Why does it seem that on some days, owners can’t peel themselves away from the counter and the service consultants are nowhere to be found? A tool you can use to keep everyone focused on what’s important is a job description.
Every year, you have a chance to be fair to your customers, your employees, and yourself. Earning 10% net profit year-over-year is your fair share, and it’s your retirement. The "industry norm" of 2% to 3% net profits will not be enough.
Sophisticated buyers want to know everything about your business before acquiring it so they can be responsible to their shareholders and investors, as well as plan for an effective integration after the sale closes.
A tire store owner who trusts his or her employees can focus on the future, not the present. Without trust, an owner will be at the store 24/7/365. But how do you learn to trust your employees? By becoming almost militant on process.
Employees may come to you with problems they can readily solve on their own, customers may want to speak “just to you” about getting their oil changed, and vendors always want face time to sell you the latest gadgets. Let’s talk about spending your time like the precious commodity it is.
A small business is much, much, much better off as an S corp for many reasons. For starters, if your store or stores made less than $50,000 in profit last year as a C corp, your tax rate is about to go up.
As owners, there’s a certain psychology that tells you change is risking everything you have, and what you have right now isn’t so bad. So the risk outweighs the benefits and we stay the same.
