You are a small business, you want to deliver the best product or service to your client, you only have two hands serving your market, but each customer expects you to deliver like they are your only customer. And, the business is growing faster than you can handle.
Yikes!
What to do?
Get help!
In business, the customer is king, they say. Businesses aim to please. Small businesses are limited in their resources so they may not be capable of pleasing as quickly or as easily as their big competitors, but the customer just wants good service or product…what they consider to be fair exchange for the money that they give your business.
Let me illustrate with a story of a tailor that I know. Tailors in Nigeria are notorious for their poor service and this one was no different. This tailor, who had just started out in business, was introduced to a client. A sort of good-faith, based-on-relationship, introduction. If the tailor was able to satisfy this customer, there was a good chance that her business would benefit from that introduction because of the societal status and network of that customer. The customer paid upfront and the tailor gave her a delivery date.
Over a month after the promised delivery date, the customer had not received the clothes that she paid for. The tailor had excuses from illness to other family issues. This tailor was not cheap, mind you. She was charging top fees for her services. When she finally delivered the clothes almost six weeks late, the clothes did not fit right. They were too small. And no, the client had not gained weight in the six weeks.
Will this client use this tailor again? The answer would be a big, fat NO! Will the client refer this tailor to any of her friends and/or colleagues? NOT A CHANCE!
When you are serious about your business, you must get the help that you need to ensure that you deliver to the expectations – quality and time – of your customers. Penny-pinching in hiring the number of hands needed to deliver to the clients may increase your margins, but the business suffers because it is unable to scale up and deliver as quickly as another business that hires extra hands to ensure customer satisfaction.
In assessing how much help is needed, it is important to understand the demands of the business. Where the business is one that has peaks and valleys in activity, then optimum staff levels will vary at different times in the business.
Ask yourself:
Where do I need help?
Which help is essential for the business at all times?
Can I outsource part of the process without compromising my process and quality?
What mix of help best delivers in a cost-effective and efficient manner? i.e., how many full time, part-time, interns, contract, outsourced services, etc?
Also, never give control over something you don’t know or understand. Doing that leaves you vulnerable and you don’t want your business to be held hostage by anyone.
Once the help has been identified and selected, please, please, please, have an agreement that spells out the relationship between the business and the help, and the expectations on both sides of the equation.
The agreement also helps the business to explicitly protect its assets such as: customer and supplier lists, intellectual property, confidential information, and other good-faith obligations and restrictions on the parties.
Don’t assume that the help knows the boundaries of their relationship with the business. SPELL IT OUT!
DREAM BIG, get help to DELIVER the dream, and PROTECT the dream with a service contract or agreement!
This blog was… how do you say it? Relevant!! Finally I’ve found something that helped me.
Kudos!
I’m happy you found it useful.