Where to Begin with Scaling Your Spa Business

I was recently visiting a friend of mine who owns his own coffee shop business with his wife. Sure, it is not a spa like mine, but it is a business nonetheless and businesses are typically similar at the most basic levels.

Money in should be greater than money out.  

Whoever can do this most efficiently gets to stay in business and continue playing the game.

However, my friend was telling me that he and his wife are feeling a little bit overwhelmed, like they are not succeeding as well as they would like in their business.  Now these are two highly educated people coming from successful careers who are following their passions.  So far so good!

So I asked them exactly what they thought the problem was. He said that he felt like they were very busy and performing lots of activity, but he wasn't sure that it was going to ensure the success of the business long-term.

They complained about the fact that they need to perform tons of small activities in addition to serving their customers including making sure bills are paid, making sure there's enough supplies on hand, and trying to keep everything neat and tidy.

Everyone feels good when your chosen activity brings in money.  But it is hard to live with a nagging feeling that you are not running things as well as you can.

I understand exactly how they felt. 

I used to feel that way myself and occasionally still do. But, I recommend that they pick up the book The E-myth Revisited by Michael Gerber.  This book helped me categorize all of the activities that need to be performed in my own business with the next step being to create roles for those activities.

The good thing about creating roles and putting activities underneath those roles is that you're able to gain a high-level perspective about the work that needs to be done and assess which activities produce the most value for the company.

For example would you expect the CEO of a small corporation to be the same person that stocks the shelves, cleans the bathrooms, or serves the customer? 

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