I work for my father in a successful family business. My problem may seem strange, but it is related to growth. It seems like every time we start getting really busy the business begins to fall apart. I could give many examples of orders that were promised but inventory was low, letters that were lost, customers who were billed multiple times and other embarrassing and unprofessional situations. The company philosophy is to hang on until the storm passes, when things will return to normal. Typically this does happen, but then we repeat the same cycle several months down the road. We need to do things differently, but I can't convince anyone to give up the old way of doing business. Any suggestions?

"That's the way we've always done it." The number of once vibrant entrepreneurial businesses that eventually fall to this mindset is unfortunately quite high. What you need to explain to your father is that growing pains are healthy. The fact that older ways of doing things are no longer effective is a compliment to his business savvy. The company has grown beyond its original structure.      Now is the time to look forward - not back - and restructure the company so it can accommodate and maintain your periods of growth. If you hold on until the storm recedes, the effects you are experiencing will only continue. So too will you avoid the real problem if you attack each crisis individually. This creates the fire-fighting mindset so many growing companies experience. Try to get the owner and management team to stop, sit down and study the situation. Try to acquire the resources and build the operational and management systems needed for additional growth. You cannot keep building on your house without a reinforced foundation and structure; businesses are no different.      To guide your efforts we recommend two excellent resources: 1) Growing Pains by Eric G. Flamholtz, and 2) Reengineering the Corporation by Michael Hammer and James Champy.

I have a business in which customer service is especially important. However, I have a hard time getting my employees to treat the customer as I want them to. I am constantly running across situations in which the customer was not given the service that should have been delivered, either because the employee did not check all the information or did not care. I don't understand what is so difficult about that aspect of their jobs. What can I do to make sure they deliver good customer service?

There are several ways in which you can increase the quality of customer service. First, we'd like to call your attention to some possibilities in your situation. Many owners do not communicate clearly what they believe to be obvious or what they think they have communicated quite often.      If customer service is critical to your business, then the concept of good customer service must be clearly and formally communicated to your employees. In fact, you should begin to discuss this in the hiring process by letting candidates know that good customer service is a priority and what that means in your business.      Second, it is a good idea to train your employees in customer service. Determine the aspects of customer service you wish to emphasize and develop expectations and standards around them. Document examples of good and poor service. Communicate clearly what you expect employees to do in certain situations and let them practice.      Finally, because employees often don't care as much as you do, you must ask yourself what's in it for them? This is where your appraisal and reward system comes in. Part of employees' performance evaluations should be directly related to customer service.      Let employees know when they did not give good customer service and how they could have done better. Then, give employees who are doing well more rewards, or have a bonus system based upon the best customer service provider.

As a small-business owner I am often overwhelmed with the multitude of topics and issues I confront on a daily basis. While I know I'll never be an expert in everything, I wish a had a better understanding so I'm sure I'm getting the most out of my company and the advisers I use regularly. I don't have time to attend many seminars because they are all during working hours. Any suggestions for rounding out my knowledge base?

Like you, we too become overwhelmed with all of the issues it takes to run a successful small business. Issues relating to budgeting, planning, customer service, finances, personnel, legal issues, sales, marketing and myriad others.      Sometimes, it is necessary to retain an expert in the area in which you are struggling. However, for many issues, self-help training can take you a long way.      For long-term success, small-business owners need to develop and maintain their knowledge, skills and abilities in three critical areas: technical, managerial/administrative, and strategic planning.      We recommend a variety of self-study courses to keep you abreast of specific topics, managerial practices and methods of planning and forecasting. Call for a catalog and begin your development in an area that makes most sense for you. Start with the following: The American Management Association: Self Study Catalog, 800-262-9699 The Crisp Small Business & Entrepreneurship Series, 415-323-6100 The Small Business Development Center offers free consultation. Call 878-4030 The Jossey-Bass Management Series, 415-433-1767 Check into continuing education courses offered at your local universities and colleges. Good luck in your development!

We can't afford raises but what about job reviews? After much soul searching we have decided to freeze our employees' salaries for 1998. While they have worked hard, we just don't have the stability to increase our costs. Our current dilemma is whether or not we should still have our year-end performance reviews since there will not be raises. What is the right way to handle this?

Our suggestion is to always review performance regardless of compensation decisions. Even if raises are to be awarded, we encourage clients to separate the review meeting from meetings regarding compensation decisions. If not separated, employees typically just want you to get to the bottom line; in other words: What do I get? We find that they do not actively listen to the feedback and tend not to join in a constructive dialogue. Even if you tell them the compensation decision first with the intention of getting it out of the way in order to get their attention, it backfires. This strategy leads to either 1) the employee arguing or being defensive because he/she does not like the raise, or 2) they are so happy and excited they do not care about the review. Consequently, you should separate the two meetings by at least a day.      Another reason to hold a performance review is the concept of psychological income. There is more to one's job than money. Studies have shown that employers think that employees are only interested in high wages, job security and promotions. In fact, employees state that what affects their morale the most is full appreciation of the work done, feeling that they are in on things and getting help with their problems. Therefore, giving them positive feedback and developmental suggestions in a performance review can go a long way to increasing their productivity in the coming year. We call this concept psychological income and feel that it is as powerful, if not more so, than cash.

My staff has no trouble speaking their minds. In fact, the opposite tends to be true. Often simple disagree-ments break into heated arguments and the meeting dissolves without accomplishing our agenda. Any suggestions?

It's great that your staff is comfortable enough to openly speak their minds. We would much rather have to cool off our managers than try to build a fire under them. However, if decision making and problem solving are negatively affected, then there is a problem. In our experi-ence, disagreements most often turn into fights when people become entrenched in their positions and stop trying to understand each other. In other words, it becomes more important to prove "I'm right" than to consider what you are saying. Frequently when someone takes the time to understand - this does not imply agreement - the other's position, they will find that the disagreement is not as significant as originally thought. Unfortunately, this does not come naturally. Most people want to keep pushing their views and have little regard for the view of others.      We recommend that you encourage your managers to withhold their personal views and first attempt to understand the other's position. Only after they can accurately summarize their colleague's point of view are they allowed to share their opinion. And then, they must couch their position in two parts: Where he/she agrees with the other and where he/she disagrees. This simple practice encourages under-standing. From understanding, a creative compromise is usually easy to find.

I own a business and in the past two years I've hired several people. My complaint or problem is that I have often hired people who seemed able and motivated, but who didn't work out for one reason or another. I'm starting to lose confidence in my ability to judge people. My business is still small and there is no personnel department or fancy hiring procedures. What do you recommend?

Finding the right person for a job requires involvement and commitment to a sound hiring process. Very often, business owners use their intuition and common sense to hire employees. However, people can often present themselves very well in the interview stages when they are not really right for the job or motivated for the right reasons. Chemistry is important, but can be deceiving. In addition to the "warm feeling in the tummy" criterion, there are several things you can do to improve hiring decisions without investing a lot of resources.      First, define the job as clearly and completely as possible. That way, you can look at the job objectively and determine exactly what skills and abilities are important to the job.      Second, review resumes for credentials and experience that match the needed skills. You can also roughly evaluate things like motivation, ambition, desire to learn, communication ability, etc. within the resume.      Third, design interview questions or scenarios aimed at measuring the most important skills and characteristics you're looking for. This is easier than it sounds. Get everyone involved and go over drafts until you end up with good interview questions.      Fourth, have more than one person interview and evaluate applicants independently. Having a greater number of independent evaluations increases your chances of uncovering relevant strengths and weakness in an applicant.      Finally, consider utilizing some placement or testing service to evaluate candidates' abilities and job-related personality characteristics before hiring them.