Looking back, I was wrong about them.  I admit it!

I am now ready to embrace the complainers!  Here’s why:

My revelation on this point occurred when Alisa, our new Business Development Manager, left during the morning for a dentist appointment, but later returned a couple of hours later, resuming her regular duties.  Thinking about my own dentist appointments that are often filled with needles of Novocain shot into my gums, making it impossible for me to talk when I return to work, I couldn’t help but notice that she seemed quite functional.

So, I asked her: “How are your teeth?  Are you in pain?  Are you still OK to be at work?” But Alisa assured me she was totally fine.

She then said to me: “My dentist told me that if all his patients took care of their teeth like me, there’d be no need for her.  She’d be out of work.”  She explained that she took great care to clean and maintain her teeth after being told how important it was, and how her dentist appointments were non-eventful checkups absent of the pain I regularly came to associate with my visits.

We talked a little more and then, my light bulb moment occurred. It came to me in a flash that if everyone with teeth, brushed, flossed, and cared for them like Alisa, what a huge impact that would have on the dental industry! How would these dentist offices stay open, if all of their patients gave them nothing to do?

Let me use my dentist as an example.  I think my dentist’s office employs about 5-7 people, and I’d guess they are all pretty well paid professionals, all doing their work on people who don’t brush and floss as well as Alisa does. What if these people had no work?  For example, my dentist is a great dentist and a great guy, but I bet he doesn’t have any other marketable skills besides dentistry (maybe watch repair, with those tools he’s accumulated and his steady hand). But the rest of his staff? Not so talented.  I foresee “Will clean teeth for food” handwritten signs by the interstate.

Now, take this idea a step further. Multiply the impact if every dentist office in the country closed because everyone took care of their teeth like they should. Think of the massive unemployment problems that would result.  I bet most of these dental workers would be out on the streets, forced to selling their stash of free toothbrushes and mini toothpaste tubes. And think about that loss of revenue that previously circulated in our economy from people paying for dentures, implants, cleanings, oral surgery, x-rays…all of it gone!  What an economic downturn our country would experience, if everyone cared for their teeth like Alisa!

And that’s when it dawned on me that I’ve been looking at this the wrong way.  All those business owners who don’t attend my workshops, who don’t make their businesses unique and distinctive…these are people I should be thanking!  The owners who complain all the time and do little to help themselves while remaining stagnant, I should hug!  These owners are the ones who are maintaining the below-average business standards that allow the rest of my clients to stand out.  These owners are the people who set the low bar! These are the entrepreneurs who make it possible for any other company to look so good, by them being so bad at what they do.  These are the people whose poor service gets anchored in the minds of customers, so when my clients’ employees go just a little above and beyond the call of duty, their efforts seem Herculean.

I am the first one to admit when I am wrong, and I was wrong about the slackers.  It was wrong for me to have berated them.  The slackers, malcontents, and complaining business owners have done nothing wrong.  Granted, they haven’t done anything particularly right either, but they don’t deserve to be flogged into changing.

I’ve changed my mind!  Immobile owners like these should be praised. They should be encouraged to “Do nothing, move nowhere, change not!” Their businesses are perfect, in their most imperfect states, and the rest of the proactive business world needs them to maintain their business inertia.

So to all owners out there who are constantly working to improve yourself and your business position, do this: The next time you see one your business peers who fits this slacker/complainer description, don’t avoid them. Don’t look away. And certainly don’t berate them with those positive suggestions of change you typically heap on them. Next time, give them a hearty pat on the back and a cheery “Carry on!”

Their mediocre business is crucial to your creation of the Destination Business of your dreams. Without them, your challenges would be much more difficult.

But this is easier said than done, especially for most owners of businesses.  You see, most owners are extremely creative people with ideas constantly popping up in their heads every day.

Do you recognize yourself?  If so, this blog post is for you.

I see it all the time.  Most owners keep lists and pages of their ideas.  Owners are great note-takers and list-makers. The problem comes finding time to act on those ideas.  Rather than devoting time to work on them (what companies call innovation time, or research and development), most owners work in their businesses and will do anything to NOT work on their ideas.  For example, some owners read trade publications, talk to business owners in their same field, and attend industry conferences, and when they return, they are thoroughly overloaded with more ideas, piles of notes and scribbles of thoughts, and magazines where they’ve highlighted every word in yellow.

Face it. You have more ideas than you need!  And I’m including the bad ideas you get from people who come up to you, knowing very little about your business, who say: “You should do this, if you want to make more money.”

Do the math, and collectively, you have some great ideas mixed in with a bunch of good ideas, about half-a-ton of not so good ideas, and a couple of hundred ideas that you don’t know if they’re good or not, and a few that you wrote down or heard that you don’t understand.

Then, I come around and tell you to reinvent your business as a Destination which really puts you in overload (it shouldn’t; my stuff’s the easiest).

Here is the first step in the process to help you handle your great, good, and bad ideas.

Today I will share the First Idea.  #2 and #3 will appear in this blog in the next two days.

#1 Step: Remember that there is only one you.

“There is only one you”.  What does that mean?  It means that you are limited in what you alone can accomplish as one person.  Your parents used to say “There is only one you” but they meant that you were like a shining star or unique like a snowflake.  And though you might have been and maybe are now, I don’t mean it that way.

Put another way: You are just one person trying to handle too much.

But, you might say, “Wait, it’s not just me!”  You might say this because you have a supportive partner or spouse or good employees who are likewise focused on your business.  Yes, this support is wonderful, but that makes a few more “kind-of-like yous”, and even though your spouse might be infinitely more talented than you and right on the same page, that only means there is at most, just one more than you.

And yes, some of you have brilliant people working for you.  They can take some responsibility for handling different ideas.  But deep down, you know that there is a reason your employees work for you and don’t have their own businesses.  They are not you, and some aren’t even like you. They don’t wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, thinking how to make payroll the next day. They sleep at night while you are up thinking of the hundreds of ideas that caused you to sit up in bed.  They don’t agonize over that customer your business just lost, and that sale that just walked out the door.  Deep down, they are less committed.

Granted, there are other possibilities to have more people help you with your ideas.  You can delegate responsibilities to others (though most owners don’t do this real well because you have a tendency to be a little controlling, oh, snowflake that you are).  Yes, delegation is a possibility.

But let me come back to what I said: There is only one you.  And you know it, and for the most part, the really great ideas that are percolating around up there will have to be put into practice by you.

Tomorrow, we’ll cover the reality of having too many ideas, and what to do about it.

If you haven’t read the book yet, I suggest that you click this sentence to read this month’s Fortune Magazine and the excerpt they have taken from Colvin’s book.

Then, if you want to read some better news, click on this sentence to read Fortune’s Big Picture Index, that takes seven (7) key metrics about today’s economy and graphs them to show you that, just perhaps, the worst is behind us in this Recession.  According to the indicators of home sales, stock prices, jobs, business loans, consumer loans, household income, and CEO consumer confidence, we might be seeing better times sooner than the pessimistic experts forcast.

Guess what?  You don’t have to.  General Motors and their advertising campaign did it for us.

The hottest word in General Motors new vocabulary is officially “Reinvention”.  You can listen to the new 60 second GM ad called GM Reinvention, by clicking on: GM Reinvention

Or you can read it below:

“Let’s be completely honest: No company wants to go through this.

But we’re not witnessing the end of the American car.  We’re witnessing the rebirth of the American car.

General Motors needs to start over, in order to get stronger.

There was a time when eight different brands made sense.

Not anymore.

There was a time when our cost structure could compete worldwide.

Not anymore.

Reinvention is the only way we can fix this.

And fix it we will.

So here’s what the new GM is going to be:

Fewer, stronger brands.

Fewer, stronger models.

Greater efficiencies.  better fuel economy and new technologies. 

Leaner, greener, faster, smarter.

GM is not going out of business.

GM is getting down to business.

Because the only Chapter we’re focused on is Chapter One.”

Let’s be even more honest than this ad’s slick 60 second presentation:  GM told hundreds of independent car dealers that their business dealership model was the way to go.  Hundreds of independent owners trusted in GM’s way of doing business, if they supported their Big Brother car company.   And guess what?  GM’s business model didn’t work, and the company itself would have ceased to be, if we as taxpayers hadn’t sent them cash to stay alive. 

The truth is:  GM’s Reinvention is much less painful than what small business owners nationwide are experiencing.

Some small businesses are figuring out that Reinvention is more than just tweaking a few tactics here and there.  But many are operating just as they did last year, but complaining a lot more.

As one owner told me when she couldn’t get fellow business owners to attend a workshop I conducted in her city:  “I cannot understand our local businesses.  When I pitched your presentation to them, they say things like: “I already know all that” or “I employ a marketing firm and don’t need that” or “I’m too busy”.  These are the same folks that say “How come you’re successful in this town?” or “I’ve tried everything & I can’t get people in my store”… We see lots of envy, frustration, excuses, and so little effort from them.”

Business Reinvention means that you as a business owner must admit that the business model you have been using in the past no longer works.  It also means that you must admit that the answers currently in your head, and the experiences you have gathered over the years of running your business, are not currently fixing the decline in sales and customer traffic you are experiencing.

Here are six lessons in Business Reinvention that every small business owner should recognize from GM and its failure as a major company:

#1:  There is NO franchise in the world that guarantees success!  NOT ONE!  And if you are a business owner in a franchise who blindly trusts and follows the company guidelines verbatim, you do it at your own risk.  All of the independent car dealers who are now out of business because of GM are the living proof of this.  They trusted the business model GM had set up for them, and it no longer works.

#2:  Brand uniformity is not all it’s cracked up to be.  There is no safety in brand uniformity and doing everything exactly the same as other businesses in your industry.  It feels safe, until everyone goes over the cliff at the same time.

#3:  I’ve been telling small business owners for the last 14 years that reinventing your business into a Destination is the most profitable way to operate your business. But in this economy, Reinventing into a Destination and being one-of-a-kind are no longer options.

#4:  It’s time for every small business owner to start learning what you’ve avoided learning.  All business owners know what they aren’t good at doing.  It’s time to address your weaknesses and correct them.  It’s time to quit doing the same things in your business today that didn’t work in your business last month.  Doing the same things only puts off your business reinvention for another day, and frankly, some of you are running out of days.

#5:  No one is going to be coming with any cash to save you and your business IF you don’t reinvent yourself.  Free cash is only for companies like GM.  You are on your own. 

#6:  And remember the words of the GM ad:  “No company wants to go through this.  Reinvention is the only way we can fix this.”

Listen to those words every time that advertisement pops up on your television screen.

Will you learn from GM’s experience and hear it as your wake-up call?