Business Fit Magazine November 2019 Issue 3 | Page 28

Business
Trust in yourself and
your knowledge
We are both convinced that we survived
the critical start-up phase which makes or
breaks a business, because we combined our
learned traits (time management, sticking to
deadlines, corporate communication) with
entrepreneurial “can-do-sprit”, creativity and
bravery, to our own business.
To pass this on to individuals and help them
develop their career or business has become
our mission. It was logical to not only combine
the experience from both worlds in one
programme but also name it accordingly.
Our signature coaching programme is thus
called compagneur – which is the combination
of company and entrepreneur.
Lesson No.1:
Be open to the horizontal extension of your
business: do not give in to stagnation - find an
addition to your service or product.
Exercise No.1:
Write down on a sheet of paper possible
vertical extension for your service/product and
evaluate whether they are feasible.
This extension opened a totally new business
opportunity for us. Of course, we had to
adapt our marketing message and define our
avatar customers: where to find them and
how to approach them. Being in the privileged
position of leading an international network,
we had access to our main avatar group. The
business and career coaching we are offering
is the perfect combination of our experience
and know-how. Our work experience in the
corporate world ranges from Pricing and
Controlling, to Customer Service and Account
Management, implementing tools and systems,
HR processes like selecting, interviewing, hiring
and onboarding team members all over the
world.
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What you least expect often
happens
While we were focused on our coaching
customers, our previous persistence with
corporates began to take effect and in early
summer we were approached by a company
for a consulting service for a real estate project.
The briefing was to re-negotiate a commercial
rental deal with one of the biggest German
supermarket chains which was due to expire.
Our first reaction was to reject this request,
as we had no experience in commercial real
estate. Although we knew the Food & Beverage
industry and the retail chain was one of our
customers in the corporate past. Also we knew
pricing and commercial negotiation, but to re-
negotiate real estate? We are consultants for
teams, processes and structures and experts
in career development! But the client insisted
on having us as consultants for this case.
Remembering our coach saying, first say yes
and then figure out how to deal with it, we
decided to take this challenge.
Lesson No.2:
Trust in yourself and your knowledge, people
do not hire you if they are not convinced that
you have the solution for their problem.
Exercise No.2:
Make a list of all skills you have - from excel
to making the best muffins in the world. If you
like, also pat yourself on the back.
The challenge
As mentioned, our task was to re-negotiate
the rental deal which was due to expire. The
landlord wanted to achieve a rental increase. So,
the mission was clear. We started to research
square metre prices in the region; educated
ourselves about commercial estate and retail
business in Germany. After visiting the site, we
were really impressed: the supermarket size
was nearly 1500m2 on two floors, residential
housing on top and the landlord owned the
area around it, which was nearly 3000m2.
We approached the retailer and introduced
ourselves as the consultants for our client, the
reaction was something between surprise and
shock, as nobody at their end had expected to
have to negotiate with consultants. Of course,
we went about it as told, and informed the
retailer that from our customer’s point of
view an increase was overdue. A few weeks
before our agreed meeting with the retailer,
our customer received a notice of termination.
The retailer informed us they would leave
the facility in the next six weeks, leaving the
building empty for the rest of the contract
and consumers wondering where to do their
grocery shopping.
Wow, that was a big hit! Hardly having started
with the work and all of a sudden there was
no more work for us. We were worried about
the reaction of our customer, as this had
come completely out of the blue. Would they
blame us and our negotiation skills? Imagine
a small town now without a supermarket. It
was a disaster. We were contacted by the
local press to give a statement, our customer
was approached by desperate locals and all
of a sudden, we were in the middle of talking
to press and the mayor of the city trying to
describe the situation and to appease all with
the confirmation that we would find a new
tenant asap. Not to mention that we were
300km away from the area which made it even
harder to find new tenants.
Our customer was convinced that we were the
right consultants and that we should take over
the case to find a new tenant.
Getting to work
And here the main problems started. After
the supermarket was out of the building,
we did an inspection with architects and
construction experts and found out that the
building was totally run down and a general
overhaul would be needed. Again, we started
to educate ourselves in construction, repair,
architecture. We took online courses, started
meeting people from the industry and talking
to experts – and of course this had to be done
in a very short time. We ordered experts to
value the overhaul costs, started to negotiate
with possible new tenants about rent and who
would bear the costs.
from major supermarkets, we were shocked.
We couldn’t come to an agreement. The
maintenance work would cost a fortune which
would take a decade to redeem with current
supermarket rental prices.
Our customer was disillusioned and authorised
us to find a new solution.
During our visits to the site we had more than
once had the idea that the location was perfect
for a totally new and innovative project if the
building was torn down. Our vision was to
build a prestige building for the city, the mayor
and the region.
So we decided to introduce this idea to our
customer, creating the vision of a sustainable
concept including generating and creating
additional value to the region. We were very
nervous but understood as well that our
customer was desperate to present a solution
to the mayor and the citizens. We did not sleep
for three days working day and night on the
presentation of our concept. Then the big day
came… could we convince our customer to go
for it? You can only imagine how excited we
were. All of a sudden, we became a real estate
project developer and were responsible for
a project worth multiple million euros, which
kept us busy for more than five years. We
were proud to be able to support the people
in this city with an innovative concept which
increased their quality of life.
Lesson No.3:
Trust your gut feeling. If you have an idea,
even if it is a very crazy one, give it a chance to
develop in your mind.
Exercise No.3:
Have a little notebook with you and write down
all ideas coming into your head When you are
sitting in a plane, or standing at a supermarket
check-out, all ideas are worth to thinking about.
And you never know…
After an overview on reconstruction costs for
a basic restoration and the rent expectation
Maike Benner & Lilli Rohde founders of MaLish consulting, an
international business consultancy and coaching company. Combining their
experiences and strengths in people management, financials, tools and
system, communication and leadership MaLish offers a variety of services for
companies and individuals. malish.global/about/malish-business
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