Businesses Change With Time: We Have To Keep Up

Stupid Business Story:

One of my clients was a real estate broker when the real estate market crash happened. He had a big office, lots of staff, fancy cars and a bunch of property – all leveraged to the hilt.

It’s a familiar story to many in the states hit hardest by the collapse of the real estate market. It was like someone turned a switch off. In one month period, all their properties fell out of escrow and the business was done. But, they continued to hang on. They kept everything until the money was gone.

I’m not sure that’s really a stupid business story because they rose like a phoenix faster than anyone I’ve ever seen. They closed down their operations, said good bye to the fancy lifestyle, moved to a cheaper house and started working from home.

It’s been 2 years since that day when they realized they were done. They’ve rebuilt an income that’s higher then they had before, but they did it without all the costs. They still work from home, largely virtually and have virtual assistants. And they know that the ‘bust side’ of the boom-bust real estate market won’t last forever, so they’re working on Plan B when it changes.

Lesson From the Story:

Your business is changing. The economy, customers and technology are creating changes for your business that you might not even know about yet. The biggest lesson is to not get complacent. Be ready for the inevitable changes.

Credit for the Story:

Anonymous

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