Preparing for the Future

My wife and I recently started sleep training our little one. Ever since our son was born, we have experienced one challenge after another. The last four months have been long and sleepless. Tired of being tired, my wife – who has been in the field of behavior for the last 20 years – decided to apply her strategies toward sleep training our son. She is very data driven and does her research which helped make it a success. Now, we are all getting better rest.

Knowing how to research and collect data is critical to success, in any field or application. Data collection is crucial for identifying issues and cycles within your business. Personally, it has helped me grow and improve my company. For example, our industry generally slows down around December and January. I know this because I look at the data from my website and ad platforms; our inquiries and calls are significantly reduced during this time. Knowing this enables me to plan and use this slower time to do other things to grow and improve my business.

Data collection and research needs to be ongoing. Trends and varied factors impacting your business are constantly changing. You need to stay on top of them. This year, for example, has been a bit different than years past. Our industry is influenced by the real estate market and from an economic standpoint, there have been talks of a recession. This data influences my planning for 2023 as I anticipate we will see the true effects in Q2 or Q3 of next year.

Nobody likes to talk about the bad times ahead. However, as a business owner or entrepreneur, it would be naïve not to do so. So, what are you doing to prepare? Big corporations have started to downsize. For our company, we are implementing an Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). This will help us stay organized and maintain a good work pulse. Whatever you do, make sure you do what is best for your business.

My term as president is nearing its end. We had our 2023 planning meeting and elections last month and I’m excited to see some new leaders joining our team. It’s been a really nice ride serving as OC Chapter President these last couple of years and I look forward to seeing where this new team of leaders will take our chapter.

~Sincerely, Sal, 2022 CLCA OC Chapter President