A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journal
Written by Las Vegas Motivational Speaker & U.S. Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the Year Clay Clark
About Clay:
– Clay has been written about in the New York Times and the Washington Post
– Is the founder of numerous successful organizations including DJ Connection (America’s largest wedding entertainment business),
Juliet Films (formerly Cherished Traditions Videography), the Bridal Association, the Bridal Association Wedding Show, etc…
– He has worked a business consultant for national organizations including: Farmers Insurance, Maytag, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, etc…
– His “Wheel of Wealth System” for building “scalable and duplicatable business systems designed to be capable of working without the owner” have helped
thousands of people and audience members throughout the United States.
– His best-selling book, Make Your Life Epic: From the Dorm Room to the Board Room has helped countless readers to find a problems and solve them in a profitable
way by starting a successful business.
– For more information about scheduling Clay Clark to speaker to your organization, conference, workshop or group visit: https://makeyourlifeepic.com
– His ability to weave entertainment and education into his speaking events has made him a favorite Dallas Motivational Speaker, Tulsa Motivational Speaker
and Las Vegas Motivational Speaker of choice for event planners and conference organizers from coast to coast.
– He has shared the stage with best-selling authors, professional sports trainers and award-winning business owners.
– He has 5 kids and 1 beautiful wife (as opposed to 2)
“And We’re Off To See the Wizard: Fun With Installing A Web-Based Software System For the Companies”
Over the past 12 months I’ve discovered something (other than the hairs that have started growing my nose). I’ve discovered that our companies cannot and will not grow unless we install a software platform that allows us to share information and accountability mechanism from city to city and from person to person. Basically DJ Connection is now the dominant wedding entertainment force in Tulsa and Dallas. Basically anyone going online and looking for a Tulsa Wedding DJ or a Dallas Wedding DJ is going to find us. And once they find us our sales team / wedding entertainers will make every bride and groom laugh. If an event planner calls us we
will make them laugh. Even if a telemarketer calls us we will make them laugh. Then once they stop booking we will help them plan out a schedule of events that will help them take their event to the next level.
Once the event is scheduled (although we are not perfect), it is pretty much given that the event will be incredible because of the pay mechanisms we have in place and the incredible training of our HR department. Essentially we pay our people based on how highly are customers rate their performance, not based on how long they work or how hard they try. If a customer gives our DJs high-marks then they get a BIG PAYCHECK. If the customer gives our team low marks they get low pay and they get to go to more training. If a team member gets low reviews, then their manager is penalized as well. If the a team member gets high scores then the manager gets BIG BON– USES. It’s crazy and certainly not the kind of thing that today’s socialist leaning government bureaucrats would endorse, but it works. In fact our pay system is the kind of thing that Michael Jordan would endorse if he was out endorsing pay mechanisms. That dude worked the hardest, focused the most, talked the most trashed, backed it up the most often and was paid the most. Darius Miles was drafted high, but showed up the latest, applied the least amount of effort and now you don’t know who he is do you (he was drafted in the NBA)?
Now because I’m smart enough to recognize that we don’t live long enough to be the pioneers of everything and every business system I must admit that we stole our sales processes, booking systems and merit-based pay mechanisms from the smart people at QuikTrip, Southwest Airlines and Disney. These companies are loved by customers and they all endorse some level of merit-based pay backed by heavy amounts of client surveying. It’s incredible, really. We all love these companies, but how many of us actually sit down and take the time to ask ourselves why we love them? And then how many of us sit down and ask ourselves, I wonder what mechanisms and systems they put in place to get us to love them so much?
And so back to the story this blog post is supposed to be about…
Today we are off to “see the Wizard,” the “Guru,” the “Man with the Plan” and the man I affectionately call Joshua Guthmann (because that is his name). We are currently on the flight from Tulsa to Houston. From Houston we will then fly to Ft. Lauderdale. From Ft. Lauderdale we will then drive to Hollywood Florida. When I say we, I mean my wife and I. She will been swimming, lounging and looking at the white sandy beaches while I am gazing into the artificial light created by a laptop all day. Josh and I will be working on adapting the industry standard “SalesForce.com” software to meet the needs of our growing companies. Josh has done software programming for huge corporate giants, while I have spent my time becoming the czar of small business. It is our combined belief that we will both benefit from our unique life experiences and our unique skill sets. He will bring the bring “corporate America” systems and processes to the table while I will bring the “get it done,” and “guerrilla-marketing” mindset of a small business owner. By the end of the weekend we plan on emerging with a completely customized version of salesforce so that my comrades and I back in Tulsa can began benefiting from the shared knowledge this software will now make possible.
What will the software do?
The software will allow us to effectively “drip market” on our “most likely buyers.”
The software will allow us to know who has been trained on what from an HR perspective.
The software will allow us to have a firm grasp on our inventory.
The software will allow us to sync our financials with QuickBooks.
The software will allow us to communicate with our team more effectively through intranet newsletters.
The software will allow us to standardize our booking process event more.
The software will allow us to communicate in a standardized way from city to city.
The software should allow us to effectively steer the Death Star from point A to point B.
