My Own Experience - how to build success

I, Diane Eller have been through many different stages of business management. The results of more than 20 years of ‘reading’, ‘studying’, ‘managing’,  ‘failing’, ‘researching’, ‘spending money’, ‘acquiring businesses’, ‘obtaining certifications & degrees’, and ‘writing budgets and plans’ has molded me into a business ‘GURU’!

I come from a string of tangled and amazing opportunities that have contributed in part or in whole to my success as an individual, however not excluding all the hardships, trials and errors.

Born and raised in Valleyfield, Quebec, Canada, I was compelled to study accounting, as my strength in school was ‘number-crunching’. Being an accountant was one of the only professions I thought would make sense, of course for back then as it was the 70’s era.

After marrying, and while having children, I returned to college in the Marketing field. My whole-hearted passion was more of a ‘offering help’ nature, and my intellectual awareness was with ‘measuring’; two fields that don’t necessarily cross, or, for the least do not match well when determining a career path. Its bi-dimensional aspect was a constant challenge through my different endeavors.

But, as my life experience unfolded, opportunities for supervising, managing and then owning my own business came along. Business management, sales & marketing, communication and accountability were all real matters that I was exposed to on a daily basis, just as many of you.

I soon realized that managing a business was not easy and it quickly absorbed my time and energy, and of course money.

It all made some kind of sense to me: that one’s personal development is through research, education and experience. But something was missing:

Sitting back in my ‘executive’ chair back in 1992, as CEO of Grizzly Furs, a major retail store in downtown Montreal, I realized that much more was expected and required in business practices if I wanted to be successful. In my world, the definition of success was ‘having a reasonable bottom line with a decent salary for its CEO, satisfied and productive employees,  and lots of free time to do whatever I please’, which I was not getting!

Although times have changed and are still changing, the definition of an entrepreneur’s vision in general, is somewhat similar:

to obtain financial freedom and be our own boss!

If you can honestly say that you have achieved financial independence through your business, is that not what it’s all about?

I remember the hours and weekends devoted to my business, my customers and my employees! It was incredible how much time and energy was spent on the smaller issues like making my employees happy, considering the customers’ point of view at all times, continually bringing them quality and service, and under constant pressure for the next ‘striking’ TV advertisement.

But, never did I stop to do the helicopter view!

I did not know about it, as I was completely submerged in the daily tasks, attacking the problems one by one.

I was fire-fighting the business issues according to priorities that were set by mere circumstances! No true planning whatsoever!

There was nothing about structure, or end-goals, or what I would like for the organization to achieve as an entity, no direction for myself or for my employees: I was chasing my own tail, doing my very best in ‘managing’ the business, struggling with the finances and just doing it all!

Only you see, the business was managing me! And, the worst part was that there was no profit to show for!

It was a constant fight between “keeping enough cash flow” and battling for some normalcy around hectic schedules I invested in the company. My family was deprived of me as a mother, spouse, daughter and sister.

But, that was all I knew to do, keep my head above water and hope for the best! No true planning initiatives, as I did not know how or where that could have happened in the bigger picture. I saw NO bigger picture, to say the honest truth.

I had no idea that: IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN, PLAN TO FAIL.

Point blank. And that did not mean a plan up in my brain! Yes, we all have plans up between the two ears, but how does that work in reality? It’s just a ‘hit and miss’ attitude.

Many evenings were spent wondering if I should just sell the business or have someone else manage it for me. But the critical issues were always the same: where would I find bottom line money to support any effort at all? I would deny the situation and hope and pray that the next morning, the next month, or the next year, things would get better. Again, I will reinforce what is so true:

If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten. Don’t expect anything different.

As I finally stepped out of the business owner’s shoes and was obligated to liquidate and close the company down against my will, (never in my wildest dream did I imagine that to happen), I was then determined to go out and seek what made business owners succeed and others fail.

Taking the bull by the horns, I went back to the planning step of any project or dream:   “learning the ropes of effective plans that can then become reality”.

I was then hired as a Coordinator, responsible for the Organizational Development of a manufacturing company.

That point forward, I took every aspect of planning and management very seriously and developed know-how for facilitating groups, and educating others on ‘how’ to apply the principals of business practices, in areas such as:

        Strategic Business Planning

         Project Coordination & Management

                       Change Management

         Marketing & Sales Strategies

         Employee Accountability

                      Implementing Management Systems

All of these, without exception require ‘planning’!

Management courses, seminars, reading on best practices for business, etc. ate up all of my free time, as I expanded my own personal growth.  I became very talented in dealing with the areas of employee training, strategic planning and general business management. I quickly became the default Facilitator within the organization where I was employed, without really giving it much thought. The reason was simple:

“I WAS THERE TO HELP!”

I was eaten up by a deep desire to help others achieve their dreams, their goals.

I slowly developed the urge and desire to become a professional facilitator-consultant to the outside world, recognizing that my skills were applicable now to entire business improvements, not just that of the organization I was serving.

But, what is a facilitator?

A true facilitator is committed to help others find their way

The key word is commitment. I wanted to help. I had to find a way to get out in the world and share the simple and effective methods of planning strategically, so that business people could succeed on their own!

Ten years later, I stepped up as a Business Analyst, conducting evaluations within businesses and looking for what was wrong or missing in the operations as a whole. I conducted over 190 evaluations executing the “Helicopter view” and the experience was incomparable:

It gave me the ability to recognize basic requirements in a business’ strategy and management of operations in a matter of a few hours, and many times, just minutes.

But that was by no means the most astonishing realization. 

The most devastating outcome was to find out that more than 80% of all those business owners were actually living the same painful steps of business management that I had experienced myself!

Although it was gratifying to think of the assistance I could now bring to these entrepreneurs, at the same time it was horrible to discover the similarities around growing pains, non-productivity in the work force, financial disasters, no retained earnings, and mostly, NO PLANNING!

No true Business Plans today accommodate the business owner: most if not all ‘plans’ are pages and pages that create a document, and that are not applicable to the true needs of an operating business; it has little or no strategy

It is found absent in most small to medium-size businesses, yet so critical for success

This is a major roadblock for most people in business, and is detrimental to their bottom line. Continue here for "My Solution" to you

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