Greetings Flooring Dealers!
If you walk into the typical McDonald’s, you will not see the owner in the back flipping burgers, taking orders, wiping down tables, sweeping the floors, or any of the other daily tasks required to run a McDonald’s. In fact, you probably won’t even see the owner.
By comparison, if you walk into the typical flooring dealership, you will see the owner wearing 20 different hats, stressed out, and working 50, 60 or even 70 hours per week.
What’s the difference between the two? The McDonald’s is system dependent, but the typical flooring store is owner dependent; if the owner does not show up, things begin to fall through the cracks and ultimately the business will fail.
So what is a system? It’s simply a written set of procedures insuring that a task gets done the same way, every time, with the highest level of quality and efficiency possible.
I actually worked at McDonald’s when I was in high school, and I got to see their systems first hand. Let me tell you, they have a written system for everything, and I mean everything! From how each item on the menu is cooked and prepared, to how the store is opened, closed, cleaned, stocked, etc., etc., etc. EVERYTHING.
When I first started working there I was being trained on how to dress (put condiments on) the hamburgers and cheeseburgers. The trainer walked me step-by-step through a pre-determined set of instructions on how to apply the toppings: first cheese, then two shots of ketchup, one shot of mustard, two pickles. I remember putting the shot of mustard on before the two shots of ketchup and the trainer corrected me. I asked her why the ketchup first then mustard, and she said, “Because a bunch of people in a room decided that’s the way we do it.”
That’s why a McDonald’s hamburger tastes the same in New York as in California.
In his book, The E-Myth, Michael Gerber says that systems allow ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results predictably. Think about what McDonald’s has accomplished: they are running a complex manufacturing plant (restaurant) using the labor of minimum-wage, hormonal, attention-deficit teenagers! Holy smokes! If you have teenagers, and you think about the monumental task of just getting them up in the morning, you’ll have some appreciation for what McDonald’s has accomplished through systems.
To Tons Of Customers!
Jim Augustus Armstrong is The “Coach”
Jim Augustus Armstrong is the President of Flooring Success Systems, a program that equips dealers to double their profits, cut their work hours in half and beat the boxes! Many dealers have totally transformed their businesses and their lives for the better after joining Flooring Success Systems.
See what real, live dealers are saying!