CHAPTER THREE, your organizational strategy. This chapter is about setting up your organizational strategy. But before we do, there are a few other things that have to be determined. Why are you or do you wish to be a hospitality property owner? What made you decide you want to run an independent hotel resort in our bed and breakfast? Do you fall into one of the following categories?
You realized at an early age This is what you want to do. You went to school specifically to learn how to operate a hospitality property. You grew up as part of a family run operation and you operate your property the way you've seen them operated in the past. You bought into a business opportunity because it looked interesting or exciting and felt this is something you want to try. Or you worked hard most of your life in an industry other than hospitality, and we're looking for a change a new lifestyle. Do any of these sound familiar?
I'm interested in your story. So if you'd like to share, feel free to contact us via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or even email find our social media links in the about the author section of this audio book. The reason I asked you why you would like to become an hospitality property owner hotel resort in our bed and breakfast, is that this helps determine where you see yourself in the operation of the facility. You need to determine what type of owner you are. If you have taken advantage of the six day challenge video series offered through Keystone hdc you might remember that we talked about the different types of business owners are you business opportunist, someone who's created and own their own business in the past and is always looking for a new experience. Someone who sees an opportunity in many things and knows they can turn it into an exceptional business.
Someone who loves use their imagination, always looking forward never living in the past. Someone who loves to dream and create. Are you a supervisor? Someone who thrives in order? Someone whose mantra is, if it's not broke, don't fix it. Someone who has the ability to foresee problems does not like change.
Or are you a skilled worker? A skilled worker is a Dewar. Do it yourself if you want to done right, a skilled worker who is in today, multitasking is not in a skilled workers vocabulary. You do one thing at a time and you do it right. You feel if you don't do it, it doesn't get done or it doesn't get done right. Can you see yourself in any of these categories?
Which of these categories is more valuable? When you're operating an independent hotel resort in or bed and breakfast? Can you see any problems and trying to be all three? The business opportunist is all about Looking at New great ideas, dreaming of how things can be done. The supervisor wants everything done in an orderly fashion to stay within the system and in the budget. The skilled worker knows what has to be done and does not like the idea of their routine being disturbed.
Today's typical small business owner is only 10%, opportunist, 20%, supervisor, and 70% skilled worker. And in most cases, this is out of necessity. Do you think a better balance would be more advantageous to your business? If you don't have balance? There are going to be parts of your business that are lacking? What steps do you need to take to become a more balanced operator?
What are your main goals? You should get used to the idea that your business will have an important role in your life. Your business isn't your life. Therefore, to begin developing a balanced business, you have to answer the These questions. What do you personally value most in life? What kind of life do you want to lead?
What do you want your life to look like when it's complete? What do you wish to be? Deep down? Most Great business people. In fact, great people in general can see the way they want their lives to develop. Until you can answer these questions and explain them.
You cannot really develop your business properly. The biggest difference between successful and less successful people is that successful people don't wait for things to happen. They work on their lives. They don't exist in their lives. Consider the way you look at things. The way you ask yourself or others questions, the way you focus on situations around you.
For example, instead of saying, Why are bad things always happening to me? Ask yourself and focus on how can I turn this situation around quickly and effectively. And feel good about it at the same time. Instead of repeating to yourself, why am I such a loser? Ask yourself, how can I become an incredible motivating hospitality property owner who loves this amazing life? You might be thinking, sure, changing questions, but that's not going to help me change the way I feel inside.
Okay, you're right. But you're going to have to start working on how you feel inside. And you can do this by trying the following exercise. Write down 20 things you love about yourself 20 things you're grateful for. Keep the list nearby and refer to it whenever things get tough. He should also keep the answers to your main goals with these two lists.
Doing these exercises and referring to them every day will help you keep your focus, be accountable. As US President Harry S. Truman said the buck stops here. Central belief of most personal development philosophies is that in order to have a wonderful life, one must take complete responsibility for it and everything that happens. As an owner of an independent hotel resort in or bed and breakfast, you and you alone have manifested any problems or uncomfortable situations that have occurred. Passing blame to or not being supportive of your employees can develop a disease that can destroy your business and have a negative influence on your life. Your problems don't go away until you take responsibility for them.
All right, you might be thinking, This stuff's a little heavy. I just want to know how to set up an organizational strategy. Well, the reason for these exercises is that so when you have an organizational strategy in place and have it actually work, you have to have the right mindset. You have to be able to look at the big picture. Your goal in setting up organizational strategy is to develop a business that you could someday sell or turnover to someone, and then operation would continue to operate without missing a beat. You want to develop an operations manual, you don't have to sell.
But with this thought process in mind, it will be easier to stay focused. Now I understand every hospitality property, independent hotel resort in and Bed and Breakfast could be a little different. But this is a model that if you follow will work. don't plan on racing through this exercise. It's going to take time, I recommend you take some quiet time, away from all the action, a pen and notebook and write down all the responsibilities required to run your property. When you feel this is complete, assign headings to these responsibilities.
And I don't mean individual names, but instead titles. When you're doing this exercise, you have to think of yourself As a corporation, not an owner of a business. Remember, big picture? Here's how you start. So what job functions would you need in your corporation? You need a president or CEO, Chief Executive Officer.
This person is where the buck stops. This person is responsible for all the overall achievement of the property. All the managers answer to this person, and this person is responsible to the investors or shareholders. Operations Manager. This person is responsible for keeping the guests by providing them what is promised by the marketing department and for discovering new ways to make the operation more effective so as to provide clients with better service marketing manager. You don't have a business if you don't have people staying with you.
The marketing manager is responsible for finding new guests and retaining old guests. This is done by finding and promoting new Ways to target the preferred customer and then providing these customers with an excellent experience at a competitive cost. Human Resource Manager this person is responsible for recruiting and hiring the appropriate people to the appropriate positions. But it doesn't stop there. They maximize employee performance by ensuring each employee is properly trained and fully aware of the employers strategic objectives, development of personal performance appraisal, and rewarding for example, managing pay and benefits the balance of organizational practices with any governmental loss finance manager this person is responsible for both the marketing and operations departments budgets, ensuring the property is profitable and by securing funds when needed at the best rates available salesperson depending on the size of your operation, this is the person whose sole responsibility is the market department or could be part of the responsibility of other employees for example, front desk or reservations.
This is the same as advertising or a research person full time position or an additional responsibility in another position, housekeeping manager, front desk manager, maintenance manager, restaurant manager and on and on and on. If you have a small operation, this might sound insane. But in many cases, one or more of these responsibilities could fall onto one person. The important thing to remember is that each of these responsibilities has to be treated like a separate entity. And by this I mean that each of these responsibilities has to have their own duties, methods to do each duty effectively, and checklist to ensure they're done correctly. As I mentioned earlier, the President is responsible to the investors and shareholders.
When looking at the big picture, you have to see the investors or shareholders As outside the day to day operation, their main concern is that they are making a profit. So, now you have decided on which departments are necessary to run your operation and you have assigned the appropriate names. You might see your name there quite often. Now take the time, and I can't stress this enough. Take the time to determine what duties fall under each department and how they are done. And when I say how they get done, look at the most effective way and what tools are necessary to complete each task.
Document this in the simplest form, and I don't mean to sound disparaging hear, but it should be written so a child can understand. Talk to your colleagues, brainstorm and come up with easy to understand methods to complete each task that will in turn, save you time and money. When this is done for every duty that is necessary to operate your property. You will have an operations manual that can be used for training and guidelines. For you and your employees. Once your operations manual is completed to your satisfaction, and agreed upon with your staff, you will see a vast improvement in the consistency of your operation which will ensure better customer service, employee happiness and increased profits.
See the attached template of a sample of an organizational structure. Feel free to use it as you see fit. Okay, that's it for this chapter on your organizational strategy. I hope it got your thought juices flowing and that you're going to be able to start working on your goals and ways to focus so that you will be ready when your organizational strategy is in place.