Lesson Forty-Nine: Ralph’s Personal Guru

This is the way Ralph tells it:

Ralph and Bill had been struggling for months, ever since opening the doors, selling computer training to anyone who would buy it. Bill walked into Ralph’s cramped office.

Bill started with: “You’re not going to like this, Ralph.”

What now? Ralph thought.He’d been busy that day sending out flyers,trying to get people in the door. And when they came, he was the one teaching them. At night he’d sometimes ask himself, “Is this what being in business is all about?” But Ralph persevered, though he didn’t know for how long. “What am I not going to like?” he asked Bill.

“We have to stop selling for tomorrow, and start selling for three months from now.”

Bill paused to let it sink in. Bill was responsible for marketing the business, Ralph for running it.

A pained look stretched across Ralph’s face. “WHAT?!? We can’t afford to do that,” he exclaimed. Cash was, of course, squeaky tight.

“Here’s the thing,” Bill said. “We can keep doing what we’re doing, and slowly we’ll grow. After about three years we’ll peak and then after that sales will start to go down, and continue to go down. No amount of advertising or sending flyers will save it.”

“How is selling for three months from now going to change that?” Ralph asked.

“I haven’t told you the second thing you’re not going to like.” Bill smiled, his eyes twinkling. “You need to create an actual curriculum. Right now we are just computer tutors, we need to become teachers.”

“But that’s a lot of work. I don’t have time to do that.”

Bill gave him a consolatory pat on the back. “There’s good news. Do it my way and in five years we will have a thriving business that makes a real difference in the lives of the students who attend here. Every session will be full, and graduating students will shower us with praise.”

“…and that’s how it happened,” Ralph finished saying. “Nearly five years to the day, we have a solid business, enrollment is always around 90%.We get positive feedback from the students, and employers are looking to us for qualified graduates.What Bill told me was true.”

“The key to success was to build a better offering, not lose our focus,and work for tomorrow, not today. Thank goodness I had Bill.”

Could you use a Bill?