RSS Subscriptions: Posts | Comments | Newsletter Sign-up
search the site
Grow You, Grow Your Business
In her article on The Seven Pitfalls of Business Failure, Patricia Schaefer cites “lack of relevant business and management expertise” as a leading reason for business failure. “Unless they recognize what they don’t do well, and seek help, business owners may soon face disaster.” What many people don’t stop to think about is that what they don’t do well is constantly changing. Maybe two years ago you had marketing down cold. Does that mean you are up to speed on social media like Facebook and Twitter today?
Having a plan for regular learning and development is essential to maintaining your business, and critical to growing it. You may think that getting the right price from a contractor or pricing your product is at the foundation of keeping your business alive. They are not. Constant development of your knowledge and skills are. It’s this simple: If you are using yesterday’s method for negotiating a discount or last week’s information for pricing your product, where are you? Somewhere in history, and not in the here-and-now.
With twenty-five years in the industry, Bill Warren of Jetz Laundry Systems, Inc. has a base of knowledge that is broad and deep. Even though little could surprise him these days, Bill is still dedicated to learning. Some of the things he does are “Learn about products I represent, gather as much information as I can from the sales representatives for the machines we lease; stay abreast of the latest and greatest on the market. I also survey what my competitors are doing.” In addition, Bill says, “I like to read a lot of the articles that come out in newspapers talking about laundry services and what people think about the laundry business.” Bill’s experience has taught him to value these practices because “It’s more than just putting a washer and dryer into a room. Professional development helps to understand what your client is looking for. Regular education makes finding the proper application to satisfy your client’s needs and their end user’s needs possible.”
Some people consider professional development “boring.” In their mind, it conjures-up pictures from their school days: sitting in class listening to a lecture or spending hours alone with their nose in a book. Lots of business owners got into business to be around customers. Plenty of them like to mix and mingle, and be social. For those extroverts who get their batteries charged through interaction, there is development by association. Glenn Berman, of R Rentals gets almost all of his ongoing training by reaching out to his peers. When he wants to learn something or stay ahead of the curve on a topic such as legal matters like evictions, Glenn picks up the phone and calls other association members, or attends association meetings. He says, “Because most of us are smaller operations we don’t have the wherewithal to have things like lawyers on a retainer; we have to rely on each other for our knowledge base.”
What should your personal, professional development plan include? Here are some ideas:
- A budget. You are purchasing products and services. Be prepared to make an investment in you and your business.
- Read. You might start with a book a month, and pick up the pace from there. Don’t have time to read, or need some motivation since you don’t enjoy reading? Check out How and Why to Find Time to Read by Mark Harrison. By the way, University Group maintains a free lending-library of real estate related books and published materials. Call and learn more about how to check out these resources.
- Attend presentations. Monthly association meetings are a great start. You can get out, away from your business for a fresh perspective, and learn how other people have succeeded or failed at the same problems that face you. Get ahead by attending special training sessions and seminars, like the Mr. Landlord event held this month. “If you want to be the best Property Professional that you can be you need to attend the upcoming Mr. Landlord convention. Jeffrey Taylor (Mr. Landlord) has over 25 years of landlording experience that we can all learn from. Do yourself a “professional” favor and meet Mr. Landlord April 20, 2010″ says Randy Hughes of Hughes Real Estate.
- Listen to CD’s, podcasts and other recorded material. Instead of having the radio playing mindless chatter while you are working, why not pick up a few tips as you go about your business?
- Converse. Grab the phone or send an e-mail and engage others whom you trust. You’d be surprised what valuable information your fellow professionals are eager to share with you.
“Developing yourself professionally begins with a commitment” says Randy Hughes. “You either commit to be the best you can be in your field or you end up “average.” In this day of lightning communications, social networks and rapid technological advances, “average” is not good enough.
Andrew: As you know, I’ve been reading the book “Your Road Map for Success” by John Maxwell, and one thing he talks about is the danger of becoming complacent. Maxwell suggests you must constantly be moving forward to be successful. As you pointed out, a great way to do this is to create a plan. You could even start with a list of goals…something to move towards, and something by which to track progress.
Great article. Thanks for sharing!
~Shannon
Tony Robbins is quoted as saying, “Your business only gets better if you get better. Your business only grows if you grow. Become a master not a dabbler.”