I once met the owner of a manufacturing business. His name was Ken VanTreese. His business, Wood Concepts, built high-end signs for apartment complexes all over the U.S. He described his business as “increasing occupancy rates through great signage.” (How’s that for selling value instead of price?)
His business was in Oklahoma, but Ken lived on a yacht in the Caribbean. I happened to catch him in town and we sat down for a chat. He explained how he was able to manage his business from a boat a thousand miles away. He said it was a process. He first identified the key criteria for his business and developed a summary report that charted the performance of each. Then he trained his employees to manage all aspects of the business and to generate and interpret the weekly report. Next he bought a yacht and moved into it, and instructed his employees to send him the weekly report every Tuesday at 9 a.m. Now, if performance is off a bit, he calls to discuss corrective action. In the very worst case, he has to visit in person.
VanTreese’s report even had some data not suggested by Sutton. Particularly, operating costs by expense category – both fixed and variable. Ken knows exactly which expenses should not rise, which indeed are variable (a percent of revenue), and the “normal” amounts and/or percentages of each.
This article originally appeared in The Business Owner Journal, the periodical of choice for owners of small and midsize private businesses. All rights reserved, D.L. Perkins LLC. © 2012.
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