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Write it down!

If you’re not documenting what you do, you’re setting the stage for failure.

There are 2 grocery stores in my neighborhood. I mainly go to one, due to fast service. But sometimes the shop is out of stock.

I asked the shopkeeper why he doesn’t keep stock all the time. He said he does the purchasing only when the need arises.

So, I told him that he could keep track of his inventory by writing down the quantities of each item sold every week, allowing him to make purchases ahead of time so that he doesn’t lose customers.

And that should also allow him to forecast demand as well as identify fast moving items, which ultimately allows him to plan a budget and calculate profit/loss.

He was very excited about the suggestion. Hopefully he implements it and benefits from this.

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Ant & Bee Stories #2

Some employees are good at taking initiative, while some aren’t.

So, how do you get them to learn to take initiative with the least damage to the company? Since mistakes are bound to happen in the process.

Setting up systems that act as training wheels is the best way to do it. That way, constant oversight is minimized while task autonomy is grown.

Well, how does one go about setting up the systems?

That’s a story for another time.

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Ant & Bee Stories #1

Sometimes you need an outside perspective on things.

“They always come to me for the smallest thing. Even after I’ve given them the solutions!”

My client felt that his employees are lazy and don’t follow procedure, even after he had clearly laid it out for them.

Turns out the employees are afraid to take initiative since the boss (my client) used to give them an earful for mistakes in the past.

The lessons here are:

1) If you want your employees to take initiative, you need to allow them to make those mistakes first and provide criticism in a positive manner.

2) There are 2 sides to any story. And most of the time, you need an outside perspective to see them both in an objective way.