Quit Blaming the Economy for Your Problems
I'm tired of all the moaning and groaning in our industry.
There are too many owners out there in the marketplace who are looking in the wrong direction for excuses as to why they are failing or doing so poorly.
Many of them ought to look where most of the blame has always been found - within their own company! If the economy (and granted it is bad in many areas) was the primary source or cause of failure, then all similar businesses - printers in this case - ought to be failing equally, but nothing of the sorts is occurring.
With only one or two exceptions (Michigan being one of them), I know printers located within a few miles of each other and the differences in attitude, productivity and profitability, between the two are nothing short of startling. Some companies, although their sales may be down, continue to report good to excellent levels of profitability. Their SPE is in the $140,000 range and higher and their owner's compensation continues to put them in the top quartile - i.e. 20-24%. (Added on 9/23:P.S. just the other day I talked with a printer in Michigan and he and his partner are doing quite well; sure the local economy has impacted their business, but despite the challenges they are doing quite well, so even Michigan isn't a total exception to what I have said.)
On the other hand, there are competitors just down the road or across town who are constantly blaming the economy or one political party or the other for most of their problems. Hogwash! Many of these companies would find some way to fail even in the best of times. Their SPE is low, their equipment is out-of-date and their employee team, which is typically too large, is often best described as a team of misfits and bad apples.
Quit the excuses and get to work. Start marketing, start improving your company's SPE and get back to doing what only an owner can do - Manage your business with a sense of urgency.
P.S. You can subscribe to this blog and read new entries as they are posted by subscribing using the button at the bottom right hand corner of this blog.
There are too many owners out there in the marketplace who are looking in the wrong direction for excuses as to why they are failing or doing so poorly.
Many of them ought to look where most of the blame has always been found - within their own company! If the economy (and granted it is bad in many areas) was the primary source or cause of failure, then all similar businesses - printers in this case - ought to be failing equally, but nothing of the sorts is occurring.
With only one or two exceptions (Michigan being one of them), I know printers located within a few miles of each other and the differences in attitude, productivity and profitability, between the two are nothing short of startling. Some companies, although their sales may be down, continue to report good to excellent levels of profitability. Their SPE is in the $140,000 range and higher and their owner's compensation continues to put them in the top quartile - i.e. 20-24%. (Added on 9/23:P.S. just the other day I talked with a printer in Michigan and he and his partner are doing quite well; sure the local economy has impacted their business, but despite the challenges they are doing quite well, so even Michigan isn't a total exception to what I have said.)
On the other hand, there are competitors just down the road or across town who are constantly blaming the economy or one political party or the other for most of their problems. Hogwash! Many of these companies would find some way to fail even in the best of times. Their SPE is low, their equipment is out-of-date and their employee team, which is typically too large, is often best described as a team of misfits and bad apples.
Quit the excuses and get to work. Start marketing, start improving your company's SPE and get back to doing what only an owner can do - Manage your business with a sense of urgency.
P.S. You can subscribe to this blog and read new entries as they are posted by subscribing using the button at the bottom right hand corner of this blog.
Labels: Blaming the economy, failing equally?, low spe
posted by The Quick Consultant at
3:14 PM
1 Comments
