By establishing the right culture and putting a laser focus on employee appreciation.

Paul and I know very well that it takes great effort and dedication to build a beautiful, healthy culture…and next to nothing to rip it apart. One small incident that takes place in a corporation that the leadership turns a blind eye to, doesn’t address and doesn’t fix, and that culture can turn sour overnight.

Employee appreciation is a key element for maintaining culture. Paul and I have created various internal awards to acknowledge exceptional work. But we do much more than just say, “Hey, thanks, here’s a certificate.” Instead, we give the employee some type of monetary gift, $250 or $500 depending on the context of the award, a nice bonus to take the family out to dinner and maybe go buy a little something special they might not have spent their own money on.

In fact, we believe so strongly in the concept of employee appreciation and recognition that the bottom of our policy manual has written in big, black, bold letters: “If we get it right with you, you’ll get it right with the customer.”

Don’t believe me? A recent article entitled “10 Powerful Employee Recognition Stats” showed that as much as 40 percent of employed Americans say they’d put more energy into their work if they were recognized more often. And how about this: “If organizations double the number of employees who receive recognition for their work on a weekly basis, they will experience a 24 percent improvement in quality, a 27 percent reduction in absenteeism, and a 10 percent reduction in shrinkage.”

As a business owner, hiring people is very much like investing. But putting employees first means investing in them beyond just a paycheck. Paul and I both have attended dozens wedding showers, baby showers, first houses, and even U.S. citizenship ceremonies because we consider our employees family.

Paul and I may have put this culture in motion, but the employees have embraced it and owned it, and now it’s taken on a life of its own. For the employees, it’s their culture, it’s their company. We don’t organize Halloween events, or the chili cookoffs, or the Thanksgiving Day potlucks, or the ongoing fundraisers. The employees do. Because they feel that they are a part of something meaningful, and they know we put them first.

John Mackey, the CEO and co-founder of Whole Foods Market said it best: “If you are lucky enough to be someone’s employer, then you have a moral obligation to make sure people do look forward to coming to work in the morning.”

Social distancing. Face masks. Routine hand-washing. Zoom fatigue. Temperature checks. Contract tracing. Toilet paper shortages. These are our current realities. But as the spread of the virus slows and the curve begins to flatten, the world is working to figure out how to restart again. What will the new norm look like? And more importantly for those of us who make a living planning events, what will corporate event planning look like in the post-COVID era? After all, we’re talking about an industry that relies on packing crowds of people into closed spaces for hours…sometimes even days!

Will more events be virtual moving forward? Are people afraid to gather at large events? What safety and health measures can event planners take for social distancing? What can event planners do to plan for the post-COVID era now?

While virtual conferences are likely to gain popularity and support as a viable option, a recent article in Event Marketer offered some insight into what we can expect when we finally resume doing things the old-fashioned way, and how we can mitigate the fear while ensuring the health and safety of event-goers.

Among the simplest strategies that event planners can employ is adequate signage with healthy reminders: washing hands for twenty seconds, covering your mouth with your elbow when you cough, and excusing yourself from the conference if you’re not feeling well. Daily temperature checks and an ample supply of hand-sanitizer stations will also help maintain a safe environment for attendees.

And contrary to what you might think, face masks aren’t necessarily going to be required for everyone. Cloth masks are only useful to keep the sick person wearing it from infecting others. And if sick people are discouraged from attending in the first place, no masks are needed. Although it will be wise for event planners to have them on hand should attendees request them.

Which leads to a final point: the greatest obstacle we’ll all be facing in the months and years ahead is fear. That’s why constant communication with your attendees before and during the event— sharing your company’s health and safety policies and guidelines—will go a long way in building that sense of security we’re all looking for right now.

Life will go on. In-person events will resume. By utilizing a few simple strategies now, you are sure to be prepped for success when the time comes! 

Our thoughts and prayers are with those who are suffering from and have lost loved ones due to COVID-19.

In the military, everyone in the unit knows when they get the encrypted phone call that says something like, “The cows are out the pasture,” that means they’re all heading to the armory within 12 or 24 hours, bag and baggage, ready to go. You need to have all your affairs in order. You better have a will already made. You better have a plan for your childcare. You better have a plan for getting your bills paid while you’re gone. These are things the military does with every soldier before the word “war” or “deployment” even comes up. They bring the legal team in to sit down and speak with you. The military even brings in dentists to look at your teeth because they don’t want to send you over to war with a toothache.

To keep all of these millions of details organized so all can be executed seamlessly and flawlessly, the military creates a series of playbooks called mobilization books. These books are three-ring binders that lay out the entire mobilization plan prior to being mobilized. The fact is, when tragedy strikes, or you are defending Superbowl champs, you can’t just make it up as you go along. You go right for the playbook and start running through the checklists. So why wouldn’t a business have a similar plan?

It was all of this preparation experience while serving our country that came to serve Paul and I to be prepped for success as businessmen…and to deliver on a sudden $81 million contract. Once Paul hit the “submit” button on the proposal, we sprang into action and built out our playbook just in case we happened to land it.  

After Paul picked me up off the floor and dusted me off, we pulled out that playbook and started delegating tasks and making calls to the landlord, the office supply company, the employees waiting in the wings. We finalized contracts, set up meetings, and scheduled deliveries. The call from the government had come in on a Friday, and by the following Monday, people were reporting for duty.

Every single event in life is a Super Bowl if you really want to be successful. The key to mastering the art of preparation is practice…and having a playbook.

Unlike our competitors, EventPrep’s unique business model means that the second a franchisee signs on, they start working and building something for themselves. And whether the franchisee puts in six years or 16 years, at the end of the day they have something that they’ve built, something that has actual value, and something they can sell to monetize their exit. They are building a nest egg. They have a retirement. And they have something to show for all the hard work.

But it also means Steve and I are right there beside them, helping those franchisees build it through initiatives such as the Quick Start Program.

Granted, every business owner wants to go out and get their own customers. But because of the success of our other business, Federal Conference, which plans and delivers 3,000 events a year, Steve and I realized we could take the fruit off the vine and allow our new franchisees to work with clients that are already established! This unique model creates immediate income for the franchisee while they build their own clientele, instead of having to wait six months to a year for a paycheck.

It is a true win-win model because our clients are being taken care of, and the franchisees are receiving real-time revenues while learning what it takes to run their business. If they went out and did it on their own, everything would be a matter of trial and error. They wouldn’t have any customers to immediately monetize. The fact is that there is a learning curve; their new business comes with new technology, new forms to fill out, and so they are getting to practice and learn how to build their business, all while earning money.

Steve and I also generate leads for our franchisees. We invest in advertising and help them build their business, which is something our competitors don’t do. What we created with EventPrep, in essence, is a culture built on relationships. It makes sense because Hotel Selection is a very relationship-driven industry.

Needless to say, culture is subjective. There’s no way to measure whether it’s good or bad. But from our perspective, it’s in the things your people say about you, unprompted and unedited, that defines a culture of success. And just like the old adage about being judged by those whose company you keep, the franchisees within our company reflect Steve and me.

We always want our franchisees to remember: it’s one thing to be in business for yourself, but it’s another to have support, so you don’t have to do everything by yourself.

So if we didn’t plan for that level of success, how the heck did we accomplish it? Think we were lucky? Think again. As the Roman Philosopher, Seneca, said: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” We were prepared for success, the kind of success that isn’t traditionally tied to a single life event like winning the lottery, but rather a series of planned and unplanned life events that ultimately preparing you to recognize opportunity. 

But recognizing opportunity is one thing. Having the ability and taking the initiative to seize it is something altogether different. What Paul and I realized was the key to seizing an opportunity is identifying a need greater than our own…that of our customers.

You see, a potential customer, who is oftentimes a business owner, has many needs – personnel needs, supply needs, payroll needs, and scaling needs just to name a few. But by and large all of those needs come down to one very simple need: money. People are in business to make money, which ultimately is the vehicle to getting all other needs met. And that means that although a potential customer can have a plethora of needs, not one of them involves paying us money. So how did we unlock an opportunity to make money by satisfying someone’s need if they weren’t willing to pay us? We had to convince the customer of a need they didn’t realize they had, then get a third party to pay for it! 

Think about what a real estate agent does for a home buyer when brokering a deal. They meet with the future homeowners, perhaps at their kitchen table, and ask, “What’s important to you in this new house that you want to buy?” Then the realtor shuts up and listens. They identify all the homeowners needs, put together a list of homes to visit, help negotiate the sale, then get the seller to pay them for their services, not the homeowner. After all, the seller is the one with the product, and to get the buyer’s business, they are willing to pay the realtor’s commission out of the sale of the house. 

Translate that model to event planning, and suddenly you have EventPrep®, a home-based, life-style franchise opportunity, a forward-thinking, full-service event planning and management company, headquartered in Central Florida with a primary focus of saving clients time, money, and anxiety while planning unforgettable events. 

Paul and I say all the time that we didn’t invent event planning. We just found a way to seize an opportunity and build a better mousetrap – a model that creates a win-win-win for everyone, the clients, the hotels, and the event planners.

This particular franchisee had previously spent over a decade of hard work as a hotelier. He was loyal, dedicated, and hard-working, but never had time for his family. He was burning the candle at both ends, constantly stressed, and always feeling like he was missing out on life while making someone else rich. What did that new client just do to his business? Half the year is now filled with events. His business has just grown exponentially, he’s going to need to hire a full staff, and he’s going to make more money than he ever thought possible—triple his salary to be exact! Most importantly however, he now spends every day with his son. He actually gets up, takes his son to school, and picks him up after school. And he not only gets to bring him to baseball practice, the franchisee became the coach of his son’s little league team!

Thanks to the EventPrep model, his life changed forever.

But our successful model is only half of the equation of success for our franchisees. The other half is up to them. Here are the five qualities we’ve seen in our most successful and top performing franchisees posses:

1. A Hunger for More

It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you have a healthy desire to want more out of life. More time, more money, more purpose, more opportunities…whatever the definition of “more” might be is one of the key motivations for our best and brightest.

2. A Willingness to Listen

This may sound simple, but listening, not just hearing, is a skill possessed only by those who have their sights set on success. Our franchisees who are willing to listen, not only to our advice and guidance but to the needs of their clients as well, knock it out of the park every time.

3. A Willingness to Learn

Going hand in hand with being willing to listen, being willing to learn is an absolute requirement if you want to compete and win at any level, in any business. He who believes he knows everything, knows nothing.

4. An Affinity for People

There’s no getting around this prerequisite for success when it comes to our franchisees. Hotel selection and event planning is a business built on relationships. Our most successful franchisees are warm, pleasant, and genuinely enjoy working with and meeting new people.

5. Belief in Yourself

As another entrepreneur you may have heard of named Henry Ford once pointed out: “Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, you’re right.” Our franchisees who set their minds to success and have a healthy dose of self-confidence top the charts every time.

So there you have it, our recipe for franchisee success. And if any of these qualities sound familiar, perhaps it’s time for you to take charge of your life and Prep for Success!

Imagine doing 85 events. In two days. All over the United States. Planning, executing, locating hotels, negotiating contracts, catering, audio-visual, all of it. Everything. We had the people, we had the equipment, we had a plan. The problem however was in condensing and simplifying all the steps required to execute each event so our staff of thirty wouldn’t drown in confusion. We needed to give them a new plan of action – something simple and easily digestible. And it all came down to a valuable, yet simple lesson in volleyball.

Paul and I decided to take a walk to clear our heads and focus on how to execute. While sitting at the beach and talking things through, we noticed a bunch of kids playing volleyball. “Bump, set, spike. Bump, set, spike,” the kids repeated over and over. The players were following orders exactly. That rhythm was the essence of preparation. The ball came over the net. The guy at the back row dove to the dirt and got his hand underneath the ball right before it touched the ground and bumped it up. He didn’t try to get it over the net. He just tried to get it off the ground. That was his only task. And then, the player in the second row set it for the guy in the front row, who spiked it over the net.

Back at the house, Paul took a flip chart and a magic marker while I rallied everyone into one room – packed on chairs, couches, and on the floor. Then we started assigning certain people specific labels. The Bumps were given a list of tasks and that would be their sole focus — reach out to the customer, gather basic information, confirm all the information, for hotel, location, transportation, curriculum, childcare, food and beverage, and audio-visual.

When finished, the Bumps would hand the checklist to the Sets. The Setters were broken down into several smaller groups, one solely responsible for transportation, one for food and beverage, one for curriculum. The Spikes were the managers and in charge of quality control. They reviewed and signed the contracts, and then finalized all the details.

It worked. We survived. We went on to execute a battle rhythm of 80 events week after week after week. So remember, volleyball provides us some great lessons in business: always keep it simple, let people do what they are meant to do, and maintain a steady rhythm.

Who knew success came down to bump, set, spike? 

Ready to take translate this simple business lesson into the world of entrepreneurship? Take our Entrepreneurship Assessment!

And then one day you wake up and realize you’ve been caught in a cycle within a closed system, with limited opportunities to realize your real dreams…the ones you still daydream about. That’s exactly what happened to me and Steve while in our respective careers, sitting around the grill on the weekends, dreaming of what could be. We had elevated ourselves and excelled in our jobs. We got the promotions and made as much money as we could possibly make while working for someone else. We went as high as we could go… and then we reached that tipping point. It was time for us to stop making someone else rich and start working for ourselves. 

So how do you know when you’re ready to take that big leap toward entrepreneurship? Here are three bright, flashing neon signs telling you that you are ready for a change:

1.     You’re Constantly Daydreaming of Something Bigger
2.     You Feel Like Your Talents are Being Wasted
3.     You Never Seem to Have Enough Time, or Money…or Both

When Steve and I asked ourselves those same three questions, we knew we were ready for entrepreneurship. Granted we didn’t plan to capture the number one spot in a $25 billion dollar industry. We didn’t plan to eventually go on to have hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts. Nor did we plan to experience nearly 25,000 percent growth over the first three years and make the Inc 500 twice, ranked number 23 and number two – becoming the second fastest growing privately held company in the United States.

We may not have planned for this level of success, but we were certainly prepared. Why? Success doesn’t happen because you plan for it. Success is a result of being prepared for it.

Chances are if you are reading this right now, just like me and Steve sitting around the grill, you daydream of more. You have goals yet to be realized, potential yet to be tapped, and dreams yet to be achieved. So whatever your current career choice, wherever you are personally or professionally in life, you have been preparing for the success that lies ahead.

The question is: Are you ready to take the leap? Find out by taking our Entrepreneurship Assessment!