“Take care of the dimes and the dollars will take care of themselves”
Great quotations from your mama
“I had a friend who was an officer at our local bank. He told me that before he approved a loan to a business, he would sneak back to their garbage dumpster to see what they were throwing away. He said that it never fails. The owners that are tossing out perfectly saleable products will be a problem paying the money back.”
John Hammond
garden store owner
Missouri
Be Efficient
It is difficult to be efficient and stay efficient.
Employees, service companies, suppliers, and of course the garbage man all depend on us being inefficient and wasteful. Their paychecks depend on us.
At green garden gates, we are committed to efficiency and saving. In each move, each change, each new procedure, each new addition to our staffs, we ask the question:
How will this make us more efficient?
Do we already have the tools and resources on hand to make us efficient?
If the answer is unclear, we do not proceed.
A good first place to look for inefficiency is in the employee staff. If we hired 10 people, gave them a desk, a telephone, voicemail, computer, some sticky notes and told them to work at the store, nothing specific, just work at the store, they would be very busy all day and in fact, they would be just overwhelmed with work. They would be in constant meetings, papering the walls with charts, graphs, time lines, agendas, action plants and fill up little black binders all labeled, neatly proudly standing in a row. When all is said and done, nearly none of that stuff is going to put money in the pocket.
The same can be said for consultants. If you hire a consultant or any outside “expert” and tell he or she to answer the question, “How do I improve my store”, they will drain your hard earned spring money giving you pretty reports starting from the point when God was a baby. After endless hours of meetings and gallons of coffee, will all of it be shoved in a bottom drawer?
“My wife wanted a bay window in our home. I hired an architect to draw up the plans. We had meetings and musings about philosophy and lifestyle. He invoiced me 9000.00. The entire house was re-designed and my wife still did not have the bay window in the plans!” Six months later, she whispered in my ear, "All I wanted was a bay window."
Before we hire an additional employee or contract with a consultant, we ask whether the job or project assigned will make our company efficient. We ask if we have already on hand the tools, the employees, and the equipment to get us more efficient. We routinely ask our employees “what is it exactly that you do for the business?” If the answer is vague or if they are collecting a paycheck the answer the question; how many fairies can dance on the head of a pin, we have some work to do! If we hire a consultant, we are extremely specific as to what task the person is to preform and set a time certain for the completion of the task. Remember, consultants get paid by the word.
Another bunch of inefficiency demons are store procedures and the flow of paperwork. Procedures that were put in place, often at the spur of the moment and without much thought, become the rule of law. Many of them are stupid, are duplicated and cause needless doubling back. The same can be said for the shuffling of paper, forms upon forms that are inefficient and costly. This shuffling takes on a life of its own. Further, someone in your office is may be just taking up space just shuffling. Keep a close eye on the paper and the procedures. Examine, question, consolidate, eliminate. Your checkbook will thank you.
We have charged our store managers to continually monitor efficiency. We also have assigned two people who work in the trenches of our stores to look and find inefficiencies in our company. They watch other stores to how they became efficient. These employees put on their eye shades and examine closely among others;
The equipment and vehicles we own and rent
Store policies and procedures
The flow of paperwork and record keeping
The use of consultants and other professional outside services
The job assignments of our employees and labor hours.
The utility charges for the stores
The overall maintenance procedures and maintenance charges
Store meetings, seminars, trade shows, training sessions
Donations and our efforts with community groups
Purchases of products and inventory
The use of the land and buildings
Operating flow of all departments and how they interconnect
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