I had the pleasure recently of participating in the annual retreat for one of Printingforless.com’s customers, the Assisting Hands Franchise system.  Each year franchisees from all over the country come together to discuss their business, share strategies, introduce new initiatives, and enjoy each other’s company. What struck me about this retreat and the organization itself was two things:

First, how incredibly important it is to take time out of the busy life of running a business and spend time focusing on how to make the business better. Throughout the retreat, franchisees came together to discuss important strategies for growing their business and shared best practices to help each other succeed.

The second point was the overwhelming sense of family that was shared among the participants.  Sharing activities from horseback riding to whitewater rafting, they worked together as one big team and treated me, a vendor to their organization, as if I was a part of that team.  I was reminded by their generosity and fun-loving spirit that business doesn’t always have to be about business to be beneficial at an event like this.

Thanks to Assisting Hands for inviting me to be part of the experience and the reminder of the real meaning of running a business—the people.