Herding catsThis one is my second favorite term, after green weenie. Herding cats is a tough chore. In business, it translates as managing a group of people that are hard to control or direct. Imagine trying to keep dozens of cats all headed in the same direction focused on the same results. I first heard it applied during a discussion of a consolidation of a bunch of mom-and-pop salvage yards. The owners stayed on. They all had their own ideas of how to run the consolidated business.
Though not technically wrong, as most of them had been successful managers, they held sharply different ideas on running the business. Following the consolidation, each previous owner continued running his operation as a freestanding unit and resisted standard practices and directives issued from headquarters. Now that would be a CEO's herding nightmare!
The term can also mean trying to direct employees who don't work well together. My favorite use of the term, however, came in a memo about private stock placements. A decision was needed on whether to offer $1 million either in $250,000 shares to four investors or in $10,000 shares to 100 investors. Investors always have their own ideas about how things should be done, what went wrong and how you could have done better. Each will want to have his or her hand held and get regular progress reports. The business decided that if you're going to herd cats, four is much easier, so he turned down all the small investors. Herding 100 shareholders is impractical, if not impossible, and will definitely drive one crazy.
Herding cats
an illustration by Gahan Wilson from Ron's Book "Green Weenies and Due Diligence"
Business Mentoring Groups for Small Business Owners
Strategic Business Planning - Raising Money - Reference Letters - Contact Ron
Business peer mentoring groups are groups of non-competitive business owners who meet periodically to compare metrics and share proven business building techniques, cost cutting measures, and ways to gain competitive advantage. Group members learn what works, what doesn't, and benefit from the experience and perspectives of the other members.
Ron Sturgeon reached the top of the auto recycling business. He will tell you that much of his business success came as a result of joining a business peer mentoring group. Read more about Ron's peer mentoring experience.
Peer mentoring works for small business people. Contract Ron about starting or joining one of our peer mentoring groups.
Magnify the Benefits of Business Mentoring Groups: Make Them Industry Specific
When most owners of small businesses participate in CEO roundtables and other business idea sharing forums, they are in the room with people who own companies in unrelated industries.
That's good for making your business grow, but not nearly as good as it could be.
The power of our group was that we were all engaged in building businesses in the same industry. The ideas were all specific, and they had been tested in our industry.
I call this kind of same-industry group a small business mentoring group. I don't know any industry using them except car dealers. The car dealers call such industry specific groups twenty groups.
Most of my competitors did not belong to mentoring business builder groups. They were flying by the seat of their pants and learned by trial and error, a little at a time.
Who do you think got the business most of the time?
Join a Mentoring Group Specific to Your Industry
Right now there is lots of uncertainty among business owners -- some might even say -- fear! Most small business owners would love to join a group of peers from across the country and learn from one another how to prosper even in a down market.
If you think having a mentor or business coach who knows your business would help your prosper, imagine the small business help you'll get from a industry specific mentoring group!
Over the next few months, I will be putting together industry specific small business mentoring groups for trades and other service business. If you want to join the group for your business category, you're invited. E-mail me at rons@mrmissionpossible.com. The cost will be only $650 per participant.