Are You Settling For Something When You Shouldn't?

By late 1995 a small environmental retail storeIstarted a few years earlier was heading to be one of the largest and better-known in the country at that time.

We had raised a large amount of capital and opened our second store location inNew York. And we hired what we thought was an incredible store manager to run it.He had retail management experience from a major and well-known retail chain and he was a customer of ours and loved the store’s concept and vision.

And he was a nightmare to work with.

Within a month, his behavior shifted to consistently challenging my brother and my decisions, complaining in front of our staff about our incompetencies as owners, and having temper tantrums in front of customers.

Yet my brother and I justified this manager’s behavior because was the experienced retailer and he certainly knew how to run a store better than we did. We felt we needed to adjust and learn to accommodate his attitude and placate him as best we could.

But then business turned for the worse in the store he was managing. The store “energy” of the staff and customers was dramatically lower than in our other location.

I fired this manager the day I found more than $13,000 missing from the weekend’s cash sales missing. And he was the only one with access to the store’s safe.

The day after I fired him, a staff member came up to me and thanked me. She told me he was constantly complaining to the staff about my brother and me in front of customers.

She also told me he was doing drugs during store hours in the basement of the store with other employees.

Within a month of replacing him, the store turned around dramatically. The staff started to have fun and customers noticed a significant difference.

Action Steps for the Week:

Where are you settling when you should not be? By the way, this doesnothappen just in business!

What are you telling yourself to justify your current state of affairs? Do you tell yourself, it’s:

·the economy,

·your cash flow,

·your management team,

·the industry,

·the weather,

·the time of year

Are you really being honest with yourself?

Most likely you know what the real issue is, and if you are like most people, you are a bit intimidated to deal with it.

Not to worry. Just a) define the problem, b) identify the steps that must be taken, c) understand the consequences if you do not take these measures, and d) take the first step this week.

Don’t wait until you have $13,000 missing from your safe before taking action.

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