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(Annie’s Mailbox is the continuation of “Dear Ann Landers” that is a syndicated column that runs in many newspapers in the US. After I read a “Dear Annie” letter and the response in the paper, I stepped in to provide my own advice).

Dear Ken Keller:

Thank you for your letter offering advice to one of our readers. We would like to print an edited (for space) version of your letter on Friday, August 3, 2007, along with your name and city. Here is what it will look like:

Dear Annie: “Sayre, Pa.” wrote about her struggling restaurant business and said she was depressed. You told her how to find counseling, but you didn’t give her any business advice.

To help ease her financial pressure, she can:

1. Raise prices. Inflation is running close to 8 percent and this is one of the reasons she is feeling pinched. She should plan on regular quarterly price increases. Her customers buy food at the grocery store and understand prices have gone up.

2. Negotiate better terms with her suppliers. Or find new ones.

3. Make it easy for her customers to pay her by taking credit cards, cash and perhaps personal checks.

4. Revise her menu to eliminate items that take too much time to prepare, are seldom purchased, or are otherwise not profitable.

5. Develop a customer loyalty program so regular customers will come back more often.

6. Meet for free with representatives from the local Small Business Administration

About fifteen years ago the number of chain restaurants operating in America surpassed the number of independent eating and drinking establishments. Since that time the gap between multi unit restaurants, franchised and corporate owned, versus independents, has dramatically widened.

I have traveled all over the country, to large cities and small towns, and this trend away from independently owned and operated businesses is going to continue. It doesn’t matter if the business is a gas station, a manufacturing plant, a hospital, a non profit, a motel, or a local retail outlet.

Why this trend is taking place is simply stated: chains have standards of performance that are enforced.

As an example, the other night I stopped at a local independent restaurant to pick up something for dinner. This particular establishment provides good food at reasonable prices and I have been a client for years. The vast majority of the business it does is done during the business day, as it is near many commercial and industrial facilities.

There were four employees working behind the counter when I placed my order. I paid my money, received my change and turned to find a place to wait in the seating area. The eating area was not horribly filthy, but there were some napkins on the floor, several tables needed to be wiped down and the beverage area needed to be straightened up and refreshed. I am sure it wouldn’t have hurt to have the floor mopped either.

Perhaps all of this is not such a big deal after all; it was at the end of the business day, so perhaps these shortcomings could be excused. Maybe I am over reacting. Maybe so, but it was well after 7pm, there were four people standing behind the counter, talking with one another and the dining area was in need of attention. My visit to spend money was, on second thought, an interruption to their conversation.

On the way home I stopped at a unit of a well known national chain to do a comparative visual analysis. I did not see the same things in need of attention there.

Could my visit to this independently owned restaurant be an isolated incident? Could it be that I visited the restaurant on an off day or an off time? Could I be unduly harsh on this restaurant? I don’t think so. My observational research suggests that chains have in place standards of performance that are enforced at the local level, during all hours of the day. This restaurant may have similar standards, but I don’t know for sure. If they exist, they were not enforced at that time by the manager on duty.

Why have standards of performance? Why set expectations? The primary reason is to have the business live up to its potential.

Take Southwest Airlines versus any of their competitors. The expectation is that you will enjoy dealing with the flight attendants who will do what they can to make the trip fun. Compare that with a recent US Airways flight I was on where one of the flight attendants should have been sent to charm school. Compare the financial results of Southwest to any other competitor and you can verify which airline does consistently better.

Not having clear and measurable expectations is, in my opinion, the primary reason so many organizations under perform. Without clear and measurable expectations people do not know what to do specifically (what, when, how, why and to what level) and when I say people, I am writing about individuals at every single level from the highest to the lowest; from the owner to the receptionist and everyone in between.

People want to know that they will be measured. It all comes back to getting a report card. With clear expectations, people know what to do and how they will be evaluated versus objectives. It takes the guesswork out of evaluations.

Expectations help leads, supervisor and managers become better at managing people. They no longer have to wonder if people are doing their assigned tasks or not. It positions the manager as someone who verifies that the work is being done as expected. Note that the manager is not doing the job; they are making sure that others do it according to specifications.

If you wonder why things are not getting done in your organization they way you’d like them to, start by asking what the expectations are for answering the telephone. In most organizations, something as basic and yet critical to the success of the organization has never been discussed as needing a standard of performance. Yet, this may be the most used method of communication for prospects, clients, vendors and shareholders communicate with the organization.

Joe Girard’s book “How to Sell Yourself” is a must have and a must read for anyone working in or for an organization.

One chapter of the book focuses on going “the extra mile” and what a tremendous difference it can make in your life and in the lives of those around you.

Here are ten rules for achieving success.

Rule One: If you are in sales, make one extra prospecting call each day. Or two.

Rule Two: Work a little longer at the office or shop than you need to. Or, come in a little earlier.

Rule Three: Do something useful around the office or your house without being asked.

Rule Four: Give a little gift to someone special even though there is no occasion for it.

Rule Five: Give a gift to someone not-so-special; it may make them feel special for the first time.

Rule Six: Go out of your way to help someone; just be there when he or she needs you the most.

Rule Seven: Pay a compliment to someone each day.

Rule Eight: Take a load off of someone’s back instead of putting it on someone’s back.

Rule Nine: If you are a student, put in a little more time with the books. If you are a business professional, try opening a book and reading about something you don’t know about. You might learn something.

Rule Ten: Do something for someone, or some cause, without expecting any pay for it.

Try these for a week and see if the condition of your business doesn’t change. Chances are, it will.

While I am an avid reader of books, magazines and periodicals, I also enjoy watching movies as a vehicle for learning. Not every movie made for Hollywood was created for teenagers; there are plenty of movies that have lessons for working adults. Once you start to look at a movie as a learning tool, you might not ever see it as pure entertainment again!

“Wall Street” is one of my all time favorites. It tells the tale of a young man who loses his moral compass in his quest to be more than his education, background and skills allow. Charlie Sheen stars as the young hot shot who demonstrates his tenacity and street smarts to ruthless tycoon Michael Douglas. Douglas buys and sells companies without remorse focusing only on the profits because that is the only game he knows or wants to play. “Greed is good” symbolizes not just the time that the movie was filmed and still applies today, unfortunately, to many disgraced so-called leaders of business.

“Glengarry Glen Ross” is the ultimate sales training movie. Once you see this movie you will forever remember what the contest prizes are for the salesmen in an under performing real estate office. When Alec Baldwin departs the office at the beginning of the movie, you will always know what “ABC” stands for in the sales process. This is a movie rich with talented performances by Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris and Alan Arkin.

Back in the dark ages when movies were filmed in black and white, “Twelve O’ Clock High” conveyed the story of a young general with a mission to turn around a struggling bomber group in the dark days of WWII. While the movie takes place in wartime, it isn’t a war movie, it is the saga of how an organization that has gotten off track can get refocused but can lose its way if improperly led. Gregory Peck stars as the general assigned to turn things around, only to get caught up in his own success. He ultimately fails, and this is not a typical Hollywood ending.

I’ve long admired George C. Scott’s performance in “Patton”. You can watch this movie from the perspective of history, or you can see the performance of someone who believes and practices the basics of leadership. As an example, his staff wakes the general to advise that the enemy is going to attack; he had fallen asleep doing competitive research, reading a book authored by his opponent. While Patton comes across as human and makes mistakes like everyone else, his leadership moved more men across more miles with fewer casualties than any other general in that war.

“Titanic” is a case study in poor management and non existent organizational leadership. Instead of watching the romantic side of the main characters develop, keep an eye on the ship’s captain and his conversations (almost filmed in passing) with reporters, the ship’s builder and the owner. You can watch the movie and learn how not to run an operation in just a couple of hours. Once the ship runs into the iceberg the lack of front line management and their failure to deal with a crisis can serve as a reminder to anyone in business to prepare for the unexpected. Because it just might happen!

There are many other movies to review, but allow me to suggest that there are lessons that can be translated to business by watching: “Remember the Titans” (leadership under adverse conditions), “Cast Away” (overcoming obstacles to achieve a goal), “Apollo 13″ (failure is not an option), “Hoosiers” (teambuilding), “12 Angry Men” (consensus and decision making) and “Jerry Maguire” (creating a mission statement and seeing it come to fruition).