People love stories. Ghost stories, adventure stories, and mysteries are all best-sellers.
How about the story of business? In particular, the story of YOUR business. Now that is worth reading.
We write our story every day. With every case that is sold, every purchase that is made, every draft line that is cleaned, our actions and decisions lead to revenue and expense, and define what we are as a company.
We create plans and budgets to serve as guidelines for what the company needs to be financially viable, to provide good paying jobs, purchase new trucks and equipment and re-invest in the business. But at the end of the day each of our employees is the author of our story.
Every day in our business we have to make choices. The decisions made will determine whether we advance and improve as a company, whether we stand in place, or fall backwards.
Are we diligent in our work, do we do the complete job, do we really stop and think about what is the best decision for the customer and our company?
Many times during the day there are key decisions which our employees will make that will alter the course of our collective success or failure.
- Will we take the extra five minutes to merchandise the cooler, will we pull the out of code product from the back room, or simply leave the store and onto the next stop?
- Will we make the extra phone call to remind the account of an overdue balance?
- Will we rotate the product in the warehouse so the proper codes are pulled for the night team?
- Will we clean and put away the returns and broken product when returning from delivering?
Regardless of what decision is made and what action is taken during the course of a day, these decisions become part of our financial scorecard – they create the Story of Our Business.
If the shelf was merchandised it created an opportunity for more sales to the end customer, which in turn created an additional order by the retailer, which in turn increased our sales. If the extra phone call was made to an account to collect with an overdue balance, this helped to bring cash into the business and eliminated a potential bad debt expense. Every action, every decision we make, in turn makes an imprint on the financial story of our business.
You are the author of this story. Your employees are the author of this story. Remind them of this power that they hold – this great responsibility. Will your story have a happy ending? It is up to you. Get out there and write a best seller!
