The best advice I ever got: Susan Koprash

Xchange asked Canada's top women entrepreneurs to share their most meaningful business lessons. Each issue we'll bring you the advice that has helped shape the lives and businesses of these winning businesswomen.

Susan Koprash is president of Hi-Tec Security and Investigations Ltd., a Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.-based provider of contract security services to industrial and institutional clients, including airports and hospitals. Services include guards, patrols, armored vehicles and investigations. Koprash ranked 38th on the 2003 PROFIT / Chatelaine list of Canada's Top 100 Women Business Owners.

BEST ADVICE: "If you can build a relationship, you can build a business."

Koprash has never forgotten this comment, spoken casually by a friend over coffee a dozen years ago. Though she didn't think much about it at the time, Koprash has recognized its value in years since. "I realized how much meaning it has. [Relationships] really are the foundation," she says. "And if you don't have a good foundation, then eventually the whole thing will fall apart."

Building a rapport with every personality type and developing trust within those relationships, whether with clients, suppliers or employees, helps build your business, she says. People want to do business with those they know and like. For example, forging strong relationships with potential clients "gets us on the bidders list, it gets us in the door," she says. It's equally important to teach your employees the importance of good relations with others, because "in today's times, the biggest complaint that consumers have is poor customer service." As security providers, her employees deal with a wide range of people and personalities, from building managers to grumpy airline passengers, so she's implemented an in-house training program that covers everything from customer service to conflict resolution.

Building a strong relationship doesn't mean becoming everyone's friend, she admits. "Sometimes it's difficult to get along with everybody, and in the back of your mind you have to say the customer is always first." The important thing to remember is the old saying: you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. "I have this client that's very difficult, very demanding, and very obnoxious. But I have to put aside this miserable, rotten personality," she says. "Over time, we're getting along and he's actually becoming more pleasant, because he realizes that no matter what, I'm going to give good customer service."

Koprash says she didn't always have strong relationship-building skills. "I was extremely shy in high school. I'd just crawl down the hallways and be late to every class so that I wouldn't have to talk to anyone," she recalls. "When I got into business I was only 23 years old and I was forced to step out of my comfort zone." She felt boosting her people skills would help. She enrolled in programs such as Toastmasters to improve her communications skills and sought out books about personality types. "Once you have that mastered, once you learn about [different personalities], you can diffuse any difficult situation."

© 2003 Susanne Baillie