What it takes to run a business

Podcast

In this week’s conversation with Paul Downs, William Vanderbloemen, and Laura Zander, Paul explains why he’s not planning to pivot his business—even as his sales collapse. Normally, Paul says, his most reliable customers are other business owners. When they call to ask about a custom boardroom table, he and his sales staff know they are likely to buy. Right now, though, in the midst of a pandemic that has changed the way people look at commercial space, they aren’t even calling. A lot of people have suggested that Paul pivot to manufacturing desks for home offices. So far, he’s resisted the idea. “To walk away from what we know,” he says, “and do something that we don't know and that others know very well, I just feel like it would be a huge mistake.” Paul, William, and Laura also talk about how the crisis has affected their own compensation.

For years, business owners complained about how tight the job market was and how hard it was to find good employees. Well, so much for that. Funny thing, though. In this week’s episode, William and Jay talk about how, in many ways, hiring has gotten even harder during the crisis. Part of it is having to rely more heavily on Zoom. And part of it is having to sift through the many people who are suddenly available to find the right person. “The most expensive hire you will ever make,” William tells us, “is hiring the wrong person. I mean, you can spend all the money you want on a search firm, and it’s still not as expensive as hiring the wrong person.”

In this conversation, Karen, Jay, and Dana discuss diversity in hiring and marketing. Dana talks about the challenge of getting white customers to come to a hair salon that is mostly Black. Karen talks about the challenge of persuading Black candidates to join a company that does not have a lot of Black employees: “So the question is not: are they out there? They're out there. I guarantee they're out there. The question is: do we need to spend more time, more energy, and be willing to be patient until we find a good pool of candidates?”

Paul Downs, Jay Goltz, and Dana White talk about how they would know if it was time to close their business, how long it takes to really grow up as a manager, what they’ve learned about managing—and occasionally firing—employees. “I think my staff hears me but eventually does what they want to do,” says Dana. “And that can be very draining because you wonder, ‘Well, why? I pay you. We’ve had training on it and talked about it.’” And Paul tells us that while he’s normally a pretty nice guy, he does have to put on his “Jay Goltz face” occasionally. “So what does that mean exactly?” asks Jay Goltz. “I’d like to understand.”

This week, we introduced a new member of the podcast team, Paul Downs, whose company, Paul Downs Cabinetmakers, makes custom conference tables. Paul wrote about how close his company came to failing in both The New York Times’ You’re the Boss blog and in his own book, "Boss Life: Surviving My Own Small Business." That was during the Great Recession. Unfortunately, Paul is once again finding it challenging to sell high-end conference tables during a crisis. “My game plan is to stick it out,” he told us in this episode. “I’m not going to shut the doors. And two years from now, I may be a smaller company, but I'm going to be around, and then we're going to ride this back up.”