Key Idea #1: Commit to Improve Your Industry
When Ebby started selling houses for a developer in 1945 there were no licensing requirements. She told us all you needed back then was a pulse.

Topic For Discussion: What did Ebby do early in her real estate career?

Answer: She took a leadership role and was instrumental in defining the playing field for the entire industry. Ebby's story is the story of free markets and capitalism. It is a perfect example of why things get better. She and a few pioneers believed that real estate agents should be required to follow a strict code of ethics and a specific set business processes. She was part of the group who jumped ahead of government regulators and today The National Association of Realtors is the regulating body for the industry.

The rewards are tangible and intangible. Being the "old guard" means some business comes your way. You have an enormous reserve of trust built so customers choose you. No home buyer or seller in Dallas, Texas would ever wonder if they will be treated fairly and legally when they do business with Ebby Halliday. She established the establishment!

The "establishment" in any industry chooses who to recognize and reward, right? Virtually all trade associations give awards of many types. They do this because they recognize the benefit to their members. Most awards are given through a self-nomination process but you can always write the application and ask a customer or colleague to submit it on your behalf.

A walk through Ebby Halliday headquarters reveals that this company has won every award that could be won in its industry and even in the community. A commitment to your entire industry is a way to educate yourself, grow the entire business and win recognition. That's what we call three for the price of one!

You think about it: What is the current state of the industry in which you operate? What could you do to help it improve?

Key Idea #2: Create Opportunity for Others
You can only create opportunity for others if you are able to move past being consumed with your own personal goals, or if you are able to set goals for yourself that are authentically other-focused. We learned from Keith Grint, professor at Oxford's Temple College of Business that great leaders think about others more than they think about themselves. They think deeply about how harnessing the efforts of others can and will contribute to the greater good.

Topic For Discussion: How has Ebby been able to attract and keep as many as 1,600 agents?

Answer: Charisma is her opening salvo to attract people, but she has backed up her charm and salesmanship with structure. Like all business owners who have built businesses to withstand the test of time, Ebby put systems in place. Most strong sales people want to sell and to be free from the many details faced by a business owner. Ebby has worked to undergird the sales agents with structure so the agents are free to sell, sell, sell.

You think about it: You think about it: What opportunities are you creating for others? Do you have defined career paths in your organization? If not, could you? If not, why not?

Key Idea #3: Take A Flying Leap

Topic For Discussion: How did the little girl from a Kansas farm come to be the most high powered real estate persona in the big city of Dallas?

Answer: She took a couple of flying leaps. She accepted a transfer to Dallas when it was offered by her millinery employer. She then accepted the challenge offered her by a home developer. He said, "If you can sell these crazy hats to my wife, you can surely sell my crazy new houses." Knowing nothing about real estate, she left the safety of her paycheck to sell and earn commissions only. To her credit, she had a savings account. Ebby lived carefully within a budget. Then by investing some savings, she grew her nest egg. This way when she saw an opportunity to quit the paycheck game, she was ready.

You think about it: Where should you leap next? Have you played things a bit to carefully? What should you do to position yourself to take the next calculated risk to grow?

Key Idea #4: Turn Raw Talent Into Leadership
The President of Ebby Halliday Real Estate is Mary Frances Burleson. When Ebby first met Mary Frances, Ebby detected the raw talent.

Topic For Discussion: Did Mary Frances start out on a management track?

Answer: No. She started out as an old-fashioned secretary to Ebby. To Ebby's credit, she didn't pigeonhole Mary Frances; she helped her grow into the big job she has today. Mary Frances advises anyone who wants to succeed to get close to the best people in the industry that you want to be involved in and learn everything you can from that person.

As the business owner then, turn Mary Frances' advice toward yourself. By being the best at what you do, you will attract the raw talent you need to grow your business.

You think about it: Do you delegate within your company or do you personally make or approve every decision? Do you delegate and then get out of the way? Who on your team now needs to grow? What can you teach them to do to eventually turn over to them? What needs to move off of your desk and onto the desk of someone else?

Key Idea #5: Hold On To Quality Employees
Leonore Bergert has worked for Ebby since 1946! Even though she is on the way to being 90 years old, she loves coming to work everyday.

Topic For Discussion: Why is employee satisfaction so important?

Answer: Satisfied or happy workers are productive workers. As business owners, we need to make sure our employees are satisfied as part of taking care of our customers. If the employees are dissatisfied, our customers will not be treated well. How do we keep our employees level of satisfaction high? We only need to do three things:

• Follow the golden rule: treat all employees with respect.
• Provide them with the necessary resources such as capital, financial and human, to meet our expectations and do their jobs well.
• Compensate them fairly.

If we do these three things, our employees have nothing to worry about. We have established a work environment that optimizes their chances for success and positions us to hold them accountable to the highest standard.

Topic for Discussion: How does a business owner best recognize and reward the valued employees of the business?

Answer: Time after time, studies have shown us that we are all motivated by more than money. Sure, compensation and benefits are important, but the recognition and reward initiatives that a company undertakes also have a significant effect on employee morale and loyalty. These initiatives do not have to be costly and generally are not. They do, however, have to be public. Bringing an employee into your office and telling him or her how much you appreciate them just does not have the same effect as a public demonstration. We see these public demonstrations in a lot of small businesses. The plaques on the wall with the engraved plates for each “Employee of the Month” and the parking space reserved for the special employee are two common examples. Highlighting employees in the company newsletter or website is another effective way of recognition.

You think about it: Would your employees say they work in a worry-free environment? What reward and recognition programs do you have in your business? How do you publicly acknowledge the value your employees bring to your business?

Key Idea #6: Work Yourself Into Youth
There are 25 million small business owners, 8 million who employ others. The more we study this group, the more diversity we find. This is precisely the reason this segment of the population is so fascinating. Most of us are proud to sing along with Frank Sinatra, "I Did It My Way." Ebby Halliday represents the segment of business owners who are on a personal mission and the business simply supports that mission. She is one with her business. She loves people, she loves houses and she loves putting the right person in the right home.

Topic For Discussion: Why does Ebby want to "die with her boots on?"

Answer: Because work is life to her. Work is what she does every day, all day. And she brings it home with her each evening, mentally, if not physically. And this work she does is noble. She is totally dedicated to the mission of making the "American Dream" happen for all of her customers. She is not selling houses--she is selling the dream of ownership. Ebby's personal and professional lives are seamless. Her life is in order. She is focused on a purpose larger than herself.

Small business owners are a sturdy lot, they pretty much have to be. The more successful they are, the more people's lives are dependent on their future success. Most business owners take this responsibility very seriously. They are able to deal with the pressure and the stress when they have a real passion for their work, their customers, and their employees. They jump out of bed in the morning and can't wait to get to work because they love what they do. The work is the juice and the juice is the fountain of youth.

Any kind of business that has a powerful and large mission can consume you in a positive way. When IBM said the PC was a toy, Bill Gates dreamed of a PC on every desk. Big mission? Yes. Has his pursuit of his dream been worth his time? You decide.

You think about it: What jazzes you up? Does the mission of your business excite you? Do you love what you do?

Key Idea #7: Invest in Technology and Training .
Ebby was one the first real estate offices in the country to put PCs on the desks of its agents. To follow Ebby's lead today means that you need to work toward achieving digital workflow. Computers connected to the Internet will allow you and everyone on your team to do everything faster and at a higher level of quality than was ever before possible.

Topic For Discussion: How does a small business use technology in the business?

Answer: There's lots of ways and many of them were only available to big businesses up until a short time ago. But new products and plummeting costs have positioned all of us to be more competitive in our respective market places with a minimum investment. We can analyze our inventory and learn what sells and what doesn't, in what quantities, to whom, with what seasonality, at what margin, and just about anything else we might want to know.

We can codify the intellectual capital of our organization, protect it, keep it organized and up-to-date, and easily search and retrieve what we need. It's all about the learning continuum, turning data into information and information into knowledge and then using that knowledge as the basis of the decisions that we make in operating our businesses. Hence the term: knowledge management.

Our challenge as business owners is to figure out what data to store, in what vehicle (data warehousing) and how to access it in such a way that it provides meaningful information that is of real value to us in our business (data mining.) We've used a lot of buzz words here; let's look at knowledge management and how it actually works within a small business. There are a number of things that even the smallest business can do to capture, organize, and make available the intellectual capital of the organization. We'll focus on three here.

Now that you have computers, you still generate documents, you still keep them in folders, folders are kept within folders, and various people have access to them. Electronic filing systems can be vastly superior to paper filing systems if we remember to follow the business practices we used in a paper environment. Do you have documents on your computer or network server that are not in folders? How many? How does that compare to the number of documents you would have tossed into a file cabinet without filing?

The good news is that at least (a) the documents are listed alphabetically wherever they are stored and (b) we can always "search" for them if we remember the name, or the software application, or when they were last modified. Hmmm. There must be a better way. You're right! And it's called a common operating environment or COE. In a business with a network environment, where a number of employees have access to a central data depository, you:

1) Establish document naming conventions. As new documents are created, they are named in accordance with organizational policy. People looking for a document would have a good idea of the document name even if someone else created it.

2) Determine the file structure. Folders within folders within folders. Organizing your information so that documents are easily located.

3) Grant access as appropriate. Security levels and edit rights, determining who can have access to what or not, when to permit "read-only" access, and who is authorized to make changes.

4) Safeguard information. Back-up systems, on and offsite, disaster recovery plans. If you do all of the above, provide training on the implementation, you will have established a COE. The benefits are enormous and immediate.

If you do all of the above, provide training on the implementation, you will have established a COE. The benefits are enormous and immediate.

Using Databases to Work and Mine Data Most of us couldn't imagine functioning without word processing software and spreadsheet software in our businesses. We all use e-mail and a lot of us can use presentation software, some more rudimentary than others. Yet for some reason, the database software frequently goes unused in small business. With Microsoft Office it is called Access and with IBM's Lotus Smartsuite it is Approach or Notes or DB2. Many software applications sold by third party vendors are a form of one of these four.

Digitize, Digitize, Digitize Maintaining our information in electronic form is critical to both the establishment of a COE and mining our data on an ongoing basis. Virtually all software applications allow for exporting data and importing data. So as long as you maintain your data electronically, you can take advantage of new software development in your industry without having to reenter the information.

Electronic files are easier to navigate and cheaper to maintain. Additional computers and memory are just less expensive than rent, file cabinets, and storage facilities.

You think about it: How far has your business moved along the learning continuum? Are you taking advantage of the latest technologies to codify the intellectual capital of your business? If you arrived at your office, and all your information OR all your money was gone, what would be more devastating to you? Now compare how you safeguard your money with the way you safeguard your information. As you digitize your workflow, be sure you have adequate back-up systems with offsite storage for all important information.

Key Idea #8: Develop More Products to Serve Current Customers
Mary Frances announced to us that Ebby Halliday had launched a mortgage company.

Topic For Discussion: Why would a company move away from its core business and take on the risk of managing a start-up within the established business?

Answer: Most of the business owners we meet say, "The idea for a business is less than 2% of the result." So much of the work of business is devoted to sales and marketing -- as much as 80% in some industries. If you already have a customer and can provide additional products or services, then your total cost of selling is reduced. Medallion knew their customers, who had been their employees for many years, very well. As far as the Mursteins were concerned, the risk was minimal. The key to expanding into new businesses is integration. Horizontal integration, which the Mursteins really excel at, is providing new goods or services, outside of the core business, to an existing market of the business. Vertical integration, another effective way of expanding the revenue base and bottom line profits of a business, occurs when a company ventures into a new part of the supply chain that the business is already part of. For example, a manufacturer with an established product and distributor network might decide to open some retail locations and sell directly to the end consumer.

Topic for discussion: How does a business determine the new product offerings that will appeal to their customer base?

Answer: Unlike a lot of the challenges that face business owners, this is a question that can actually be addressed mathematically! It is unlikely that any two businesses in the world have exactly the same customer listing. Yours is unique. Every one of your customers buys from other vendors as well. Find out what they buy, and from whom. Look for natural synergies within your own product mix offering. You may find additional inventory (items or services which you are already positioned to add to your goods or services available for sale) that your customers would readily purchase from you.

Perhaps there is a vendor relationship that you could establish which would permit you to add another line of goods that your customers are currently buying from a competitor because it is not available from you. In the service industries, perhaps you could establish a strategic alliance with another service provider and bring a unique service to your existing customer base. Most businesses buy paper clips, but if you sell industrial machinery, we're not suggesting you get into the office supplies business. What we are suggesting is that the existing customer relationships you have are one of your most valuable assets.

The mortgage product was a logical extension to Ebby's core business and it was perfectly positioned to launch that new product with minimum investment and minimum risk. In a unique fashion, Ebby Halliday Real Estate was able to turn existing home-buying customers into mortgage customers. The underlying merit of product innovation for existing customers is the same; it is less challenging, in that it requires less effort, to develop a new product, than to develop a new customer relationship.

You think about it: Are there opportunities for integration, horizontal or vertical, in your business? What do your existing customers buy from other vendors that they would buy from you if you offered it? If you don't know, ask them! What would it cost you to expand your offerings and what profitability can you reasonably expect? What's your after-market and how do you go after it?

Key Idea #9: Pass The Business On
Rather than writing herself a big, fat check and walking away from Ebby Halliday Real Estate Company, Ebby decided to give 49% of the company to its employees. Mary Frances is Presisdent of Ebby Halliday Real Estate Company but rather than her being at Ebby's side, Ebby is now at Mary Frances' side. Ebby's job is keeper of the vision or internal and pubic relations specialist. As the founder, Ebby carries the magic. The magic is attractive and compelling to new employees and can be an on-going inspiration to the long-term employees. In Ebby's case, she embodies the work ethic and telegraphs that there is certainly no age discrimination around this great company!

Topic For Discussion: What will happen to Ebby's business after Ebby?

Answer: The company will outlive her. She said that the many long-term employees deserved to reap rewards because she could not have built the company without them. This overt, generous gesture places the company on strong psychological footing. While she is healthy enough to pass the business on and praise the leadership, they know that she is confident they will succeed without her.

Most companies die with their founder or they die when the founder decides to quit working. Some would throw these types of companies into a category called "lifestyle companies." In other words, the company was a vehicle for the founder to live a certain kind of life. We disagree.

Most small businesses would-could-and-should have a life separate and apart from the founder. If the founder would first learn to trust, it opens the way so the founder could find people in which to place that trust. And the business, with all its customers, suppliers, and employees, should continue to perfect relations, systems, and their contributions to their community and world. Mary Frances was groomed at Ebby's side for over thirty years plus Mary Frances has worked to refine herself into a smart and sophisticated leader.

When you plan to pass the business on to the next generation of leaders remember:

Don't Just Hand over the Keys. Each successor should be carefully groomed to take over the reins. This is critical to ensuring a smooth transition.

Respect the Heir. No one will make the same decisions that you would have made and choose the same path that you would have chosen. Don't hamstring the legacy by expecting to clone yourself.

Keep Disagreements Private. The keys to the Executive Washroom are best passed over gradually and there will be disagreements during the transitional period. Neither employees nor customers should be aware of even the remotest hint of conflict. Conflict is natural and healthy as the legacy is implemented, but is best kept private to ensure that its significance is not overstated.

You think about it: You think about it: What keeps you from passing the torch? Do you have someone you are training that can move into your place soon? Are you nervous that if you pass the torch, you won't have anything to do? Do you think your life might feel empty if you don't have to be in the office everyday? If your exit strategy includes an established legacy, do you have a legacy plan and a timeline for its execution? What should you be doing now to prepare for the next stage in your worklife?