Management Nightmares

In this episode, James Butler shares seventeen specific nightmares and situations that can happen in any business and the steps you can take to eliminate them and get your business back on track.  These are: 

1)    Negative reviews and the fear that they may turn off future clients and not feeling like you have any power to change them or make a difference (especially when they are false and untrue)

2)    Employees who leave and then file for unemployment

3)    Dealing with insurance claims from those who try to sue you for someone who trips or falls in your business.

4)    Dealing with employees (a whole series of episodes could be devoted to this topic).  I recently read a book that detailed the thirty riskiest employees to fire.  With all of the things there are to worry about, there are a lot of issues that stem from employees that cause a lot of entrepreneurs to lose sleep.  Having employees walk out on your business on a busy day is something I’ve had to deal with and believe me, it is not a fun experience.  This happened once when I was thousands of miles from my business in China. 

5)    Things you didn’t plan on having to deal with – As an example, some entrepreneurs have told me that they have had to deal with credit card processing companies who have targeted businesses in specific industries– with some businesses closing today, many credit card processing companies are wanting more assurances that you will not go out of business leaving them on the line with customers who do chargebacks.

6)    Discovering a brand new competitor or a large big box store is moving into your neighborhood.  I talked recently with a business owner who has dealt with this issue of two big competitors who have taken much of her business over the past three years.  She told me she has lost a lot of sleep dealing with this issue.

7)    Competitors with seemingly endless amounts of money who advertise aggressively and look to take even more of your business in the future.

8)    Wondering or worrying about how you will make payroll for your employees or what you will have to do because you can’t pay yourself or you have to wait to pay yourself.

9)    Finding out that a competitor has stolen your ideas and is profiting from them.

10)You’ve put a lot of money into your business and you don’t know if you’ll ever see it returned to you – on top of that, you’re seeing others in your industry go out of business and you worry that this might be your future too

11)Feeling that your business is consuming all of your time and is affecting your relationships with your loved ones

12)Seeing sales decline and not knowing what to do about it.

13)Watching tried and true marketing practices that used to work and then finding out that they no longer do (especially when you spend money you don’t really have)

14)Seeing other businesses in your industry that are doing better than you and feeling discouraged or depressed about it (not sure about what they should do)

15)Watching your expenses go up and wondering how this will affect your bottom line.

16)Worrying about employee theft of inventory or losing inventory to fire or destruction from fire or other natural disasters.

17)Discovering that an employee you’ve trusted and depended on has burned out and is no longer working out for your business.

 Learn how you can approach these or other challenges that come up in your business.