Meet Anita Best

Meet Anita Best

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anita Best. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anita below.

Anita, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?

Without a doubt, Winston Churchill. He was brave, brilliant, creative & fearless. If not for him we would all be speaking German or Japanese. In my opinion the most important individual of the last century at a minimum. While saving the world he was also a prolific painter, reportedly painting over 500 paintings. His lesson was never, never, never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. I started painting in my late 60’s, after only having painted for about a year almost 30 years ago. I have become so passionate about it and try to do it every day. It is never too late to find our passion and dedicate ourselves to it.

Anita, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

In my franchise consulting practice, I work much like an executive recruiter and matchmaker. I help individuals to make good decisions in buying a business based on their skillsets, lifestyle, goals, dreams and financial considerations.

In my painting I strive to feel the joy in learning and trying new things. I mostly love interpreting photography that I have personally taken, and attempt to make it more beautiful and interesting than reality ( if that is even possible with how gorgeous nature is.

Separately, I think one of the most important things I ever did, about 25 years ago, was to write a personal mission statement. To this day it drives many of my decisions and gives clarity and purpose to so many areas of my life, big and small.

And above all, always strive to be kind……….

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Having a database and communicating with it regularly has by far been the most effective resource for growing my business which is now all referral I started selling real estate in the early 90’s and built a database of a couple thousand that has now grown to 5000 plus. I don’t even carry business cards any more, I collect them and everyone I meet goes into my database. Once a month I send out a newsletter with inspirational or motivation or a funny or happy story. There is a sidebar that talks about franchising, but because the content is always generic happiness I get very few unsubscribes.

I just started painting about 2 years ago, and at some point I will evolve the newsletter strategy to include my paintings.

Create a peer group or mastermind group of like minded folks in your industry to speak with regularly. I formed a group almost 15 years ago, and to this day we meet via zoom monthly ( they are all over the country), and rarely does a day go by that we don’t communicate on some level via email. Asking questions, sharing knowledge, giving and taking on a regular basis. We take turns planning the agenda for our monthly calls. Powerful and enriching stuff!

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

The most powerful book I have ever read is “Happy Pocket Full of Money”. b David Cameron Kikande. a silly name for an amazing book that explains, in simple terms, the quantum physics of how we actually create our reality with our thoughts. It quotes Jesus, Einstein and Mohammed amongst other great teachers.

One of my early mentors gave me a definition of sales which I strive to embody to this day. He said “selling is helping someone make a decision that is good for them”.

I strive to make every interaction with a client educational. Many times I have to help them self discover that they should not be purchasing a business at this point in their life, typically due to their lack of financial resource, especially if they have a young family and a non working spouse. These folks often become my best referral sources, and it come back a few years later when the time is right for them.