2015-05 MAY
How lessons from the “Coffee Club” brought success to my life
Early in my career I was a virtually untrained salesman. One slow Friday afternoon I decided to hang out with some coworkers. The conversation wasn’t very inspiring, but little else was happening.
Suddenly my mentor showed up, yanked me out of the group and asked me if I wanted to be a professional salesman or a loser. I told him I wanted to be the best I could be.
“Then stop hanging around with the Coffee Club – they’ll only deter you from achieving your goals!”
Later, a homeless-looking guy walked onto the lot. The Coffee Club passed on helping him. I went to find out what he needed and found that he was in the market for a new van. We took a test ride and – with no encouragement from the Coffee Club – I eventually made the sale.
I realized that the Coffee Club was really the “Ain’t it Awful Club” and took away two important lessons
- The people we associate with can have an impact on us, so be careful who you spend your time with.
- Because I didn’t fall in with the "Ain’t it Awful Club," I was able to earn a very large commission.
But that's not all I learned from the "Coffee Club." What else did I learn about success from this experience? Find out when you read the full article.
By Phil Gilkes, FocalPoint Coach
Why helping “outsiders” fit into your family business is not only very profitable, doing so may even save the company
“Welcome to the family business. Take a back seat.”
Does that sound friendly? Maybe not, but too often family business employees with a different last name hear something similar. Many times, these non-family workers get the short end of the stick.
That's a shame because discrimination against non-family employees can be costly to the company's bottom line. Otherwise good workers start to exhibit low morale, engage poorly with customers, or even jump ship for the competition when they feel under-appreciated and ignored. On the positive side, family-owned operations grow and thrive when they take steps to make non-family workers feel like productive members of the company.
The first step is to assess your business and there are two extremes: One is a “family first” operation that is essentially a support program for family members and the second is a “business first” operation that includes both family and outsiders in key positions.
In a business first, operation, family members must demonstrate their value to earn promotions. Non-family members are equally compensated and family members are never hired unless there is a demonstrated need for the position.
Important for any family business is to be open and honest with non-family member employees and find ways to make them feel valued.
Read this in-depth article to learn what to do - and not do - when bringing outsiders into a family business.