Below is how my personal strengths coincide with the 6 sided monster.
1. Employees: employees are more precious than any other asset a company has, they will make or break your business in a heart beat. Every employee needs to be cared for, managed well and lead courageously. I’m both passionate and experienced at doing all three.
2. Customers: although employees come first, customers are a very close second. Without customers, you don’t have a business. End of story. And though it really is that simple, it baffles me how many businesses don’t clue into this reality. We’re all consumers, so it shouldn’t be that hard to understand why you should treat others like you would like to be treated yourself. I love taking money from a customer and equally, I love taking care of that customer. Good customer service has been ingrained in me ever since I was a 10 year old boy working for my Grandfather’s food service business. I’ll never run a company and I’ll never again work for a company who doesn’t invest in their customer’s experience from beginning to end.
3. Revenues: maybe it’s the capitalist in me but there’s nothing like figuring out how to grow revenues. Sometimes that means selling more. Sometimes that means selling less for more. Whatever the case, it’s another jigsaw puzzle that needs a lot of attention. And although I wouldn’t label myself a “numbers guy," I sure do love me some charts, graphs and financials. Although there are other metrics for success, not many come close to top end revenue and because of that I’m always trying to figure out a way to generate more.
4. Expenses: whereby revenues are an exciting indicator of growth, expenses provide an equal level of health of the company. I’m a problem solver and because cutting expenses typically solves most profitability or cash flow problems, there is a certain satisfaction in figuring out how to cut costs and keep expenses in check. There really are few things more enjoyable than renegotiating a vendor contract or finding a more cost effective alternative to doing business.
5. Development: the best products and services typically have multiple inputs feeding the direction that product or service takes. Although I’d consider myself a creative type, my real value is helping to decipher when to show the new baby off to the world. Every entrepreneur and creative type has a little bit of perfectionist tendencies in them and something there is always going to be a tension between getting something out the door and making something that is perfect. I subscribe to the theory that it’s better to fix problems than to prevent them. Make it work, get it out quickly, let customers kick the tires and then figure out how to make rounds two, three and four that much better.
6. Sales & Marketing: this job is easy if you’re passionate about the product or service you’re trying to sell. I hate selling, but I love communicating. Good S&M is simply communicating with passion and clarity what the value is for the consumer.
Find out more about my passions for E-commerce
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