This month I’ve taken different direction from what I normally write about. As you know, I try to discuss, explain and help small businesses in this industry move in a positive, forward and profitable direction. Most companies that I get the opportunity to work with are highly motivated and want to help their company reach its next level. They seem to instinctively know and believe that if they are successful in doing so, it will make their company a better place for all involved. They work long hours themselves and they have no problem asking others to work long hours with them. They want the company to get better and they make a lot of promises to themselves and the others that they work with. The promises are both spoken and unspoken. They don’t realize that in their excitement as to how it’s going to be in the future is heard by others as fact. They believe, or at least would like to believe, that they can count on the “promises” made to them and to the company.
For example, an owner in the startup phase of a business will say something like, “Work hard and you will have a place in the company’s future.” To some employees, they take that as a job for as long as they want to be there. They are then quite surprised when the business grows and goes and they are let go at a point in the future because they no longer fit the mold that the company needs to move forward.