Oops....here's one who forgot!

Lindsey's post from the other day reminded us about the importance of undertaking that daily routine and constant repetition of the practices we discuss in Trucker Management - doing that Circle Check of your business space regularly to check on its condition, and looking at your Dashboard often for the most recent measurement of the different aspects of your business.

Last night, after teaching a class at the local college, I was headed for a lazy-man's dinner from a drive-thru at a fast food chain. Taped up on their menu board was a piece of paper with a typed notice that said: "Today, October 28th, the restaurant will be closing at 10pm and re-opening tomorrow, October 29th at 7am." Problem was, I saw this notice at about 8:45pm on October 29th.

Such "expired" notices on businesses is one of my pet peeves, and was a big part of the motivation behind looking to develop the Circle Check to help business owners avoid such things by having an easy tool to use each day to check out their premises. Obviously, here was a business that had NOT done a Circle Check at any time on October 29th, or they would have removed this expired note.

This is surprising that it would happen with an international fast food chain, whose rules and regulations are usually so strict, and their routines so entrenched. But, it goes to show, that kind of lack of attention or apathy can settle in to any business. Did you outperform this international franchise today by doing the proper Circle Check of your business?

Be a good driver!

Yesterday I presented a workshop in Barrie Ontario on networking. Driving there and back (and getting lost in the middle) I was on the road for 8 hours. Not a lot of excitement along the way, but one road sign did stick out and made me think about our book. I didn't have my camera and even in today's world of technology I can't seem to track down an image of it to share, but it said "Be a good driver, check your truck daily."

That fits so perfectly with the analogy we use in the book. "Be a good business owner, check your business (inside and out) daily." When was the last time you did a circle check or looked down at your dashboard?