Business Acumen

Welcome to another edition of our weekly newsletter. This week we have primarily been focused on social media marketing campaigns in addition to service growth. Onto our topic: Business Acumen.

Now, I will start this off with a true story about my first job. I was a 16-year-old with a car that got terrible gas mileage and needed money so I could ride around town with my friends. Thus, I worked where the majority of guys at my high school worked: the car wash. The car wash was a great job because you got tips. The hourly pay was not great, but I would typically leave each day with around $50 cash – plenty to put some gas in my car and grab some food.

Unfortunately, after working at the car wash for several months, I was fired. Why was I fired? This is 100% true…I sang too much. Now, washing cars is a rather monotonous routine that can become rather old. Was the never-ending cycle of dusty floor mats a rationalization on why I would sing while washing rims? Maybe. However, I learned an important lesson. The business hired you to do your job and nothing else. You really do not want to be raising too many eyebrows by coloring outside the lines…or in my case, sing while washing cars.

One of the more apparent changes when transitioning from a college setting to a professional environment is just that: work is a professional environment. You need to be able to handle yourself, whether that’s dress, communication, etc. in a professional manor. The office can be a great place to interact with co-workers, stand out as a driven employee, as well as gain valuable exposure to how executives carry themselves.

Please do not underestimate the importance of the little things: show up early, stay late, and gain the trust of your leaders by meeting deadlines with great work. Doing things like singing draws attention to yourself for the wrong reasons which is exactly the kind of thing that you don’t want.

On a positive note, I was able to land a job as a busboy shortly after my stint at the car wash. In the wise words of Thomas A. Edison, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”