Preserving Our Past For The Future

service

Rhonda pic for blog 1
I often have the same conversation with various folks. It goes something like this…

They: Did you hear so and so is doing xxx at their shop/in their estate company now? (at one time you could insert “cleaning company” for the words shop/estate company since I owned a cleaning company for many years)
Me: Oh? That’s interesting.
They: It’s amazing how much business/customers/inventory they are doing/servicing/selling.
Me: That’s great, they do a lot of business, I have heard that about them/seen that.
They: Have you thought about changing and doing a/b/c too? If it works for them it will work for you, don’t you think you should do that too?
Me: I will look into that.
 
And I do, but not to copy…I usually find I have a very different business model than my competitors. I am all about steady, but slow and sustainable growth. Most I have had contact with in business of all kinds are more about making quick money. I am about making investments in other people and myself, and end up getting paid for it.

I had the following article hit my inbox today….and it speaks to me. This is so the way I have always tried to run my companies. I have always said my best competition is myself, period. I don’t look around too much to see what others are doing and trying to mimic their choices and attain their results. I am interested, yes. I am educating myself on different ways of doing things, yes. But to become them? No…I can’t be different if I am the same. That is a pretty simple concept….one that other business owners often fail to embrace and be ok with and thrive on. That’s why I will listen when others tell me this and that company is doing such and thus, but I don’t let it deter me from my steady course. I have a path, I stick to it till I know I should veer off because MY business tells me to do so. What happens most often if you (I) run after those competitive rabbits is this…you spend your money and time chasing THEIR ideals and dreams, and not your own. Sometimes the best plan is just to stay the course, and nod your head a lot and smile. And a well-timed, “hmmm, interesting” doesn’t hurt either.

What a busy week! We secured several new customers and somehow took care of the existing customers, even though we were short-handed due to some unexpected setbacks in staffing. Over the last several months, I have been formulating some CORE Values for my company. Today was their debut to the managers, and tomorrow’s staff meeting will see them introduced to the rest of the staff.

So many things in business and personal lives are so darned wishy-washy. What someone says they believe and adhere to today may be a total opposite of what they proclaim tomorrow. Situational ethics seems to be the norm and so many life decisions are based on whatever predicament someone may find themselves in at any given time. I remember a story in my teen years and the basic principle holds true even today.

A counselor at one of our church camp retreats was talking about peer pressure and how easy it is to make the wrong decision if you make a decision in a moment, rather than making a decision in your mind first. She talked about teen sex and it gave way to a lively, but actually interesting conversation between the teens. One was bold enough to ask the counselor if she had indeed made the decision ahead of time to save herself for marriage. The counselor had responded, “Yes but I also had a back up plan to assure my own abstinence and secure my decision.” Then she was asked by a second teen what that plan was. “Well, I carried a quarter in my pocket at all times on all dates.” Puzzled, the teen asked how a quarter was capable of keeping a teen abstinent when the boyfriend put pressure on the young girl in the heat of the moment. “When I started getting pressured, and felt myself starting to doubt my decision, I pulled out my quarter and handed it to my date. I said ‘Here’s a quarter…you call my Daddy and if he says it’s alright with him, then it’s alright with me.’ ”

You have to plan ahead to be successful at anything in this life and not let situational ethics prevail and make life-changing decisions for you. Putting down CORE Values on paper, whether in business or in personal life, puts some “be” in the beliefs you hold. Here are my company’s CORE Values. Hopefully they are what my company strives to live…and pretty much, with a slight change in wording here and there, what I can pull out of my pocket in my own life as I learn to “be” what I was created to be:

1.Deliver WOW Customer Service (or live with integrity)

2. Embrace Change and Practice Empowerment

3. Make it Fun and Spread Happiness

4. Be Creative, and Open-Minded

5. Pursue Growth and Learning

6.Promote Open and Honest Relationships

7.Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit

8.Respect Others and Their Ideas

9. Do More With Less

10. Be Humble and Display a Servant’s Heart

11. Be Passionate and Determined

12. Believe It is Always About Them, and Never About Us (me)