I was incredibly lucky to work with my dad in business from when I was 16 until I was nearly 31. Though his sudden death was more than 21 years ago, his lessons continue to serve me well (and I still miss him). In honor of Father’s Day, here are some of the tried and true business habits from the team at Mustang Marketing, taught to us by our fathers. Since it’s my week for the blog, I picked two from my dad.
When things were tense, he would sing (poorly), “A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down.” This was his reminder to be nice, especially when it might be tempting—or even justified—not to be. You are much more likely to get what you want when you treat people well. It feels better, too.
The best marketing is a job well done; the worst is the opposite. Both travel fast by word of mouth. For my dad, this included the journey. If your customer has constant white knuckles leading up to a success because you didn’t communicate well, it’s not going to feel like a “win” to them. They may feel relief, but they won’t be anxious to work with you again.
Each of us at Mustang have taken our own fathers’ business advice to heart—and to work:
Scott Harris: “Evaluate all business relationships every 2-3 years to ensure that they are still good business relationships. There is nothing wrong with being close to your vendors and even developing friendships with some of them, as long as it doesn’t impact your willingness or ability to make the right business decision.”
Randi Harris: “Simple: hard work always pays off.”
Chris Barrett: “If you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life.”
Danny Bracco: “Own up to your mistakes. Just be honest, be immediate and be ready to fix it. The sooner and more openly its dealt with, the better the outcome will be, even if it’s just a better negative outcome—but it usually isn’t when acted on quickly and with integrity.”
Ginny Beauchamp: “Work hard and don’t screw up. And if you do screw up, don’t think you’re coming back here!”
Randall Loui: “Find a job that you like and excel at—if you try to force yourself to do something for the money, you will be unhappy doing it. You’re going to work for 80% of your lifetime, so make good use of it.”
Justin Harris: “Remember to never get too high or too low. If it takes you 12 calls to make a sale, then after every call celebrate 1/12th of a sale instead of celebrating once and getting down 11 times.”
Keith Sparks: “Regardless of what position you’re applying for, be willing to do anything. Even if a business has no job openings available, everybody will hire a hard worker. Be the one who is willing to do the work that nobody else wants to.”
Michael Arroyo: “There are always a lot of ways you can try to be successful, but the only one that’s a guarantee is hard work.”
Maybe not groundbreaking advice, but making it all habit is key to our team’s success. At Mustang, I am privileged to work with a team that believes in the value of the things our dads taught us.
-Dianne McKay