Notice that phrase: bringing in business. Not sales. Sales is an important part of bringing in business, but it’s just one part. That’s important, because a lot of people tell me they hate sales and will do anything to avoid doing anything remotely considered “sales.”
Giving a talk about succession the other day, I started off by asking attendees, “How many of you are thinking about retiring or selling your business?” Not a single hand went up. That may be because no one wanted to show their cards to possible competitors in the room. It could also be because too many of us don’t think about succession in advance. After all, we love our businesses; that’s why we run them. We’re not comfortable with the idea of stepping away and turning our responsibilities, our vision and mission, and our legacy over to someone else.
Members are the lifeblood of an association; if they’re not involved and engaged, your association can’t accomplish its mission. And yet, finding members to volunteer, to fill committees and move into leadership positions is a challenge for many associations.
I’m getting a lot of questions about hiring right now:
Should I hire?
When should I hire?
Who should I hire?
How should I hire?
How are you doing with your goals? It's a question I've been asking my clients a lot. The answer I'm getting most is some variation on, "Um... not really sure."
When I talk to leaders of associations, three things always come up: Their membership isn’t growing the way they need it to, they don’t have enough volunteers, and their leadership is getting burned out.
People are sometimes surprised to learn I have a coach. “But you’re a coach yourself, Jim! Why would you need a coach?” It is exactly because I’m a coach that I know how important it is even for coaches to have a coach.
A property manager friend of mine recently asked me what he can do to make sure his business is a success. He’s feeling behind the eight ball right now, not just with all the talk of a possible recession, but with the day-to- day grind of running a business. I told him I had two pieces of good news:
I was going to start this article by saying In uncertain times, it is essential to add value to your clients above and beyond what they expect. Then I realized there’s a big problem with that phrase in uncertain times. When are times not uncertain? We can never predict what’s coming next: Just when you think you’ve got smooth sailing ahead, something happens to disrupt the economy or your business or your life. Just when you think you’re in for a rough patch, something happens to clear the way.
We’re halfway through the year now, and this is a great time to ask yourself the question: Am I on track or off track?
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