Posted by Ronnie_WA on 3/18/13 6:17pm
Msg #461871

business mentors' advice worked for me

I've just finished last year's accounting and I am pleasantly surprised to find just how valuable a mentor can be. If you know any successful entrepreneurs/CFO's in unrelated fields, their review of your business plan can be so valuable - even when you've been doing this for years. When all is said and done, I have substantially increased both gross and retained earnings so I'll share what worked so well. I drastically reduced my service area, allowing completion of more signings per day thereby increasing daily income and reducing vehicle wear and ear/maintenance/replacement costs. I am in a position to accept more assignments since I'm not travelling far (impractical for rural folks). I increased fees to cover the higher gas prices. I charged for faxbacks. I dropped the marketing pens and title company flowers/cookies etc. I took every Saturday off and holiday/vacation time as well. I didn't lose any regular customers. I was very reticent and nervous about making the changes at the beginning of 2012. I am so glad I did.

Reply by AngelaV/CA on 3/18/13 7:03pm
Msg #461877

Thanks for sharing.

Reply by garland/CA on 3/18/13 7:53pm
Msg #461888

interesting, thanks for sharing...why not work Saturday? n/m

Reply by Ronnie_WA on 3/18/13 8:28pm
Msg #461891

Re: interesting, thanks for sharing...why not work Saturday?

Taking suffient time off weekly, plus vacation/holiday, turned out to be more productive. When you feel refreshed, you can be more productive on the days you do work. I didn't really buy into this when I implemented the additional time off, but it has turned out to be so true. No more 24/7 availability for me!

Reply by Michelle/AL on 3/18/13 9:56pm
Msg #461906

Thank you, Ronnie.

It's not often people will go "on record" and share with others methods that have made them more money. I really appreciate your openness. I've been going through my old financial records and it's interesting to see where I spent advertising dollars in 2009 vs 2013. Back then I didn't focus on analytics, nor did I closely track the results of my marketing efforts. Now that sort of thing matters to me.

I agree that the "secret" to success in this field is not increasing the number of Title companies you're signed up with, it's what you said: working smarter and running a more profitable business.

I'm going to contact SCORE this week.

Reply by Sha/CA on 3/18/13 11:12pm
Msg #461913

SCORE!! What a valuable resource. I've used them in the

past and I'd been thinking about contacting them again for some fine tuning. IMHO this is a great idea! Thank's for the reminder.

Reply by Ronnie_WA on 3/19/13 2:11pm
Msg #461979

Re: Thank you, Ronnie.

Thank you Michelle. I will check out SCORE as well. I suspect we're going to need every tool in the kit going forward. All the best.

Reply by sueharke on 3/19/13 12:05am
Msg #461916

I love your post. Every time a newbie asks what do I do to learn this business (either by forum post or private message), I reply as a CPA to go to SCORE and the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), a part of the Small Business Administration (SBA).

I would gladly mentor a client if they are will to pay me $XXX per hour. But the cost to go to the SBDC are essentially low priced or free (paid for by taxpayer taxes). I've not had many take up on the individual mentoring after he or she realizes what the SBDC and SCORE has to offer at a reasonable price.

A few people in the Sacramento area who followed the advice to use the SBDC, have come back to say thank you for the referral. All those people have grown a lot in the business/record keeping skills.