How you row or the boat you have?
The Question
I was on several Strategy Calls this week with pawnbrokers and I asked them how their year was, how their planning for 2022 is going, and I heard one constant statement from different pawnbrokers: "Oh, I'm working so hard!"
That idea from pawnbrokers reminded me of a speaker. So while at the gym working out one morning the speaker I was listening to asked a question, "What is more important, how you row the boat or the boat that you have?" So he was basically asking what is more important, how fast and how hard you row the boat or the boat that you have. And his question made me think about pawn.
The Boat
Many pawnbrokers concentrate only on "how you row the boat" - how many hours you work behind the counter, how hard you're working, how dedicated your team is - to the expense of forgetting to look at "the boat." Your boat refers to, you guessed it, your shop/operation.
You're so focused on how hard you work that you forget to ask questions to improve the boat you have: How can I improve my boat? What is the best way to make it go faster on the water? How can I make it such that instead of having everybody row, two individuals at once can and we're still going as fast?
I discovered this while diving into Strategy Calls with several pawnbrokers: the concept of simply working hard will cost you more money than learning how to improve the boat and then working hard. What do I mean by this?
You're working hard, you're burnt out, your team's burnt out, and your customers can feel it.
You're not going to grow your business, you're not going to be as efficient as you want because all you care about is, "Oh, I'm working really hard" or "I worked 12 hours! I must've worked really hard." Remember that just because you're there for a long time does not imply that you're working effectively and efficiently. Abraham Lincoln said it best, "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.”
You're maybe one of those pawnbrokers who say, "Oh, I gotta really work really hard on my marketing." Well, is your marketing working? What have you been doing? Do you know how to market in this day and age? If you don't take a step back and look at what's happening in your business and tell the truth when something isn't working, you're just going to be rowing and rowing. Here's the sad reality, most pawnbrokers are rowing in circles and surprisingly a ton of you are making a lot of money doing it! Do you remember that speaker I told you on the first part of this blog? That same speaker said these brilliant words: "You can be a dipsh*t and still make a ton of money!"
The Current
If we look back at 2021, the sales record, many pawnbrokers say they have made more in 2021 than in the last ten years. What you didn't observe, though, was that many people had a lot of cash and wanted to buy things; there was no merchandise in the shops, and you were chosen to walk in and make a purchase. But we're already seeing drop-offs in sales and a drop in the number of people walking into the locations. The current was in your favor and that's why you're going farther. But what if the current slowed down? What if the current stopped? Would you still make the same sales you made last year? The answer would probably be no.
And if that is the case, you have to look at your boat. You have to look at your team and what's not working. Make sure that you're not just working hard but you're working smart. Look at the places in your business that aren't working, you're improving them and then you work hard.
The Game Plan
What do you need to do?
- Make a list of what's not working.
- Little by little, start fixing them before asking your team to do more!
Yigal Adato
Yigal is a 3rd generation pawn broker, and is now a mentor, coach and educator with the pawnbroking industry.
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