A Business Tail: Vet Foams at Mouth, Chases Tail, Learns New Tricks – Case Study

Many self-employed professionals feel overwhelmed, frustrated, and confused when it comes to running their businesses. The deep skills they have in their professional field do little to prepare them for the world of running a business.

The best doggone vet in town

One of my clients, I’ll call him John, is everything you could want in a vet. He is kind, caring, competent, and willing to call in a specialist for cases he doesn’t feel comfortable handling. His office is busy, his staff is nice, and the service is good. But John has a problem. He is exhausted. Since the time he started his practice twelve years ago, he has been doing all the bookkeeping, tax preparation, human resources, dealing with insurance companies, banks, job surveys, building maintenance, and sales calls while trying to work full time. like a vet. As such, his accounting is a mess, his tax returns haven’t been filed in five years, and office policies and procedures allow unproductive employees to continue to receive a paycheck.

Hair loss is not eating, it’s stress!

Meanwhile, John pulls his hair out all day. He is starting to look like a dog with food. His staff continually ask him routine questions, he gets one unnecessary phone call after another, and chaos hangs over his head like a storm cloud every day. John hires an accountant to fix years of problems with his books, but he still keeps his hands in the process. He has the accountant do the books for him, but he still insists on being the one who writes the checks and sometimes he enters the credit card charges and sometimes he doesn’t. The accountant spends hours each month trying to figure out what John has done and correct his mistakes. He prevents a CPA from handling his tax problem because he is determined to solve the problem on his behalf. Because he is already overwhelmed with his practice, the tax problem is not solved. Worse still, John drags the problem with him every day; feeling the pressure, the stress, knowing that with every tick of the clock the problem gets worse.

John decides to rent a second office so he can get out of his office and do his taxes. And still John is exhausted and overwhelmed. His fiscal problem continues to drag on. Problems in his office still land on his desk. And he continues to handle them feeling stressed, frustrated and powerless.

Chasing your own tail?

Are John’s problems unusual? Are his actions those of a business owner whose mind has finally gone unhinged? No problem. John is making the mistake that many small business owners make. Instead of concentrating on what he does best and improving those skills for which he has a great aptitude, John wants to do it all.

If he worked and studied for years, he would be a poor accountant at best. He just doesn’t have the aptitude for it. You can continue to spend money on newsletter subscriptions on how to get organized and you can continue to buy organizational tools, bins, baskets, and bags (most of them still empty), but you will never get organized because you don’t have the aptitude. to organize

A prescription for Dr. John

So what can we do for poor John? We can’t just leave it hanging out in the storm, storm-tossed and heading for the rocks.

Here are my recommendations:

1. Take the entire tax mess, put it in one of the empty organizer bins, drive up to the CPA’s office and say “Call me if you have any questions.” Go fishing.

2. Tell the accountant who handles the daily books that she is in charge of making sure things are done right. Keep your hands off of it. Request the data she needs to run her business: sales numbers and trends, monthly financial statements, delinquent customer accounts, a periodic report of bills that need to be paid, etc. Go sailing.

3. Tell the office manager that you need to develop an operations manual for how routine things should be done in the office and clinic. Give him a deadline and time to do it by having him assign some of his routine tasks to staff members. Take your wife out to dinner.

4. Hire an outside consultant to clean up the clutter in the back office; not a friend or family member, someone who is able to deal with the emotions of a mess without backing down or getting discouraged. Learn the new system and follow it. This will involve discipline and teaching an old dog new tricks.

5. Assign a staff member to maintain the new system, someone who isn’t afraid to check on you and the paper. Ask them to train with the consultant so they know how to keep up.

6. Keep track of all the questions you are asked throughout the day. Create a list of frequently asked questions and give it to the office manager to include in the operations manual.

7. Limit the times of day you can be disturbed; this includes phone calls, questions, email, sales staff, etc. Define what constitutes an emergency or critical situation and instruct your staff (or yourself if you’re working alone) to use their judgment before disturbing you.

These few actions alone will save John 20-30 hours EVERY WEEK!

Avoid separation anxiety

When a business owner is faced with the concept of saving a little time each week, the first response is “What will I do with all that time?” It is a very uncomfortable feeling. “Does that mean I’m not needed anymore? I won’t be as important as when I had to do everything.” They immediately start trying to fill that void with the tasks that used to fill that time, and before they know it, they’re right back where they started: overwhelmed, confused, and frustrated. But to that is added a sense of failure because they had it in their hands and they lost it.

New tricks for an old dog

So what can John do with his new found time?

1. Use the time to think and plan for the future. Where do you want your business to be in one year and five years? How will you get there? Remember, as a business owner, your real job is to steer the ship and chart the course. Cleaning the deck and repairing the nets is a job that others can do.

2. Build your reputation by writing articles for professional magazines or speaking with associations.

3. Building your business by writing tip sheets or articles for your customers or speaking to local organizations or visiting schools with your favorite dog to teach children proper pet care.

4. Spend more time providing veterinary care to increase your income.

5. Work 60 hours instead of 80.

6. Catch up on that stack of professional magazines.

7. Attend a seminar on marketing or a new veterinary technique or Spanish dance.

8. Take that vacation your wife has been bugging you about for years.

9. Spend more time with your children and grandchildren.

10. Go fishing. gold candle gold golf. Or lie in a hammock with a good book. Life doesn’t have to be so hard.

11. Driving down the road with your head out the window.

One of the most difficult transitions a business owner has to make is going from being a technician (a deck cleaner) to being the Captain, the one who steers the ship and charts the course. And for business owners operating alone, this change is even more difficult when there seems to be no one to delegate to. But by doing the things he’s good at and contracting out the other tasks, his business moves much faster. Consultants and trainers are available to handle all aspects of your business, from planning to operations, finance and marketing. Find results-oriented people you can trust who complement your strengths and help move your business forward. The alternative is to live with the stress, frustration, and confusion that comes from trying to fill all the roles in your business.