Dave Says – On Business

(What would Dave have changed?)

Dear Dave,
I started my own small business a couple of years ago, and thanks to a lot of hard work and your advice, we’re seeing some growth. If you could go back and restart your business, what things would you do differently the second time around?
William

Dear William,
If there was one thing I could change, it would be taking more time during the hiring process. I definitely didn’t spend enough time and energy during interviews way back when. Consequently, there were times when we let crazy people in the door. Once that happened, we had to spend a lot of time and effort dealing with their craziness before we finally moved them out of the building. Not fun!

Another thing has to do with retained earnings. We didn’t begin taking a percentage of our net profits and setting it aside for retained earnings until we got too tight on cash. Starting over, I’d do that from day one. I’d run a profit and loss statement for the month, close the books for the month, and take a percentage of the net profit—after paying myself a living wage—and automatically put it aside as savings for the business.

People problems and money problems are small-business killers. We fought so hard and were so passionate about everything. Sometimes I wonder how many mistakes I made as a result of over-the-top intensity. Don’t misunderstand; you’ve got to be intense and passionate to make things work. But there were probably a few times when I could have handled things with a little more understanding and class.

Maybe that would be a distant third. The first two things probably affected that somewhat, too. I’m a little more relaxed now, but I know one thing for sure. Not having to deal with crazy people, and having a little bit of money saved, changes your whole outlook on things!
—Dave

(Leadership is servanthood)

Dear Dave,
I’m a supervisor at a distribution center. The other supervisors and I are meeting soon to try and change the culture of our place. It’s not a terrible situation, but some concerns about communication, development and confidence in the company have come up. How would you start the process?
James

Dear James,
Trust begins to break down when your team members think you don’t care about them. But when someone trusts you and knows that you value them, they’ll fight for you and with you. The only way to make your team feel this way is by thinking of leadership as servanthood

Now, serving someone doesn’t mean you bring them coffee, and it sure doesn’t mean you take a bunch of crap from them. When I talk about serving, I mean looking at your team as real people. As a supervisor, what are you going to do if a guy’s wife is in the hospital after miscarriage? How are you going to handle that? You’ve got to care about your people as people, not units of production. If leadership will start doing this, and start firing people if they’re screw-ups and stop taking a bunch of garbage off the malcontents, then the good people will be glad they’re there. They’ll see that you care about them and demand excellence.

In other words, quit being bosses and start being leaders. That entails servanthood, and that also means using the Golden Rule. Before you do something with your team, take a minute and think how you’d feel if you were in their shoes. Put every decision through the Golden Rule paradigm. That in itself will cause you to serve.

All I’m talking about is loving on your people well. You can change your entire workplace culture just by doing that one thing. Too often Corporate America has forgotten that, but those of us who run successful small businesses know how it’s done. And we make sure it happens every day!
—Dave

* For more small business advice, please visit daveramsey.com.

About the Author
Dave Ramsey is a personal money management expert, popular national radio personality and the author of three New York Times bestsellers – The Total Money Makeover, Financial Peace Revisited and More Than Enough. In them, Ramsey exemplifies his life’s work of teaching others how to be financially responsible, so they can acquire enough wealth to take care of loved ones, live prosperously into old age, and give generously to others. Ramsey offers life-changing, financial advice as host of a nationally syndicated radio program, The Dave Ramsey Show, which is heard by 4.5 million listeners each week on 450 radio stations throughout the United States. His syndicated column, Dave Says, can be read in more than 300 print and online publications worldwide. For more small business advice, please visit daveramsey.com.