As scientific studies go, it at first sounds ridiculous. Making
headlines last year was the news that a doctoral student in England
had identified the "that" in the expression,
"That's how the cookie crumbles." Qasim Saleem and
his colleagues at Loughborough University in Leicestershire,
England, used a laser beam to follow tiny deformations that form as
the cookie picks up moisture near the edge and loses it near the
center.
What follows are ruptures in the cookie that make it susceptible
to crumbling, causing the cookie to be prone to disaster even
before the customer reaches for it. The point of the research is
that cookie makers want to stop throwing up their hands and saying
"That's how the cookie crumbles." They want to fix
the problem-and save immeasurable dollars in lost cookie revenue in
the process.
It's a good bet you never learned in Business 101 that
entrepreneurs are a lot like cookies. Like the cookie that has
fault lines somewhere in its sugar, shortening, flour and vanilla
extract, every entrepreneur has some personal weakness inside all
those mitochondria and brain cells, a weakness that will affect how
his or her business is run.
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The question is whether your flaw is harmless or the type that
could short-circuit everything you're trying to create. And the
problem is that even seemingly harmless shortcomings can end up
hurting your company. If you aren't very good at accounting,
that may be fine while you're the only employee. But the slack
may not be cut when you've hired two more people, and
you've misplaced a decimal on their paychecks so they've
been working for $1.20 an hour instead of $12. They may not find
that funny.
There's a lesson here. Before you open for business, make
sure you're ready for business. Tap your inner Socrates, and
take to heart his oft-quoted phrase: Know thyself. And how do you
know thyself? It helps to know what weaknesses entrepreneurs
frequently share.
Achilles' Heel
Missy Cohen-Fyffe, 42, came to a crossroads a few years ago,
when she realized she would have to give up some control of her
company, or quit. And she doesn't mince words. "I always
refer to my behavior as being a control freak. It's not
flattering at all. But the nuts and bolts of the problem is that I
often think it won't be done right if I'm not the one doing
it."
Certainly, in the beginning, Cohen-Fyffe had all the control,
which made sense-she was the only employee. And so naturally,
things were being done the way she wanted them. But her thirst for
control almost kept her from hiring employees, and worse, from
letting them do anything once they were hired.
In 1999, she began Babe Ease LLC in Pelham, New Hampshire, to sell
Clean Shopper, a cushion that fits over seats and handlebars of
grocery carts so tots with a taste for teething can gnaw away on
the cushion and not the handle, which has likely been handled by
347,897 shoppers beforehand.
It was and continues to be a success: Babe Ease, which makes
other baby-friendly products, is projecting $2 million in sales in
2004. But in early 2001, Cohen-Fyffe was a one-woman show, putting
in eight hours a day at her business, coming home to spend time
with her husband and two children, and then working to fill orders
from 8 p.m. until about 2 a.m. She'd sometimes enlist her
spouse to help her stuff packages while watching Jay Leno.
The turning point came after an annual February vacation, says
Cohen-Fyffe. "When I got back, I was mortified by the level of
work waiting for me." Cohen-Fyffe realized her need for
control meant that she was frequently feeling out of control. She
was either going to have to hire employees and turn her operation
into a full-fledged business, quit, or keep working and eventually
go insane.
Neither of the latter options sounded promising; the former
seemed appealing. She discussed the situation with her spouse, who
believed she should go for it. So Cohen-Fyffe did, after several
more months of deliberating; she finally asked a neighbor to join
her business part time. "Once I hired her, and I realized
somebody else could answer the phone, it was a big relief,"
recalls Cohen-Fyffe. "It was like this huge weight being
lifted off. Then I realized, if she can do this, clearly she can
charge the customers; and then once that went well, I realized if
she can do this, clearly she can stuff the bags and send them out
the door."
The result: Cohen-Fyffe had more time to manage and build other
parts of her business, hired four full-time employees, and
outsourced wholesale orders to a warehouse. The company now ships
thousands of Clean Shoppers and other products every week. On her
own, she was doing about 40. "It's been a relief to
realize I don't have to have a hand in everything, and that
there are many people who can do what I do," says Cohen-Fyffe.
"And I try to take advice from my staff. Many times,
they'll come to me with some idea, and I'll say,
'yes,' and we'll run with it. And that's why we can
grow. I would call myself a reformed control freak. I'm not 100
percent cured. But I'm getting there."
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