Slipping standards: The Dangers of Entrepreneurship

6 min read

Originally sent exclusively to The Letter subscribers on July 15. Want to be the first to get my personal newsletter in your inbox every Monday at 7am? Subscribe for free here.

Hey Gang,

It’s another week done. Time flies when you’re deep in the trenches. I feel it this week, more than most. I’m certainly feeling more challenged than I usually do.

I often think, is it worth it? The answer is: “of course it is”. It’s what we do.

A funny thing about seeking success and climbing mountains: if you’re like me, you don’t give up - and when you don’t give up, you can’t fail. Insane, right?

In this letter, I wish to share with you another curse. A curse that haunts me every day.

The curse that is…

Broken windows and the peril of size in repairing them.

Ambition is usually the tonic that the successful have in a much greater volume than your average Joe.

People all have some degree of ambition. A few knocks test just how much you have.

The level that we choose to be tested to, then recover - or indeed overcome - brushes with failure, is the evidence needed to depict true greatness in business ownership. Few make it. Most fail or find solace in a comfortable life.

I think I’m made to find comfort in feeling uncomfortable.

That’s a second curse! Certainly for my wife, who has to put up with seeing the real dark times that come three or four times a year. 

My wife sees the dark times that come a few times a year, in my business life.

She has to grapple with silence. When I’m deep in a trench, I go quiet and lonely - wandering through my mind, on an endless merry-go-round, pondering how I’ll navigate the next storm.

I’m usually in a boat not suited to sail the storm. Often, I’m in a raft of my own creation, wishing I was on a giant tanker that can ride the waves.

I love to remind entrepreneurs of the philosophy of the late Steve Jobs: “Most give up because they’re sane.”

If you’re a little insane and want more - and maybe, like me, you get excited about who you’ll become on the way to growth - keep reading, sailor. 

We insane entrepreneurs are all in the same boat… (Credit: Unsplash)

Personally, I can’t wait to meet the “me” running a £100-million company and the “me” running a billion-pound company. Deep down, that’s the bit that excites me the most.

That said, before you commit, there is some insanity to long-term wealth and success - and trade-offs, many, many trade-offs. Here are a few that I have discovered:

• Responsibility

• Your circle of closeness changes - you’ll have new friends

• High blood pressure

• Stress

• Anxiety

• Cash flow pressures

• Theft

• Deceit

• Personal guarantees

• Borrowing millions

• Sacrifice of your youth to work on building the thing

• Working in your head even if your body is not present (basically always being "on")

• It's all your fault, even when it's not

• Guilt for not being around when you take downtime

• Wishing you were better

There are so many more, but that should get you going.

Effectively, you’re a magician - conjuring up sales, motivation, ideas, people, systems, and cash flow. You’ll be pulling a rabbit out of a hat more times than you’d think possible, every day. 

I’ve pulled so many rabbits out of hats over the years. I confess, when things have been tough, I've also had to pull a few hares out of my arse, too!

Years of experience as a magician has stood me in good stead for whatever business can throw at me.

The harsh truth is entrepreneurship is never complete. You’re never done, you’re only as good as your last trick.

Sure, some things get easier with scale and time in the game. Nothing helps more than muscle memory and experience. A seasoned expert of anything will tell you this.

As you grow and welcome some sun rays of success in your life, you’ll eventually be able to bask in your own glory. You’ll have more people, more cash flow - and, if playing the game correctly, you’ll be helping yourself to the best magic of them all: profit. Watch out though, danger sleeps here, waiting to wake!

So, why is this dangerous?

The answer, dear reader, is that with scale and establishment, businesses get fat on complacency.

They risk losing urgency and innovation, leading to broken windows and, like many magicians, the same old trick no one wants to see anymore.

Beware of the little details while you focus on the big picture, so you can stamp them out early before they become a serious problem.

Just like a headliner performing their grand finale, you reveal your last ensemble, the one your audience has always loved, your greatest hit… you wait for your applause.

But the marketplace discovers a new act in town, the latest whippersnapper wanting a slice of your audience. They’ll focus on detail and innovation, they always do, just like you used to be when you started.

Look at what Apple did to Sony. Sony got complacent.

So, remember this phrase: “If you don’t innovate, you evaporate.” 

You must invest. You must keep an eye on the little things.

Every Saturday, I trundle around our venues and sites, taking hundreds of photos. I watch our teams and eagerly look for broken windows. There are always so many little idiosyncrasies and things that give me the heebie-jeebies.

Growth has caused some of our standards to slip - it’s my job to point that out constantly.

I sometimes pinch myself with the sheer size of what we’ve become. I’m like an auditor for a day. I get so frustrated with little details being missed - I’m like a horse with an itchy nose.

I have to report it and tell my teams, "we must do better".

We can’t allow sloppy standards - people will stop coming.

Then, we can’t pay wages and invest.

Then, we’re done.

When you see these broken windows, repair them quickly. Super quickly.

Imagine what impression this gives a customer. It’s our job to ensure the business is as spotless as it can be.

This week, I saw a new member of one of our teams not in uniform. I was furious: "How could we let that happen?" 

Excuseitis came in on why it happened. “It was a new member of staff, and we hadn’t had time to sort things out.”

No, no, no.

This is so bad. This tiny little broken window, if not fixed, leads to a blown-off roof and water flooding in. They start so small and then explode in enormity.

Too many broken windows lead to even bigger damage and even more sloppy standards. Your people will just accept sloppy.

Here are some of my latest findings:

• Weeds not weeded

• Sloppy uniforms

• Deliveries where customers can see (don’t put the delivery in the entrance - people spending money with you don’t want to see it)

• Products not priced up

• Dust in areas (we just don’t want to see that, thank you very much)

• Teams doing the wrong things because they haven’t been managed effectively

• Not enough product out

• Faded signage

• Pen marks on tables from customers

• Signage missing

• Dodgy upholstery

• Some dead bushes not being removed

Sloppy standards must be weeded out.

On the topic of weeds from one of our stores, the excuse was: "we’re waiting on maintenance". The owner-manager's business doesn’t have maintenance. You'd just say to team members on a quiet spell: “Right gang, let’s weed for 5 minutes.” Problem solved.

Excuseitis is everywhere and it spreads like, well, weeds.

There are many more, but the above are all little things that cost us nothing.

These trivial things don’t immediately cause losses, but too many can make a difference.

Yes, do the big stuff: the refurbishment, the investments, the technological innovation. But nothing impresses a customer like knowing their name and how they have their tea before they ask. 

The little things are hard to keep an eye on as you grow - but if you create a system to do this, you’ll win the day, my son.

To your continued success,

Originally sent exclusively to The Letter subscribers on July 15. Want to be the first to get my personal newsletter in your inbox every Monday at 7am? Subscribe for free here.