Using a piece of paper, draw a rectangle with a small circle at each of the corners. Then draw five spokes, each beginning at the center of the circle and at a 60 degree angle to each other. What we have created is an imaginary car with wheels but not having yet drawn the tire around the spokes.

With this imaginary car, which represents your business as a whole, one wheel represents your salespeople and their abilities, a second wheel is your management abilities, the third wheel is customer service, and the fourth is your finances. While in a future article we will develop a "car" which is exclusively for your employees, we are asking today with regards to your business, "does your car have a flat tire?".

The end of the spoke near the hub represents the number one, a poor rating. And the outer end of the spoke represents a ten, meaning an excellent grade. With the salespeople wheel, as with the other three wheels, we will name your five spokes and grade them accordingly. One spoke represents the ability to create and respond to goals, a second represents the ability to communicate with other employees, the third represents product knowledge, the fourth dependability, and the fifth is ability to accept and work with change.

You, or the employee will mark the spokes at the appropriate level on the one to ten scale. From the five marks you will now be able to create a circle. If the employee were to achieve a ten in all five categories, the circle would be round like a car tire. But if there was one or more areas that earned a lesser, there will appear to be a flat tire, and the "car" will not run smoothly.

The second tire is your management of the business. Let's rate the five spokes according to 1., turnover of employees, 2., training the employees, 3., the appearance of the displays of your business, 4., employee participation in management, and the last spoke is your product mix. And again the question, what is the shape of this tire?

The third wheel represents your customer service. In the last year, have you had more or fewer complaints from your customers? Rate yourself accordingly. The second spoke covers what your employees say to customers. If they are greeting the customer with the same "can I help you?" as many of your competition does, then your store deserves a low mark in this category. The same review should be applied to your cashiers if they say to a customer, "Is that all?".

For the third spoke let's look at the number of customers you or your employees know by name. Is it a good percentage of your customers? Then you get a high mark for this. If a lot of your customers are repeat customers, then your fourth spoke should be a high number. And for the fifth spoke, let's rate the number of customers that come by referral. If this happens frequently, this means you have satisfied customers. When you connect the five marks, what does this tire look like?

The fourth and final wheel represents your finances. Let's have the first spoke represent your ability to read and understand all of the information on your financial statement. The second spoke represents the time it takes you to get your monthly financials. How quick are they created? Do you have your January financials by February 5th? Or are you getting to see them by the middle of March? Grade yourself accordingly.

Do you have a cashflow chart, and is the chart upgraded monthly? If so, you deserve a high mark on your third spoke. The fourth spoke represents your employees' understanding of business management. Too often employees believe that every business doubles the cost to determine the price of the product or service, and then is netting between ten and twenty percent. Experience has shown that employees are more apt to be team players when they are aware of the true financial picture. Grade accordingly.

The fifth spoke on the last wheel is your overall financial stability. Select whichever financial ratios you want, but in looking at five or more of the ratios, does your business rate a financially stable grade? You should grade accordingly.

Now we have given your business a fairly thorough review. In examining each of the tires, if you rated a five in every category you do not have four flat tires, but four small tires. And a vehicle with four small tires cannot move as fast as a business with four large tires.

And, as you examine the four tires, you will easily see where you have any deficiencies. Devoting your time, resources, and efforts to these areas will allow you to have your "car" in top shape and ready to go. And as they say at the Daytona 500, "Gentlemen, start your engines!"

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Profits+Plus
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St. Petersburg, Fl 33731
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