Dear Old Dad – You Continue to Amaze Me!

Living and Learning in the Southcoast, MA – This is a drawing I did of my dad when I was in grad school.  I’ve written about my dad before on this blog.  He had a system.  It was a simple, multi-purpose system.  He was an uneducated man through no fault of his own.  His childhood during the Depression and his learning disability made going to school tougher than it had to be on a little kid.  He was a hard worker.  He learned how to work on the family farm up the Gaspe and in the woods.  Yup, he was  real Canadian lumberjack before chain saws. 

Dad, had no education.  However, was no dummy.  He was highly functional.  He was a trainee instructor at the Berkshire–Hathaway and when he left there, he started and operated one of the larger janitorial contracting services in the Southcoast.  And, no one knew he couldn’t read.  But, as he did say, I know my numbers and nobody will ever screw me out of any money.

He jumped into my head today.  Dad’s been gone for almost three years come November.  He would have been 81 this year.  I was minding my own business, taking a walk and Dad was the furthest thing from my mind.  Then I saw a familiar place.  Oddly enough, I’ve walked by it dozens of times.  But this time I remembered, “oh, we did that house,” and it lead to another thought.  In fact, it’s quite hard to walk around this part of town without thinking of him.  He did  at least one house on every block.  Yeah, I knew that but why today?

Then I realized how scared he must have been when he first started his business.  I had a flashback to my first day on my own and my silly idea of introducing myself everyday.  Hi, I’m Ron Fortier and today is the (insert number here) of my business.  I do advertising.  I did that for 365-days.  I remembered waking up  on occasion that first year suddenly – bolt upright in bed wondering – did I pay the mortgage?  Can I pay the mortgage?  Then I realized the other system that Dad had that I never paid attention to.  And, again I’m left in awe of you Dad!  It was so simple.  It was great management practice.  It worked.  I kept the wolf of fear away from his mind.

His system was simple.  He managed to get several contracts for commercial buildings ranging from the gas company to the state welfare office and many others in between.  You know, I know he got some of his commercial work from his residential and vice versa.  But, he also had a couple of really great customers who opened lots of lucrative doors for him.  Anyway, the commercial buildings were, for the most part, night work and offered a steady cash flow. 

The residential day work that he got was the result of his fire engine red truck with my first advertising logo (I came up with the business name) on it – Roland’s Clean Sweep Janitorial Service.  Other calls came from referrals and I’d say that was the bulk of the business.  Some of them were one-offs such as insurance jobs (smoke damage), construction clean-up (getting new homes or apartments ready for their new owners or tenants).  Some of them were seasonal both repeat and new customers.  I think we got most of the homes in Nonquit and the other summer colonies as they were once called in South Dartmouth, Mattapoiset and Westport ready every year for their owners.

So the system was simple.  Steady income and cash-flow from the night work and use the day work for repeat business and further opportunities.  “You have to have a system,” he used to say.  But I just realized it pertained to the day-to-day operation of the business as well.  Great customer service (in fact raving fans) and attention to details created lots of repeat business and referrals and a great reputation.  You didn’t need business school Dad, you could have taught it.  You sure did teach me a lot. 

From College Classroom to Community Business Adventure?

Southcoast, MA - My 8 A.M. Business to Business Marketing students are developing the last phase of their semester-long project. The project has challenged them to research, analyze and study the feasibility of a Pike Place Market concept for the Southcoast area. Pike Place Market has been a Seattle mainstay for over one hundred years. Yet, it is not unique to the northwest. Cleveland has a marketplace that is even older and there are many others across the nation.

Why did I challenge and charge them with a project of this type? Well, to me, it was a perfect case study for teaching (B2B) business-to-business marketing since it contained nearly every aspect of the subject they needed to know. The other reason is that I try to bring as much hands-on, real-world experience into the classroom for them as I can. The course is learner-centric, which means they get involved in what the need to learn instead of waiting for the instructor to present them with a rigid agenda, or gauntlet, that they have to successfully get through.

How’d it go so far? Well, it’s an 8 o’clock Monday, Wednesday and Friday spring semester class populated mostly by seniors, which means that they’re already chomping at the end of their four-year rope. It’s challenging for me. Even the best students and those whom I’ve had in several other classes and am very familiar with aren’t working at peak performance. Other instructors have told me that they too have been as challenged by an 8 A.M. class schedule. So with all this in mind, it’s actually going pretty good. Yes, I can say it’s like pushing string, corralling cats and teaching cardboard cutouts but I think they’ll end up surprising me, as much as, they’ll end up being proud of their accomplishments.

These students are also discovering the grim realities of timeframes, group dynamics and the concept of knowing that the more they learn; the more they need to learn. They were divided into seven teams. Each team focused on one specific aspect of the marketing mix including Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process and Physical Proof. Oh yeah, working in groups can be as much fun as – insert your most horrible thought here – but, with a few exceptions, they’ve mostly all pulled together. They’ve also made their initial and progressive presentations (there are six scheduled before the final) to industry experts and members of the community. One of the most valuable lessons they’ve learned so far is to respect and not disappoint your audience, which they did and know how much work will be required to repair their credibility.

Currently, they are in the process of coalescing as a single super group comprised of one representative from each of the original marketing mix specialty groups formed earlier in the semester. The super group will be managing the final phase of the presentation, which includes social media components such as Facebook in order to attract attention to the project and get live feedback from interested parties. Using these methods is very current and offers them the experience of determining how to attract as many Likes and Friends as they can to stimulate the possible continuance of the concept. It’s as close to real-world as I can deliver. I’m writing this post because I want them to get them as wide an audience and as big a forum as possible. They’ve worked hard. They’ve thought it out and they’ve created something that’s a lot more than putting all of the farmer’s markets in the area under one roof. Yes, it is a huge risk from both them and I but they realize that this “test” it more than getting a good grade - much, much, more.

What they have managed to accomplish so far, is create a display window opportunity for the City of New Bedford with a tried and true marketplace concept proposal that offers a variety of options to small and mediums sized businesses to sell their goods either on a seasonal basis or year-round. For end consumers, everything offered will be as fresh as it can be off the farm and fishing boat. The market will represent locally produced products of all kinds, entertainment and a showcase of the myriad of local cultures that surround us. It can be, as they’ve discovered, a city within a city that will attract the locals and visitors alike; those on food stamps, as well as, those who can freely indulge themselves. Every detail has been reviewed from climate control and traffic flow to vehicular and pedestrian accessibility. They’ve looked parking challenges, considering their neighbors and surrounding community. Now they are exploring how to most effectively promote this enterprise as their feasibility studies have indicated.

Hopefully, with your input and feedback, these intelligent and eager students will experience learning in a new and memorable way. They are not only business majors at the Charlton College of Business at UMass Dartmouth. They represent our future entrepreneurs, business executives and business leaders. Their Facebook page is a work in progress – please visit it to see how their final presentation will unfold. As their instructor, while I expect a few missteps, oversights and errors in judgment, I also expect them to function at their highest capacity, especially since they will be presenting their concept beyond the classroom. Thank you in advance for your support.