Earl Chua

When you own and operate your own business, every idea, every move, ever decision is all up to you. You are in charge, you are in control, and you are the one to blame for its success or failure.

Running your own operation can be very stressful and it is very easy to get into a situation where you lose control of your business and the business ends up controlling you.

When we initially started running our first shop, business of course started off slow. With just my brother and I running the shop, we felt that we could handle more business; so we took control and took the necessary steps to bring in more customers. We created a marketing plan, we handed out fliers, and basically hustled to bring in more business.

Our hard work paid off and we soon became pretty busy. We became so busy that it was almost too much for just my brother and I to handle. We contemplated hiring another technician to help lessen the work load, but decided that we would tough it out and just work harder. Big mistake.

Business became way too busy for just the two of us to handle and the shop was not running as efficient as it could have been. The cars took a little bit longer to inspect, the customers had to wait longer, and we also lost a few customers who did not have time to wait. It got to the point where we became flustered every time more customers would come in.

We were so busy with working, taking on as much as we could handle, that after a while, we became burnt out. We lost motivation to bring in more customers and it got to the point where everyday we just waited for events to happen and then responded. We had turned into an employee of the business, and the events around us had become our boss. We lost control. We had to do something.

After much delay, we finally decided to hire another technician. We could not believe the difference that one person could make. The shop became more efficient, the cars were inspected quicker, and customers were happy. It became so efficient that it felt as if business had slowed down. In reality, we were inspecting more cars and working less. We took back control of the business, regained our motivation, and began marketing so that we could bring even more customers in.

Lesson learned:

When running a business, hire employees to do the work for you. As an owner, your job isn’t to work, but to make decisions and to run the business so that it can make the most money possible. When you become an employee of the business, you lose control and the events around you become your boss.