Why It Is So Important To Follow My Predictions

It's Tuesday, you are reading my blog, courtesy of USGlass.  When this blog started it was intended as a vehicle giving practical advice to our big family in the glass industry.  Today I offer you proof of how to take my advice.

Do the opposite.

Here's the story.  In September our heating oil technician visited and did the annual tune-up on our boiler.  We have steam radiators powered by a large boiler in the basement.  He told me that everything was alright, but the boiler was beginning to look a little tired.  I asked him how he knew, and he couldn't tell me.  But he had been doing this for twenty years and it was just instinct.

I called the heating company main office and a young engineer came out, inspected the boiler, and prepared a quote to replace it...almost $6000.  The engineer said we had a couple of years left, and not to rush in to it.  He left it up to me to make the decision.

OK, you have guessed what happened.  I said 'no' to replacing it when it would be easy and no rush in September.  Yesterday, the boiler cracked.  It's done for.  Last night was 4 degrees and it got cold in the house.  Today it is going up to 20.  A heat wave.  We have gas fireplaces and a few electric heaters, so we have made the house liveable, with three layers of sweatshirts on.

When an old-timer gives you a suggestion, it pays to listen.  Now, some people think I am an old-timer, (just ask my son) but I think I am young. 

So, back to the headline, whenever I give a prediction, do the opposite.You are guaranteed to come out ahead.

What Do You Do About An Employee That Has Given Notice?

Susie, your bookkeeper of eleven years, walks into your office and tells you that she will be leaving at the end of the following month.  She has decided to move closer to her aging parents.  You loved having Susie work with you and she has always done a great job.  But, what do you do now?  You are grateful she has given you a long notice allowing for a replacement search, but you are worried about her being a lame duck.

If you knew Susie, like I knew Susie, you wouldn't be worried.  I know she will be a great employee up to the last minute.

But what about the employee who gives a proper notice, leaving to join a competitor?  Or doesn't tell you why they are leaving or where they are going?  If you have covered this in your employee manual, then follow the procedures you have created.  My recommendation is that your manual state:

• Employees are expected to give two weeks notice of their intent to leave.  Failure to give this notice will impact future references and may result in forfeiture of accrued vacation.  In rare instances, the company may not accept the two week notice and ask employees to leave immediately.  These instances include, but are not limited to, leaving to work for a competitor, leaving after an event that leads to the employee's arrest, or other events as management may decide.

I mentioned withholding accrued vacation.  In many states this is OK.  Check with your local attorney.  Vacation is a benefit, unlike retirement account payments or social security benefits, which are regulated.  You can never withhold salary or wages, under any circumstance.  When giving a reference, one of the more damning things is to say that an employee failed to give proper notice. 

What if you have no policy or handbook?  Then you should act based on prior occurrences when circumstances are similar.  The next thought is:  How will this play out in your current workforce?  If you make it hard on a departing employee, will your current employees be happy that you protected the company, or will they be upset that a co-worker was mistreated.  Will the same thing happen to them?  If they think so, you will not receive notice from anyone. 

If an employee gives their two week notice because of going to a competitor, do you have to pay them the two weeks, or can you just show them the door?  There are no regulations concerning this.  It is up to your personal feelings.  Here's what I have done.  If the employee has been a good employee and is honestly trying to improve their life by going to another glass company, I would pay them the two weeks, but have them leave the company now.  If the employee was a rabble rouser, always in trouble, always arrived late, then I would just show them the door.

If you pay an employee the two weeks, even though they are going to a competitor, that employee will tell his new co-workers that you are an OK guy.  Maybe that will help you recruit others.  And maybe, the grass won't be greener at the new job and the employee wants to come back to you.  If you would rehire him, then pay the two weeks now as an insurance that the employee might come back home.

Your goal is to protect your company and your current work force.  If your loyal employees see you booting out a 'good person' you will lose their respect.  They will know who the rotten apples are and will applaud you for taking a tough stance in that case.

In another blog, we will discuss the situation of an employee giving a long notice, for instance a retirement, and keeping them motivated for the last couple of months.

For those of us in the North, stay warm.  For those of you in the South, I am jealous.

Problems, Problems, So You've Got A Problem?

Who doesn't have a problem?  Maybe your team didn't make the playoffs, or you didn't get that concert ticket you wanted.  These are easy problems.  A broken leg or a car accident are bad problems but are personal issues.  What happens when problems hit your business?

Business problems fall into two classes:

1. Good problems---like you are too busy
2. Bad problems---like you are too quiet

Doesn't it seem like you are constantly in one of these situations.  Has anyone ever said they have just the right amount of business?  I doubt it. 

1. Good problems---like you are cash positive but only getting 1/10th of a percent on your money market
2. Bad problems---like you are negative in cash, and can't find a bank willing to make a loan, at any rate.

So, what can you do with your business problems?  Turn them into opportunities for the whole company to solve and make progress. (Speaking of 'progress', what is the opposite of progress?  The answer will be at the bottom of this blog!)

Study your problem and find the root cause.  It is not that business is slow, but why is your business slow?   Ask your employees what they would do to increase customers calling or walking through the door.  What would they do to reduce waste in the back?  How would they set up the shop to be more efficient?

Your employees know more than you do on these types of basic questions.  In fact, they want to solve them even more than you!  If times are bad, their jobs are in trouble, as they know they will go before you do.  Their self-preservation will kick-in to the benefit of the whole company.  No need to pay for ideas, or have a contest.  Just lay it out that there are issues that are hurting the company.  Most employees will step and help.  And the ones that don't, well, just keep that in mind when times get better and you can again give raises.

Break your problems down to bite-size pieces and ask different people in your company to work on each piece.  When you pull them all together again, you will often find a new and successful solution. 

Let's say you are the manager of a four man crew doing installations, and no matter what you say, they come back every day a half-hour late, except on the days you get a chance to go with them.  How about appointing a foreman who is responsible for time management, letting him make suggestions on how to cut that overtime, and together you pick two or three ideas.  The foreman is personally invested in the success of the idea and will try a lot harder for success.

The moral of the story?  Ask those around you for help with problems, be they good or bad.  The best resources are right next you most of the day.

(And the answer to the question, what is the opposite of Progress?
It is, of course, Congress.)

I Love, I Love, I Love My Calendar Girl

This is a famous oldie, written by Neil Sedaka.  Do you have a calendar for your glass business?  You know, the one you look at each day with a silly joke?  Or is it the one with the daily baseball trivia?

No, it is the calendar you prepare to create special sales in your glass business.  You are in the business of selling glass, metal, labor, energy savings, design and more.  This is the calendar to let your current and potential customers know more about your business in 2012.

Every event on the calendar can jump start another part of your business.  Start the planning 4-6 weeks ahead of the schedule date.  If you do regular newspaper or Internet advertising, coordinate your ads.  Lay out a flyer or newsletter to mail to your customers along with statements or invoices.  Plan if you are going to decorate your store, order T-shirts, bring in extra inventory, get brochures from vendors, coordinate with other retailers in a community wide event, and schedule your employee's hours.

Start the sale three or four days ahead of the actual holiday day, and run through the next weekend.  You can offer 10% of table tops one week, 20% off mirrors on another.  In the Spring, push screen repairs, and in the fall, low-e replacement windows as temperatures go down.  One sale can be 10% off on customer shower doors, and another would be a free bathroom mirror with a new all-glass shower.  You are not limited in your ideas...be as crazy as you want.  The goal is to bring traffic into your showroom and on your phones.  These both will result in new sales.  Remember, a customer that calls in response to an ad is not as price conscious as the customer who is calling ten shops for fixing a broken door glass.

Here are the holidays sales events you can plan in 2012:

• Jan 12   Martin Luther King Day
• Feb 12   Lincoln's Birthday (20% Discount if your birthday too!)
• Feb 14   Valentine's Day  (Free roses with each purchase)
• Feb 20   President's Day
• Mar 11   Daylight Savings Begins (Key on 'savings' at your shop)
• Mar 17   St Patrick's Day
• Mar 20   Spring Begins  (Commercial doors get 15% off)
• Apr   8   Easter
• Apr 25   Administrative Professionals Day (Sell glass for desks)
• May 13  Mother's Day  (Free purse mirror with all purchases)
• May 19  Armed Forces Day (Discounts for all active and retired)
• May 28  Memorial Day
• Jun 17   Father's Day
• Jun 20   Summer Starts (All screening with a discount)
• Jul 4      Independence Day
• Sep 3     Labor Day 
• Sep 17   Autumn Begins  (Start pushing energy savings products)
• Oct 31   Halloween (15% discount to anyone buying in a costume)
• Nov 11   Veteran's Day
• Nov 20   Thanksgiving Day
• Dec 21   Winter Begins
• Dec 25   Christmas

Now, you are not going to run something special for all these days.  Pick between 8 and 10 dates for your specials.  Work with your fabricators to give you special programs based on your schedule.  Maybe you want to have an open house on the first day of Spring where you highlight new windows; or how about a July 4th party, with hot dogs and popcorn for everyone who comes to your showroom.

If you think your ad will be lost in the clutter of all the other Memorial Day ads, then run your specials around Mother's and Father's Day.  The idea is to stand out from the crowd, not be part of it.

Set up a local radio station to do a remote broadcast on one day.  Sponsor a mobile blood bank in your parking lot for Memorial Day.  On St. Patrick's Day, give a discount for all store fronts made with green aluminum.  Be different!

These sales have two goals...sell more products and create buzz about your shop so that more people will come to your showroom.

Mark the dates you want on your office calendar and get started now.

A Very Hippo New Year

Sure, you read it right. Hippo, not Happy.

Here is why you should have a very happy Hippo New Year:

• The male hippo weighs an average of 3300-4000 pounds, with the heaviest recorded at 9900 pounds.
• The female only weighs 2900-3300 pounds.
• Hippos are from 11 to 17 feet long, with tiny feet and legs.
• Hippos almost always live in a river bed, in the mud or with 95% of their body under water.  So, you have big, old, weirdly shaped animal who lives in the mud, and can't do much except eat 150 pounds of grass a day and make babies.

So you think they are simply a dumb, muddy, fat but cute animal.  Boy, are you wrong about hippos.

• On land they run up to 19 mph, faster than we can.
• They swim underwater at 5 mph, coming up for air once only every 5 minutes.  We can swim 1/2 that speed, above water!
• The bulls are very protective of their wives and their children.

So if you see only 5% of something, you have to do research before you form an opinion.  If you see an empty building about to be renovated, find out if it is a project for you.  If a weird customer walks in, listen to the complete job they need done before you say you are not interested.  A geeky guy comes in looking for a job, and before you say, "Are you kidding?", he fixes that computer bug you have had for three months.

Let's start the new year with an open mind on every possible business action.  Don't say "No", before you do the homework.

Lastly, from my family to yours:  Have a healthy, hippo happy, safe and prosperous New Year.

And The Phone Didn't Ring Again

A couple of months back, after the Boston Red Sox lost their manager and general manager, I sent a note to the owners that I was available for either position.

The phone didn't ring.

OK, I lived through it, saddened, but still able to function.  On Sunday night opportunity reared its head again.  I was ready.  I could do it. Here's why:

Kim Jung Il, the exalted leader of North Korea died of a massive heart attack.  Now, most people around the world are OK with this.  But I saw opportunity.  I wrote a note to the People's Congress laying out my credentials to take over North Korea, and my plan to improve the whole country.

First, I told them about my time as a baseball coach, bringing different teams together.  We would battle on the fields, but afterwards, we would still be friends.  This proved my ability to be tough, yet still maintain a friendly leadership role.

Then I told them about my business career.  I managed a company of 250 workers, who spoke many languages, and was able to communicate with all of them.  I described going to Glass Trade Shows, which was kind of like going to a session of the UN.  You want to stand out in the crowd, drawing people to your side.

Then came my master plan.  I would take over North Korea, and manage it like a business.  My prediction is that we would be profitable in two years.  And then, we would do the plan's finale.  General Electric is, to me, the most successful company around.  They take good care of their people, give great medical insurance, and do a superb job of training leaders.

My plan then, was to let GE buy North Korea as a new business unit.  All of the citizens would immediately go on their medical insurance plan, and all would get sick time and two weeks vacation.  Their lives would be immeasurably improved.  GE is a multi-national corporation, so they would have an easy time integrating North Korea into the conglomerate.  The army there would slowly become workers on a world-wide solar and wind energy project.  The nuclear bombs North Korea owns would be used in power plants.

GE would get rich owning its own country, everyone would come out ahead, and as the ruling leader, I would get stock options.  It doesn't get better than this.

Alas, the phone didn't ring this morning, and a twenty-nine year old kid was handed the title "The Great Successor".  I bet he didn't get any stock options.

How To Get Extra, Profitable Sales Right Now!

You can add dollars to your sales total by selling everyday items around your glass shop as holiday gifts! It doesn't require a penny of investment, just some time and creativity.

First, clean up your showroom. Get rid of all the junk that has been sitting in the corners for a year or two. If you don't remember the job you ordered the samples for, get rid of them. Clean every piece of glass in your showroom. Make your showroom sparkle!

Now, here is what you can sell, and at tidy little profit. Professional grade glass cleaner. You have a couple of cases out back. Put up a simple display, add a sign and you are set. Double your cost of the cleaner...be sure to add your inbound freight.

Glass gloves, the perfect glove for the home mechanic. Many stores sell them as the perfect gardening glove. Glass cutters are also great for the home mechanic section of your display. Put out a couple boxes of razor blades, too. You have a dozen tape measures you just received from CRL. Put these out for sale. Safety glasses, too. You don't have to match the prices at the big box store. These sales are all impulse items and price is not relevant.

Do you have tubes of caulking in back? Now that is a silly question. Of course you do. Put them near your register, they will sell.  Do you have bottles of plastic cleaner?  Sell them.  How about sanding belts?  Sell them as the cloth belt that is better than the paper belts sold at the hardware store. 

Do you have mirror accessories--like mirrored switch plates?  Don't store them in back--put them right up front by the register!  Something as simple as desk buttons will sell for a dime each. 

Cut your cutoff 1/8" mirror into 2" x 2" squares, seam the edges, and sell pocket mirrors for a buck. These are great as stocking stuffers. Some people will place a sticker with their name on the backing. A little advertising doesn't hurt either.

Sell gift certificates for a windshield replacement, or a new mirror, or a table top! You get the cash flow now. It doesn't get better than this for a retailer.

It's easy.  A little creativity and you will make some unexpected sales this year.