We are swamped and can’t cope! Help!

Dear Aunty,

We have just launched some new products and have been swamped with work. The problem is we don’t have the cash to pay and take on more resources and we don’t have the time to be distracted from our work to train them up new people!

I have just had a wonderful staff member resign because she says she is overworked and needs a break.

By the way, I love you Aunty B. You keep me going every day even when it’s grey.

Over it,
Vic

Dear Over it,

You, my dear – and for some reason I assume you are a nice young woman (well, I know you are from your email address and your website) – need help.

First, don’t feel alone. There is not an entrepreneur on the planet who has not made this mistake and grabbed an opportunity without considering back up!

When you are growing fast, a whole lot of things need to change yet keep working in harmony. However, what happens in reality is one bit of the business shoots forward and then another bit goes: yow! What the hell? We can’t keep up! So you speed that bit up and then the bit that feeds into that goes: yow! What the hell? We can’t keep up…

And that chain of events means you run around like a headless chook responding to the moans of your overworked, under-resourced staff, feeling like you want to be doing anything else rather than being a slave to your business. What you should have done is a scalability scenario.

You sit down and say: if we introduce this product and it sells well, what will be the impact on the sales staff, the support staff, the IT resources, the guys that answer the phones, warehouse space, etc? Then you need to look at resources needed, who needs to be retrained and how you might need to restructure to meet the future needs of the business. You might also uncover spare capacity!

You should also factor in that some of your staff won’t make the transition – because that inevitably happens.

First, have a look at the profitability of what you are doing. Are you working for too little? Can you put your prices up?

Second, you now know where you lack resources. Sit down and reorganise your staff. Does anyone need more training? Can you replace any poor performers? Do staff need more IT assistance?

Third, who are you targeting with these new products? Is it taking too many resources to reach them? Is the cost of sale too high?

Fourth, you could think about retiring any other products that are not working as well and thereby freeing up capacity.

Fifth, have you got the management team in place to make the transition to the next stage? (Which is what you are doing although you don’t realise it yet.)

Sixth, can you bring in quick outsourcing assistance? You won’t believe the great young people out there abandoned by the GFC who would love some work at a cheap rate.

Think you don’t have time to organise this? You are putting your business at risk of poor service unless you tackle this immediately.

Good luck,
Your Aunty B

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