How we think about our business and ourselves has a lot to do with how far we go. I was reminded of this recently while speaking at the Annual Conference of a large automotive repair franchise.
To make a decent living in that industry, a ‘garage’ needs to do at least a half million dollars in sales. So I asked the group why so many of them were below that magic number. The reasons came thick and fast. Some franchisees said, “We don’t have the best locations.” Others said, “We can’t get good staff.” or, “Our location isn’t big enough.”
Then, one insightful franchisee stood up and told the truth, “Our real problem is that we don’t have enough half-million-dollar thinkers.” WOW …that’s brilliant. We need to “think” we can. We need to see the possibility and believe that it can be achieved.
Then, we need to create a clear and specific Action Plan to make it happen. We need to look at every part of our business to see where we can serve better, operate more efficiently and communicate our value story more effectively.
All of this requires the right talent. Everyone on our team is either part of our value or part of our problem. Reward and celebrate performance and deal quickly and fairly with non-performance.
Finally, we need to create ‘fans’ who will tell others about us. Remember, what we say about ourselves, nobody much believes anymore…but what others say about us is ‘gospel’. Social Media is the new gospel.
How do you see your business or department? What could it become? What would ‘extraordinary’ look like? Change your thinking, take effective action…and change your results!
