Nov 21, 2021

Nueva Gorgona, PANAMA – “Is this your friend’s place?” ….

Our driver was asking after pulling into a dirt laneway, in front of a nice enough looking house, situated a way back from a closed gate and surrounded by a high fence, topped with rolled barbed wire.

“Ahh, no, don’t think so. We are looking for this place.” I leaned over and showed him my phone with the address given by the booking website.

We had hired a driver to take us from our hotel near the commercial district of Panama City to a cool looking beach town only an hour or so away. The place we had booked looked promising online. Courtyard, pool, clean rooms.

But as our driver started taking us this way and that – things didn’t look so promising.

Sure, we could see high-rise apartment buildings in the distance – on the coast but we were meandering through a small ‘pueblo’ and every house seemed closed.

When we did find what looked like the right place, there was no name above the gate, no indication of people and our situation was looking a little bleak.

The driver told us to wait in the car. He’d go investigate.

After what seemed to be a long wait, a woman came from inside, unlocked the gate and came out to ask who was there.

“Your guests.” said the driver. “Ahhh – yes, of course, excellent!”

The accommodations turned out just as we had hoped. Clean room, huge king-sized bed, beautiful pool. And we were the only guests!

That part was odd to be sure.

It was hard to believe that this entire beach community, with multiple large condo complexes, huge, immaculate mansions on the water – was devoid people.

And the beach!

White sand near the water. Black near the shore. And full of a silica that sparkled in the sunlight. But we had the miles of beach to ourselves.

“You should have been here earlier in the month;” – said one person. “For the bicentennial celebrations. Beach was full then.”

“It’s still the rainy season and foreign tourists are not here yet.” Said another.

Whatever the reason, it was a stark contrast from capital a short drive away. In any other country I’ve visited, a beach like this would have been much busier.

Like many tourist places, however, this one was also hit hard by government-initiated lock downs. The owner of the one bar/restaurant near us said he’d only just opened up a week ago! And there are ‘For Sale’ signs on every street we walked.

Probably a good buying opportunity for the right party. Buy low when things are ‘bad’ and sell when things improve.

But that is not my business lesson today.

One of the things you notice, everywhere we’ve been thus far, are the countless little stalls with people hawking bites of food, trinkets, hats, arts and crafts. And these entrepreneurs are not focused on foreign tourists.

The desire to be one’s boss, improve one station is universal, I believe.

But everywhere we go, all “owners” make one fatal mistake.

They sell, sell, sell a customer, to make a sale. To them (and most businesses everywhere) the sale is everything.

But after they make that sale – they then spend all their energy on getting the next customer. And then the next.

What they should be doing is looking to make a sale – to gain a customer. And then sell to the same customer, over and over and over.

For instance: which business is better? Being a driver for UBER or being UBER? Who gets a piece of every fare a rider makes?

Be the hotel or be ‘Booking.com’?

The street seller or the supplier of all the nick-nacks they try to sell?

The street sellers, to be fair – have no means yet to get out of this treadmill. The smart ones will work to save some of their sales so they can get into better businesses.

Yet, I see this all the time, even with sophisticated businesses in the US and Canada. No systems to build a list of customers. No follow-up. No asking for the next sale. No asking for even referrals or testimonials.

Whatever business you own or manage; spend some time looking at how you can increase the value of each customer. Get away from being in the business of “promotion” and move towards a “membership” or “subscription” model.

The former leads to headaches – the latter to real wealth.

Until next time….

To your health and success

- Hugh
The “Profit Accelerator” Expert
StreetSmartsMBA.org

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