Johnnie – true story
Once, many years ago, I owned a brilliant little
sandwich bar. I had a business partner and we
were making a solid £45K a year. There were a
lot of things we could do to expand this business in its existing
location but our egos said “no, let’s open another one”. So that’s what
we did. We took out loans, signed leases and put down deposits. We
signed agreements in our own names and made personal guarantees.
We bought a new van. We worked very hard for a year and then sat
back with our nicely massaged egos and looked at our profits.51 Think wisely before you open your second shop
This is such an easy trap to fall into and one that we encounter
every day both with clients and our own businesses. The relentless
urge to feed the ego by expanding into new areas and new outlets
can be very strong and yet it is very often a big mistake.
Opening a second shop requires a vastly tighter business
formatthan you need for just one shop, especially if you are on-site
every day. Very quickly you can end up spending large amounts of
time travelling to and from your various locations which inevitably
means you take your eye off the detail that made your first site so
successful in the first place.
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