When is Enough Enough?

If you are reading this blog, which happens to be my first, you may already know that together with my wife Georgianne, I own Monday Morning Flower and Balloon Co. Over the years she and I have done a fairly good job at "dividing" up the company responsibilities and staying out of each others way. She's the President and manages the creative side along with the marketing but because of my background in Accounting and Finance I get to handle what is commonly called "back office" functions such as technology and most other non-creative areas. I get to play General Manager.

Now, I've been told that because of previous jobs and things I've learned along the way working in manufacturing and finance, our company has some very thorough financial reporting and benchmarking systems for a flower shop our size! This brings me to the question, when is enough enough? A few months ago we were having a discussion on the company's performance and Georgianne pointed out that she thought I was spending more and more time in the office analyzing our results. After thinking about this for a few moments I quickly agreed. I had become the victim of one of the things I dislike most about Accounting and Finance - Analysis Paralysis. I realized that I was spending way too much time studying the same numbers that weren't even changing. We have great reporting systems - we already know what's happening financially and operationally on a daily basis. Nevertheless, during a time of Economic downturn I was getting caught up in the numbers and managing the company less. Needless to say, this stopped pretty quickly and back into the operation and sales areas I went. What difference this made for me and the business.

My point is that when things get tough for your business, the best place to be is working the floor with your employees and listening to the customer - better yet, serving the customer. Someone told me a long time ago, without exceptional service there would be no customers, without customers there would be no sales, and without sales there will be nothing to account for!! Bottom line - service the customer and the numbers eventually will take care of them selves.