The Rules of Zombieland and How it Applies To Helping Our Successful Business

Have you ever seen Zombieland? You should. Is it scary? It’s not. Is it bloody? Most likely (It’s a zombie movie, what do you expect?) Is it relevant to business success? Funny enough it is.

The All-American Fencing Academy has discovered a few things about Zombieland.

1) Our staff has a mutual appreciation of the movie. This makes for fun staff meetings.
2) The rules of Zombieland can be applied to our day to day operations and help us become a more successful business.

Still have your reservations? Then you haven’t seen the movie. If not, let me convince you, and I promise the next few lines will not be covered in blood nor will something reach out from under your desk, grab your leg and start tearing away bits of flesh…but I’d double check if I were you.

Rule #1 to Survival in Zombieland: Cardio
Yes, cardio. You have to have the stamina to get away from those flesh eating heathens of the undead. But why is cardio important to small business success? Simple, healthy employees mean a healthy environment. Your employees need to be healthy to be productive. They also want to know you care about them. Maybe go out for a team run (maybe this is a remnant from my time in the Army). Maybe a retreat. Perhaps special business privileges at a yoga studio or indoor rock climbing place. Whatever the case, you want to try to have healthy employees.

Rule #2 to Survival in Zombieland: Double Tap
If you haven’t seen the movie, then I won’t delve too much in the explanation of this rule. It’s much to blood infused to explain here. But what it mean with to the All-American Fencing Academy is to double check your work. It’s the same concept when you’re trying to tell your kids to check their work before your turn it in. If you’re doing flyers, or posting something on the internet, social networks, sending something to the newspaper…make sure all the information is correct, double check it before you send it out. Even before you have to make important phone calls, double check yourself, recite what you plan to say instead of just winging it.

Rule #3 to Survival in Zombieland: Beware of Bathrooms
Again, I won’t digress too much why this is important to survival in Zombieland, but it is important to success in small businesses. Think of this way, ever go someplace, then have to use their restroom, only to discover you wished you hadn’t worn your good shoes? Or maybe even use a piece of tissue to touch all the surfaces in the bathroom? Worse yet, discover there is no toilet paper available? Beware of your bathroom, make sure it’s in a state that your customers and clients would approve of. Better yet, would your mom approve of it?

Rule #4 to Survival in Zombieland: Wear Seatbelts
Safety, safety, safety. There’s no point in getting away from rabid zombie prom queens if you crash your vehicle and get thrown out the window. In a world of zombies, it just kinda stinks if you get killed some other way. I digress, the key word here is safety. In the Army, we called it Preventive Maintenance Checks and Services. In the world the All-American Fencing Academy, we always to have safety on our mind. After all, we are running around with pointy objects. In our business we need to make sure that all our athletic safety equipment is in working order, which probably won’t apply to many other businesses. But here’s what applies. Do you have a first aid kit? Do you know your fire exits? Is there somebody trained in CPR? Do you have small children in and around your business? Fire hazards? Tripping hazards? Think safety and have a routine to check for these things each month in your business.

In the movie, there are actually 32 rules to survival in Zombieland, not all of them are mentioned. So let’s skip to Rule #32.

Rule #32 to Survival in Zombieland: Enjoy the little things.
Somedays, things don’t go all as you planned. Some days everything goes right. Some days your employees are just trying to get through the day. Some days they love what they do and thankful for working there. Some days you’re stressed beyond belief. So days you’re just staring at the bottom line. Enjoy the little things. Enjoy when someone walks out of your business smiling. Enjoy when someone mentions that they heard of your business from someone else. Enjoy when your employee mentions they work for the best boss. Enjoy when you hear laughter in the workplace.

Enjoy the little things.