| COOL FRIENDS |
|
| Dana Cretu, Franchise Partner, Smartree Salary and Personnel Management |
|
 |
I worked with Dana a couple of years ago, before 2000! In 2005 when she opened the Smartree Salary and Personnel management franchise I was just as happy as she was. After 4 years of entrepreneurship I asked her to tell us how she did it.
1. Dana, before you opened your Smartree franchise, you spent 7 years in the field of consultancy, a period in which you learned how you can be successful in developing a business in this type of environment. From your experience, how can you win and earn the loyalty of customers when working in consultancy? What are their expectations when it comes to suppliers of such services?
Both my years in consultancy as well as this particular period of time taught me a lot of things concerning the way in which you can develop a long term partnership with your clients. I can now say that a successful partnership has to have two key ingredients: respecting promises and taking responsibility. Selling our particular brand of services means presenting the way in which they will help the client as well as the way in which our business relation will develop over time. In order to transform a business relation into a partnership it is essential to respect everything you promise during your sales pitch.
I learned that assuming responsibility also means admitting your mistakes. It is impossible not to make them. However even these mistakes helped me immensely in earning the trust of my clients, admitting them with honesty and maturity. In my line of work, I focus on finding better solutions and avoiding errors, this sort of approach being completely transparent towards the client.
2. You opened the Smartree franchise in 2005. What made you want to launch your own business and give up your employee status?
The most important thing is that I believed I had the power to take this step. I think many employees want to start their own business, but don't have the courage. It is true that I discovered a lot of things on the way that I hadn't even thought of or correctly assessed when I made this decision, but the choice I made brought me a lot more satisfactions.
3. I know a lot of your clients are very happy with the quality of your services and the way in which you manage to keep your promises. What sets you apart from other suppliers?
The most important thing is that we take responsibility for what we do, far beyond the terms specified in the contract. For me, taking responsibility is a way of life. So I took this principle in business as well and I can say that it was one of the best decisions I made. There are other elements that make our business relations special. We are preoccupied with understanding and finding custom solutions for the various situations in which are clients find themselves. We ensure that through our answers we cover that particular situation as much as we can and we don't limit ourselves to just giving answers about what is legally correct.
4. When you signed the franchise contract you said your desire was to build a small company and attract clients through recommendations, reputation and attention to the client's needs. What are the types of firms you address and in what way do you help them?
We managed to have more 70% of our client base through recommendations! There isn't a certain profile but the most important thing we look for is the possibility of developing a long term partnership. You may ask yourself why this is so important. Because up till now we managed to be more than just simple suppliers! We built a personal business relationship and we look for clients who appreciate this sort of idea. We like companies that know how to benefit from this partnership, our involvement and expertise, who put effort into increasing the efficiency of internal processes such as employee salaries and management.
Those who profit the most are those who respect the laws, those who don't want to use important internal resources in order to do this and are looking for a supplier capable of customizing the services such as salary and personnel management.
Our current partners have chosen to outsource these services due to different reasons. In the talks we had with them they told us that outsourcing has brought them more benefits than they had expected, such as increasing the efficiency of personnel management and law compliance. Getting past this area of service linked benefits; I can say that reducing costs is another direct result our clients achieve through our partnership.
5. You were also a math teacher for a few years! In what way does this help you in your current business!
There are 2 professional aspects in which my previous activity helps. First of all I have a more structured approach when it comes to solving situations and secondly it's the ability to use different information in order to reach a solution. Even if at first glance, the business is related to outsourcing activities such as salary and employee management and therefore everything is based on simple rules, based on existing laws, things aren't that easy. Our client's needs are complex and the laws even more so. So we find ourselves in many situations in which we have to take a lot of variables and constraints into account in order to find a solution.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recommend this newsletter to a friend.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Human Invest is a Premier League company in the arena of training and organizational development consultancy services, present on the Romanian market since 1998.
We are recognized for conceiving and implementing programs which offer managers an authentic experience towards improving their leadership performances, and thus we support companies in becoming more and more engaged in delivering excellent services for their clients.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
