Kevin Hamer
Member
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2007
- Messages
- 56
Just wondering, for all of you who have attended SFS where is your business now compared to before you attended? How many trucks? How many employees etc.
Who here went to SFS?
- Thread starter Jeremy
- Start date
Steve Toburen
Supportive Member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2006
- Messages
- 1,912
- Name
- Steve Toburen
"10 out of 10", Scott? I am honored. And thank you to all of our SFS members who have chimed in here. It has been (and is) a privilege to be part of this great thing we call "SFS".
And an excellent question, Ivan. (BTW Mr. Yeadon has been both a huge asset to our program AND a lot of fun to work with but he wasn't around way back in 1996 when we started SFS. We had to limp along without Bill for the first six years.)
To answer your question, Ivan, re: did I have any idea of what we would accomplish when we started out with SFS I would reply: ABSOLUTELY NOT! (This is the Marty Sutley answer and if someone is “reading challenged” better to stop here. But your question made me wax nostalgic, Ivan, so indulge me please.)
In '96 I was already living in the Dominican Republic totally involved in my volunteer work and once in a while flying back to the States to give my two day "Big Business Success for the Small Carpet Cleaner" seminar at various distributors. At this point my seminar career was more of a hobby that I enjoyed as a diversion.
Meanwhile, in the early ‘90’s the folks at Jon-Don had analyzed their average carpet cleaner customer and saw a good, hardworking individual that had very likely started his or her business from a “technician mentality” that focused on the work, not on the management side of things. Nothing wrong with this EXCEPT that as we grow older that scrub wand just doesn’t look as inviting! Plus to be honest while Jon-Don appreciated every single one of their customers for Jon-Don to grow their customers needed to grow. To their credit Jon-Don decided to do something about this sad state of affairs.
Jon-Don started out with a program (I think in 1994) called “Openings to Opportunity” (OTO) that was sort of a grab bag of information that tried to not only teach management stuff but also technical information too. It was a laudable goal but the biggest challenge was that of all the business gurus involved in designing the program NONE OF THEM HAD EVER OWNED A SUCCESSFUL CARPET CLEANING OPERATION! So in June (I think) of 1996 I received a call from Jon-Don asking me to come teach one day of the five day OTO program. I focused my presentation on something that set my company apart from all of my competition and that allowed me to cash out and retire at the age of 38. (We wound up naming this concept “Value Added Service”.)
At the end of my day teaching, Nick and John Paolella called me into their office and asked me what it would take for me to a) re-do the entire OTO program and b) work exclusively for Jon-Don. Now to be honest I was tired of being a “hired gun” (too difficult logistically from the D.R.) plus I had already in just one day fallen in love with both the seminar room at Jon-Don Roselle AND with the quality, fun-loving people Jon-Don had working there. (especially Nick!) So after I played a bit hard to get we settled on the title of “Director of Training” with a three year contract that would expire in 1999. (I’m not sure why but Jon-Don has kept me around ever since, Ivan, and has me booked through 2008! Not bad for an old, washed up ex-rug-sucker!)
Anyway, once I came on board the fun started. I had the nucleus of the new SFS curriculum in my existing “Small Business Success” seminar plus a lot of good stuff in the OTO program. So over the next six months my son Matt and I slaved away creating a totally new program combining the two plus a lot that I had learned from my twenty years down in the trenches. But still, I don’t think this explains the SFS phenomenon. In time honored Steve Toburen fashion, Ivan, let me prioritize my thoughts with a numbered list on why SFS has “become what it has” …
1. Industry specific “transformational” concepts- You can have the best food and the slickest delivery in the world but if the “meat” isn’t there then people will leave vaguely dissatisfied. Plus the ideas need to specifically apply to our business. (Many motivational seminars fail in this.) I think SFS excels in both of these areas.
2. A great team- I freely admit that I could have never on my own built what SFS has grown into. Chuck Violand with his great grasp of the “dreaded financials” has been with us from Day One. Also the SFS “mom”, Angela Smith (now Angela Buege) right from the git-go was my tireless and super organized behind-the-scenes coordinator. Nick Paolella has been the public face and giving spirit of SFS over the years. People are blown away that Nick STILL travels to each and every SFS just to serve our attendees food and at times, even touch up the bathrooms after breaks! (I just say it is because the man has no confidence in the rest of his SFS team!) And I would be remiss if I did not touch on the contributions of Big Billy Yeadon, who came on board around six years ago. Bill has brought a tireless enthusiasm for marketing to SFS plus is an invaluable (and free) consultant to all of our SFS members. I am so very grateful to all of my co-workers.
3. Financial support- Jon-Don as a company has heavily subsidized SFS over the years and still does. Why? From a self-centered viewpoint it has been to help their customers become more successful so that Jon-Don hopefully “comes along for the ride”. But I also sincerely feel Nick Paolella wants to “give back” to an industry that has given him so much. Plus SFS is a great excuse for Nick to make new friends and serve up some great high carb Italian food! But seriously, I am not aware of another company in this business that would have had the vision and the financial fortitude to subsidize a program like Strategies for Success for so many years other than Jon-Don. Their commitment to SFS continues to amaze me. Jon-Don's "loss" is your gain!
4. Involving our members- Even with the best team and ongoing financial support even the best program will start to “run out of steam” unless you involve the folks “down in the trenches”. We’ve done this through our SFS TIPS (Techniques, Ideas, Procedures, Systems) program of member contributions and a quarterly TIPS contest. So now we have all 2,000 SFS Life Members (once you attend Strategies you are enrolled as a Life Member at no charge and with no obligation to purchase from us even though we hope you do!) with the same vision all sending in ideas, systems and experiences which allows me to reformat them and send them out four times a year to all our members to insert in their …
5. Operations Manual- Ivan, I truly think the over 1,000 pages of systems and procedures we give our members at SFS is what has truly set us apart. There are other seminars and other instructors out there with good concepts. But there is not anther program that gives it to their students “on a silver platter” AND without making them get their credit cards out! (At Jon-Don we reject high pressure selling to a bunch of “trapped” seminar attendees. Once you have your seat at SFS you don’t have to pay one penny more to get everything the course offers.)
6. Ongoing support- Even the best manuals can become stale. That is why the TIPS program with our quarterly mailings are so vital to keeping the SFS program exciting and valuable to our members. Plus Jon-Don pays Yeadon and me a monthly retainer to consult for free to all of our membership.
Wow, Ivan, I did run on, didn’t I? But your question made me reflect on how “against all odds” the SFS program not only survived but has actually flourished in an industry that up till SFS rejected anything that remotely smelled of “business management”! It has been quite a ride!
Steve Toburen
Director of Training
Jon-Don’s Strategies for Success
PS If I had to point to “just one thing” for the continued success and vitality of SFS I would pick #4 above. Our SFS members are wonderful and my daily contact with them is what gives me my “gasoline” to continue. So thank you to everyone here.
And by the way, we highly recommend the internet discussion boards, including this one, to all of our SFS members. (If you are a SFS member just check out the “internet box” in your soon-to-arrive TIPS mailing.) After all, I figure the more our members learn on the internet the more they will share with me so that I can send all these great nuggets out to our membership!
And an excellent question, Ivan. (BTW Mr. Yeadon has been both a huge asset to our program AND a lot of fun to work with but he wasn't around way back in 1996 when we started SFS. We had to limp along without Bill for the first six years.)
To answer your question, Ivan, re: did I have any idea of what we would accomplish when we started out with SFS I would reply: ABSOLUTELY NOT! (This is the Marty Sutley answer and if someone is “reading challenged” better to stop here. But your question made me wax nostalgic, Ivan, so indulge me please.)
In '96 I was already living in the Dominican Republic totally involved in my volunteer work and once in a while flying back to the States to give my two day "Big Business Success for the Small Carpet Cleaner" seminar at various distributors. At this point my seminar career was more of a hobby that I enjoyed as a diversion.
Meanwhile, in the early ‘90’s the folks at Jon-Don had analyzed their average carpet cleaner customer and saw a good, hardworking individual that had very likely started his or her business from a “technician mentality” that focused on the work, not on the management side of things. Nothing wrong with this EXCEPT that as we grow older that scrub wand just doesn’t look as inviting! Plus to be honest while Jon-Don appreciated every single one of their customers for Jon-Don to grow their customers needed to grow. To their credit Jon-Don decided to do something about this sad state of affairs.
Jon-Don started out with a program (I think in 1994) called “Openings to Opportunity” (OTO) that was sort of a grab bag of information that tried to not only teach management stuff but also technical information too. It was a laudable goal but the biggest challenge was that of all the business gurus involved in designing the program NONE OF THEM HAD EVER OWNED A SUCCESSFUL CARPET CLEANING OPERATION! So in June (I think) of 1996 I received a call from Jon-Don asking me to come teach one day of the five day OTO program. I focused my presentation on something that set my company apart from all of my competition and that allowed me to cash out and retire at the age of 38. (We wound up naming this concept “Value Added Service”.)
At the end of my day teaching, Nick and John Paolella called me into their office and asked me what it would take for me to a) re-do the entire OTO program and b) work exclusively for Jon-Don. Now to be honest I was tired of being a “hired gun” (too difficult logistically from the D.R.) plus I had already in just one day fallen in love with both the seminar room at Jon-Don Roselle AND with the quality, fun-loving people Jon-Don had working there. (especially Nick!) So after I played a bit hard to get we settled on the title of “Director of Training” with a three year contract that would expire in 1999. (I’m not sure why but Jon-Don has kept me around ever since, Ivan, and has me booked through 2008! Not bad for an old, washed up ex-rug-sucker!)
Anyway, once I came on board the fun started. I had the nucleus of the new SFS curriculum in my existing “Small Business Success” seminar plus a lot of good stuff in the OTO program. So over the next six months my son Matt and I slaved away creating a totally new program combining the two plus a lot that I had learned from my twenty years down in the trenches. But still, I don’t think this explains the SFS phenomenon. In time honored Steve Toburen fashion, Ivan, let me prioritize my thoughts with a numbered list on why SFS has “become what it has” …
1. Industry specific “transformational” concepts- You can have the best food and the slickest delivery in the world but if the “meat” isn’t there then people will leave vaguely dissatisfied. Plus the ideas need to specifically apply to our business. (Many motivational seminars fail in this.) I think SFS excels in both of these areas.
2. A great team- I freely admit that I could have never on my own built what SFS has grown into. Chuck Violand with his great grasp of the “dreaded financials” has been with us from Day One. Also the SFS “mom”, Angela Smith (now Angela Buege) right from the git-go was my tireless and super organized behind-the-scenes coordinator. Nick Paolella has been the public face and giving spirit of SFS over the years. People are blown away that Nick STILL travels to each and every SFS just to serve our attendees food and at times, even touch up the bathrooms after breaks! (I just say it is because the man has no confidence in the rest of his SFS team!) And I would be remiss if I did not touch on the contributions of Big Billy Yeadon, who came on board around six years ago. Bill has brought a tireless enthusiasm for marketing to SFS plus is an invaluable (and free) consultant to all of our SFS members. I am so very grateful to all of my co-workers.
3. Financial support- Jon-Don as a company has heavily subsidized SFS over the years and still does. Why? From a self-centered viewpoint it has been to help their customers become more successful so that Jon-Don hopefully “comes along for the ride”. But I also sincerely feel Nick Paolella wants to “give back” to an industry that has given him so much. Plus SFS is a great excuse for Nick to make new friends and serve up some great high carb Italian food! But seriously, I am not aware of another company in this business that would have had the vision and the financial fortitude to subsidize a program like Strategies for Success for so many years other than Jon-Don. Their commitment to SFS continues to amaze me. Jon-Don's "loss" is your gain!
4. Involving our members- Even with the best team and ongoing financial support even the best program will start to “run out of steam” unless you involve the folks “down in the trenches”. We’ve done this through our SFS TIPS (Techniques, Ideas, Procedures, Systems) program of member contributions and a quarterly TIPS contest. So now we have all 2,000 SFS Life Members (once you attend Strategies you are enrolled as a Life Member at no charge and with no obligation to purchase from us even though we hope you do!) with the same vision all sending in ideas, systems and experiences which allows me to reformat them and send them out four times a year to all our members to insert in their …
5. Operations Manual- Ivan, I truly think the over 1,000 pages of systems and procedures we give our members at SFS is what has truly set us apart. There are other seminars and other instructors out there with good concepts. But there is not anther program that gives it to their students “on a silver platter” AND without making them get their credit cards out! (At Jon-Don we reject high pressure selling to a bunch of “trapped” seminar attendees. Once you have your seat at SFS you don’t have to pay one penny more to get everything the course offers.)
6. Ongoing support- Even the best manuals can become stale. That is why the TIPS program with our quarterly mailings are so vital to keeping the SFS program exciting and valuable to our members. Plus Jon-Don pays Yeadon and me a monthly retainer to consult for free to all of our membership.
Wow, Ivan, I did run on, didn’t I? But your question made me reflect on how “against all odds” the SFS program not only survived but has actually flourished in an industry that up till SFS rejected anything that remotely smelled of “business management”! It has been quite a ride!
Steve Toburen
Director of Training
Jon-Don’s Strategies for Success
PS If I had to point to “just one thing” for the continued success and vitality of SFS I would pick #4 above. Our SFS members are wonderful and my daily contact with them is what gives me my “gasoline” to continue. So thank you to everyone here.
And by the way, we highly recommend the internet discussion boards, including this one, to all of our SFS members. (If you are a SFS member just check out the “internet box” in your soon-to-arrive TIPS mailing.) After all, I figure the more our members learn on the internet the more they will share with me so that I can send all these great nuggets out to our membership!
hogjowl
Idiot™
Is there a possibility that you left ANYTHING out?
Desk Jockey
Member
:roll:
harryhides
Member
It's uncanny how that pig appears to be able to just "smell" when there is a long Steve post winging it's way through cyber space just so he can be the first to post some glib quip right after poor Steve.
I just don't get it and that scares me no end.
I just don't get it and that scares me no end.
hogjowl
Idiot™
I like him.
I even call him on occasion.
I even call him on occasion.
Steve Toburen
Supportive Member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2006
- Messages
- 1,912
- Name
- Steve Toburen
"It's uncanny how that pig appears to be able to just "smell" when there is a long Steve post winging it's way through cyber space just so he can be the first to post some glib quip right after poor Steve.
I just don't get it and that scares me no end."
Harry, if this is the biggest thing you "don't get" then you truly are a very successful and happy individual. Thanks for worrying about me!
Island Boy
PS Over the years Mr. Sutley and I have come to a grudging respect and may I even say a mutual admiration for each others respective qualities. Who knows ... some day "pigs may fly in Alabama" and we will see Marty at a SFS seminar. Stranger things have happened ... and that is what "scares ME no end!"
I just don't get it and that scares me no end."
Harry, if this is the biggest thing you "don't get" then you truly are a very successful and happy individual. Thanks for worrying about me!
Island Boy
PS Over the years Mr. Sutley and I have come to a grudging respect and may I even say a mutual admiration for each others respective qualities. Who knows ... some day "pigs may fly in Alabama" and we will see Marty at a SFS seminar. Stranger things have happened ... and that is what "scares ME no end!"
hogjowl
Idiot™
I'm still waiting on my "invitation$" to come for the Atlanta hell week.
White-Magic rebuilder
Member
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2006
- Messages
- 434
Steve you are long winded in type also,lol.
I meant to say food 5 and class 8. I changed it after I read it again!
I meant to say food 5 and class 8. I changed it after I read it again!
Steve Toburen
Supportive Member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2006
- Messages
- 1,912
- Name
- Steve Toburen
That's cool, Robert. But cool it on the "long-winded" part. Sutley doesn't need any encouragement!
Island Boy
PS Only a "5" on the food, Robert? You aren't one of those weird Vegans too, are you? When you come back to SFS we'll try to upgrade enough to earn a "10-10" rating! BTW, Robert, I just proofed a great TIPS mailing. Look for it soon in your mail;box with some really innovative Procedures included.
Island Boy
PS Only a "5" on the food, Robert? You aren't one of those weird Vegans too, are you? When you come back to SFS we'll try to upgrade enough to earn a "10-10" rating! BTW, Robert, I just proofed a great TIPS mailing. Look for it soon in your mail;box with some really innovative Procedures included.
