Business Organization Enemy No. 1

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Who would you say are the enemies of the state of business organization? Amazingly, business owners themselves are Business Organization Enemy No. 1. In other words, the owner is his or her own worst enemy; the one standing in the way of bringing order to their business.

We know this, having counseled hundreds of business owners over the past few decades, to help them BRING ORDER to their business. Sadly, many start out with good intentions, excited to go to war with chaos in their business; then retreating to old habits. As a result, they continue the battle of errors, stepping in messes; thereby, inviting havoc for employees, customers, vendors and, more importantly, their family. 

Enemies of Order Inside the Gate

Many small businesses have employees who effectively play both sides of the Business Order fence. To clarify, they claim total agreement with the owner’s efforts to improve business processes in order to eliminate chaos. Unfortunately, they DO NOT and WILL NOT comply with the step-by-step procedures that guarantee quality and service. In fact, they have an arsenal of excuses for their non-conformance, such as:

• “I didn’t have time to use our Quality Control System!”
• “It was a rush job, so I didn’t get all the specs!”
• “No one else follows the system around here, why should I?”
• “I have too much on my plate already!”

You would assume an owner would hold these fence-riders accountable, due to stupid waste affecting the company’s bottom-line. Not surprisingly, some employees have become the owner’s “Scared Cows.” To the business owners’ mind, they “can’t afford to lose” certain employees. We’ve visited this myth of a business owner’s “Scared Cow” before, but you may want to visit it again!

Trusted Business Professionals Enemies of Order

Many small business owners are influenced by certain business professionals they regard as smarter than themselves. “Surely, they know what’s right … right?” Those “smarter” professionals may have a business degree, a larger business and/or are well-known in local business circles. Therefore, they MUST know what’s best for any business. To which I say, “Horse hockey!”

Sadly, when one of these trusted professionals claims: “Business Chaos is Normal,” or “Systems are for large companies only,” or “Employees are only human, and mistakes happen!” or “You need great people, not great systems!” … SOME BELIEVE IT!

It’s unfortunate that business owners, suffering from daily messes, don’t trust the obvious fixes that are right in front of them. In fact, they deny proven methods for systematically organizing their business, to their own detriment.

The Real Business Organization Enemy

The bottom line is this — the Business Owner is totally responsible for the vision and operations of their business. Organization starts at the TOP!

A business owner who allows MESSES to persist in their company, needs to step up; then look in the mirror and repeat what Michael Gerber stated in his book, The E-Myth — “You are the problem; you will always be the problem, until you change!”

Until you change, you will remain Business Organization Enemy No. 1 — your own worst enemy!

The good news is, we’ve seen many who have changed, go on to major business success.

Did I mention? Great Systems really do work!