We are about to say goodbye to 2012 and welcome to 2013! This is the time when we need to look back on the old year and see what worked and what did not work! What do you need to do in your personal life or business to make the necessary changes in the areas that did not work? Is it time to let go of some of the things that did not work?
2012 was a year that was very good and yet it was a challenging year for me! There have been so many changes in my life and I have felt like there have been so many new beginnings from those changes and I am happy to say that in 2013 I expect to see the fruits of the labor from all of those changes.
I have always done a lot of planning and I try to work my plans but sometimes our plans just do not work out the way that we expect no matter how hard we try!
When you find an area in your life or your business that is not working the way that you think that it should, it is time to stop and take a good look at the situation and find out what you need to do to make the necessary change or perhaps you need to let it go.
This was one of those years for me. I had many changes that took place in my life that I had not planned for, but there were three changes that were major that affected both my personal life and my business in ways that I would not have imagined. I would like to share these with you.
- Went back to work to manage my former embroidery business
- I had to build a new Embroidery Training membership site
- Surgery for a knee replacement
Managing My Old Embroidery Business!
One morning in January 2012 I received a phone call from the gentleman that had purchased my embroidery business. The business was not making the kind of money that we was expecting and he was having a lot of problems with the employees. He was an absentee owner and he made some drastic changes to the business when he purchased it and closed the retail side of the business. The business seemed to be OK for while, but now several years later, he was extremely frustrated and about ready to close the doors. He wanted me to come in and do an evaluation of the business and let him know what it was that needed to be done to solve the problems and get the business back on track.
This was a real challenge for me, not because of the evaluation, but knowing what he really wanted was for me to fix all of the problems of the business and then stay on to manage the business. I knew that I could give him a great evaluation and let him know what he had to do to make the changes, but giving up some of the hours that I needed to spend on my embroidery training business so that I could fix his business, was a really tough decision for me to make.
I called my business coach and discussed it with her. She told me to evaluate my business and my personal life to see if this was going to be a benefit or a detriment. I wrestled with this decision for two weeks before I finally made my decision to give it a try for a few weeks and see what I could do to improve this business. I also decided that I would share this experience with my students so they could also learn from this business makeover. It is now 11 months later and I am still there.
Changes That I Made In This Business!
During this time I have sold old equipment, changed the work flow, added new production flow forms that must be followed, let go of employees that were not happy or causing dissension among the other employees and retrained the remaining employees. The business was totally divided into departments and the employees stayed in their particular departments and were not willing to cross the line to help in another department when it was necessary. There was no teamwork whatsoever among these employees.
This business was strictly a contract embroidery shop and it is almost impossible for a small embroidery business or even a medium sized embroidery business to survive on contract work alone. It needs some retail sales to help balance out the money flow especially during the lean times and there are lean times or months in almost every embroidery business.
I have also had the opportunity to work with each employee personally and have found out where all of their strengths and weaknesses are. This has allowed me to move them around in areas that they are excelling in and are much happier.
The business now has less employees, there is no division within the company and the production has greatly increased with the current employees. These remaining employees are now happy and are very willing to work as a team and it will be easier to train new employees because of all of the procedures that are now set in place. Do you have written procedures for each area of your business?
Plans For More Changes In 2013
I have more changes planned in 2013 for this business. I am in the process of opening up a retail area in the business and the opening is set for the end of January. I have the retail area 
all planned out and am in the process of getting the samples and the display equipment together. I am creating wall samples to make it easy for the customers to pick out exactly what they want for embroidery. It is going to save a lot of time for both the customer and the salesperson. When they are finished, I will take pictures and share them with you. I will tell you exactly how I created them so that you can duplicate what I have done for your own business.
I am also installing a new accounting system to get the New Year started off in the right direction with the accounting and the work flow. The changes that I have already made have been very positive and the owner is pleased with the progress. The employees that are still there are happy and are very willing to work as a team! I will not be leaving there any time soon. I have a lot that I want to accomplish and I want to see this business become very profitable and it is now moving in the right direction.
In the next Ezine, I will be sharing with you the next major change that affected by business!