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Zusammenfassung von Fix This Next

Name: Fix This Next
Rating: 4.5 (122 reviews)
Author: Mike Michalowicz

Mike Michalowicz

Make the Vital Change That Will Level Up Your Business

4.5 (122 Bewertungen)

24 Min.

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Fix This Next
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What’s in it for me? Learn how to Identify your biggest business problem, so you can fix it and move forward.

If you’re like most business owners, your typical day is likely consumed with putting out fires. You’re trying to appease that vocal customer ranting about your product. Payroll’s due at the end of the week, but you have a cash-flow problem. And once again, you’ve missed a deadline for an important client proposal.

No matter how hard you work, your business never moves beyond crisis mode. What you need is a tool that’ll end the firefighting and put you on the path of sustainability.

That tool is the Fix This Next analysis.

Once you know how to identify which business problem to tackle first, you’ll have the key to help your business move forward. You’ll be free to put down that extinguisher and enjoy the benefits of a flourishing company. All it takes is the Fix This Next four-step method detailed in the following blinks.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

what a jammed printer can teach you about running a business;
why you should aspire to be like the owner of a MacDonald’s restaurant; and
how postcards transformed a dining experience.

To get out of crisis mode, stop listening to your gut and be more strategic.

One day, author Mike Michalowicz was in serious crisis mode. He was desperately trying to pull his business out of substantial debt by generating sales. But even though sales were increasing, his profits weren't. With every possible loan maxed out and $365,000 worth of personal debt, Michalowicz lived in a constant state of anxiety. And to make matters worse, his printer had just jammed.

Michalowicz pulled out every tray and opened every flap in the printer, getting more and more frustrated. There was no obvious reason why his printer had jammed, just like there was no obvious reason why his business was failing. Michalowicz continued to yank out trays, but with more force. After a fifth unsuccessful round of tray slamming, he made himself stop and take a breath. His current approach of instinctively opening and slamming doors simply wasn’t working. He needed to try something new.

The key message here is: To get out of crisis mode, stop listening to your gut and be more strategic.

After this realization, Michalowicz calmly examined the back of the printer. And there it was, a scrap of paper trapped in the feed. Within minutes, the machine was working again. Using more force hadn’t helped solve the problem at all.

This experience made Michalowicz question his business approach. His instincts had told him that boosting sales would pull him out of debt. But since sales growth wasn’t reducing company debt, sales weren’t the problem. His gut was wrong. The real issue at hand was profit. Instead of focusing on sales, Michalowicz had to find a way to increase profitability – that should start reducing debt.

You see, many business owners struggle to reach their goals, even if they have enough money, resources, and experience. This happens when – like Michalowicz – they’re not aware of what their biggest business problem actually is. They scramble to solve all their problems at the same time, rather than being strategic and prioritizing decisions around clear business needs.

This type of behavior is instinctual behavior – following your gut, in other words. But this approach to solving issues rarely moves a business forward. Instead, you get stuck in the Survival Trap, frantically putting out fires.

The Fix This Next tool can help you overcome the Survival Trap by working systematically through your business needs. In the next blink, we’ll look at what these needs are and how they relate to each other.

You must tend to your business needs from the foundation up.

Are you familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? It’s a pyramid-shaped diagram, divided into five horizontal layers, that depicts our needs as humans. The bottom layer, the pyramid’s base, represents our physiological needs – like food, shelter, and sleep. The next layer is safety. Then comes belonging. Then esteem. And finally, at the top, there’s self-actualization.

To ascend from one need to the next, you have to satisfy at least some of the needs below it. So, if you don’t have nourishment and somewhere safe to live, you’ll have less capacity to pursue belonging. If you don’t have friends and relationships, you’ll have trouble gaining esteem. And so on.

Find and fix your biggest business problem to move it forward.

When operating in crisis mode, you feel pressured to fix all your issues at once, from growing sales and recruiting staff to squashing your competition. But this won’t necessarily make your business thrive. In fact, you’ll likely find yourself in even more debt, as you become stretched ever thinner. So resist the urge to act. Rather than trying to do everything at once, take a moment to locate your business’s weakest link.

Imagine you’re playing a game of tug-of-war – but, rather than using a rope, you’re using a chain. Now imagine that, mid-tug, one of the links in the chain breaks. It doesn’t matter that you’re stronger than your opponent. It doesn’t matter that you were winning. The game is now over because the chain is broken.

Bringing in sufficient cash creates a solid business foundation.

What does the word “sales” mean to you? If you’re running a commercial business, it might mean getting your products into customer hands. If you belong to the not-for-profit sector, you might be thinking about fundraising targets. No matter what kind of business you’re operating, you need money. And that money must come in just as consistently as the meals you eat to stay alive.

Even if your team meets its sales targets each month, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re satisfying your business needs. It’s far more complex than that. If you’re constantly taking out loans to cover costs like payroll, or you’re not attracting quality clients, you’re building your business on quicksand.

Reach a state of permanent profitability by reframing how you think about profit.

When it comes to money, most of us have a very annoying habit. We spend every cent that falls into our hands. The more we have, the more we spend. And while this is great for the economy, it doesn’t necessarily do us any favors.

For business owners, this spending often takes the form of diligently reinvesting profit back into the business. More money means more scope for more products, and therefore more sales. But an increase in sales doesn’t necessarily lead to more profit, especially if costs go up in order to deliver. If you want your business to be sustainable, you must prioritize profit over reinvestment.

Create order in your business by designing systems that support autonomy.

You might be startled to learn that our bodies are actively fighting off cancer all the time. It’s normal to have uncontrolled cellular activity inside us. Generally, our bodies eliminate those rogue cells before they cause any problems. It’s only when our bodies fail to do so that we become ill.

Businesses experience the same challenge. They constantly encounter issues that need to be dealt with, so the company can continue operating effectively. But if these issues go unnoticed, or if they’re ignored, they can become unruly, cause the business major damage, and even spell its end.

Your business creates impact by evolving from the purely transactional to transformative.

Located in Freedom, Minnesota, Erin French’s restaurant, the Lost Kitchen, has a unique booking system. If you want to enjoy her intimate farm-to-table experience, you must send her a postcard during the first ten days of April. Then, cross your fingers and hope that you’re among the lucky few invited in the year ahead.

French put this postcard system in place to manage bookings after the restaurant gained international acclaim. With only one dinner service per night and room for just 45 people, staff were initially overwhelmed with booking requests. But French saw this headache as an opportunity to enhance the dining experience, making it more personal. So, after the April closing date, postcards are randomly chosen and allocated a booking. Then, each night, staff put the postcards on display while preparing for dinner service. This simple act created a connection between them and their guests.

Legacy ensures your vision will live on when you retire.

When the Fox Broadcasting Company canceled Brooklyn Nine-Nine in May 2018, its fans flooded social media with heartbroken posts. Using a petition, they asked Fox to reverse the decision. And just one day later, NBC TV Network picked up the show. Its community of fans had saved it from extinction.

Legacy, the fifth and topmost level of the Business Hierarchy of Needs, occurs when a brand takes on a life of its own. This is what happened with Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The show’s continuation mattered so much to fans that they were willing to fight for it. If that meant another network taking it over, so be it. It wasn’t Fox they cared about – it was the show.

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Worum geht es in Fix This Next?

Fix This Next (2020) provides business owners with a simple system to address the key issues preventing their companies from flourishing. Instead of trying to fix every issue at once, it reveals how different components of a business affect each other. It also provides a tool, the Business Hierarchy of Needs, that can help owners identify which issue to tackle first to ensure continual growth and profitability.

Bestes Zitat aus Fix This Next

When you fix a problem, go back to the base and work your way up the hierarchy. Every. Single. Time.

—Mike Michalowicz

Wer Fix This Next lesen sollte

Entrepreneurs struggling to move their businesses forward
Managers trying to make a company profitable
Overworked business owners hoping to reduce stress

Über den Autor

Mike Michalowicz is an entrepreneur, business specialist, and author of six books, including Profit First, Clockwork, The Pumpkin Plan, and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. Through these books, his public speaking events, and his lecture series for collegiate entrepreneurial programs, Michalowicz teaches business owners how to optimize their companies.

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