Chapter 1 Tuesday morning
Slater stared down at the highly polished, wooden table top in front of her. The dark, oval knot in the otherwise pale panel of wood seemed to move and swirl, like the eye of a hurricane when viewed from space. Many years ago that knot was a small branch sprouting out from the main trunk of a towering tree, reaching out towards the sunlight. Possibly hoping that as it grew, it would later produce seeds, which falling to the ground below would spawn saplings that themselves would grow into more lofty trees.
That was how Slater felt when she’d started her own businessbut not anymore. As she shifted her gaze, that knot changed its meaning to her. Now it was simply a blemish on a table top. In fact it was just one of a handful of other knots on the table where she sat, which was, in turn, one table out of twenty others in this, her uncle’s café. And his café was just one of a dozen or so other similar eating venues and coffee shops in town.
Would her business end up being just like that knot? A mark in the pages of time where a business had once lived.
A mug of coffee was placed on the table in front of her, obscuring the troublesome knot from view.
“Wake up Slater, I think he’s here.” It was Uncle Nick’s voice that brought her out of her reverie.
Coffee & Company was the name of Nick’s café which he ran with his wife and daughter, and as it was also the closest one to the small industrial unit that Slater used as the base for her business, this was her regular place for a break. Especially as the coffee was good and the food too, whenever she grabbed a bite to eat. Slater liked the place, as beside it being run by familyit was Nick’s wife who was actually her auntieit usually wasn’t that busy, which frequently allowed her to strike up a conversation with Nick on whatever interesting topic was in the news that day.
It was a few weeks ago when she’d popped in for her usual coffee and noticed that Nick seemed quieter than normal. She’d become quite close to him over time and felt she knew him well enough to ask if everything was okay. Nick told her that business had declined, especially since one of the big coffee shop chains had opened a store not that far away from his. She knew that the insurance company he’d been working at for many years had closed down their offices in town, and as he didn’t have much chance of getting another job, he’d invested his redundancy money and a good chunk of his pension in setting up his own café some years back, but it was barely making a profit these days.
Slater had then shared her own situation with Nick that day, telling him about how she’d started her own kitchen fitting business three years ago, and how she had vision, excitement and hope about what she was doing. The hope was still there but the vision and excitement had faded as her business just made enough to provide a modest living, but no more.
“I’m good at what I do,” said Slater, “and I know that my business could be doing an awful lot better than it currently is. But I’m surprised that you say things aren’t so good for you. Your coffee and food is really amazingand your prices are probably the cheapest in town too.”
“Thanks,” said Nick. “But we just aren’t getting enough customers in. That’s my problem.”
“We’re in very different businesses but with very similar problems,” mused Slater aloud.
“Have you ever got any advice on how to grow your business?” asked Nick.
“I’ve read some stuff online but it’s all so generic. None of it seemed meaningful to my specific situation,” replied Slater.
Nick grunted in agreement, paused, and then said “What if we could find someone to give us some really practical advice?”
“You know someone?”
“No, but I could discretely ask around. Some of my regulars may know someone.”
It turned out one of Nick’s regulars did know someone.
And this someone had just walked in the door.
Nick led a tall, but otherwise indistinguishable man towards Slater’s table. He put the two drinks he was carrying down and introduced Slater to the man, whose name was Zak. They shook hands.
“Zak owns Compleat Home Servicesthe company that has those bright green vans that we see all around,” said Nick.
“I can’t take all the credit as I do have a partner in the business” responded Zak with a smile that Slater thought was one of the most genuine smiles she’d ever seen. I need to practice that she thought.
“Very kind of you to give up your time to meet with us,” said Slater as the two men sat down. “But can I ask you a question?”
“Of course,” replied Zak.
“I’ve seen your vans before with the name on the side, but haven’t you spelled the word compleat wrongly?”
“We get asked that a lot, but it’s the correct spelling as the word compleat means highly skilled or accomplished in all aspects. It describes how we try to be in the services we offer. And it also gets conversations startedjust like you commented now. Our logo even has that word in a different colour to the other two words in our name so it stands out.”
“And that’s a good thing?” asked Slater.
“If we’re at someone’s house, the adults are often too polite to point out the fact that they think we’ve spelled our name wrongbut kids aren’t. And the first thing our workers are trained to do is to give them one of our business cards.” He handed one from his shirt pocket to both Slater and Nick.
“On the front it has our company details as you’d expect, including what we do. But on the back is the definition of compleat.”
They turned the cards over and saw the definition printed there.
“The first thing it does is to provide the tiniest bit of education to the parents. The subtlety is that they are a little bit smarter because of us. The second thing is that ours is probably the first business card that any child has ever received, and as such they talk about it with their parents. Which of course helps to embed ourselves with the parents as potential clients.”
“Neat idea,” said Slater, pocketing the card.
There was a pause in the conversation before Nick spoke.
“Thanks very much for agreeing to meet with us,” he said.
“Well, I couldn’t miss an opportunity like this to learn so much from the two of you, could I?” responded Zak.
Slater and Nick gave each other a look of confusion before Nick spoke hesitatingly “But I thought we were going to be learning from you?”
“All I can do is to tell you some of the things I know. Whether you learn anything from that is entirely up to you. However, if there’s one thing I’ve understood over the past few years, it’s that if you are open-minded and willing, you can learn useful and valuable things from almost anyone. And that’s why I’m here today, to learn from you two.”
“But both our businesses are…” Slater paused and then continued, “stagnant.”
“Stagnant?” repeated Zak in an enquiring tone. He looked at Nick, clearly indicating he wanted his input on this.
“Yes. Another word might be stalled. We both feel we could be doing a lot better in each of our businesses,” said Nick.
“Better? What do you mean by better?” asked Zak.
They both hesitated, not sure what to say.
“I suppose I mean getting more customers so there’s more business coming in,” replied Slater.
“Reducing your prices will definitely get you more business,” replied Zak in a slightly mocking tone.
“That means I’ll have to work harderand potentially for the same money,” replied Slater.
“What do you mean when you say harder? I never understand that word.”
“I mean working more hours in a week,” replied Slater.
“You’re self-employed, so shouldn’t you be willing to do that for the long-term benefit of your business?”
“I suppose so…” said Slater. Her words trailed off as she realised she was getting herself into a loop of confusion.
Slater tried another approach. “I suppose I want to make more money.”
“Wouldn’t working harder do that for you?” said Zak, who smiled the smile again.
Slater realised that she didn’t actually know what she wanted out of her business.
“And what about you, Nick?” asked Zak.
“We are open six days a week as it is, so I don’t want to work longer hours. I just want to get more customers coming here, rather than them going somewhere else.”
“And what are you doing to achieve that?”
“I keep our prices low to compete with the other eating places in town but still try to offer good quality food and drinks.”
“Is that working well for you?”
“We’re just about holding our own and making enough to pay myself, wife and daughter a small wage each week.” He waved a hand in the direction of two women working behind the counter, and continued. “But, I want things to be better for them in the future.” He then waved his other hand around the interior of the café.
“Too many empty tables.”
“You used that word better again,” prompted Zak. “What precisely does that mean for you Nick?”
“More business. But I can’t afford to offer superior food or reduce prices further because I’d start to make a loss otherwise.”
Zak leaned forward over the table and looked at both of them. “You work full-time in your businesses, right?”
Slater and Nick nodded in agreement.
“And you both own your businesses outright don’t you?”
More nods.
“So I imagine your personal and business lives are closely intertwined?”
Even more nods.
“That isn’t necessarily a bad thing by the way. But you are each totally in charge of your business. You could make the decision to close your business down tomorrow or to change into a totally different direction, right?”
“Yes,” agreed Slater and Nick unanimously.
“And you can each decide how your business and work life combine to give you an overall better life, right?”
“Obviously,” answered Slater, beginning to get a little irritated.
“But neither of you can tell me precisely what this better life is that you’re looking for,” concluded Zak.
Both of them sat looking at Zak like rabbits caught in the headlights.
“I can see that neither of you are sure what better actually means for you, so let me explain. Wanting a better life is a completely meaningless term unless you’ve defined what that means for you personally. In truth, everyone on the planet wants a better life. Many people are employed full-time in jobs that they dislike doing, but they still want a better life. Yet they are unwilling to make a change either because they can’t handle the risks or because it seems like too much work for them to do.”
He took a sip of his coffee.
“You two, on the other hand, have already done the hard thing and made the change to be running your own businesses. And a true owner-manged business has only one purposewhich is to grow. But that’s not just growth around financial goals like sales and profits, but to grow the owner running the business in the way that they want to grow. Whether that’s personal development or getting a perfect work-life balance, that’s totally up to you.”
Zak continued.
“There are any number of reasons why people want to start their own business. Some people make the choice because they want to be in control of their own life in order to create a better work-life balance, or to be their own boss and work the hours that suits them. Maybe it’s because it offers financial independence or a brighter future than you’d ever have working for someone else. For some it’s to follow a dream or because they want to make a difference to society in what they do. For others, they had no choice. When they lost their employment they were effectively forced to set up their own business.”
He took another sip of his coffee.
“Whatever the reason, it has to be part of your definition of what will give you a better life. Before we meet again, I want you both to define what you mean by a better life. Does that make sense?”
They nodded in agreement.
“Nick, I know you own and run this café and Slater, all I’ve been told about you is that you’re involved in installing kitchensso let me ask you both a question. Do you enjoy doing the core part of your respective businesses?”
“Absolutely,” replied Slater.
“Definitely,” answered Nick.
“And that’s normally the case when you run your own business. You do something you enjoy doing. Which means you’ve just got to identify ways of growing your business by changing some peripheral aspects of the core business that you do. You two aren’t just starting out, you have several years of experience under your belt, and hopefully you know what you do well and what you don’t do well. But more importantly, the bulk of what you do is right, because that’s the core of your businessand that isn’t going to change. It’s what you are known for and it’s obviously working to a degreebut you just need to improve it slightly. To put icing and cherries on top of your cake to make it better in some way.”
“That makes sense to me,” said Nick.
“Me too,” added Slater.
“So over the next two weeks I’m going to help you to re-design both your businesses. Agreed?” said Zak more as a statement than a question.
“Agreed. But we should probably talk about money for this,” suggested Slater shyly and looking towards Nick.
“How much are you going to charge me?” asked Zak.
“Surely you’ll be expecting payment from us for this?” said Slater, confused again.
“Let’s agree to learn from each other. Anyway, as my business is bigger than both yours, then I’ll potentially get more value from you than you will from me.”
“At least let us provide the coffee each time,” offered Nick.
“Okay, you’ve got a deal there. We’ll meet here at eight o’clock each morning for the next two weeks. But there’s something else I’ll need from you bothand that’s commitment.”
“In what way?”
“You must have the attitude that you want to change. Recognise you have to give something up to make timebecause change takes time. You probably can’t give anything up in your daytime as you are busy working in your business. But what will you give up in your personal life in order to make some time to change?”
“How much time do we need for this?”
“About 90-minutes each evening for the next two weeks. But it’s essential you give up something to make the time as a signal to yourself that you’ve made a change. For example give up a bit of time watching television or catching up on social media. It’s up to you, but you have to commit to change. Can you do that?”
“Of course,” replied Slater, “but can I ask you a question?”
“Sure,” Zak replied.
“What are you going to do with things you learn from us?”
Zak laughed.
“I’ll tell you. We’ve agreed that we’re going to re-design your business right? Now, given where you both are, there will be some significant changes to be made to give you a slightly new direction and to help you build momentum in that new direction. However, when you get that momentum, you don’t want to be making any more major changesyou want to be making smaller changes that help increase your required momentum in some way. Have you heard the old adage that you can be too busy working in your business that you’ve no time to work on your business?”
“Yes.”
“Every month I take a half-day off from working in my business to spend that time working on my business. This is when I consider all the changes I made in the previous month to see how well they’re working and to review all the things I’ve learned over the past month to see what smart changes I could make for the coming monthor longer. This is me constantly improving my business for the coming period.”
“So we’re going to make a plan are we?”
“No. A new business needs to have a plan to keep them on track, and a plan is something that you stick to. You’ve already got a business that’s working to some degree so you don’t need a planyou’re going to have a Blueprint, which is different.”
“How?” asked Nick.
“A Blueprint allows you to have options to choose from. To do different things in different situations. It’s similar to a plan but without the rigidity as it offers you flexibility. If something works you can immediately do more of it. If something doesn’t work you either stop doing it or change it. Plans don’t offer this flexibility, but a business Blueprint does.”
“So it’s like a map where there are different routes you can take to get to a destination?” suggested Slater, making sure she understood the approach.
“Partly, but with a map the routes are already pre-defined. A blueprint helps you to create your own roads to your own pre-determined destination.”
“So it’s like a map without any roads on?”
“Precisely, and this allows you to create the roads to where you want to go. Some roads will be highways while others will be meandering drives. All totally dependent upon what you want to do and where you want to get to. Some of the roads will develop as you drive along them for you may not be sure what the end-destination isjust that it’s a direction in which you want to go.”
“Interesting,” said Slater. “But how will you use what you learn from us?”
“It’s two weeks until my next Blueprint review and so let’s aim to be finished by then. That will allow me to apply what I’ve learned from you into that review, and it will get you both into a new place without overly burdening your time. Does that make sense?”
They both agreed it did.
“When I review my Blueprint, that’s me trying to work smarter, and not harder. It’s one of the most enjoyable parts of my business too and I’ve come to look forward to this time each month.”
“So what should we be doing first?” asked Nick, keen to get started.
“For our next meeting tomorrow, I want you to think back on why you started your own business in the first place, and to answer these three questions.”