The Big Book of Small Business

by Gegax, Tom

• ISBN13: 9780061206696
• ISBN10: 0061206695
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-01-01
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Your shoes are charred from stomping out brush fires. You have nightmares about UFOs-Unreachable Financial Objectives. All-star interviewees turn into duds. Meetings cause more problems than they solve. The office is a ghost town at 5:01 p.m. Does this sound familiar? Tom Gegax knows what that is like. Years after running his Tires Plus franchise by the seat of his pants, blissfully unaware of how little he knew about getting the most out of people and managing a world-class organization, Tom was faced with a cancer diagnosis and a business at the brink of disaster. Resolved to change things around, he improved his mental clarity, health, and relationships and noticed that the more he profited on a personal level, the more his company profited. Tires Plus grew into a $200 million business with 150 upscale locations. He had learned the first lesson in Enlightened Leadership 101: Focus on the well-being of your employees and customers-as well as your own-and success will follow naturally. In The Big Book of Small Business, Tom shares his hard-earned lessons on how to become an enlightened, effective leader, and on how to do the small things right so the big decisions work. This all-in-one toolbox for small businesses is jammed with warm-hearted, tough-minded practices and street-smart tips, covering every aspect of a growing business: Starting, funding, and getting your new business off the ground Crafting a mission and growing a corporate culture that works Hiring the best people and maximizing their potential Communicating and negotiating with your employees, customers, and suppliers Creating processes for continuous innovation and growth Protecting your business from unforeseen dangers Planning for growth And much more . . . As thorough as a textbook and as lively as a news magazine, The Big Book of Small Business is the most comprehensive and practical book on how to take a small business to the next level, and an indispensable slingshot for the million

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xiii
Introduction: Living by the Seat of My Pants: A Journey from Clueless to Cashing In	p. xv
Setting Up Shop: What Every Budding Entrepreneur Needs to Know	p. 1
Make Up Your Mind: Uncommon Factors to Consider Before Quitting Your Day Job	p. 5
Research the Market: Analyzing the Data to Determine Your Niche	p. 10
Write the Business Plan: Building Your Blueprint for Success	p. 13
Find Funding: Raising Capital Without Relinquishing Control	p. 18
Position Yourself: Nailing Your Name, Location, and Differentiation	p. 23
Line Up Your Legal Ducks: Protecting Your Business Interests	p. 30
Build a Strong Board: Getting Help, Not Headaches, from Outside Advisers	p. 43
Pouring the Foundation: Laying In Your Mission, Vision, and Values	p. 53
Mission Critical: Embodying Your Mission Statement	p. 57
Vision Check: Composing Your Vision Statement	p. 62
Champion Core Values: The Link Between Character and Higher Profits	p. 64
Accountable Ethics: The Four Pillars of Ethical Leadership	p. 71
Snatching Up Stars: Embracing Your Hire Power	p. 79
Talent Scouting: Finding the Best People	p. 81
Interview Essentials: Stripping the Guesswork Out of Hiring	p. 86
Labor Legalities: The Dos and Don'ts of Employment Law	p. 95
Hit the Ground Running: Welcoming New Hires	p. 102
Growing the Culture: Seeding an Enlightened Environment	p. 107
The Camaraderie Credo: Developing Team Spirit	p. 109
Lead the Charge: The Twenty-one Laws of Cultural Leadership	p. 112
Honor Thy Employee: Putting People First Produces Higher Profits	p. 125
HR Solutions: Shifting Focus from Paperwork to Partnership	p. 129
Fun, Friendly, and Flexible: Loosening Up Keeps Grumbling Down	p. 132
Workplace Wellness: Nurturing Healthy and Productive Employees	p. 136
Get Personal: The Rules of Engagement	p. 139
Building a Systems-Disciplined Organization: Crafting Pitch-Perfect Processes	p. 147
Strategic Planning: Drawing Up Tomorrow's Road Map	p. 151
Execution Is Everything: Ensuring It's Done Right	p. 159
Resolve Roadblocks: Helping Individuals and Groups Solve Problems	p. 161
Add Muscle to Meetings: How to Run Tight, Productive Meetings	p. 165
The Best Never Rest: Continuous Systems Improvement	p. 170
Communicating Clearly: Sending Static-Free Signals	p. 173
Listen Up: Practicing Active Listening	p. 175
Express Yourself: Writing and Speaking Effectively	p. 179
Communicate Expectations: Achieving Airtight Accountability	p. 184
Ask for Advice: Soliciting Employee Ideas	p. 188
Face-to-Face Feedback: Delivering One-on-One Critiques	p. 192
Face Your Flaws: Soliciting Frank Feedback About Your Performance	p. 200
Coaching Others: Cheering and Steering, Not Domineering	p. 205
Dare to Care: Kindness and Empathy Wins Hearts and Minds	p. 211
Set Challenging Goals: Helping Employees to Grow Through Goal Setting	p. 215
The Annual Review: Turning the Review into a Coaching Session	p. 217
Reward Results: Matching Incentives to Outcomes	p. 222
Good-bye and Good Luck: Freeing Up the Future of Underachievers	p. 225
Educating Employees: Riding Employee Development to the Top	p. 229
On-the-Job Learning: Building Your Educational Infrastructure	p. 233
Delegate or Die: Deputizing Your Staff Multiplies Your Impact	p. 237
Teach, Don't Preach: Making Lessons Stick	p. 241
Succession Strategies: Putting the "Success" in Succession	p. 243
Coaching Yourself: Guiding Yourself to Peak Personal Performance	p. 249
Got Mission?: Crafting Your Personal Mission Statement	p. 253
Truth or Consequences: Pitfalls of Unethical Behavior	p. 258
Ready, Set, Goals: Turning Dreams into Destiny	p. 261
Work the Plan: Linking Goals to Action Steps and Schedules	p. 266
Time Wise and Organized: Embracing Enlightened Efficiency	p. 272
Mind-Body Balance: Bringing Your Inner Team into Alignment	p. 279
Spotlight on Self-care: Feel Better, Work Smarter, Live Longer	p. 286
Business Function Dos and Don'ts: Key Concepts and Killer Tips	p. 297
Supply Management: Strengthening Every Link	p. 299
Marketing: Increasing Brand Equity	p. 313
Sales: Increasing Market Share	p. 334
Customer Service: Making Your Guests Feel at Home	p. 347
Finance, Accounting, and IT: Beyond Bean Counting	p. 356
Weathering Worst-Case Scenarios: When Bad Things Happen to Good Companies	p. 379
Relationships on the Rocks: Rescuing Key People Who Jump Ship	p. 381
Natural Disasters: Coping with Catastrophes	p. 387
It's Strictly Business: Dealing with Brutal Bankers and Cutthroat Competitors	p. 393
Conclusion: Growing Pains: Stepping It Up from Small Business to Midsize Company	p. 401
Acknowledgments	p. 407
Index	p. 409
About the Authors	p. 421
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

The Big Book of Small Business
You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants

Chapter One

Make Up Your Mind

Uncommon Factors to Consider Before Quitting Your Day Job

Call me naïve. It never occurred to me that my new business might fail.

Hey, this was me we're talking about. Tom Gegax. Four-sport high-school hotshot. Rising star at Shell Oil—earning promotions like compliments at the prom, tooling around town in a company car, illuminating for service-station managers the finer points of running their businesses. I knew it all.

In reality, I had no idea what I was about to do to myself—and to my family. Oh sure, my wife, Jan, and I had talked it through: Should I stay or should I go? Jan was supportive, telling me that I knew best whether I was up to the challenge. Of course I was. So I took the leap—and landed chest-deep in the proverbial creek, with the rapids rising fast.

Don't get me wrong: I'm glad I went out on my own. I just wish I had better anticipated the toll it would take. If I had been as prepared as you'll be after reading these pages, I would've dealt better with the inevitable crises that flew my way—and dodged many of them altogether.

Entrepreneurial types are apt to jump the starting gun. That pedal-to-the-metal mind-set is one of our greatest strengths. But it can also be our Achilles' heel. In our zeal to conquer the business world, we may disregard or overlook these critical start-up issues.

Consider the impact on your family. In my acceptance speech for Inc. magazine's 1995 Midwest Entrepreneur of the Year Award, I wondered aloud whether the price I'd paid was too steep. In the early years, I was a slave to the business, working miserably long hours. While I did attend most of my kids' activities, and even coached their baseball and basketball teams, it felt as if I was always multitasking, wondering how to replace a key employee who had just resigned or whether I would make the next payroll. My kids, who quickly learned to recognize when I was zoning out, would jar me back into real time by tapping on my shoulder: "Earth to Dad." As the business grew, I had more flexibility for family time, although it took a lot of focus to keep my mind off business when I was off the clock.

Was it all worth it? Would I do it all over again? Yes—under two conditions. First, I'd need to know everything in The Big Book so I could escape the straightjacket stress and strain of running a business. That calmer state of mind would fulfill the second condition: a better balance of work and family.

Face the fear. I was twenty-nine years old, my first day off Shell's payroll, and my wife and two sons were at a Dairy Queen in suburban Minneapolis. We ordered Peanut Buster Parfaits and Dilly Bars. As I handed over a five-dollar bill and took the ice cream, ten words ambushed my mind: Where will the money come from to pay for these? That thought was more chilling than an Arctic Rush brain freeze. No more checks on the first and fifteenth. No profit sharing, no company car, no expense account. Really, I had no idea if my new business could generate enough revenue to support the four of us. That undercurrent of quiet terror was my constant companion for a long, long time.

When in doubt, gut it out. Tell me I can't do something that I want to do, and I'll work my butt off to prove I can. My junior year of high school, there were fifteen seconds left in the last basketball game of the season. We were trailing by one point against a much larger school that my small town hadn't beaten in twenty years. I had the ball. Dribbling down court, I saw an open teammate streak down the sideline. Misjudging how far to lead him with the ball, I passed it behind him and out of bounds—and threw away our chance to take the final, potentially game-winning shot. I was so embarrassed and guilt-ridden that I didn't show my face in school for two days. The only thing my coach ever said about it was, "Don't bother going out next year; you won't make the team." I loved basketball, so his words lit a bonfire in my belly. I practiced five hours a day, every day, all summer long—with ankle weights. Not only did I make the team, I was leading scorer and all-state honorable mention in Indiana, where basketball is right there next to Mom, God, and country.

That unshakable—and, in hindsight, borderline delusional—belief in myself saved my business bacon countless times. At Shell, my manager said I wasn't tough enough to transfer from HR to the field. After a year, he relented and assigned me to the toughest part of Chicago, the near South Side, Bad Bad Leroy Brown's neighborhood. I helped take South Side dealers from worst to first in tire sales. As soon as I started my own business, before the paint had even dried on my store signs, a competitor told me straight to my face, "You're not going to make it, Tom." Even my equipment supplier had no faith. "I wish you the best," he said, "but it's just not going to happen." Oh, and Michelin initially to supply tires to us because we weren't big enough. Perversely, all that only inspired me to build a team that captured 1.5 percent of the U.S. tire market, selling over a million tires annually.

My post-Shell cluelessness did have a few advantages. Had I known how hard it was to launch a business, price and market products, hire and train people, make payroll, and pay off loans, I might have stayed in my corporate cocoon. But leave I did. Head down and plowing through crisis after crisis, I earned a Ph.D. in business management from the school of hard knocks. I can appreciate Winston Churchill's sentiment when he said, "If you're going through hell, keep going."

The Big Book of Small Business
You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants. Copyright © by Tom Gegax. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants by Tom Gegax
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.