The part about Bryant's practicing open-book management sounds like a joke, and it is, sort of. Bryant shares all his numbers...with himself! Bryant distributes all his profits...to himself! Whoop-de-do. But there's more to open-book management than that, and here's where it gets fun, not just funny. If you're going to do it right, you can't just open the books; you have to make sure everybody understands the numbers. And you can't just pay out bonuses tied to profits; you need everybody energetically moving the numbers in the right direction. Both are monumental challenges, whether you're dealing with a thousand employees or just one. Bryant, of course, has developed his own system.
The first step was dividing his revenues into logical categories. Before he did that, he thought all money was alike. "Receivables are up," he'd tell himself, "we're doing great. Receivables are down, I guess we're not doing great." But when he took a closer look, he was able to discern four distinct streams: individuals, consulting, speeches and workshops, and outplacement. He began tracking the streams, assigning revenues as they were earned, and marking them on a flip-up calendar. As time passed and the data accumulated he gained ever deeper insight into the natural ebb and flow of his business. But the real breakthrough was yet to come. For that, he needed more powerful analytical tools. He needed cows, pigs, and chickens.
More than 80% of Bryant's revenues in a typical month come from corporate clients. None of them live forever (a consultant's clients never do), but some of them live a long time, producing steadily all the while. Those are cows, he decided. Next are his individual clients, whose significance resides in their numbers, not their individual worth. Those are chickens. ("Chickens are not to be sneezed at," Bryant says. "General practitioners do very well with chickens.") Finally come the nonrecurring revenue opportunities, the clients who hire him to give a speech or write an article or produce a workshop. Those are pigs; you get only one chance to slaughter a pig.
Once Bryant had identified all the animals on his farm, he started looking into their genealogy. He knew, for example, that without a steady supply of cows, his farm would go under. But where did his cows come from? From other cows? Rarely. From chickens? It happens, but not very often. From pigs? Why, yes, from pigs! Typically, Bryant would give a speech to a professional organization; later he'd get a call from someone who had been in the audience, and the result would be a consulting contract. It didn't always happen right away ("there's a little gestation period there," he says) but there was no denying the lineage. Bryant had discovered a fundamental truth about his business: pigs beget cows.
Then Bryant started playing games, using his data to keep score, just like a real open-book company. He set monthly revenue goals and rewarded himself with prizes for making his numbers: a coveted Samsung Maxima Zoom 105 camera last July, a CD-ROM player for the kids in August ("Dad, are you going to make your number?"), a new freezer for the kitchen in September. The trick with incentive plans, of course, is to keep them challenging and fresh. So Bryant has begun thinking about nonmonetary forms of compensation--"like giving myself time off for a job well done."
The upshot is that Bryant has more control over his business. And being in control, as every entrepreneur knows, is fun. "This is how I get pleasure," he says. "When I look at these numbers and say, 'I need to do something to move these numbers,' and then I do something and they move, I feel terrific."
Lately, Bryant has been mapping out some rough goals for this year: more cows (at least one new steady producer in 1997), more pigs (at least one speech a month), finding a publisher for Lessons on Life, keeping a four-day workweek ("So I can stay home with Jane, my three-year-old, the other day"), and getting the house painted.
All reasonable, all attainable, all pertaining to or derived from the success of his thriving solo enterprise. No wonder he doesn't call it work. He calls it "my most favorite way of playing."
David Whitford is a business writer in Boston.
Resources: For more on working alone, see Working Solo: The Real Guide to Freedom and Financial Success with Your Own Business, by Terri Lonier (Portico Press, 800-222-7656, 1994, $14.95). Also, the Working Solo Internet site provides a searchable version of the Working Solo Sourcebook of more than 1,200 resources.
To learn more about open-book management, check out John Case's Open-Book Management: The Coming Business Revolution (HarperBusiness, 800-242-7737, 1995, $13). Look at Inc.'s special report on open-book management online (from our June 1995 issue) To subscribe to The Open-Book Management Bulletin, a monthly newsletter, call 617-625-7095. An annual subscription costs $195.
CAREER TRANSITION SERVICES, Michael Bryant, 3126 Berkshire Rd., Baltimore, MD 21214; 410-444-5857; mb3126@aol.com
