Inspired By Success

It is exciting to be inspired by success. Whenever I notice a business executing well, I ask myself this question: “How can I emulate this level of excellence within Bridgetown Partners?”

Recent inspirational experience: Restoration Hardware in Nashville, Tennessee.

What Is Asset Management?

We once found a $10,000 charge for a plumbing expense that was not for our property (even our manager missed it). Had we not audited our financials on a monthly basis, we would have been responsible for that expense.

-From the book Best in Class
by Kyle Mitchell and Gary Lipsky

A successful commercial real estate syndication firm will build a team to handle the three main segments of the business:

• Acquisitions. Finding and buying investment properties. Working with brokers and sellers to negotiate workable terms.
• Capital Raising. Bringing in equity partners who will participate in the purchase of the property.
• Asset Management. Creating a business plan for the property. Holding everyone accountable to ensure that the plan is well-executed.

The book Best In Class focuses on asset management.

Balloons and Business Leadership

Take a look at the northern Phoenix sky on an early morning. You might see hot air balloons taking off. Clusters of balloons with baskets full of eager people suspended underneath.

I recently took a ride in one of those balloons. Kudos to Hot Air Expeditions for offering an exciting early-morning experience along with some helpful business lessons.

Celebrating Business with BizDayGlobal

BizDayGlobal is the video podcast that celebrates business. The core belief of BizDayGlobal: When people do business with each other for mutual advantage, they are less likely to fight each other.

What is Business?

From the BizDayGlobal 44-second intro:

• Business is cooperation.
• Business inspires all of us to work together, and to win together.
• Business lets us manufacture in Singapore and ship to Barbados through locks engineered in Panama, financed in Switzerland.

The Traction Component + EOS

The back cover of Gino Wickman’s book Traction poses a powerful question:

The entrepreneur’s vision gives birth to a business. Traction makes the vision real. Earlier in this series, we covered five components that are necessary to get the business moving in the right direction: Vision, People, Data, Issues, and Process. This article summarizes the sixth component, Traction.

Traction enables the entrepreneur to gain a grip on the business. Traction is so important that Wickman’s entire book was named for this single component of EOS.