Please pass the mustard.....

Poor customer service could be one of the most fustrating thing to deal with. Poor customer service though is not always what you think of. I have had several experiences over the past week that took poor customer service to a new level.

I went to go pick up apples at a new orchard. Got there about 11:30am. I was told by the main office, to go around to the side of the building and ask for art, he will load my truck. Once loaded, come back around and get/pay the invoice.... pretty stright foward I thought.

So I drove around to the side of the building. Saw an old guy unloading crates off a truck... this must be art. so I waited, and waited, and waited, until he was finished. Then as he began to park the fork lift, I said " are you art?", "No" he replied. "But art was here just a few mins. ago". So we both, headed back up to the main office, to find out where Art was. "He is at lunch" we were told. The old man then told the ladies at the office " but this guy has been already waiting a long time!", "well I guess he will need to wait some more" they responded.

So instead of serving a cusotmer.... Lunch is more important. OK, I guess. Until I finally meet Art, and he tells me that he saw my truck at the loading bay before he left for lunch, but he thought it was his bosses (apparently the same color). Also, I don't think I could make up the ironic conversation that I overheard by the office staff, while I was waiting for everyone to finish there lunch. They were talking about how great this one diner takes care of there customers...... really ?

Are You Really an Entrepreneur?

Are You Really an Entrepreneur?
What makes someone a Entreprenur verse a manager or a bussiness person? What are some of the characteristics of an Entrepreneur? Here is a top Ten list that I discovered, that I think hit the mark.

1./ You're always looking for opportunities. This is almost the definition of an entrepreneur. Every pain point is an opportnity. " When difficult times happen, although you might reconzie the diffictult time, this can be turned in to an opportunity for greatness"

2./ Are you prepared to work long hours, every day, for an indefinite period of time? Ahem, let's dispel illusions. Put down "the 4 hour woork week"; it is a myth that the author spun to sell books ( so he could work 4 hours a week).

3./ Good health. You cannot answer "Yes" to item #2 unless you are blessed with good health and the discipline to maintain it in rough times.

4./ Do you have a unique service or product? Most entrepreneurs have a pocketful of ideas, many of them viable. But they suffer from the "kid in a candy store" dilemma, not knowing which to choose. the trick is choosing the one that really is a winner and having the discipline ( see item #9) to ignore all the others.

5./ Are you willing to make short-term sacrifices for long-term success? There will be long periods of time when everyone around you questions your sanity, and on all normel metrics ( hours worked and stress endured vs. material rewards gained), they would be right.

6./ You're dreaming miles ahead while focused on what you're doing right now. The entrepreneur is an odd mix: part dreamer, part brutal realist and pragmatist. You should focus first on today, and secondly on the big picture, and ignore the rest. Today is about the immediate stuff that you have to get done to stay in business, to deliver projects to clients, to collect cash, and so on. The big picture is about looking at what the world might look like 10 years from now and then building towards that. We cannot know what will happen next week, month, or year. the medium term is totally unkown. However, many long-term trends are fairly clear, even though the timetable is unkown.

8./ Are you self-confident? You will almost certainly be going againest odds that would make most people run away.

9./ Discipline. This relates to many of the other traits mentioned in this checklist. You will need discipline to maintain your health ( item #2), so that you can work hard ( item #3), so that you can focus on the one produce or service you have chossen and ignore all temptations ( item #4)

10./ You're prepared to say, "I don't know, but I'll figure it out" Entrepreneurs have to be generalists. They may know one thing very, very well. But they also have to know enough about almost everything else to occasionally do those things themselves, and have judgement to eventually hire the right people to do those things