I went from being an “unskilled” employee at a few companies onto having my own companies with over 500 employees working for our companies.
Many people think that they work for their boss, but its a team effort. The boss has to work for the company to keep it growing, keep it afloat, keep it adapting so it doesn’t burn out.
There are many dangerous stages that companies go through, from growing too fast to complacency.
One of my favourite mottos in our business is “A rising tide floats all ships” It’s up to the management of the company to get the right work ethics, the right training from management down to the shop floor.
The “leader” or boss of the company is the one that has to make sure that everyone is as educated as much as he is, I have found just knowing the right way isn’t enough, your staff need to know the reasons why you do everything, even if it seems obvious.
This goes back to my topic, as an employer, I try to explain to people why they should work for our company, we show them our advertising, our teams, our ethics, we show them how we adapt, learn and offer much more. But it’s surprising how much people do not care, however at higher levels of experience and education, people will care.
I explained this to an employee of another business I know, they said that their boss does not do any advertising, adapting, training and asked me what can they do? I said I am sorry, you need to change jobs. Your boss is costing you a fortune in lost profits because if your income is based on commission and your boss isn’t supplying the customers, then you are losing a ton of money. People do not see lost money, I see it all the time, so I am angry as much as I would be if I had physically lost it because of someone else’s lack of drive. Some people are bosses but they have never picked up a book or learnt more, being a boss/leader is about having a vision, getting people to believe in that vision and getting everyone to work towards that vision.
If your boss isn’t testing advertising, reinvesting profits into new advertising campaigns, building a brand, adapting, training staff or continuously testing stuff then how will the business improve? how will it survive? how will your salary go up if the business is never going to improve? how will you get any promotion if the business doesn’t grow?
I really wish people would consider more what companies they chose, because if the boss isn’t pushing everyone and doing all the things he should be doing and more. Then you will end up in a dying company that will fade away, no doubt it will be boring also.
The boss is working for you and your team is working for you. You should be looking into them just as much as they look into your skills, I don’t mean to cross-question them and seem ungrateful, but do your research on the company, where are they advertising? do they understand branding? are they adapting? are they growing? or are they cheap with employees and don’t promote people?
I am truly terrified to stop growing our business because I feel that would be the start to an end. I also feel with our advertising campaign and strong branding, that we have many other opportunities coming our way. Many people think that our advertising/branding bill is expensive, but it reduces our risk from our company fading away and it increases our sales!
Next time you look for a new job, I suggest you see how they are going to help you, if your team is bad, you won’t be able to win more than if you worked at a strong competitor. Also working for a strong brand is good for your CV and its a good lesson for you to see how strong companies are run. I am often upset to see bad leaders in a company because they stop the whole company from growing.
As a boss it’s my duty to wake up every day and think of new ideas, try new things, find more effective places to advertise, find more locations, look at recruitment and talk to all the management team to make sure everyone is moving upwards together. The more staff we get, the harder I need to work, it’s a huge responsibility, we need to make sure everyone makes good money working for us.
