After you make the change to consumer selling, will you be ready to concentrate on managing?

By REED IAWTON, rnonogement consullonl

OME YEARS ago two little old ladies in the o'Amen Row" at church were very audible in their support of their minister as he called the wrath of Heaven down on first, smokers, then condemned drinkers, and next, other sinners. "He's really preachin' today," the ladies said out loud.

But when the preacher began decrying the sin of gossiping, they whispered to each other, "Now he's beginning to med' dle !"

Reed Lawton, the author of this authoritative series, is a marketing consultant to the lumber industry and land, building and construction developers thru his own firm of Reed Lawton and Associates, which is also a recognized public relations and advertising agency. He is a past president of pro{essional marketing and PR associations and has degrees from the Universities of Oklahoma and Michigan as well as the University o{ Southern California. He formerly was pub' lic relations, sales promotion manager for Lockheed Missiles and Space Co.

This, the third of this series is where I begin to meddle.

Perhaps the discussion of re-orienting toward the consumer trade and the prob' lems of finance, facilities, and flat irons were not applicable to your particular business situation. But when we start taking a hard look at the most important part of any business-the management functionwe touch a sensitive spot in every reader. It is difficult to keep centered on the lumber and building materials business specifically because problems of management are the most critical faced by every business every day.

It is my own estimate that among smaller western lumber and materials dealers only 10 percent can truly be classed as successful business operations. By small' er I mean those having fewer than 50 employees. Some 60 percent are marginal operations and have been for several years. The other 30 percent will sell, merge, close, or otherwise so drastically change that it's impossible to categorize them as failures, or successes, some are broke and don't know Historically, hal the small else, businesses started in the United States fail during the first three years. Because a much larger percentage of lumber dealers have been in business beyond this probationary period, the percentage of marginal opera. tions is higher than for other industries.

Any business from which the owner takes home a salary equal to or less than he would be making if employed elsewhere is marginal. Any small business where the same amount of money invested would bring greater returns in interest at a bank is a failure.

The one ingredient which distinguishes the marginal operation from the successful one is MANAGEMENT. More capital, fancier buildings, better location, even more sales, cannot always rescue a business which is not managed properly.

Since lumber businesses are traditionally family operations in which today's owner has assumed the business rather than starting it himself, the most common ttsin" is not mis-management, but lack of managing.

Managing Begins

Managing begins when you set up departments with trained supervisors in charge, when you delegate authority to each supervisor, and when your principal function is the cozfrolling and. coordirwtinn oIall activities and operations of your business to prevent overlap and to reach objectives without undue delay or excessive cost. This is true whether you have five employees or fifty.

Most marginal lumber and building materials dealers are that way because the owner is not managins-no one is. He is simply superaising the day-to-day work of his employees. He spends most of his time "putting out fires!"

Indecisiveness and procrastination spell doom to the consumer-oriented business of 1967. Perhaps some operations have survived through the building boom and slump in spite of themselves, but unless someone manages, develops, and expands the business, it cannot keep up the strug. gle.

Today, right now, start making a time study of yourself. First, guess how much time you spend on the telephone, waiting on customers, buying materials, talking to salesmen, calling on contractors, going to the bank, attending non-business meetings and so on. Lay this magazine down now, take out a sheet of paper and estimate in half-hour increments how much time you spend at each activity. You'll probably have a l4-hour day.

Now having done this estimate, make a list of the things you have scheduled, and, how long you think each will take. Notice how much time you spend on unscheduled emergencies. If more than 25 percent of your average day is management by reaslien-ag contrasted with planned events -then you are not delegating enough authority or responsibility.

For the next five days, keep a time study on yourself and see whether you would hire yourself for the job you have.

Use a little memo sheet on which you write the planned activities of the day in their priority... not necessarily according to the time of day. I use one which my associates call my "Hot Sheet." Beside each item on the memo have space for "Assigned to" and "Completed."

To be more specific, your activities might include some of the following items these days: o Check paint sales o How much should they be? o Change to nationally advertised brands ? o Copy for next week's ad o Check on next month's special promotion o Attend Chamber of Commerce meetine

Story dl d Glqnce

Controlling and coordinating, not putting out fires is a manager's role . . are you really ready? remember, adept delegation of responsibilities is vital.

Of course you devote considerable time to community activities and give dollars to worthwhile projects. When you lend a truck or a man for a Boy Scout activity, do you record the dollar value and let your accountant know about it?

Do you do most of the lumber buying because no one else can do it, or because you like to horse trade with certain salesmen?

When you make sales calls, do you make it a social affair with friends, or do you spend hal{ that time ferreting out new customers in industry or questioning a builder who has never bought from you?

Do you know what percentage of your hardware business is in electrical items? Should you advertise that you have such a department?

Do you have a continuing advertising and promotional program? Do you expect one or two ads to bring in all the business you can handle?

Have you over-delegated the financial responsibility so that only your accountant knows how much money you made last week?

Does he know, for sure?

How does last month's pre-finished plywood sales compare with the same month Iast year? Can you do anything to im. prove that?

These are just a very few of the kinds of guestions you must constantly ask and be getting answers for if you are to do an adequate job of controlling your business. You must be in a position where you can step in with the right action at the right time to keep a downtrend from becoming a catastrophe. Or keep an uptrend in the right direction.

Already you have found that starting to lure the consumer business to your store was just half as much work as the challenge oI continuing to improve and keep abreast of the times.

You alone can guarantee for yourself a greater degree of success if you will:

Plan Your Business and establish profit goals and objectives.

Get Acti,on from your associates by or. ganization with informed emplo,vees who get explicit orders and supervision, while you fEEPlilS

Direct the Business by constantly measuring results and making the major decisions that are necessarv to keep on the right track.