After a movie the other evening we went to a local restaurant where we were served by a waiter who had just started at the restaurant. His manner was uncaring, his attention to detail lacking and his insistence that we order more wine was rude. When the second glass of wine did come, it was a sweet red wine but he tried to con us into believing that there was something wrong with our taste buds.
A waiter who has been at this local restaurant for several years overheard our conversation, took away the two sweet red wine glasses and replaced them with a dry red. We thanked her.
This story isn’t about moaning about poor customer service. Rather it’s about a man who has worked as a butcher for a small butchery but at his age feels aggrieved that he wasn’t able to get shares in the small business. So he has branched out into learning the restaurant business, starting out as a waiter.
The butcher may in time learn to provide guests with the items they ordered and progress in the restaurant business. But what it also highlights is the sheer professionalism of the existing waiter staff that this local restaurant has. These waiters are prompt, polite and professional. They have learnt their roles well and provide this professional service to customers Monday to Saturday. It’s just a pity that they aren’t learning something more so that they can advance into other roles.
But this does raise an important question: how much time are you devoting to learning new things in your business and personal life?
A small business owner who started “The Green Engineer” tells how he took voluntary redundancy, invested in the money into training for a new career. He gained qualifications in advance computing through homestudy while working in transport. This proved invaluable for him with the running of his business, the financial and record-keeping side and operations.
Other entrepreneurs and small business owners take courses in honing their business skills. It takes time. Once you’re in a business you realise that there are no shortcuts. Even as individuals, we need to learn about new things to adjust and adapt to new phases in our lives, new technologies and acquire and gain knowledge that can help us improve our chances of earning income.
How much do you need to invest in yourself? Are you willing to take time to learn areas in your business that could improve your bottom line and self mastery?
If you are just starting out or have an existing business and you need to come up with new business ideas, isn’t it time that you learnt more about generating, testing, developing and implementing new business ideas? On Idea Accelerator you will find hundreds of blog posts that can spark ideas, courses to help you get started and one-on-one consultations. Are you ready to take the first step?
