The Smart Step
Continuing a series of business blogs written by Victor J. Temple, business manager at Friendship Garden Nursery School, Inc.
By Victor J. Temple
As the leader of your fiefdom, there is no job that you think you can’t do; furthermore no one could do these jobs as well as you. How could they, you built this company, created the policies and procedures. That is your blood, sweat and tears on the floor, there is no possible way that anyone could add value to your custom built business, or could they.
Often the first professional manager to be hired by a growing company will be the CFO or equivalent. The founder realizes he/she needs help however the release of the company, product or process to the new professional manager is an arduous task.
A while ago I undertook the consolidation of 96 Excel worksheets into an accounting information system. The 96 worksheets was bragging material for the proud founder. His company didn’t need a double entry accounting system. There was a spreadsheet for domestic A/R, another for international A/R, one for deposits owed, deposits paid and on and on and on.
The unfortunate result of the cash and balance sheet account reconciliation was a drop in retained earnings of $500K. If you are a proud founder, doing everything yourself, ask yourself the hard question. Do I know the best practice for each process in my business? Honestly you don’t, start looking for professional managers that can help you succeed, before you have a $500K retained earnings hit.
Child Care Management App
Using a child care management system with an app has been a game changer. Considering the average age of today’s parent if you are not using an app, you aren’t keeping up. There are many options available and they are very competitive in price I have found. Features including: teacher time tracking, attendance for children, messaging for families, paperwork, reports, online enrollment and billing save countless hours for administration and educators. The ease of use, convenience and time saving make it worth the cost.
I like to sign up for introductions so I can see what is current with each app. Fundamentally they are all similar and each includes something unique to it. If you find a feature or need one they seem fairly open to getting that feature into the app. As they try to stay competitive it is good for our end use.
Our parents have loved this app. If you are worried about teachers using their phones these apps can be used on school owned tablets. If you are worried about the amount of screen time that might be required of a teacher, set some firm guidelines before you roll out. Th app has been a timesaver for us!
Have you started using an app? What is holding you back?
The “Truth”
This month I will be posting a series of business blogs written by Victor J. Temple, business manager at Friendship Garden Nursery School, Inc.
By Victor J. Temple
Is your truth……the real truth?
We are the best…..we are the best childcare…No one is better….our business runs like clock-work….nothing is needed. Isn’t it easy to believe your own stories and rhetoric. In a business the stories of superiority spread like wild fire when fed from the top.
We fell into this trap in the past at our childcare. We had the best childcare, just ask the teachers. Some parents stated there is no better in the industry. Accounting boosts of fail safe processes, with no errors.
It takes a brave, insightful leader to support the bravado with fact. If you desire the truth, ask all your customers; past, current and future. Our story was we were the best in town and had the most competitive price. Then we asked our customers when returning from a sabbatical how we did while away. They told us that the teacher turnover was excessive, policies weren’t followed and pricing was inconsistent.
Try this in your company, walk into a classroom and ask the team why they are doing a specific task. If the answer is, “because we have always done it this way”, you might not have that fail safe process with no errors.
If you want to add fact to the bravado, just ask your internal and external customers for their opinion.
How inaction is an action
This month I will be posting a series of business blogs written by Victor J. Temple, business manager at Friendship Garden Nursery School, Inc.
By Victor J. Temple
Inaction is a Decision that will Create a Result:
In today’s political turmoil and possible economy downturn it is easy to find yourself re-arranging the deck chairs on your Titanic. Perhaps your wait list is off, cash is low, and parents aren’t calling! Many of us turn to what we did yesterday or worst yet, clean our desk, file and re-organize last years invoices, candidly taking no action.
Over the course of history, the dot com bubble, the housing crisis, Covid and more brought similar economic and political turmoil. We were mentored back then by a very successful entrepreneur that founded Whistler Radar, with help, we created a simple acronym for our action plan, OAF or rather OAPH, Operational Action Plan Highlights.
Create this plan with your team, all of them, get them together and ask a very simple question, what are we going to do differently tomorrow than what we did today? In each functional area of your business, ask this question, challenge yourself to craft unique and ridiculous objectives, don’t debate them, there is no wrong, just opportunities for change. Prioritize these objectives and take action, report on them weekly and continue to push change, remember no action is a decision and will create a result, one that might not be pleasant.
The companies that weathered the storm of the great depression emerged to be the leaders of today. Create the possibility of success and live into that possibility by doing something differently everyday, when the economy shifts you will be poised for grandeur.