START RUNNING

Congrats to the following stores for hitting their goal for the 3rd quarter: Amory CTE, Baldwyn, Belmont, Camden, Coldwater, Demopolis, Fulton, Greensboro, Hernando, Holly Springs, Kosciusko, Macon, New Albany, Okolona, Olive Branch, Saltillo, and Southaven. I hope you have all gotten the 4th quarter off to a great start.  Today promises to be a very busy day.  Below is one of my favorite quotes that I make sure I read from time to time.  I hope you find it inspiring as well….Louis

Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up.
It knows that it must run faster than the fastest lion
or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows that it must outrun the slowest gazelle
or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.

— African Proverb —

 

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Coming Down the Home Stretch!!

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I realized yesterday we only have 9 working days left in the 3rd quarter.  It has been a really busy quarter that has passed very quickly.  The next 9 days will determine if many of you hit your quarterly goal in the write off competition as well as your principle goals.  Please make sure you take full advantage of the days left in the quarter.  Good luck to everyone!

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

Arthur Schopen 

Louis

 

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Management and Leadership

Luke, our area managers, and I attended a management seminar yesterday by Glenn Shepard.  The seminar was very informative and I walked away with several good ideas.  Even though the seminar was primarily focused on management skills Glenn spent some time talking about leadership also.  I have a few quotes from the meeting I wanted to share with you this morning.

Leadership is getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it for you

-Glenn Shepard

In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words; people, product and profits.  Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two.

-Lee Iacocca 

Former CEO of Chrysler

People always fear change.  People feared electricity when it was invented.  People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines.  There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear.

-Bill Gates

 

I hope everyone has a great day…..Louis

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No Symptoms Here!

I’m sure at some point you have heard someone say they have a case of  The Mondays.  This was a term made popular by the movie Office Space, which I highly reccommend watching.  The term refers to someone starting their week off dragging or in a bad mood. 

I started this Monday off by traveling to a few offices with Kim and Janna as they did mid-year reviews.  Apparently employees of Montgomery Enterprises are immune to The Mondays.   We visited 5 offices throughout the day and I didn’t see anyone with symptoms of The Mondays.  What I did notice was clean offices with smiling faces and good customer service.  It really helped get my week off to a good start.  I believe good attitudes are just as contagious as The Mondays so lets continue to spread these attitudes throughout the company.

Have a good day…Louis

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Why Training?

We spent most of the day yesterday doing some training at the Fulton office with some of our managers from our Alabama stores.  If you have been with the company very long you have probably participated in some type of training or professional development.  After leaving our training session yesterday, which happened to be on gold buying, I found myself not only more knowledgeable but also very energized.  I found an article on Yahoo.com by Kori Rodley Irons that backs up my thought about the importance and byproducts of training.  I have included a couple of paragraphs below.  I hope you enjoy it and become “Infused with Energy” as the article states.

Here are some of the reasons why employee training is so important…

The innovation, flexibility, and dedication that are necessary to build truly dynamic companies come from well-trained and supported employees. One of the best ways to encourage and support individuals in your workforce is through professional development and training opportunities. As employees develop new skills, increase networking and represent the company out in the larger world, and develop leadership opportunities, the business work environment becomes infused with energy and creativity.

Sending employees to training opportunities, or bringing opportunities into the company, actually infuses a business with new ideas and creative ways of solving old problems. Sometimes, just getting employees out of the day-to-day grind of their everyday work schedule is enough to jump-start energy and encourage employees to recommit to their jobs and the company. But learning new skills and interacting with new and different people has a direct impact on the productivity and development of the work environment.

Have a great day…..Louis

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Blog Updates

A blog intended to entertain, educate and inform the employees of Montgomery Enterprises.  This is the mission of our company blog as posted in the top corner of this page.  We feel that the blog is a vital communication tool for our company.  We certainly hope we are fulfilling this mission, but we are always looking for ways to improve everything we do.  We are making a few small changes going forward.  You will notice several more people posting on the blog about different subjects and we will always have a fresh post daily.  I encourage you to make it a daily habit to check the blog and encourage other employees in your office to do the same. 

Hope everyone has a good Friday!

 

Louis

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Happy Birthday

Yesterday was Kristie King’s Birthday.  The Ladies at the Fulton office treated her with flowers and pizza for lunch.  I hope everyone has gotten the day off to a  good start.  The rest of the week should be pretty busy.  Have a good day!…..Louis

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Numbers and Facts

One of my hobbies in the summer time is playing golf.  Even though I am a very average golfer I really enjoy the competitive nature of the game and I also enjoy having a good time with my friends on the golf course.  I often find myself after my round thinking about what I could have done differently to shoot a better score.  (If I wouldn’t have hit that ball in the lake I would have shot a 79 instead of an 82)  It seems that every time I’m around a golfer and ask them what they shot they tell you their score and then have a story about what they could have shot if they had done something differently.  I have recently come to the conclusion that the only thing that matters is the score I have when I finish the last hole.  If  I continue to shoot an 82 the excuses I make for my self don’t really matter.  As the old saying goes “The numbers never lie”. 

I think this same thought process can very easily be applied to business.  In all aspects of our company we judge how well we are doing by numbers on weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis.  As we have mentioned on the blog before, we are members of a consulting group in our Buy Here Pay Here business.  As a part of this consulting group we turn in numbers each month and get a report sent back to us that compares our numbers to our previous months and to the other 20 businesses in our consulting group.  I always anxiously anticipate getting the report in the mail to see how the previous month shaped up against other businesses.  No matter how I try to justify or make excuses for certain numbers in my head the fact of the matter is we are what our numbers say we are.  Fortunately for us we have outstanding employees and our numbers are consistently above average, but thankfully the numbers always point out areas that we can work towards improving.  

As we go about our work let’s always make sure we are judging ourselves by numbers and facts and work toward improving in the areas that the numbers show need improvement…….With this attitude one day I might even get to where I shoot a 79 on a consistent basis. 

The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has.

Will Rogers

Have a good day!

Louis

 

 

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A Job Well Done

Our Staff at Fulton Auto Auction did an outstanding job at our auction on Saturday.  With temperatures reaching the century mark most of the day Andy and the staff at the shop are not only responsible for their normal duties, but also are tabbed with the responsibility of keeping our customers as cool as possible with fans and ice water.  Even with our auction truck overheating a couple of times and slowing us down we had one of the quickest sales that we have had.  Be sure let Ms. Lynn and the guys at the shop how much we appreciate what they do next time you see them!

Have a Great Day

 

Louis

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