Dear Fastlane Members-
I've been on this board for a year or maybe too. Only place I've found the energy and attitude I really respect in business.
This post is more for a therapy session than anything else, as I'm on the younger side, and have made some major mistakes over the past 6 months. These errors on my parthave severely jeopardized our companies health and future growth. :smx8:
-----
I'm in slowlane retail, I own a business and online stores that sell a certain niche product.
We have been growing ~50% each year for the past 3 years. We've earned a reputation as a good store, with good service and products. We're profitable and everyone at our company makes decent money.
I figured I would sell or acquire another business this year that would bring us to $3million or so by 2010, and perhaps sell the thing and look for a true 'fastlane' business that I could get into.
I always told myself learning and experience were critical, but I would give up a lot of the money earned to take away the emotional pain I've put myself through the last 6 months, culminating in a bit of a breakdown for me yesterday.
We were at $1Million/year looking to grow to $2Million/year in 2009, and that is where the trouble started.
Lessons:
- Don't let past success blind you to current realities
- Give up control is good, but do it very very carefully
- There is no way around having to make good, detailed plans and following them.
- 'Yes Men' managers are potentially worse than no managers at all
-----
So how did I learn those things? I got greedy.
:iamwithstupid:
As a young company, you take lots of risks and try things because you don't have an alternative, you don't have a full staff, you just go go go. It's fun, and lots of stuff works and some doesn't, but the stakes are low.
I have failed as a manager and business owner to grow out of that mentality.
I purchased (with no analysis, no business case, just a gut feeling like the good old days) about $200k worth of new product that I was sure was going to sell great.
:nonod:
We were going to wholesale it to others even, start to get in the drivers seat a little bit at least.
Then I figured we should add a bunch of other new products not related to our core business.
And instead of rationally planning, researching and budgeting for any of this, I just did it.
Managers didn't say peep, even though there was no way we could afford it all.
And when it hasn't sold that well, we just sat there.
We now have almost no cash in the bank, no plan, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory that isn't really at the core of what we do well. And this was all my great, enthusiastic idea. :smxE:
Unfocused, unresponsive, just 'hoping' things will get better is NOT a plan.
Enthusiasm and optimism, while good things to have, is NOT a business case.
I bet the company, knowingly sure, but I bet the company without doing any planing or research.
It's insane, I have no idea what I was thinking. Somehow I would just be correct about every decision I ever made? I couldn't make a mistake and somehow I didn't need to any research on competitors products? I didn't need to figure out cash flow projections before hand??? Who did I think I was?:nono:
I've worked for 4 years to build this place up where I can travel the world, feel like a stud and a young gun that showed the world how to do it.
And that was all a big sham.
At our core, we weren't doing things right, and I have polluted a great company with wild, greedy ideas without a business case behind them. I thought past success would insure future success, and that is very very wrong.
The basics of running the business seemingly left me overnight while I went on this wild goose chase to make the next million, and we are suffering for it.
----
Today starts the day when I retake control of the business.
I'm scared.
I've made so many wrong decisions, how will I really know I'm getting back on the right track like we did before? Do I still have it in me to lead this company?
Do I have the discipline to make us successful and smart and strategic again?
Do I have the GUTS to make some hard choices and keep my eyes on the ball?
I put us here, through lots of little mistakes and one pretty big one, so I must now lie in my bed and make it better. :fryingpan:
I will now sign all the checks personally after the book keeper preps them.
I will take over again day to day operations until I feel the management team is on the same page as I am going forward.
I will potentially have to let a key employee of ours go, and it makes me sick.
I'm responsible, I made the company, and I have goofed things up getting greedy and straying from fundamentals.
We might survive, but either way, the shame, the guilt, the pain are pretty intense.
We had a great thing going and growing so fast, and I thought we could somehow avoid the hard work to keep it growing, and just take a few radical shortcuts.
I'm going to work with our small team to get the company back on track, but I don't think I'll be the same again. This is very hard, and I'm ok with hard work, but I feel like a huge failure to myself, family and all those who I so proudly told how quick we were growing and how fast.
----
Today starts a wrenching process for us. I'm 150% ready to go, but man, I don't think I'll ever be the same again.
I can't be, or the gig will be up.
To your future and mine,
WestCoast
I've been on this board for a year or maybe too. Only place I've found the energy and attitude I really respect in business.
This post is more for a therapy session than anything else, as I'm on the younger side, and have made some major mistakes over the past 6 months. These errors on my parthave severely jeopardized our companies health and future growth. :smx8:
-----
I'm in slowlane retail, I own a business and online stores that sell a certain niche product.
We have been growing ~50% each year for the past 3 years. We've earned a reputation as a good store, with good service and products. We're profitable and everyone at our company makes decent money.
I figured I would sell or acquire another business this year that would bring us to $3million or so by 2010, and perhaps sell the thing and look for a true 'fastlane' business that I could get into.
I always told myself learning and experience were critical, but I would give up a lot of the money earned to take away the emotional pain I've put myself through the last 6 months, culminating in a bit of a breakdown for me yesterday.
We were at $1Million/year looking to grow to $2Million/year in 2009, and that is where the trouble started.
Lessons:
- Don't let past success blind you to current realities
- Give up control is good, but do it very very carefully
- There is no way around having to make good, detailed plans and following them.
- 'Yes Men' managers are potentially worse than no managers at all
-----
So how did I learn those things? I got greedy.
:iamwithstupid:
As a young company, you take lots of risks and try things because you don't have an alternative, you don't have a full staff, you just go go go. It's fun, and lots of stuff works and some doesn't, but the stakes are low.
I have failed as a manager and business owner to grow out of that mentality.
I purchased (with no analysis, no business case, just a gut feeling like the good old days) about $200k worth of new product that I was sure was going to sell great.
:nonod:
We were going to wholesale it to others even, start to get in the drivers seat a little bit at least.
Then I figured we should add a bunch of other new products not related to our core business.
And instead of rationally planning, researching and budgeting for any of this, I just did it.
Managers didn't say peep, even though there was no way we could afford it all.
And when it hasn't sold that well, we just sat there.
We now have almost no cash in the bank, no plan, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory that isn't really at the core of what we do well. And this was all my great, enthusiastic idea. :smxE:
Unfocused, unresponsive, just 'hoping' things will get better is NOT a plan.
Enthusiasm and optimism, while good things to have, is NOT a business case.
I bet the company, knowingly sure, but I bet the company without doing any planing or research.
It's insane, I have no idea what I was thinking. Somehow I would just be correct about every decision I ever made? I couldn't make a mistake and somehow I didn't need to any research on competitors products? I didn't need to figure out cash flow projections before hand??? Who did I think I was?:nono:
I've worked for 4 years to build this place up where I can travel the world, feel like a stud and a young gun that showed the world how to do it.
And that was all a big sham.
At our core, we weren't doing things right, and I have polluted a great company with wild, greedy ideas without a business case behind them. I thought past success would insure future success, and that is very very wrong.
The basics of running the business seemingly left me overnight while I went on this wild goose chase to make the next million, and we are suffering for it.
----
Today starts the day when I retake control of the business.
I'm scared.
I've made so many wrong decisions, how will I really know I'm getting back on the right track like we did before? Do I still have it in me to lead this company?
Do I have the discipline to make us successful and smart and strategic again?
Do I have the GUTS to make some hard choices and keep my eyes on the ball?
I put us here, through lots of little mistakes and one pretty big one, so I must now lie in my bed and make it better. :fryingpan:
I will now sign all the checks personally after the book keeper preps them.
I will take over again day to day operations until I feel the management team is on the same page as I am going forward.
I will potentially have to let a key employee of ours go, and it makes me sick.
I'm responsible, I made the company, and I have goofed things up getting greedy and straying from fundamentals.
We might survive, but either way, the shame, the guilt, the pain are pretty intense.
We had a great thing going and growing so fast, and I thought we could somehow avoid the hard work to keep it growing, and just take a few radical shortcuts.
I'm going to work with our small team to get the company back on track, but I don't think I'll be the same again. This is very hard, and I'm ok with hard work, but I feel like a huge failure to myself, family and all those who I so proudly told how quick we were growing and how fast.
----
Today starts a wrenching process for us. I'm 150% ready to go, but man, I don't think I'll ever be the same again.
I can't be, or the gig will be up.
To your future and mine,
WestCoast
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