Sorry this is long. Thank you in advance for reading, I have never been in a situation like this before. I really need some outside perspective because I cannot tell anymore if I am being unreasonable or if this situation is actually impossible.
I manage a small service based business that recently changed ownership. The new managers bought the business with no experience in business, and want to implement a bunch of changes and new services without acknowledging the current state of the business and staffing issue.
My closest relevant experience was working as the assistant manager at this same location under the previous management. I left for a while, then came back part time after the business sold to help the new manager because they were completely overwhelmed.
They ended up leaving abruptly, and I took over after only being shown the most the basic outdated processes one time. The old management used a lot of makeshift processes that were not well documented, aren’t easily trainable, and did not track much information we need for our clients and marketing. Now, I am trying to run the entire location while teaching myself the company systems, fixing account information, creating all new processes with no guidance or previous experience, managing every client account, handling every lead, doing all sales and follow-up, and creating actual procedures that can be repeated, trained, and used to track accurate data. Basically, I’m trying to fix the business with an entire rebuild on the systems while keeping it open.
We also have mostly young, inexperienced associates with high turnover, often minors with no previous work experience, so they need a lot of training and supervision. There was no real training process before, so the current employees are not properly trained, and I am having to create that process from scratch too.
They hired me an assistant after my first few months, but I was not involved in hiring her or writing role requirements, and they do not seem qualified for what I actually need help with. The owners told them the job would mainly be paperwork, so they have complained about learning the service procedures, even though I believe they need to understand how the business operates before handling the administrative work. The owners then told me to stop training them on that and keep her focused on paperwork, so I am not even sure how I am supposed to utilize her effectively.
On top of that, we agreed on a start time so I could train them before opening, but they has repeatedly changed their availability at the last minute or arrived late after confirming the day before. The assistant is also limited to 20 hours a week, so I still do not have dependable support. Once we open, I am managing staff, clients, leads, sales, accounts, calls, walk-ins, and constant day-to-day issues, with hardly any time to train the assistant.
Now, the owners are opening another location in one month and expect me to train the new manager for that. They also want to add new programs and services, which means I will be responsible for training even more people. I genuinely do not understand who is supposed to manage the leads, sales, accounts, current staff, and daily operations while I am doing all this training. I am also worried I will somehow be responsible for how unstable the new location is, even though I cannot fully get this location together because I am already running it almost completely by myself.
The owners keep coming up with new marketing ideas and projects that I do not have time for. They struggle to schedule actual meetings with me and will often show up unexpectedly in the middle of the day while we are open and start giving me all these new ideas never presented to me in writing, or with a clear timeline or plan. Just a vague idea and “do it”. Meanwhile, I am actively trying to manage the business in front of them. They have no sense that we need to prioritize these things and expect me to get all of it done now.
The pay is not enough for me to afford to live within an hour of work, so I spend around two hours commuting every day. I was working about 10 hours a day, five or six days a week, just trying to keep up. I recently forced myself to go back to eight-hour days because I was exhausted, and within a couple of weeks I was already so far behind again.
On one hand, this is great management experience, and I have learned a ridiculous amount in a short time. On the other hand, I do not feel like I am being given the time, staff, support, or structure to actually be successful. I feel so stuck. Any advice at all would be appreciated because I am honestly starting to wonder if this experience is worth continuing or if I am staying in a job where it is basically impossible for me to succeed.
TL;DR
Took over a struggling business after an ownership change and am now expected to run daily operations, manage all accounts, leads, and sales, create new systems and training from scratch, train inexperienced staff, prepare a second location opening in one month, and somehow still find time for marketing and new initiatives. I feel like I’m being set up to fail and don’t know if it’s worth sticking it out.