Danielle Putnam / CEO of The New Flat Rate
I recently came across the famous Robert Frost poem, “The Road Not Taken”. As a go-getter entrepreneur, you have already chosen the road less traveled. But also, as a tradesperson, you’ve also already chosen the road less traveled. It’s hard work, which is why not everyone does it.
Today, what are some steps we can take so we make our road not taken a road that produces prosperity for us and for our customers?
- Check for dead ends. Evaluate your business from every angle and make sure that there are no dead ends for your customers. As the poem says, “Yet knowing how way leads on to way/I doubted if I should ever come back.” Make sure that your customers know what is next. Their experience with you should never be just a one and done. If you have clearly defined next steps, your customers will never find themselves at a crossroads wondering who to do business with next.
- Ask money, “What do you think about this?” Warren Buffet’s #1 rule is don’t lose money. With everything that you purchase, ask your money its opinion on the purchase. Can money see several ways to justify the purchase, and does the purchase help you make more money?
- No important success is ever simple. There is so much work that goes into every success; make sure that you are simplifying all of your processes so you can maximize your output of success.
- Are we happy? Take a step back today and check in with your happiness and your team’s happiness. We got into business because we thought we could do it better. That doesn’t have to come at the expense of our happiness. How can you boost morale today? I just got a new espresso machine for our office; my coffee lovers are over the moon, and it will be a fun feature to have during our onsite trainings for our members. As one employee said, “I don’t make my coffee at home now to make myself even more excited to come to work.” While it doesn’t have to be something material, evaluate happiness to make everyone at work more productive.
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
