If you are a small-business owner and are honest with yourself, you probably feel a bit desperate at times as you search for answers amid the frustrations that mount.
Owning a business is hard work, and no one will ever understand all you do to make it successful. The risk you take by putting your entire life into the business. The perspiration you logged getting the business off the ground. The puzzle you must solve in complying with all those government regulations. The belief you must maintain to build momentum. The resilience you must forge to overcome opposing forces. The pride you must swallow when customers become frustrated. The shock you must face when partners don’t align with your vision. The gut punch you endure when employees compromise your trust. The disbelief when the government takes a share.
As a small-business owner, you work constantly to grow your revenues, decrease your costs and reduce your risk. You work your tail off and take great pride in providing a lifestyle for your family, a recreational pursuit for your customers and a livelihood for your employees. It feels so good when it all works the way it’s supposed to.
And yet there are days when the forces seem to line up against you, and you have to wonder why you signed up for it all in the first place.
Of course, you didn’t sign up for all the headaches of running the business. You signed up to fulfill your passion for servicing customers’ boats, for seeing happy customers enjoy their new boat, or for believing and investing in yourself and this industry. But that passion can deflate quickly through all the realities that go along with running a business.
For most of you, no one ever taught you how to run the business. You just figured it out. You packaged together the passion, energized it with happy customers and a respectable profit, and built something you can be proud of. In some years, you just scraped by. In others — remember Covid? — sales opportunities were everywhere. But in between, you wish you had the secret formula to operate a business without all the headaches.
While no antidote can rid a business of its challenges, the good news is you really don’t need someone to teach you how to run the business. You need a business operating system — not to be confused with a dealer management system. A business operating system is the package of all the components you use to create vision, set goals, manage your people, host your meetings, communicate, measure your success, and hold yourself and your team accountable.
Whether or not you have identified a formal system, the manner in which your business operates, the way in which you instill order and structure — or chaos and inconsistency, as it may be — become the default operating system.
To eliminate the chaos, inconsistency and many of the challenges, you should be intentional about selecting an operating system that ensures your business runs smoothly and meets your objectives. While there are a variety of business operating systems available, you should do your homework and choose the one that works best for your business.
As an example, at the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, we selected the Entrepreneurial Operating System to help us operate our business. It has been a massive game-changer since we implemented it in 2019.
Based on recommendations from several business leaders, we chose EOS because it enabled us to convert our three-year strategic plan into annual operating objectives and quarterly priorities. The array of EOS tools and books, not to mention the sizable community available to EOS users, has helped our team create processes, develop metrics and scorecards, tackle nagging issues (that would have otherwise prevented us from hitting our goals) and ensure we have the right people in the right seats — all key elements of any useful operating system.
I can say without a doubt that we wouldn’t have made it through the pandemic in as strong of a position without EOS. During the pain of shutdowns and social distancing, the MRAA lost 70% of its annual revenue when our conference was canceled in 2020. Rather than panicking to survive, our team fell back on our operating system. It worked. We didn’t lay off a single person, we paid everyone what we had promised prior to the pandemic, and we still turned a profit. The operating system gets the credit because it kept us focused on what mattered and gave us the tools to persevere.
If you find yourself rushing to adapt to changing market conditions without good answers, or trying to grow your business but stuck in the monotony of the day-to-day, or having a team that’s out of alignment with where you’re going and how you’ll get there, you need an operating system. It will help you strengthen your foundation when inflation hits, interest rates climb and customers evaporate. It will help you scale your business when there are growth opportunities. And it will help you improve your communications, establish stronger processes, set manageable targets, hold yourself accountable, and solve issues that get in your way.
EOS and others like it offer comprehensive frameworks that can feel daunting but pack real results. They typically require hiring people to help you implement the system, and hiring an operations-type employee to ensure that it runs smoothly.
If that seems like too much but you want a taste of what an operating system can do, there are other options. For example, the MRAA’s Dealership Certification program offers you systems, processes, tools, templates and best practices to help create consistency and effectiveness in day-to-day operations. The program also offers access to a consultant, continuing education and a cohort of fellow dealers who navigate the process of becoming certified with you, so you can share insights and ideas.
Whichever route you prefer, an operating system will give you more control and confidence in your business, no matter the market conditions. When chosen and implemented with intention and discipline, an operating system gives you structure and stability, and allows you to work on growing your business while your team focuses on working in the business. And it makes owning and operating a small business much more enjoyable.
Matt Gruhn is president of the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas.
