almost put me off booking altogether. Because I figured if they were going to stiff me that much before I even got on the blooming boat, they’d really rip me off once I was a captive at sea.
What I didn’t realise was that the cruise price included flights. It did mention flights somewhere on the price page - but it didn’t actually say flights were included. And that made a huge difference, because they were actually providing something which was of greater value.
The point is, if people don’t know what you’re selling, then you’re not making it easy for them to buy from you. So you lose sales.
Don’t take it for granted, as I did, that your marketing materials are straightforward and even an idiot could understand what your business is about. Try looking at them through the eyes of a stranger. Or better still, get someone else to look at them to ensure that your marketing message is clear.
And get them to glance through your materials quickly rather than read the whole thing, to see what actually stands out. Not everyone has time to read every single word, and they’ll often just glance through first - just as I did with the Cunard brochure.
