Christy Wilson Delk is a business professor at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, as well as a contributing franchise industry writer. With over 15 years of successful franchise ownership, Christy uses her cumulative business and franchise experience, as well as her new book, Adventures in Franchise Ownership, to consult, lead workshops and speaking engagements to teach others how to implement their own 4 Pillars approach to motivate and lead them to higher performance and success.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
When business started difficulties overcame:
“if you can start a business that includes having substantial assets involved or that you are building assets whether it’s… building a large commercial building for early childhood development centre or a restaurant building or something else that has a fair amount of capital equipment or structure, you are in a better position than when you want to exit or bring in a partner – you have more equity. So the hardest thing was starting, not getting the clients, not hiring the people, not selling people on the idea of coming to my business but rather the permitting involved, the real estate land deal, and then of course along with that goes getting the financing to support the loan. So that was the hardest, I sold my house to get equity”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- Fierce Conversations: Achieving success in work and in life, one conversation at a time Book by Susan Scott
- Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You–At Work An Book by Spencer Johnson
Favourite Quote:
“our biggest strengths are also our biggest weaknesses” Jim Memes
Recommended Online Resources:
- SmartBrief on Leadership – Designed specifically for business leaders, SmartBrief on Leadership is a FREE daily e mail newsletter It delivers innovative ideas and hard to find articles on leadership to keep corporate executives ahead of the curve
- Entrepreneur Magazine is the a source for everything small business. Get the latest small business information
- International Franchise Association – 1400+ Franchise Opportunities. The International Franchise Association has provided franchise opportunities, franchise information, and franchise advocacy for over 30 years
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“the most important thing is don’t be afraid of change… but embrace it and even go after it. Freshen up your storefront, freshen up your logo, your mission. I say freshen up, not everything is a refresh but continually look at your business and say okay what can I do different – your clients will notice, your customers will notice. Maybe it’s an additional service, maybe you are going to combine services. But pay attention to the trends that are the socio-trends that are out there”…[Listen for More]
More About Christy Wilson Delk:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one.” Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder
Other Quotes From the Chat with Christy Wilson Delk:
- “You’re in business for yourself but not by yourself”
- “I think owning a business and owning your brand and bringing other people in so that they can have success as well, I definitely admire that”
- “Controls are everything. The four basic functions of management, planning, organising, leading, controlling”
- “you have to be able to measure what our way doing now and what are we doing after we make these changes”
- “you can’t control everything but you need to know when something is not working so that you can change it”
- “having emotional intelligence allows you to have allows you to have relatable conversations and relationships”
- “feedback is a gift; you need to give it and you need to receive it”
- “planning is really important, planning your year. I would say that’s one of the most important things. What kind of revenue are you looking for this year and how specifically are you going to approach getting it. Doing that groundwork so that you don’t just bounce around.”
- “There will be peaks and there will be valleys but most of us would prefer to smooth out the terrain and manage our business or manage our life that way”
- “definitely take the next steps towards entrepreneurship because it is extremely rewarding and I don’t think you would ever come to regret it”
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