I have understood different business tactics and way for implementation of different plans to develop successful operational products within an organization by experiencing different instances where I had to come up with different problem-solving methods. Until or unless, one does not dive into the real practical work, it would be almost impossible to fulfill different necessities of the corporate world. Through my experiences of different designations in my career in the field of real estate, army for state defense and then leading my own business set up of Spa. In this paper, I shall elaborate my business experiences throughout my career that have helped in learning about different situations and solving problems with profound and systematic problem-solving methods.
My business experience started with the foundation of Millennium Homes Investment Company in Jamaica. After being employed by different workplaces for different designations, I was well-aware of the problem-solving techniques. I founded Millennium Homes Investment Company in Jamaica. Being a CEO brought many challenges and a lot of experiences to learn from. I headed a staff of twenty employees. Every employee was one peerless personality that I had to manage. I had to design policies of the workplace in a way that it could have fit each and every employee. I knew that individuality can only be a stronger base but when one works in a team a great of deal challenges may come your way.
Every employee was unique in my company but there were many flaws that I had to go through. For instance, my employees did not really set their targets due to which they were not able to measure the amount of work they were doing to help the company bring to better state. In this way, I had to go through several losses because my business plan had different productivity targets. Just because of my employee’s behavior towards target achieving, I was unable to score more than the required measure of productivity. In order to get away with the problem of decreasing productivity I set up manual for every employee so that they are followed and in this way they are sure of the work to be done each month depending upon the targets.
During my experience as a founder at the Millennium Homes Investment Company, I understood that I had to make a team of my employees so that they feel motivated and that each employee will be able to note how much work and what quality is being provided by fellow colleagues. I noticed through my experience that every employee of my company had their own strengths and weaknesses. Keeping that in mind, I divided my team in terms of making pairs of less competent and then highly expert so that they can help each other. Consequently, a number of productive encounters were observed as the team became stronger. Expert employees were able to train the new ones. Helping each other created a more helpful environment in the workplace.
In a business structure, employees come and go thus I always kept hiring new employees because I believe it is not easy to get the right candidate for the designation. Following my rule of hiring helped me finding few very expert employees for my company. In this process, I also came across with employees who were not at all competent and thus it was easy to skim employees with the older ones.
The process of hiring led to the process of training the fresh candidates which was itself a very tough task. In order to make it easier for me to train them well, I conducted training sessions with fresh and existent employees so that they can come across with the building blocks of the work. In addition to the training, I also had interpersonal communication with the employees respectively on a more casual basis to make them understand the key rules of marketing and sales techniques. I learned that even in corporate setting or organizational structure, one have to be flexible with the team we work with so that we can help them understand the consequences well.
I also had to note done some complains by my female employees regarding gender discrimination. In order to make sure that my female employees work in a discrimination free environment, I introduced policies where gender based responsibilities were removed so that both female and male employees could work together and have no gender discrimination at all. I am completely against the concept of gender discrimination and being an individual, focus on individuality as the basic constituent that could result in overall higher productivity of the team.
I have worked in over time shifts because businesses never go sound all the time. I have experienced that there could be all types of seasons when it comes to managing business. I had to work longer shifts because the company needed to speculate more properties in order to reach its annual target. For this purpose, one has to make extra effort. It might disturb personal life because I had to do the field work and office work. By putting extra work through extra shifts, I made reasonable better business that provided me and my company with more opportunities to develop well.
Despite the fact I had number of employees working for my company, I had to make sure that all the documents of the companies are being kept in security. I kept a check on almost all the documents of the properties that were sold by the company. For this purpose, I kept my records and notes in my organizer so that I do not forget the hold of such important documents. Along with the safe keeping of the documents of the properties, I also had to make sure that each and every clause of the documentation is clarified and mentioned. In my business experience, I have come across many blunders that were based upon non-clarity of the clauses in the documents of properties that were sold to the clients. Thus I have trained myself and my employees to keep a list of all the possible clauses that could have been of additive value in the documentations.
My ever greatest achievement throughout my business experience was to learn to understand different corporate situations and psychologies and come up with solutions to deal with them free of panic. Pressurizing and creating panic has always resulted as a drawback in my corporate experiences.
I also founded my very own Spa named “You” in New York. By the time I reached the time to found this Spa, I already had enough experience to deal with the employees and come up with effective business planning. I founded my new business from the scratch as I was the lead who took responsibility of all the interiors. I did the same task in my earlier founded company of home investment. Being a CEO of a spa was also an experience of learning. I came to know that interiors played a very important role for this type of business.
Business of Spa was far more different than real estate agency. Opening Spa and operating it was equal to selling your expertise directly. I had to tug my mind for the purpose of coming up with several marketing strategies to make sure that my Spa business works fine. In the course of working as a CEO, I came to know that creating Spa was not easy. It was a completely type of work. For me, it was a challenge to satisfy my clients. In order to provide them an environment of peace and relaxation, I had to search and come up with different ideas to make it possible. I searched through different interior materials to attract clients. I strongly observed likes and dislikes of clients. Introducing the concept of customer feedback helped me in coming up with ideas that were able to satisfy customers. I made sure that customer have suggestions to give regarding Spa. In this manner, I managed to understand psychologies of my clients while they buy products from my Spa “You”.
A great challenge that I faced during my business was to retain customers. For consecutive two months, I noticed that the number of returning customers was decreasing. On my analysis of the situation, I came to understand that customers wanted a more subtle and relaxing experience. I also noted that I needed to create a community or network for my customers to stay in touch so that they can get to know good things about the Spa. For this purpose, I made sure that a forum for Spa customers was available online. I created communities on social networks because it was one way to reach to my targeted audience and keeping them aware about products.
The logo of my Spa was not catchy and attention grabber previously. According to the reviews that I got from my friends and customers regarding the logo, it became certain to me that my business logo was not at all catchy and gave a feel of professional and polished spa. I understood the need of logo in branding and designed my own logo. Through suggestions and reviews, I understood the imperativeness of logo design with respect to the company and design. In this way, I designed my logo which then appeared more polished and gave a feel of professional spa.
I introduced some of new products that could not get customer attention. Despite having the most reasonable and most demanded treatment plans, fewer consumers were being directed to the packages. It was a pitfall for my business thus I came up with strongly creative advertisements. I ordered publications of advertisements on monthly basis. The sales of my introduced treatments increased considerably.
In experience of managing my brand “You”, I also suffered a great deal in terms of my staff’s inability to maintain quality. It was for sure complicated for my massage therapists to provide treatment to customers consecutively in full time shifts. For this purpose, I created teams of massage therapists who were to treat customers alternatively. Coming up with such a solution, greatly helped my staff to stay motivated and provide continuity in quality.
Earlier in my previous business, I lacked effective business planning. Starting my new business gave me a chance to bring the best out of me. I made several policies to put the customers on ease. It was only possible by having an effective business plan. Earlier, I could not make desired profits thus on profound thought process, I came to know I needed an effective business plan. Thus I started off with my new business with clear provisioned plan including all the targets such as organizing seminars.
I also noted a number of competitors who were operating their Spas with more effective and creative strategy. It was one worst experience to work in extreme pressures of competition. I had to meet the standards and also introduce I decided to provide my employees with uniforms and other allowances to make sure that they provide perfect service.
On the count of all my business and career experiences, I worked as an operation manager at Air Force Israeli Army in terms of helping me in a challenging condition. I had worked at the intelligence unit department of Israeli Army that is considered to be one of the most complexly controlled departments where the employees have to work under stern pressure. At this department, I completely had to be focused about intelligence work. Being an operation manager of Air Force intelligence unit, I had to make use of the alertness the most and handle all the telephonic operations. The operations through telephones made it certain to me that it is most significant to keep a track of all the conversations so that error free communication process takes place.
Moreover, being an operation manager, I made sure that deadlines are being followed in a systematic order. At times, it I have been through situations where the complication and quick decision-making had to be made. For instance, once I had missed several phone calls as a beginner that caused a great deal of miscommunication between the professionals of the department. I had to go through several hardships to properly make things right and delivering the message in order the way they were supposed to. In order to solve the problem of miscommunication among different professionals of the department, I made note of every message and send telephonic notifications myself and by setting up joint conversations for the professionals of higher command.
I also had to go through few situations that required back up plans. For instance, team at the operation room of intelligence unit needed to switch their working hours. In order to make it happen with proper alternatives, I set up team sections to get hourly shifts. In this manner, operation room of intelligence department was always in active controls as the back team was always there.
During the course of my working experience at the Intelligence department of Air Force of Israel, I also had to go through the issue of male dominating team. At times, I felt like people around me did not know that I was a female worker. As a matter of solving the problem, I became reluctant to go in details the way I was treated in the workplace and completely focused at my work that helped me in getting appreciation from higher professionals of the operational unit. In this way, I was assigned more responsibilities because I proved myself as a very reliable operation manager.
The most important pointer to understand regarding intelligence department was to make sure that secrecy and confidentiality must be clearly updated at every process that was to be undertaken. Often, it was observed that many confidential documents were shared with external parties for the matter of fueling opposition. In order to make sure that every document that was given to me under the clauses of confidentiality, I installed my own security system and kept a check and balance of every access to the documents. I was often degraded for trying so much to learn which used to be a de-motivating factor but in an organizational structure, nothing comes easy.
After my experience at the Air Force of Israel for two years, I started working for El Israel Airlines as a stewardess. Every occupation associated with airlines may seem to very interesting to people but the reality is that being a stewardess is not easy at all. It is because flight stewardesses often have to undergo situations where the customers/Passengers become highly demanding. Stewardesses are often left to take notice of situation by attempting to take action that might not be a part of their job duties. One incident that I have been through being a stewardess was when a passenger’s infant vomited during the flight. Other passengers could not really stand the filthiness. In order to comfort the passengers, I and my team had to clean the mess in the flight which is not a part of our job responsibilities. But in order to integrate relationship with the customer, I had to take a note of situation.
Other than handling unpredictable situations, I also had to work in alternatives shifts of longer durations. Being a female, it was a bit complicated for me to look after other things in life. In this way, I was bound to work and corporate engagements with customers and professionals. The alertness that I learned during my work experience at the intelligence department previously, helped me in the career being a stewardess. Often the scheduling of different crew member is cancelled that might give you an emergency call for duty. It happened with me all the time that means you have to make sure that you are always ready to offer your responsibilities. I have always set my options open in case I have to catch up flights for my duty.
Following my career path of offering services to the customers and engagement of mine with completely pressurized workplaces, I switched myself to the profession of real estate agent. I learned the tactics to convince people by working in the real estate agency. During my working period at Superior Homes, I learned the art of selling properties. At the superior homes, I came across highly demanding clients who really wanted to have the best they can have.
Like any other field, I had to be very active in locating newer locations for investment purposes. At times, the agency went low with the umber of locations for investments. In that case, as a problem solver, I brought business to the agency. Simultaneously, lack of clients was also observed in the agency which was regarded as a dent in the overall expected budget of the estate agency.
During my work experience at the real estate agency, I was exposed to many situations where I was supposed to prepare presentation on a very short notice. In order to keep myself updated and ready for every all types of presentation, I have understood to keep a record and number of templates ready as my back up plan.
I noticed several instances depending upon good time management during my work experience at the real estate agency. Working in the real estate agency was almost equal to planning for multi-meetings in a single day. A number of incidents happened during my work period at the real estate agency that cost me very much because of poor time management. In the field of estate agency, clients could actually take a lot of time to make sure that there is no ambiguity in their minds and that they can easily get their demanded properties. I have missed many of my meetings in order to present the locations to the clients. Through my experience, I learned that there must be extra time slot assigned to each client so that we each client can get their respective time. Following my rule of adding extra time slot to the appointment of each client, I was able to attend all my clients and brought more business to the agency. It was my achievement to sell two to five properties to clients in one month. The achievement was greatly dependent upon my expertise of managing time and presenting my best.
At times, the agency was observed to take up complete construction order of the client. For this reason, I have also supervised builders and other construction associated people. It was a challenge for me to associate with such people in the beginning but later on I got the hook of managing them well.
Other than that, time management comes as an essential for almost any type of work experience. By missing a number of calls, I had to go through a lot of hassle. To become proactive in my approach, I always tried to manage time by keeping a time slot management schedule for myself. By providing my completed projects on time, I made sure that the next person working on the project gets plenty of time to get his job done.
Throughout my business experience, I have come across different incidents that helped in understanding situations and solving them by accurate time management. All these years, I have gained much of my corporate experience by solving them with creativity and thorough thought process. By engaging in different complex situations, I came to know how to solve problems and ambiguities. Setting up businesses and then retaining consumerism was a tough challenge for me. As discussed above, several incidents and experiences greatly helped me in becoming a lead in solving corporate problems. As discussed above, my corporate experiences helped me in getting away with any type of ambiguity.