Hiring and Firing

Well, Tracy had to fire one of our newer employees this morning. She is a very nice girl and that made it difficult for Tracy. But… this girl had zero motivation and no work ethic. She is very nice and friendly and interviews well, and interacts with people well, but she would not step up to the plate and do the whole job of Barista. She wanted to be a cashier only. A barista has to be a cashier as well as work the espresso bar, prepare food, and help with the cleaning tasks. Tracy trained her well on the job responsibilities and even made lists of items for her to do. She would still just stand around and watch everyone else work. If Tracy gave her direction to complete tasks, she would take four to five times longer than anyone else to get them done. After more than a month, Tracy still had to give her direction minute by minute, hour by hour, all day long. If left to her own devices, she would just stand at the point of sale and do nothing. Based on the post I did a little while back about what we have learned about having employees, I recommended to Tracy that she find someone new after the first couple of weeks. Tracy wanted to give her additional chances because she was very likable… Unfortunately, it did not work out. We hired Sara (our nephew James’ girlfriend) and she started yesterday. She is a very nice girl and has several years of experience at Starbucks (this is actually a con, not a pro, we are finding out…). Tracy actually worked with her at Starbucks for a short time in years past…

Tracy made chicken, lime cilantro rice, and black bean burritos today for the lunch crowd. I tried one for breakfast and it was awesome! We have found it is important to add new items to the lunch menu from time to time. Even if you have to stop having one thing in order to add another, it keeps things interesting. Our lunch regulars like having new things to try…

The building owner is going to proceed with construction on the building this summer. Tracy and I are wondering how that will affect our sales. We expect it to help grow our sales once it is finished, but it will probably hurt our sales while construction is underway. Hopefully, the construction workers will eat enough breakfast burritos, lunch, and coffee to make up for any loss in sales traffic while things are in construction. Part of the plan is to level the area in front of our shop and put in a patio. We can then buy additional outside table, chairs, and umbrellas. I believe this visual impact will help bring in commuters. Instead of driving by a 45 year old strip mall, they will see a fresh updated building, and an outside café. I think it will help a great deal, but things will get worse before they get better! We need to look at the long term big picture, but we need to be careful and insure our capital budget lasts through the growth… Right not we are still operating on cash reserves from our initial capital budget. I am considering opening a line of credit, just in case our funds run low. I think we will have an easier time now while we have a fairly large chunk of money in the bank still, as opposed to asking for a loan when running on fumes and are desperate for cash flow. We are hoping not to get to that point, but I would rather put a safety net in place now when it is not needed, rather than later when it is critical to being able to continue operating. We get pre-approved business lines of credit all the time in the mail. I don’t know if we should do that, or apply for a Small Business Loan. If anyone has any advice, I’m listening. Feel free to shoot me an email (jdanderson-nemos@hotmail.com). The SBA loan would be at a lower interest rate than a business credit card account, but we would be paying that interest on money sitting in our bank account that we may not need. With a credit account, the interest rate would be higher, but we would only be paying interest on a balance as needed…

As a business owner, I believe we must be able to make wise decisions. My experience in Construction Management and as a Project Manager with employees to manage has helped me to make clear, concise decisions quickly. However, we are into new ground here as business owners and the right answers don’t always seem apparent. I am starting to study through Proverbs in the bible. What a treasure trove of wisdom that is!! Even if you are not a Christian, you can read Proverbs and gain knowledge that will help you to make wise decisions…

Take care,
JD