While it is difficult to attach numbers to exactly how much these intangibles impact the bottom line, the evidence that they do can be seen in the fact that all too many businesses, once sold, fail to live up to the performance expectations anticipated prior to the sale. For this reason, many purchasers insist on the owner and other key staff staying on for anywhere from one to three years after the sale.

It can also – as in the case of a colleague of mine with a very successful consulting business – be what limits you from selling your business at all. Despite annual revenues of $1 million, he discovered that his clients were resistant to working with anyone but him as he began exploring selling his business to an associate.

The bottom line is that, whether or not you ever intend to sell your company, understanding and maximizing intangible assets is critical to building a business that is not dependent upon you or any other specific individual in it – the mark of a truly successful business.

An example of this are two good friends of mine, Lawrence and Lori-Ann Keenan, who run a very successful ESL school here in Vancouver. They began the business as a couple, doing almost all of the work – from teaching the classes to marketing the school and everything in between – themselves. After just 10 years, she now works only one day a week, and his involvement with the business is negligible, save for focusing on investing their profits.

What has allowed them to have such freedom is that they have created and continue to refine written systems for everything they do. The importance of creating systems is understood by most business owners, but generally they focus on creating bare-bones systems that reflect simply the “how to” rather than the “how we do it here.” What sets my friends’ business apart and allows their success to continue to grow despite less and less involvement from them are the systems they have developed for instilling a distinct culture and personality into the school.

The school is very much centred around Lori-Ann’s personality. Like her, it is high-energy and fun with a no-nonsense professionalism and a passion for excellence in customer service. An example of one of the systems that sustains this is a weekly high-energy graduation ceremony at which all students are present. This event involves plenty of clapping, singing and general fanfare. Back in the staff room there may be some rolling eyes in the anticipation of this weekly ritual, but once staff step into the limelight to play their part in the celebration, they find it hard not to be caught up in the simplicity and energy of the familiar routine.

Companies like Google have systematized a culture of innovation by requiring employees to spend 20 percent of their time on side projects not related to their daily work. West Jet systematizes fun with their pre-landing jokes – no matter how corny they may be. Nordstrom has systematized customer service excellence through rigorous and ongoing training programs on empowerment and customer service excellence. Southwest Airlines systematizes its culture by training all of its staff in “Living the Southwest Way,” by practicing the three characteristics of having a Warrior Spirit, a Servant’s Heart and a Fun-LUVing Attitude.

All of these are examples of how to build those intangibles into the core operating systems, principles and standards of your business. Not only will these types of systems make your business more attractive to potential buyers in the long run, they will make it more attractive to those employees who are best equipped to deliver on your brand promise, thus attracting and keeping loyal customers. Ultimately these intangibles are not only what drives a strong bottom line, but sustains it over the long term. They are, at the end of the day, where the true value of a business lies and what helps any business owner to realize the full value of the business they have built – whether they sell it or not.

-Andrea Jacques aka. Kyoseigirl

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1) Purpose

One of the greatest challenges with retail is that employees and employers alike see its core purpose as making money – and research shows that making money is not the prime motivator for most employees to perform and stay in a job.

The retail clients Kyosei Consulting work with provide amazing products to the world, yet many staff still feel torn because, at the end of the day, they are still just selling stuff. The most engaged retail organizations cultivate a sense of purpose in their people beyond just making money for the company.

Employees who have stayed in retail long-term and are passionate about it always have a sense of purpose that is meaningful to them. They don’t sell clothes; they help people feel beautiful. They don’t sell bikes; they are helping people stay healthy or doing their part to reduce global warming.

They make people’s lives more vibrant by matching them to the perfect music, furniture, or artwork. While your business may have an official purpose statement that is noble and inspirational, the bottom line on attracting and retaining great retail staff is to help them connect with their individual sense of purpose.

2) Movement

What if, instead of trying to reduce turnover, your company were to embrace a philosophy of making sure your staff are here for a good time, not a long time? Consider an employee onboarding program that helped each person create a career plan for when they were going to leave their job, along with specific objectives for how they wanted to grow personally and professionally while they were there.

Topsy-turvy thinking for traditionalists, but how much easier might it be to attract and keep great front-line people if you started to view the purpose of your business as developing people versus selling product? What if you could create an environment where people saw working for your company as a life-changing experience, one where they learned as much of value about self, business, and the world as they did at university – and they got paid to do it?

Shifting your focus to providing employees with the best possible experience and helping them to move on would, ironically, be more likely to increase the amount of time that they stick with and, more importantly, stay engaged in their job.

3) Care

Take the time to care about your team as people. This builds a sense of belonging and creates trust – filling two of the most basic human needs. Several of our clients are training their managers in how to be better coaches for this very reason. With a few strategic coaching skills, and the right framework for understanding how to develop employees, these “caring conversations” often turn into coaching conversations that end up positively impacting performance and engagement. No, you don’t need to greet them with a hug at the beginning of every shift. Simply take the time to find out about their lives.

4) Support

Front-line staff with many of my clients feel that while expectations are high, respect for what they do is in short supply. Rather than assuming that there is something flawed in your staff when they fall short, ask yourself if, placed in the same circumstances they deal with day after day, you would be able to meet your own standards.

Do your people really have adequate tools, training, resources and ongoing support to be able to perform to your expectations? You can’t expect people to fly to the moon with a paper airplane. High expectations together with limited resources and support is the fastest way to create a “work to rule” staff culture where people bring their bodies to work but not much else.

5) Challenge

How do you challenge people when much of the work that needs to be done is basic and repetitive? Sales contests are a common technique retailers use to challenge and motivate their staff, but knowing the goals, interests and passions of your team is more likely to provide growth opportunities that are meaningful to each individual – and therefore more likely to impact performance.

If your employee is a student who loves research, get them involved in researching a new product line. If they love to socialize, then put them in charge of planning a staff party. On a simpler level, create daily mini-contests to make the repetitive work more fun.

Who can restock the shelves the fastest? How many shoe numbers can you remember and retrieve from the stock room at the same time? With a little creativity, the hard costs of implementing growth initiatives for front-line retail staff can prove minuscule compared to the benefits in terms of increased customer service.

At the end of the day, the secret to creating a high-performing retail environment is to take your focus off how you can get more from your people, and ask if you are willing to invest in giving what they need to live up to your expectations – an environment that supports them to work with joy.

Andrea Jacques (kyoseigirl)

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