It was a hot summer in Talco, in far northeast Texas, where my dad went to high school and my grandmother lived. But there had been rain, and the large red crawfish that lived in and near the drainage ditches along the road in front of her house had been repairing the little mud funnel entrances to their underground bunkers.

 

We were outside in the heat and mud, entertaining ourselves by fishing them out of their hiding places with pieces of uncooked bacon on a bit of twine that my grandmother had given us. I was small, maybe six years old or so, and crouched down over the hole I was working. My little brother, Teddy, was younger and smaller, and was fishing down another hole just behind me.

 

After a while I worked a big, dark red crawfish up out of the hole and into the light of day because he really didn’t want to let go of that meat on a string. I flipped him onto the ground about my feet and then stepped aside as he threw those large pinchers in the air and started backing away from me, backing directly under my little brother’s rear end. When his pinchers brushed against a leg of the shorts Teddy was wearing, the critter instantly clamped down on the fabric with one pincher, while flailing away with the other pincher trying to grab something else. Feeling a tug, my little brother took one look over his shoulder and went totally berserk!

 

I’ve never seen such running and jumping, screaming and hollering before then or after. And it wasn’t just him causing a ruckus, my grandmother was right in the middle of it, whooping and hollering and chasing after little brother for all she was worth. But she couldn’t outrun him, and he couldn’t outrun that crawdad that was still attached to his backside.  

 

Finally, my grandmother took him on the diagonal, and with the agility of a world class athlete, knocked the fiend from his little shorts on the run, while I nearly died laughing on the sidelines. If entertainment was what we were after, it didn’t get any better than that!

Well, it’s hot summertime in Texas again, but I haven’t fished for crawfish in a long while. I may have to teach my grandson how to do it, though. By the time you read this article, I will be a first time grandfather of a baby boy, first born of my oldest son, Sloan.

 

Yep, I may teach the little tike how to entertain himself fishing with some bacon and string, but beyond that I’ll need to teach him the moral of the story. You should be wondering about that too, since what does crawdad fishing have to do with the sign and graphics business?

 

Well, the short version would be that when things seem to be going along okay, don’t ever let your guard down or fail to watch your backside, because it’s the things you don’t see coming that can bite you where the sun doesn’t shine and turn an ordered world into chaos in no time at all. That’s a good lesson for anyone, but especially true in business.

 

After all, a self-employed person takes more risk upon himself than a dozen other people combined. And the things I’m talking about need to be top concerns for employees, too, because their actions and mistakes can affect the business or business owner even more than they affect themselves.  

 

For example, if an employee goes out to do an install, and digs up a fiber optic telephone line because he didn’t take the time to clear the site first with the underground utility locator service, the thousands of dollars that may cost can put your business under, while he only has to go out and find another job. And you may not see that coming in the least.

 

The other day, one of our employees rear-ended two other vehicles. And while she was basically just rolling forward and no one got hurt, the outcome could have been much different. Why, even if no one was hurt, that doesn’t mean that someone without scruples couldn’t have feigned an injury and found any number of lawyers who would gladly sue the business whose vehicle caused the accident. Things like this happen every day.

 

Two times recently I noticed that someone was leaving a can of lacquer thinner open, fairly near a worktable where cutting, grinding or welding sparks could possibly find their way into that can. Good grief. An instant inferno looking for a place to happen.

 

The examples are endless, and it is no surprise to anyone running a sign business, or any other, that mistakes of all kinds are serious and expensive. Whether the boss makes them, or others in the company, the consequences can be severe. Even when things seem to be going just fine, the guard can never come down, the diligence to proof everything, check everything, and put safety first, must never stop. 

 

After all, we aren’t in business just for the entertainment. We are in business to win. And winning means running a business where clients’ and employees’ expectations are met, that consistently makes a profit, where no one gets hurt and no one gets sued. Well, that’s at least one working definition of winning in business, anyway.

 

And I hope your business is doing just that, and things are going well, and you’re able to keep an eye on what’s sneaking up from behind. We’re sure trying hard to.  

 

Have a great month.