Trading my fake job for my real job: Day 1

My wife left me!

She'll only be gone for 15 days, but she left me in charge while she's gone.

For the next 15 posts, I will capture my daily thoughts as a digital record. To see if I slip into an increasing degree of madness and to observe the conflict of a fulltime businessman turned fulltime dad.

Our son was one month old when I stepped into the entrepreneurial limelight. While I focused on the business, Aline made sure everything on the homefront was safe. She took care of all things kid related. Today I'm in charge. I have to put work on the backburner, making sure I'm home at 3pm every day to welcome my babies from their daily grind at the education factory.

I've been planning her trip for weeks. There's some food in the freezer that perpetually gets pushed to the back after each trip to the grocery store. There's a home renovation project I'd like to finish to surprise my bride upon her return.

I'm gonna stay realistic. There is only thing I will attempt to do for the next 15 days. To get through it without my children completely hating me. Aline has always been the calm parent, while I've been the warden. She's June Cleaver, while I'm Archie Bunker, minus the racism.

Day 1:
We didn't get much sleep last night. I carried Aline's suitcase to her taxi at 4am, while she kissed the kids goodbye. My son awoke and started bawling. I could see the pain in Aline's eyes as she slipped out the front door, pretending not to hear his pain.

Going upstairs to console our baby, I offered him a spot in my bed, which he took gladly. As we lay our heads down to sleep, our oldest awoke crying. Turns out, she had a nightmare. Offering her a spot in my bed cramped us together like sardines in that Queen sized bed. But everyone quickly fell asleep except me.

Three hours later, I wiggled out of the vice my children had placed me in. Good dads make breakfast, I thought to myself.  I used to own a breakfast restaurant, so making pancakes for me is like making toast for less experienced fathers. Easy peesy, until my kids gave me the worst review a cook can ever receive. They didn't eat any. Now I have a batch of pancakes with no customers. There goes the good dad strategy.

Our next mission is to go shopping for toys. It didn't start out that way. Let me explain. I have a really important meeting on Wednesday. To get there on time means the kids have to get to school 15 minutes early. My kids are NEVER early. They don't know the definition of early. So I do what my inexperience tells me to do: I bribe them.

"If you can be ready 15 minutes early on Wednesday, I'll buy you a present".
"What kind of present? An Xbox 360?", asks the boy.
"No, a small present".
"Like a cellphone?"
"No, by small I mean inexpensive"
"You mean cheap!"
"No, I mean something that you wish you had, that doesn't cost a fortune."
"Like an Xbox 360. Ryan has one and it only costs 300 bucks."
"I want a pack of Shopkins", says our daughter.
"That's a great choice". At $12.99, I have my daughter cheaply bought off.
"So D'Angelo, what do you think?"
"There's a Montreal Canadiens sweater that I want..."

Having my kids focused on the prize, we start our voyage to the city. First stop is to get the sweater. The store where he saw it is going out of business, so we run in to buy the prize before another eager shopper grabs it. After searching for 20 minutes, overcome with grief, our son has to change the object of his affection for another prize. But what? Best way to fix this pain is bring them to the Mecca of kid stores: Toys 'R Us.

Our daughter runs to the girl section while our son rushes to the boy toys. Asking them to stay together so I can keep an eye on both of them, they tell me that their mom lets them go off on their own in this store. I get the feeling that they are playing me. My wife is a "mother hen". She would never leave them out of her sight in a public place like this.

After 20 minutes, our son emerges with a toy that costs $90. "Sorry, that's out of the budget. Go back and look for something in the $20 range." Our daughter becomes distraught as her beloved Shopkins have been sold out. She informs me there is another store in the mall that carries her favourite toy. Pulling the boy away from the dream of living in toyland, we venture to the other store to find they are also sold out.

Now I have two upset kids who I was trying to bribe but have yet to fulfill their end of an agreement on Wednesday. Empty handed, we walk back to the car with our shoulders hunched and our heads slightly cocked forward as we look at each step our feet make.

Thinking to myself, I have to change this attitude, I blurt out, "Who wants frozen yogurt?". Both kids looked up at me like I was a god. I think their feet may have left the ground slightly. They were once again pleased and I was the dad who brought them there.

Nothing cures the blues like frozen yogurt, candy and chocolate, even if it is only zero degrees celsius outside.

The rest of the day was a breeze. Kids ate their supper, without any problems. No real fighting today. I consider myself blessed. I'm not sure if they can keep up this good behaviour for 14 more days. Like a recovering addict, all I think to myself is "one day at a time".

After the kids went to sleep, I went downstairs to get some work done. I hadn't done any work all day so I was feeling a bit guilty. For a guy who likes to get to bed early, working until 11 pm is painful. I got the work done, and headed to bed. As I laid in my lonely bed, I turned the TV on to catch the last minutes of a hockey game. The final game of NCAA's March Madness was on. With everyone going on, I completely forgot about it. Second half had just started with perennial winners, Duke losing by 4 points to a Wisconsin team that had four white guys on the floor. In a sport where black guys dominated, it was odd to see so many white guys on the floor at the same time........................................................

5 biggest hiring mistakes made by managers

Ask almost anyone who's in business what is their biggest problem and the answer will undoubtedly be the same: Staff.

A reliable, honest, hard working employee will be a pleasure to work with. They are hard to find and are a true treasure when discovered. Workplace culture gets ruined for these treasures when a poor hire is made.

The five biggest hiring mistakes made by managers causes deep problems in the organization, including losing good employees, loss of productivity, eroding profit margins and destroying corporate culture. A good business starts with the right hire. Most agree that business is great when employees do what they are supposed to do, when they are supposed to do it, and how they are supposed to do it. .

Michael Gerber wrote in E-Myth Revisited that people don't fail, systems fail. The lack of defined systems creates an environment where employees cannot find success. I believe the hiring practices can be systemized just as easily to avoid the following mistakes.

First mistake
Most managers want a job done, so they describe the position in their advertising. They don't take the time to describe the person they want to hire. Describing competencies and experience is not describing the person.. What is the essence of the person you're looking for? In one advertisement, I described the new hire as a person who never used an alarm clock but always woke up before 7am. We were looking for someone who liked to sing in the shower and didn't care if the neighbors could hear them bellow the newest song by Justin Bieber because in the shower, it sounded like a live performance in front of 25,000 fans. I didn't get as many applicants but I didn't have to do 100 interviews either. The people that applied to the ad were the type of people I wanted to talk to.

Second mistake
Managers fail to plan for a new hire. I liked having someone in the "bullpen". In baseball, the bullpen is comprised of relief pitchers who can come in at a moment's notice if the current pitcher is starting to fail. My bullpen had people who wanted to work for me but were willing to wait for an opportunity. If a current employee would quit without notice, I had a replacement ready to go. Even if I didn't have a staffing need, we were constantly looking for new staff as a strategy to prevent dis-serving the customer.

Third mistake
The interview is not a well thought out systemized process. Most managers hire based on gut instinct. They will ask a series of questions regarding strengths, weaknesses, experience and background. Then based on those answers, they make a gut check and decide if the employee is right for the team. In more sophisticated hiring practices, hiring managers get the candidate to answer a series of tests to see competencies and if there is a fit emotionally with the team. Without the budget to put all the candidates through the testing, we identified the qualities we wanted in a perfect hire and then formulated questions to see if the candidate matched what we were looking for.

Question. "What kind of animal would you be in the jungle". Then followup with "Why".
Reason: To see someone think on their feet. To make a decision quickly without hesitation.

Question: "What kind of toy would you play with if you were a puppy"
Reason: Again, a second example of someone thinking on their feet. If they were stressed or nervous, or their body language became closed, I would end the interview.

Question: "Give me an example when you got upset at work"
Reason: To test facial expressions and body language. Does this person relive old stuff and has a hard time letting go of a past problem.

Question: "Has a manager ever asked you to do something that you thought was wrong" and "what did you do to correct the manager"
 Reason: To see if this person is a disrupter or a vault? Does this person have enough confidence to express their opinions or do they have too much confidence bordering on arrogance.

Fourth mistake
Managers don't follow up on references or they rely on the wrong ones. Most candidates will only post positive references on the resume. Calling one of those references, a manager should expect a decent review. In the interview, a smart hiring manager will try to connect the dots of people they know in common. LinkedIn is an excellent resource today for seeing the commonalities. Sometimes a current employee will have worked with the candidate. Getting an accurate picture of work ethic and job competencies can come from the people already working in the organization. The only relevant question in the reference check is "If that person came back looking for a job, would you hire them again?".

Fifth mistake
Managers don't plan for training. In every job I ever had, I was thrown in and expected to learn the jobs on my own. It was sink or swim. In many businesses, the same exists. Managers are already busy. They have enough on their plates so taking the time to train a new hire is painful. To avoid this mistake develop a training program that gets shared on the first day of the new hire. They will know exactly what will happen over the following weeks. Give homework every evening, with a verbal and written test the next day. The employees that don't study the first night are usually poor hires. The ones who want to work with you will memorize the small homework and will ALWAYS be great employees, based on my experience. If a poor candidate gets through the first four obstacle courses without detection, the fifth obstacle will catch them on the second day. Don't waste any time and training money on the new hires who don't do their homework. Give the candidate one final chance to prove their worth the following day. If they are not serious about the job you've offered them, they will quit and you will be better for it immediately.

Too many hiring managers rely on "warm body" syndrome. There is a need in the business so we hire the first person who looks and acts reasonably well so life can get back to normal. It's usually better not to hire at all than to hire a warm body. In a shrinking labour market, it can be difficult to find the right person. No one's beating down your door to work for you. I get it. But a business is built one employee at a time. Find the right employee and then go find more of them one at a time.

The battle between the irrational self versus the rational self

Did you know that most people make decisions based on emotion. Then they logical reverse rationalize why the purchase was necessary.

I've been criticized over the years for being too emotional. Emotions get me in trouble. But they also drive my passion. Emotions, whether negative or positive are irrational. On the negative side, a feeling wells up from the pit of my stomach, the heart skips a beat, my ears go deaf and I can no longer think from a logical perspective. I act like a five year old, with the only relief being to act out a temper tantrum. Seems ridiculous when I look back on each incident.

Emotion can be extremely positive when focused on creativity. People get attracted to my energy, my enthusiasm and my passion. It becomes magnetic. The thoughts attract other inputs, other energies and other ideas. I get excited and afraid at the same time. Excitement drives me to push the ideas forward. Fear drives me to push them faster.

People who are predominantly using their right brains are the creative people of the world. They use the irrational and emotional constructs to perform their art. Those of us who predominantly use the left brains are the logical people. They are the mathematicians, the scientists and the analysts.

I play both sides of the fence. I love numbers. My favourite subjects in school were mathematics and science. My first job was in finance. My second job was in marketing, a highly creative field.

Marketers and financial people don't get along so well. Bean counters tend to squash the creative ideas in favour of budget. That is the battle that goes on in my head everyday.

My biggest strength is also my biggest weakness.

In a previous business, I had what seemed to be an unresolvable conflict with a colleague. Every time I had to talk to the colleague, I wanted the conversation to end before it began. I became dead inside, lacking all emotion until he left. My ideas were discounted. My passion was squashed. I was told there was no room for creativity in my job. The result caused a emotional tumour inside of me. Each conversation grew the tumour. Until one day, the tumour couldn't take anymore and burst. I exploded. I lost it. Between the build up frustrations, the inability to express myself and perceived injustices, I had become an emotional cancer.

I was driving yesterday, thinking about past mistakes and how they affect the life I live today.

I took a test once to measure my emotional IQ and I failed.

Just kidding. I found out that I'm average. I'm not a stone faced, matter of fact, nothing phases me brick wall. I'm more of the guy that wears his emotion on his sleeve.

It's not a good thing or a bad thing. It's just something I have to understand so I can live with myself...

Objects in mirror may be closer than they appear

Anyone who has driven a North American car newer than 1985, meaning unless you live in the hills without running water and copper wires in the wall, knows that the passenger side mirror of an automobile has a little disclaimer about objects being closer than they appear.

Did you ever wonder why the car manufacturers do that? Is the right side mirror less important than the driver's side? What research was done that rationalizes objects to be smaller and further away? Doesn't it make sense to see objects in the rear view mirror at the right distance our eyes are used to seeing them.

Here's the answer. A convex mirror, which is a fancy way for saying curved outwardly, gives a larger field of view to eliminate blind spots on the passenger side. The planar mirror, a flat mirror, doesn't get the advantage of the passenger side.

I remember driving to Montreal in 1996 in a Honda Civic 2 door Coupe. On approach to the big city, the traffic got heavy and stressful for this young hic. I could've used those convex mirrors on the driver's side as I pulled directly onto no less than four different cars trying to pass me on the AutoRoute.  Horns a blazing, I felt lucky having escaped disaster, but at the same time, I learned of the driver side blindspot that no one taught me in driver's education.

The mirror thought popped into my brain this morning while having breakfast at a truck stop.

There was a promotional piece on the table showing a picture of a new menu item. The plate looked appetizing but I was shocked at the wimp-ical, ball-less, stand for nothing attitude of the words directly beneath the picture

"Actual plate may look different from the picture."

Are you kidding me? Putting a picture of a product on a menu is a promise. The owner is promising to the client that the ordered product will look almost exactly like the picture. If the product comes out and it looks less appetizing than the picture, does anyone believe that a stupid, legal disclaimer is enough to discredit a customer's expectation?

The simple answer is make your plates look exactly like the picture. No choices, no options.

This well known truck stop has systems to deliver consistent product. If the employees can't make the product look like the picture, may be it's time to remove pictures from the communications.

Not wanting to be oversold and underdelivered, I ordered something different. There was also a picture of it on the menu. And as expected, the product delivered was not representative of that picture either.

The strategy of placing pictures in any business marketing material is to promote the actual products and services offered for sale. Pictures are not just for restaurant menus. If you can't deliver exactly what the pictures say, don't put pictures on your marketing material.

A marketing piece without pretty pics can be boring. But a marketing piece with lies says your dishonest.

What your preference: To be seen as boring or to be seen as a liar?

The easiest way to rent a business

Do you think renting or owning is better?

Like most answers, it depends. If you can rent at the right price, in a market where prices are not increasing, you’re better off renting.

However, in a market where prices are increases, owning can be better because of market capitalization.

In business, you don’t hear of many people renting a business. There are some rent to own, and vendor financing options that look a lot like a business rental.

The definition of renting is to let someone use something in return for payment. In business, most rentals are called something different. Rented businesses are called franchises. Franchisors would never admit to that. But the contract is clearly written in favour of the franchisor. The control is held by franchisors while a franchisee pays for distribution rights with an ongoing monthly or percentage of sales royalty.

Just like renting a home, renting a business can be perfect for someone who doesn’t have the ability to start or run their own business.

Having been a franchisee as well as a corporate employee for a franchisor, I believe until now, the facts surrounding franchising have been exaggerated.

I invested in a franchise to give my family a better life. I was tired of being a slave in the corporate world. Having been downsized, I decided never to return to work for someone else. I wanted my future to depend on my actions, not on a corporate decision made by people in towers who I did not know.  I made the conscious decision to buy a franchise. I thought I was buying a business, in which I was the owner. What I bought was the worst job I ever had in my twenty years of employment. 

Financial returns were ok. I took a paycut from my corporate world job. I worked more hours than I had ever worked before. The business was mine, in my mind.  After 7 years of being bullied, threatened, and enslaved, I sold my franchises to someone else who was sold on the dream of franchise ownership. And I’ve never been happier.

Franchises brag that their success is based on systems. There is truth in that statement. But some franchises have better systems than others. And some systems are not for the benefit of the franchisee. They are implemented at the sole benefit of the franchisor.

In Michael Gerber’s foundational book, “E-Myth Revisited”, he discusses the topic of franchise prototypes. I believe he is bang on when he explains the need for systems in all businesses. I think he may be oversimplifying the success rate of franchises compared to independent businesses. Here’s the reality, most independent businesses don’t incorporate systems so they risk failure at a higher rate than a franchise.

What’s the definition of failure? Gerber doesn’t tell us. Can a franchise business not fail, yet the investor goes broke? There are countless examples of franchises started where the franchisee loses the original investment only to sell the business at a substantial loss to relieve themselves of contractual obligations with the franchisor, government or landlord. The business continues its operations. The original investor goes away to lick his wounds.  So take Gerber’s statement with a grain of salt. Franchises don’t generally fail but franchisees do.

In one franchise example, there were seven franchisees I know of who went broke over a seven year period. In a market where 15 franchises existed, that is a failure rate of almost 50%. The businesses stayed open. The franchisee either lost their franchises to the bank, the landlord or the franchisor. Or they sold them at significant financial and emotional losses.  Yet the brand looks favorable to new franchisees as it had to investors seven years earlier because all 15 were still open.

When I worked for a 100 location franchisor, we used the Boston Consulting Matrix to categorize our franchisees. The first category was for the stars. These locations and franchisees were optimistic, growing, and producing profits for the franchisor. The second category was the question marks. It included those who were stuck, sitting on the fence, not growing, but not declining. They produced profit for the franchisor but could easily be stars or dogs. The third category was the dogs. They were pessimistic, with declining sales. There was profit for the franchisor but it wasn’t as good as the other two categories. It was the dogs we were actively trying to remove from our system through coercive tactics. It represented 33% of the network.

Brand recognition is another selling point for franchisors. Our franchise system opened five new locations in a western territory where the brand was already familiar to eastern people who moved to work in the oil industry. The systems didn’t save the franchisees. The brand recognition didn’t help them. The marketing team couldn’t offer them hope. Within two years, they all failed and the franchisor retrenched and abandoned the territory to the detriment of franchisee investments.

If an entrepreneur understands the required systems, they can build a franchise prototype that has the potential to being as profitable as a franchise in the same industry.

Don’t misinterpret my words, I’m not against franchises. I believe the facts have been one-sided, skewed toward the success potential and not equally balanced with the downside of franchise investment.

Go forth and learn. Knowledge IS power.  Franchises are rented businesses. And sometimes it's better to rent than own.

Renting real estate versus owning it

Real estate is not always a good investment. Whether you're someone wanting to purchase a home,  or you're someone who wants to a place where your business calls home, there are many factors to consider.

If you're purchasing a home, here a few tips to consider.

1. Observe what the market is currently doing. Are prices increasing, decreasing, staying the same over a 12 month period.
2. Most people make money in real estate because of market appreciation. For 15 years, my market saw continuous market appreciation and people who flipped their homes made a fortune. Today, those same people are in financial difficulty because the market has been depreciating over the last 3 years.
3. Although renting may seem like money wasted, it can't be considered any different than an interest expense. Without appreciation, the small annual principal payment is more like growing a savings account.
4. Owning a home can have many incidental costs not budgetted. Repair and Maintenance is a constant surprise, whereas renting is a fixed, easily budgetted figure. 
5. If you grow tired of your space or feel like the landlord isn't taking care of your needs, you can move, without any worries about closing dates, lawyer fees and bridge financing.

Don't get me wrong owning your home can be financially rewarding under the right conditions. Just study the market and make a decision that you can live with.

The business side is a completely different story. Most business people believe that owning the real estate where the business is located is a good investment.  

There are things to consider.

1. In business, location is everything. Owning real estate in the wrong area anchors down the business from moving, which can slow business growth.
2. A building and a business are two separate businesses. Both provide cashflow. But both are mutually dependent on the success of the other. If the primary business fails and it is the main tenant, the risk of losing the real estate is probably high.
3. Owning the real estate can give you a bit more control if you own a franchise. Franchisors have less power over franchisees who own their own real estate.
4. Cash is still king. Owning a building can be a good investment. But if a business owner is in a weak cash position because of the real estate purchase, the owner is better off renting and paying away good money in rent to test the viability of the primary business. 

I love real estate but it's not always a good investment. If you're getting into business, I think the best option is to sign a lease agreement for no less than five years and no more than ten years with an option to buy. If the business is a success, an owner can put away its excess earnings to exercise the future option on the building.

There is one franchise business that I am well aware of where the majority of franchisees struggle with profit margins of 2-3%. Yet the franchisor stays in business. The mantra is that the franchise is successful when in fact it is not. The successful franchisees all own their own real estate and most have owned their business for 20 plus years.

Is the franchise a success or is the real estate a success? I will argue the real estate has been more of a success for these franchisees. I reviewed the financials of one of these successful businesses and I noticed a glaring fact. At 2% profit margin, the restaurant was making about $20,000 per year in profit. The building made $50,000 profit from the rent. But the rental income wasn't enough to service the debt repayment, let alone pay someone a reasonable management salary.

Yet someone got excited about the business and bought both the real estate and the restaurant. Over the long run, this can be a good investment. In the short run, it is a terrible one.

There's no such thing as long run, if you die in the short run. A long run investment returns money in the short run over a number of years, making the long run very lucrative. In other words, it won't matter what investments look like in 20 years, if you can't pay the bills today.

That's where business real estate and homes have something in common. Don't allow yourself to get in a position of "house poor". It's too risky.

Hiring is easy, but not simple

I walked in and saw her immediately from a distance. She didn’t see me. Maybe she didn’t notice me. I was no one in her eyes. I watched her as she moved from left to right in slow motion, talking on her headset to some invisible person. Maybe she was talking to herself. I could not tell for sure.  Could I have a large Green Tea please. I smiled at her to see what she would do. She didn’t look at me. She took my money. She then asked if I wanted to put milk in my green tea. I’ve never heard of milk in green tea. But maybe it’s a thing I’m not aware of.

Rip open a tea bag, add hot water. It’s pretty simple to do. I can teach my nine year old how to make a green tea. It’s the level of attention that makes the difference between making me feel like I’m important or making me feel like I’m bothering someone. I felt like I was causing her pain. As I sit her writing this painful observation, I realize that I can buy a green tea anywhere. Now I’m questioning why I even stopped here this morning.

I’ve heard this business isn’t doing very well. I’m wondering if this employee is the reason for its downfall or if there are other issues. As an owner of a business, do we realize how much power we give our employees?

We need employees to help us serve our clients. We need employees to help us build our business. But it is employees that are our biggest problem. Employees like the girl mentioned above have the ability to kill a business. She may always be dependable, reliable, smart and honest. However, she does not like people. And this business is a people business.

Hiring employees is easy. Hiring the right employees is hard. It takes time and effort. It takes a strategy.

Do you have a strategy to hiring or do you just hire warm bodies? No one likes to admit that they hire the first person coming through the door. Competition is fierce. Good people are hard to come by.  Plus we are all busy and we just need to fill a need in the schedule so that we as owners don’t have to cover the shift. We know customer service is the most important thing in our business, but we fail our customers when we hire the wrong people.

Hiring the wrong people can kill your business. Do you constantly evaluate your hiring process? Do you constantly evaluate your team members and give weekly feedback?

You cannot expect what you do not inspect. Remember that the next time your employees don’t do what they are “supposed” to. Don’t blame an employee for a lack of service. Blame yourself. You hired the wrong person or you didn’t provide the right feedback.

As a customer, all I ask is that I’m the most important person in the world for the 30 seconds that it takes to make my tea. 

Is that too much to ask?