My first reaction is that you are wayyy too nice!! Lol, I want a job where I can bring my doggy!! 
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Yeah, he’s hot headed. But, this is a small business. I have 4 employees. He’s worked here longer than I have. So, he gets away with things. He usually cools down after a while though, once he’s had a chance to think things through. I wouldn’t fire him, unless it was something crazy bad, unethical, or something like that. We’re friends as well. I’ve taken my family up to his cabin and he’s helped me with house stuff. It’s not a typical Manager-Employee relationship. But, even still, sometimes when he gets into a mood, he’s hard to deal with.
I don’t think I need any advice, necessarily. Just wanted to vent about it.
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Yeah, I’m pretty sure that after he had time to cool off he likely understood why I was irritated. Not sure he understands the issue still though. He has step kids, but never raised them. No biological kids of his own. I think he treats his dogs like kids and may feel offended for his “children” not being welcome places.
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Reviving this old thread to give an update. Business Buyout is set for July 1st. Working on contacting banks to secure funding, etc.
Current headaches: cleaning up the Accounts Receivable so I don’t have to pay for stuff I’ll never collect, trying to keep my wife calm about how much the business costs, continuing to do everything else in the business…
Question: I’m working with one bank, but have contacted 3 total banks. How different is it going to be really between different banks that are primarily “business banks”? I don’t want to go through the loan process more than once, honestly. It’s lengthy and they’re constantly asking me for stuff. I don’t want to do this with another bank…
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So, here I am now, the owner of my clinic. Things have been good for the most part. Some annoyances included one of my long time employees quitting on me the same week as the business acquisition. That was sucky. He also tried to get me to pay him his sick leave as PTO. After telling him that it can’t be used that way, he calls out sick. Surprise Surprise. We’ve worked together for 5 years and then you screw me over like that. Anyway, he’s gone. Good riddance.
Now this week. I have a girl that works for me that got arrested. I bailed her out today. Yeah, maybe that’s an enabling thing to do, but she’s losing me money not working. And she will pay the bail back.
Employees, AmIRight?
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Congrats on becoming owner! I wish you luck and much success!
I hope this thread gets revived and there are a few more of us… not everyone understands the struggles that come with owning your own small business!!
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Congratulations on buying out the clinic! That’s going to be an exciting new chapter for you. Being an owner is a whole different perspective 
Are you planning to expand it, maybe scale up, do some marketing?
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I did most everything myself back before I owned it, so it’s basically been mine since moving in back in 2017. That was fortunate, because I made a lot of costly mistakes that didn’t affect me much. Now I’ve ironed out a lot of those issues and it runs smoothly.
I do plan to work with the prior owners in the future though. We plan to open some other clinics as side businesses. Should be pretty great going forward.
@fl_flower_grl Thanks! I wish more people would talk about small businesses as well. You’re welcome to come here and complain or ask for advice any time!
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What is your line of work specifically?
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Cool. I’m a Chiropractor. Though our jobs are super different, they’re essentially the same. I have to convince people that they need more care than they believe they need pretty often. When I first started I just kind of winged things and had no conviction to selling them on a long treatment plan. Now I understand that there’s a scientific process to the therapies I provide, and if they don’t follow specific treatment plans, they will not recover to the best that their body will allow.
So, I know that even though they don’t always want what I’m selling them, I know that it’s for their own good and if they don’t do it, it will be to their own detriment. I communicate that with them. Most of my patients understand why they need the care after telling them this.
Now as for other things. I don’t sell stuff like supplements, because I, myself, am not convinced that my patients truly need them.
Can’t really help you much with your conviction, but I’d say that working on the Why of what you’re trying to do for your clients is a start.
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Absolutely. That was my issue retaining patients and building a patient base early on as a Chiropractor. Then I had a smart Coach that helped me understand the why. Now if someone doesn’t follow through with care and it’s not because I didn’t do my job, it’s their own issue.
I don’t think I can answer The Why for you. Perhaps you should try to find a peer in the same field and speak with them about it.
I think we can generally apply it across the board when it comes to sales. You have to understand/believe in the product/idea that you’re selling, otherwise people frequently will see through you and will not close on the deal. Coming to understand and believe in what you’re doing I guess is the Why.
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Do you have a business where you raise dogs?
For me, I found sales reading and training to be really helpful. I’ve worked in sales for almost 10 years now and full time for the last 5. I now run my own business (which obviously means I better want to sell what I have, or else I’m in trouble 
).
There are a few good books but one recent one that is applicable in cases where what you’re offering is necessary but the people who could use your services don’t always see the necessity - and it sounds like this may be the case for you now - is The Challenger Sale:
It helped me to reframe the idea of “the customer is always right” to “the customer is always right to engage in a dialogue, in mutual input with me - the knowledgeable person about the product they need - and mutual effort to understand and communicate, leading to a result which is a win for them and a win for me”.
That book has a fairly assertive tone and general perspective - i.e., challenging and taking control of the conversation (this can be modulated and modified, but still it’s about being the key voice directing things) - which can feel a bit stereotypically masculine. It’s a matter of how it feels for the user I suppose. I can say I’ve personally found that book helpful but then the fact it is consonant with my upbringing and my general sense of how to engage with others, is probably contributing.
Another thing I’ve found helpful is just preparation and practice. Practice practice practice. You can make a script and practice it, practice key parts and patterns, then when you’re doing the actual conversation you can go with the flow because you know you always have the key points up your sleeve.
I got this card at a sales training event and I have kept it in my wallet ever since. Simplest, best sales advice I’ve ever had:
That one is most focused on person to person or group to group negotiation, but marketing is related; basically what you’re negotiating with marketing is “why should this person give me more than 5 seconds of their attention?”. The same principles apply, including preparation - knowing your audience and speaking to what matters to them.
You speak with conviction, @mx_elle; you always have. You carry deep currents of energy in you, and power. That can be mighty and it can also be paralyzing, but it is always impactful. You have something to offer and you believe in it. It’s just a question of polishing your “elevator pitch” so you can catch attention and engagement where possible, then developing a bit of the deeper material (including the open-ended questioning you use to tailor your services) so you can secure your place in your new clients’ worlds.
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@mx_elle another thing - biggest single help to me in starting my business and in wrapping my head around the hard parts (including sales and tracking my finances, both of which I find challenging - in spite of my interest in them!) - is Futurpreneur:
This program is awesome. For entrepreneurs in Canada it is awesome. Why? You get two years of free mentorship from an experienced entrepreneur. (There’s also funding with very favourable terms, which really helps you expand.) My mentor is fantastic, she’s scaled up three companies in my city and does the mentorship as a way to give back to entrepreneurs in the area, and develop the next generation.
If you can I’d highly recommend checking it out. Some mentorship (and development funding) might be exactly what you need.
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Oh thats where those shots went! Lol. No. Not at all, I will erase those pics, thanks for pointing that out!
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Lol! No worries! You’re always welcome back!
That is awesome! I like the whole rephrasing of the Customer is Always Right. Because customers are regularly wrong here in my business. However, reframing their view on what they actually need and matching it with what they can afford/manage is where the win/win comes in.
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That’s the sweet spot, definitely. Everything that exists, fits some niche, some space where it works. The question is, where is that niche, and then, how can we get there? And it’s a learning process, learning, together.
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I own a small business and am curious: what do you do when a client wants to control the project? I am the expert - the consultant - and he is saying he wants to “talk to make sure we’re on the same page” and he “wants me to come inspect” when I told him it likely wasn’t needed. I’m thinking this is a male-female thing which is frustrating. Or it could be that he is a high level of management at his firm and used to calling the shots. Any thoughts?
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In my opinion that depends on what your business is… I own a commercial plant nursery so if people want to come “check in”, I get it bc they want to see how things are coming along. I never really mind bc they just need a visual and don’t tell us how to do our job… what’s the scenario you’re dealing with and have you worked with this client before?
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