by Joe Domaleski | Dec 6, 2022 | Blog, Business, Columnists, Community, News Center, Opinion
The struggle is real, especially during this holiday season. How do I provide effective leadership by finding the balance between what I’m thinking (head), what I’m feeling (heart), and what I’m actually doing (hands)? Let’s explore each of those three concepts in more detail.
Using your head is what most people traditionally think about when it comes to leadership. The ability to process information, think critically, and make good decisions is a foundational skill set for any leader. For me personally, this not only applies to how I run my own business, but how I advise clients. Indeed, as a service business, my company is paid for our expertise and creativity. It may sound easy, but it’s not. Information is not always clear. Oftentimes various pieces of information conflict with each other. Clients can give us the wrong information and then change their minds later. Right now, our best and brightest economists aren’t quite sure if we’re in a recession or not because the data is conflicting. Sometimes the information comes in late or not at all. This happens quite often and I’ve found myself having to be “directionally correct” to get things started as information comes in later. If you wait until you have everything you need, it’s possible you’ll never even get started.
Even if you have good information, it’s not always clear what to do with it. We have more options at our disposal than any other generation before us. Sometimes that’s a good thing, but many times it’s overwhelming and can lead to paralysis by analysis. Finding just enough data to make a good decision without getting bogged down in minutiae is a balancing act. Many organizations pride themselves on being data-driven. Data is a great way to model the world around us. I have a math degree and love numbers. Having good data and information is essential for running a profitable business. Taken to an extreme, running an organization purely by numbers removes the human element and that’s not always good. During the last recession of 2009-2011, I was advised to shut down my business based on the numbers. I adopted Admiral Farragut’s advice from 150 years ago, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.” I’m glad I did.
Using your heart as a basis for leadership has become quite popular over the last twenty-five years and for good reason. Passion from the heart inspires great actions that can exceed the limits of what a business model might predict. Noted leadership expert John Maxwell has said that “Leadership is influence, nothing more nothing less.” I agree with that statement. The most admired leaders are mostly remembered for their passion and heart, not their ability to read financial reports. Most customers are interested in more than just the lowest price, they want to spend their money with organizations that match their values. Employees are the same way. Salary is important but work environment and “good vibes” are just as important. It’s the job of the leader to inspire customers and employees with heart-centered leadership.
Good intentions and a pure heart alone are not enough to run an organization. Passion and purpose can jumpstart a project or initiative, but it still takes a good business mind to make it all work. Over my business career, I’ve struggled with finding the proper balance between heart and mind. I think most leaders have the same struggle. Emotions sometimes get in the way of making tough business decisions that need to be made based on the numbers. Yet, some people can be quite ruthless when it comes to being single-mindedly focused on numbers. More often than not, those same people don’t really understand the numbers – but that’s a story for a future column. It takes a heart and a mind to be a leader, but that’s not all.
Using your hands means leading by example. Having a pure heart and focused mind is not enough for leadership. For most people, seeing is believing. A leader must be willing to roll up their sleeves and do the work in order to inspire people. When I started the business as a solo entrepreneur that literally meant working in the business during the day and working on the business at night. As the business grew and we hired employees, that meant I had to find a balance between delegation and stepping in. A leader has to show customers they are willing to step in and make things right when things aren’t going well. An employee has to know the leader “has their back” and will support them in the face of adversity. Sometimes people don’t know what to do and the leader has to step in and show people what needs to be done. At other times the leader needs to use discretion and restraint in order to let people make mistakes and learn.
Knowing what needs “hands-on” attention isn’t always clear. As our company has grown, I don’t personally have knowledge of everything that goes on. I did when we had a smaller team, but oftentimes I don’t have direct information which means I need to rely on my team to bring things up that need my attention. Like many leaders, I make mistakes and sometimes insert myself into a situation that’s already going well. Doing so can result in a team member thinking I don’t have confidence in them. Conversely, there are times when I really should have “hands-on” involvement in a situation and I miss the opportunity. We’re all human and make mistakes. Finding the right level of personal involvement in a project, account, or situation can be a challenge. It involves instinct, awareness, and willingness to act.
So let’s put all of this together in the interest of being more effective leaders. Today’s leader needs to find the balance between head, heart, and hands in order to be effective. Some have used the term, “Leadership Trinity” to describe this balance needed for a modern leader. Using your head involves the what, using your heart involves the why, and using your hands involves the how. As we bring the year to a close, I’m going to double down on all three facets of leadership to make next year better. How about you?
[Joe Domaleski, a Fayette County resident for 25 years, is the owner of Country Fried Creative – an award-winning digital marketing agency located in Peachtree City. His company was the Fayette Chamber’s 2021 Small Business of the Year. Joe is a husband, father of three grown children, and proud Army veteran. He has an MBA from Georgia State University and enjoys sharing his perspectives drawing from thirty years of business leadership experience. ]
by Joe Domaleski | Nov 29, 2022 | Blog, Business, Columnists, Community, News Center, Opinion
As a society, we’ve gotten comfortable – perhaps too comfortable. When we turn on the faucet, we expect clean water to flow. When we turn on the light switch, we expect the lights to come on. When we’re ready to eat, we pop something into the microwave, and out comes a dinner. Most of us have not had to go to a well to get water, ignite a lantern to get light, or go hunting for our own food. Yet, behind the scenes, a lot is involved to provide modern conveniences that we all take for granted. What happens when the lights don’t come on or there’s no food to eat? Most people don’t know what to do. The truth is, everyone needs to eat but few are willing to hunt. They just expect things to happen. Let’s look at this from a small business perspective.
If you’re a customer, you expect your vendors and merchants to do what they say they’re going to do. A consumer can reasonably expect a business to maintain advertised hours of operation, sell what’s on the menu or the shelves, and provide some level of customer support or advice about their products or services. This sort of expectation is reasonable whether you’re a consumer or a business buying something.
If you’re a business, you have a reasonable expectation that a customer will respect your hours of operation, ask for things that you can actually supply or do, and pay for your products or services rendered. You can consult with an attorney to get a legal definition of a contract and consideration, but in plain terms there exists an exchange of value when a sales transaction occurs.
If you’re an employee, you rely on your employer to provide a safe working environment, proper resources to do your job and pay you for your work. I’m not a human resources expert, but speaking as an employer I also try to create an enjoyable working environment and genuinely want my staff to enjoy their jobs. I know that employees rely on me to manage the business properly by finding the right customers, putting together the right employee team, and ensuring that operations run as smoothly as possible.
Running a business is not for the faint of heart, particularly a small business. The business owner is personally involved in ensuring the business has a steady stream of customers (sales & marketing), provides quality products & services (operations), has a great team of employees (human resources), and has money to make it all work.
What happens when the business systems don’t work? During COVID, many businesses experienced and are continuing to handle massive supply chain disruptions. In the post-COVID era, the labor market has been all over the place. We’ve seen companies struggle to hire and pay for new employees and now many of those employers are laying people off. Customers are continuing to deal with service delays, inflated prices, and long wait times. Employees are having to learn new skills to stay current and be flexible during up-and-down business conditions all while managing their careers in a changing labor market.
It’s the small business (and non-profit) leader who has to be the hunter so that everyone can eat. The leader has an obligation to ensure the business strategy is sound so that customers are served, employees are happy, and the system works. Unfortunately, most people in the marketplace aren’t hunters and truly don’t appreciate where things come from. They just expect it all to work.
During this holiday season, I’d ask that you take some time to appreciate the hunters working to make sure our economy, particularly the local small business economy, is functioning properly. Have patience with your suppliers and merchants who are working hard to ensure your needs are met. Respect boundaries put in place so that employees can enjoy the holiday season away from work. Employees, have patience with your employers who are doing their best to juggle the competing needs of customers, suppliers, and vacations. Don’t let your own needs go unmet, but be flexible in understanding the bigger picture.
Everyone wants to eat, but most don’t know where the food comes from. Most people don’t know how hard it is to find new customers, make sure products & services are delivered on time, pay invoices & wages on time, and do all of that with a smile during this holiday season. It’s easy to be a consumer, but not as easy to be a producer.
Hunters, stay strong.
[Joe Domaleski, a Fayette County resident for 25 years, is the owner of Country Fried Creative – an award-winning digital marketing agency located in Peachtree City. His company was the Fayette Chamber’s 2021 Small Business of the Year. Joe is a husband, father of three grown children, and proud Army veteran. He has an MBA from Georgia State University and enjoys sharing his perspectives drawing from thirty years of business leadership experience. ]
by Joe Domaleski | Nov 22, 2022 | Blog, Business, Columnists, Community, News Center, Opinion
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It’s that time of the year when we use a traditional celebration of the harvest to express thankfulness for all of the blessings of the past year. We most often associate the Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. I’d like to extend that spirit of thankfulness into the business world and share some reflections about gratitude in the marketplace.
When we think of the marketplace around the holidays most of us have images of rushed shopping, rude customers, long lines, stock outages, and lots of bills. Those things normally don’t bring gratitude to mind. Stress levels are normally very high around the holidays whether you’re the employer trying to fully staff your business or you’re the employee who’s being asked to work extra hard. Frustration sets in for consumers who are seeking products to buy and sellers who are trying to make their holiday sales quotas. Even without the holiday stress, the marketplace is not particularly known as a bastion of gratitude.
It’s been well established that a feeling of gratitude is associated with good health and well-being. Many cultures and religious faiths extol the virtues of gratitude. So what can we do to be more grateful in the marketplace, especially during Thanksgiving and the holiday season that follows? I’m going to tackle that question by approaching it from several different angles. Bear with me and let’s see where I can go with this.
As a consumer, I’m grateful for all of the choices I have in buying what I want from whom I want. I’m especially thankful for small, locally-owned businesses. As a family, my wife and I will go out of our way and pay higher prices just to support what they do. As a fellow business owner, I know that my money is helping provide local jobs, pay for college expenses, and put food on the table for other people like me. The heart and soul of any community are the local businesses that give it character and soul.
In like manner, as a business owner I’m grateful for my customers. It’s the reason my business exists – to serve our customers. Over the last twenty years we’ve been blessed to work with so many high-quality local businesses and non-profit organizations. I am so thankful that other like-minded people will go out of their way to keep business local. Yes, I know there are valid reasons to source non-local products and services, but when someone chooses local – it makes me very happy and I’m grateful for that. It’s not my place to call out anyone, but It’s highly frustrating when organizations seek the support of the local business community but don’t reciprocate. Nevertheless, I’m very thankful for our customers who have chosen to support my local business.
We’ve worked with a lot of start-up companies and non-profits to help them get launched. I’m thankful for the opportunity to help them launch. During COVID, we were literally a lifeline to many companies who relied on our marketing services to help get the word out about their companies as most of society was hunkered down at home in front of a computer. We had to be creative about payment for our services and did our best to extend generous payment terms or reduce billing in order to help. I’m grateful we were able to help keep the economy going.
Nothing lasts forever. Our company has outlasted some of our customers and we’ve helped some of our clients shut down their businesses due to retirement, business sale, and even bankruptcy. I’m thankful for those customers and appreciated the opportunity and trust you placed in us to see things through to the very end. In many other organizations, leadership change has occurred. In some cases the new leader or board decides to hire another company and replace us. We’ve been both the beneficiary of leadership change and the loser with a leadership change. I’m still grateful for those customers and truly wish them well. Yes, a few customers have even come back to us. It makes me happy and grateful to welcome them back.
As I’ve written about previously, sometimes things don’t go well and we part ways with a client in which they fire us or we fire them. That’s no different than a relationship when people break-up or get together. It’s not easy to handle, but I’m always grateful for the lessons learned after client loss even if it takes a little time for the lessons to become fully clear. We’re a better business because of lost clients and the next new client is normally the beneficiary of our newfound knowledge. In short, I’m thankful for past, current, and future clients.
I’m also thankful for our economy, even if I don’t understand it. Although I have an MBA in Finance and minor in Economics, I still don’t understand our economy! We’re fortunate in this country to have a fairly open marketplace at the national, state, and local level. I can’t imagine what it’s like to start and run a business in a foreign country. Like most business owners, I’m not a fan of big government and lots of rules. On the other hand, I do recognize the need to have some rules to have an orderly market. Yes, it seems like big business gets all of the breaks and concessions. I’m not a fan of that either, but I can’t control that and try to be grateful for what I have in my little corner of the marketplace.
I’m very grateful to have a wife who supported my decision to start this business twenty years ago. We haven’t gotten rich and probably never will, but that’s not our goal. I’m thankful for my now adult children who’ve supported me and our business over the years by promoting it to their friends, working in the business, and continuing to support what we do. Knowing that they believe in me and what our company does means all of the world to me. They’ve given me great ideas and continue to help provide perspective on what we’re doing.
It takes customers, a market, and family to support a business. It takes a team to make the business function and I’m most thankful for our team of employees. Our team members believe in me to have the vision to properly direct the business and I believe in them to provide high quality services to our customers. I know it’s a job and most people call it “work” for a reason. I’ve been guilty of that myself. Indeed, some days are hard. We have our fair share of challenging situations, customers who can’t make up their mind, technology that constantly changes, and other issues that get in the way. I’m grateful that my team can see the big picture and overcome the challenges. Thanks y’all for being part of the team.
So what does my reflection about gratitude in the marketplace have to do with you, my dear reader?
Whether you’re an employer or employee, having a sense of gratitude can help inspire good actions, follow-through, and accountability. One who is appreciative of a situation, person, or job is more likely to do the right things. A thankful person tends to be happier and healthier. Being grateful doesn’t mean being a push-over. It takes a good measure of fortitude and persistence to endure in the business world.
I was recently interviewed for a podcast and asked what inspires me. My answer, “People who can endure adversity with a cheerful, optimistic disposition.” That type of positive approach comes from having a deep sense of gratitude. Thank you for reading this column. I’m grateful that you took the time to read it and hope you and your family have a Happy Thanksgiving and Holiday Season.
[Joe Domaleski, a Fayette County resident for 25 years, is the owner of Country Fried Creative – an award-winning digital marketing agency located in Peachtree City. His company was the Fayette Chamber’s 2021 Small Business of the Year. Joe is a husband, father of three grown children, and proud Army veteran. He has an MBA from Georgia State University and enjoys sharing his perspectives drawing from thirty years of business leadership experience. ]
by Joe Domaleski | Nov 15, 2022 | Blog, Business, Columnists, Community, News Center, Opinion
Happy birthday to me. Over the weekend, I turned 55. To quote country music star Toby Keith, “I ain’t as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was.” Instead of complaining about the aches and pains of being old or ranting about how times have changed, I thought I’d take the opportunity to reflect on what it means to be a business leader at age 55. Although I had envisioned retirement at age 55 and congratulate my peers who’ve already retired, that’s not where life has taken me. My business career is not done yet. Before looking ahead, indulge me as I stroll down memory lane.
I’m a member of the much misunderstood Generation X, those born between the Baby Boomers and Millennials (roughly 1965-1980). Ours is a small demographic, much smaller than the massive Baby Boomer generation, which is mostly retired at this point, and the Millennial generation, which are busy raising families and growing careers. We were the first generation to grow up with personal computers, something that influenced my entire career. I have fond memories of my early computers – TRS-80, Commodore 64, and Osborne-I portable (suitcase) computer. We grew up with two-income families, portable music players, economic uncertainty in the 80’s, and the rise of the Internet in the 90’s. Our generation was originally called the “slacker” generation, something popularized in movies and pop culture. As a group, Generation X tends to place importance on work-life balance, self-reliance, diversity, and independence. We also like informality and championed “business casual” in the office. We remember life before cell phones, but quickly adopted them when the original “bag phones” came out in the 90’s.
The rise of the Internet made a very profound impact on my career. I got my first taste of the Internet in graduate school (GSU MBA ’93) using tools like Gopher (a text menu precursor to WWW) and ASCII-based email systems which were originally restricted to academic and government organizations. Indeed, I remember dial-up modems well and even ran a local computer BBS (Bulletin Board System) as a way to share information with other computer users. I was and still am fascinated by the ways people can find and share information across the globe using the Internet. When the Internet became commercialized, I learned HTML and shifted my career to focus on web project management – something I still enjoy doing today. My company Country Fried Creative was started in 2003 originally as a web design company.
When I was younger, my primary focus was on raising a family and growing my career. I was the type of guy who volunteered for new projects, like website projects which were new at the time. I worked hard and played hard, completing my first Ironman triathlon in 1998 (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run). The late 90’s were a boom time and lots of great things were going on at work and in the economy. Moving forward in all areas of my life was important to me. I was very competitive and regularly pushed myself onward and upward. I was generally promoted ahead of my peers and took on leadership positions at a young age. In one of my positions, I was the youngest department head by almost 15 years. In hindsight, I’m not sure that was right for me or my organization but it happened. Indeed, as I look back on my career, I was probably too intense and have moderated quite a bit as I have aged. There’s a balance and I’ve spent an entire lifetime trying to find it.
The so-called Y2K “Millennium bug” was not the major issue it was forecasted to be and the world did not end on 1/1/2000. On the other hand, a year and a half later on 9/11/2001 the world changed in a way that no one had seen coming and it hasn’t been the same since. Both of those events, the desire to be home more, and the need to do less business travel helped spur me to launch my new business in 2003. Despite having 10 years of progressively increased business leadership experience and an MBA, I was ill-prepared for the jump into entrepreneurship – but I took a leap of faith and did it anyway. Most of my nearly 35 years of working experience has been as a small business owner.
Starting the business was easy, but running it has been anything but. Yes, there’s the challenge of working on the business while working in the business, but there’s another challenge that I did not anticipate. Constantly selling the business vision to myself, to potential clients, and to team members is not something taught in business school. Frankly, it’s not something I learned in my prior jobs either as I was mostly charged with implementing the vision of others – not coming up with my own. In the nearly 20 years I’ve had the business, I’ve experienced many highs and lows. Belief in yourself and your vision is a key ingredient to success. Many people chase other peoples’ dreams. I recommend you chase your own dreams. In the movie “Wall Street” (1987) we learned that “Greed is Good.” For a time, I actually believed it too – but not anymore. Greed is bad and the root of much suffering in the world today.
I’m not sure when it first sunk in, but I’ve come to realize there is no finish line. It’s not a goal of mine to make a certain amount of money. Indeed, I made more money as a highly paid consultant 25 years ago than I do now. We’re all on different paths, so that’s not a slight on others who are chasing certain dollar figure incomes. I’d like to think what I’ve been doing the past 20 years has had a positive impact on my local community, our clients, and our team. Indeed, here are some truths about business life I’ve discovered along my journey to 55:
- Everyone is on a different journey, so it’s best to follow your own path
- Money makes the world go around, but it’s not the goal of life
- Some people won’t like you no matter what you do
- Some people do not have the capacity to be happy, avoid them
- Some people are bundles of joy, keep them close and learn from them
- Don’t meet people in the middle, be willing to go a little further just past halfway
- Know when to hustle but try to have a steady pace
- Comparison really is the thief of joy
- Things are rarely as bad as they seem
- Time does heal most wounds and neither good times or bad will last forever
- When you have lots of money or prestige, people will flock to you
- The opposite is true when you’re going through a hard time
- Loyalty is priceless and the only way you can build a team
- Helping others is the most noble profession, even if it’s not appreciated
- Humans are rarely rational, despite what I learned in economics class
- Begin with the end in mind and finish what you start
- The Internet is not reality and real life is better than the digital life
- Young people are our future, we need to support them
- Do the right things consistently and the rewards will come
- The journey is more important than the destination
So what’s ahead for this middle-aged, 55 year old guy? Doing whatever it takes to help others – clients, employees, and our community. I’m trying really hard to assist our next generation of leaders within the business. In some ways, that means starting over as I try to be effective through others instead of direct action taken myself. Sometimes I do need to step in and fix things. At other times I need to get out of the way so others can do their jobs. It’s all about trust. Lots of work remains and I’m prepared to meet the challenges ahead. Life at 55, I’m just getting started.
[Joe Domaleski, a Fayette County resident for 25 years, is the owner of Country Fried Creative – an award-winning digital marketing agency located in Peachtree City. His company was the Fayette Chamber’s 2021 Small Business of the Year. Joe is a husband, father of three grown children, and proud Army veteran. He has an MBA from Georgia State University and enjoys sharing his perspectives drawing from thirty years of business leadership experience. ]
by Joe Domaleski | Nov 8, 2022 | Blog, Business, Columnists, Community, News Center, Opinion
You are not alone, although you may feel that way. This is a difficult time of the year for many people. As we edge closer to the holidays, there is a push to get things done before the end of the year. Stress and anxiety build as we try to live up to expectations of how we think things should be in our personal and professional lives.
Last weekend we changed from Eastern Daylight Time to Eastern Standard Time as we edge closer to winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. The shorter daylight hours and colder weather add to the stress. Plenty has been written about dealing with holiday stress, so let’s focus on the specific end of the year stress facing business executives and non-profit leaders.
Some of the things that may be worrying you might include:
- Meeting your year-end financial goals
- Waiting on contract and grant renewals
- Losing customers and how to handle that
- Gaining new customers and how to service them
- Handling staff shortages as people take vacation or get sick
- Worrying about holiday sales or end-of-year donations
- Dealing with impatient customers who are also stressed
- Paying for increased expenses, staff bonuses, etc.
- Tending to your own needs as you care for everyone else
- Staying focused in the present while worrying about the future
- Being present for your family, while you’re pre-occupied with your business or organization
Indeed, I’m feeling anxious about the above items right now as I write this column. It’s important to know that things often get harder before they get better. Much has been written about that and one of my favorites is “the break down always happen before the break through.”
It is natural to feel tired, frustrated, and maybe even angry as you adjust to the swirl of things going on. It’s not fair, never has been, and probably never will be.
As leaders, our job is made even harder because our teams expect us to be steady and strong. It’s easy to feel like a victim and that things are spiraling out of control.
Here’s the deal – you’ve got this. Most of us are going through similar tough times right this very minute. It happens almost every year. We’ve had two years of COVID and now a recession. 2022 has been a doozy. Adversity provides clarity.
Here’s some tips on handling end of year stress:
- Know ahead of time that the end of year is likely to be stressful
- Acknowledge the emotions, but don’t let them control you
- Resist the temptation to act in anger or frustration at anything or anyone
- Give yourself quiet time to reflect, regroup, and re-engage
- Determine what’s working – keep doing that
- Figure out what’s not working – make a change
- Accept what you can not control and move on
- Embrace what you can control and do your best
- Try not to take anything personally, almost everyone is stressed around the holidays
- Be flexible, knowing that things are probably going to take a different route than you expected
- Be patient, knowing that things are probably going to take longer than they normally should
- Most importantly, don’t be hard on yourself
Being a leader isn’t easy. During the holidays, it’s even harder. Your struggles are meaningful. You are a leader of an organization supports the community through jobs, products, services, and other necessities that help others. It can be lonely work, but you’re not alone. People are counting on you. Let that empower you, not overwhelm you.
It’s always darkest before the dawn. Keep moving forward and we’ll get through it together. We got this. I’ll see you on the other side.
[Joe Domaleski, a Fayette County resident for 25 years, is the owner of Country Fried Creative – an award-winning digital marketing agency located in Peachtree City. His company was the Fayette Chamber’s 2021 Small Business of the Year. Joe is a husband, father of three grown children, and proud Army veteran. He has an MBA from Georgia State University and enjoys sharing his perspectives drawing from thirty years of business leadership experience. ]
by Joe Domaleski | Oct 31, 2022 | Blog, Business, Columnists, Community, News Center, Opinion
H appy Halloween! As I write this column, our community is decorated with pumpkins, ghosts, skeletons, and other objects associated with scary things. Whether you personally celebrate a happy fall festival or a scary Halloween, I thought it might be a good time to reflect upon some of the things that are spooky to a business owner. One thing that comes to mind to those who manage service and project-based work like my company is the dreaded scope creep.
Although I can envision a literal “scope creep” as a type of monster, it’s actually a phenomenon experienced by almost everyone who manages a project. By definition, a project has a definitive starting point, an ending point, and an agreed-upon list of tasks/deliverables. Examples of projects one might find in our community include: constructing a new building, upgrading a computer network, launching a new business, or filming a movie. As a digital marketing agency, most of the work we do is project-based: building websites, developing brands, managing marketing, and so forth. Projects are governed by a contract or charter that lays out the project scope – time frames, costs, work products, and expectations.
Perhaps the biggest threat to a project is the dreaded scope creep, who rears his ugly head to endanger the project. What is scope creep? The very word creep brings to mind something that is sneaky and stays out of plain view. Scope creep is when unexpected pressures are made upon a project, without accounting for those pressures. The creep often starts off as small, unrelated changes that have the additive effect of putting the whole project in danger of not being completed. Think of the project as a container into which tasks are placed. If too many tasks are added (i.e. scope creep), then the container will not be able to hold everything. The boundaries of a project container are defined by cost, timeframe, and resources.
When I managed projects before starting my business, most of our contracts were time and materials based. Any changes to scope necessitated a corresponding increase in billing – more hours, more billing. Over the years many industries, including mine, shifted to fixed contract pricing or retainers. Customers wanted financial certainty, so pricing shifted to a fixed price for a fixed set of deliverables. The problem is that many people have selective memory – only remembering price and deadline, not the agreed-upon deliverables or action items. Some scope creep is inevitable as unanticipated circumstances change during the course of the project, but most scope creep is avoidable.
With over 30 years of project management experience, I can honestly say the number one reason for scope creep is simply people changing their minds. This seems to be universal, regardless of the type of project. In some endeavors a client will rubber stamp incremental work approvals (e.g. sign off on a proof or design comp), only to change their mind at the very end of the project. I hear things like this, “I know that’s what I asked for, but now that I see it – it’s not what I want.” At other times, the scope creep appears in the middle of the project when the work is being done, revised, revised again, etc. Most companies, mine included, want a customer to have what they want but we also need to be paid for extra work. The conflict comes in when a client assumes the change request is small or that they are entitled to changes at no additional cost.
On very rare occasions I’ve had clients voluntarily offer to pay a fee for a change request, even without asking. In fact, one time a non-profit client of ours sent us extra money with their invoice payment – inside was a note, “Sorry we were such a pain and asked you to change our donation system several times. We appreciate you working with us.” That was a few years ago and much appreciated. From time to time I’ve even had clients come forward and tell us that we weren’t charging them enough! It’s normally not like that, however.
Scope creep happens on most projects, so it’s important to know how to handle it upfront. Here are some tips on how to handle it from the perspective of the customer and the business:
- Recognize that scope creep will almost certainly happen. Have contingency plans to address change requests. I normally anticipate up to a 20% increase in work effort based on typical change requests. We build that into our project plans.
- Clearly document what the costs are for typical changes in the contract or retainer agreement. For example, we might offer two revisions to a graphic design for free, but charge a fixed fee for each additional revision. Make sure customers know what the extra charges are ahead of time, that builds trust in the process.
- Be willing to be flexible. If a client asks for a change and its equivalent work to the original plan, we simply try to accommodate it at no extra charge. That’s an even swap.
- Setup limits to your flexibility. The old adage, “if you give an inch, they’ll take a mile” is true with some people. Even an “unlimited lunch buffet” typically has limits on how many trips to the food bar you can make. Most people are reasonable, but some people aren’t – they need limits.
- If you’re a customer, understand that most businesses want you to be happy but that they need to make money. Be reasonable in your requests.
- Both business and customer need to make sure the project scope reflects reality. Over time, project drift can occur when scope creep causes the vision to change. Left unchecked, neither party knows what the finish line looks like.
- Document everything to maximize understanding. We use contracts, change requests, support tickets, and sign-offs to help facilitate communication. Memories can be selective, so even if a client wants a meeting or a phone call, a set of notes is always generated. It’s good that clients take notes as well to ensure nothing is left out.
- Maybe the most important is having a collaborative attitude. The business and the client should work together to achieve success. Working on a project when there’s a test of wills is counter-productive and mutually frustrating.
Don’t let the scope creep scare you. He’s out there, but if you know how to deal with it ahead of time, he’s not so scary. Happy Fall / Halloween.
[Joe Domaleski, a Fayette County resident for 25 years, is the owner of Country Fried Creative – an award-winning digital marketing agency located in Peachtree City. His company was the Fayette Chamber’s 2021 Small Business of the Year. Joe is a husband, father of three grown children, and proud Army veteran. He has an MBA from Georgia State University and enjoys sharing his perspectives drawing from thirty years of business leadership experience. ]
