She began as a salaried employee recruiting agents for a real estate company… until the company shuttered its doors. “And that’s exactly the instant that my business opened,” says Michal Aviv, graduate of the Jasmine Association’s ZINUK Business Uplift Program, who doubled her profits within a single year
Michal Aviv, married and mother of two, found herself the owner of a Zinuk supported business at 37 years old, having decided two years earlier to opt for self-employment in a completely unique niche and becoming the go-to name in her field of expertise: recruitment, professional training and strategic consultancy for real estate and property agencies and businesses. Her path to success passed through the Jasmine Association’s “Zinuk” program, the first of its kind in Israel aimed at strengthening businesses in stages of growth.
“When I opened the business, I participated in a Jasmine conference and my name apparently made its way onto their mailing list. One day I saw an email from Jasmine describing the Zinuk program. The problem was that I’d noticed the email a bit too late and registration for the program was already closed. I started driving them crazy, was persistent and insistent, explained that I don’t know how to open a business, let alone take it to the level of realizing my business vision. ‘You’ve got to register me in that program!’ I pleaded. But… too late. I was extremely upset and almost gave up on the idea until the morning that a phone call came through: Kiram Baloum, Jasmine’s CEO, was willing to meet me for a few minutes. I shifted everything I had planned for that day, came to meet Kiram, and the rest is history,” Michal says, smiling. “It was an excellent meeting, two days later the program commenced, and I was among the participants.”
Zinuk teaches participants to recognize and finesse the foundations of management, planning, pricing, and action starts. The next stage focuses on precision marketing strategy and conducting depth activities for target branding. Participants must designate a measurable target they wish to achieve by the end of the program, making it possible to examine success as an outcome of results, profits, number of clients, and so on.
“Turning my profession into my mission”
Aviv, a resident of Yavneh, divides her time between office hours, and visiting clients throughout Israel who she interviews to recruit real estate agents and professional staff for her office, as well as providing professional training and strategic consultancy to other real estate offices. She entered the field five years earlier without any previous background. “I completed my degree in communications, specializing in strategic communication. My job was marketing communication manager in a startup which was also looking for investors,” says Aviv. But unfortunately the company collapsed, and she found herself needing to start over. “From organizing conferences, flying abroad, and conquering the world, I turned up one morning to find the office closed. No salaries paid, no severance or other compensation. Everything just toppled. At 30 years old I found myself in a software company where I worked for some six months and next thing, they closed my department. But by then I was pregnant, and out of the work force again,” Aviv explains. “My brother in law was a Remax Property Agency franchisee and suggested I go into the field as an agent recruiter for their office. That’s how I became among the first in Israel establishing this position.” Aviv took the role a step further, and turned it into a career. “I turned my profession into my mission.”
Very quickly, Michal Aviv’s name became well known in the field. She began joining panels, mentoring agents, and taking part in business development and management decisions, but 3 years later, she found herself unemployed once again. From this new crisis her own business was birthed, assisted by Jasmine. “From that moment on, my business started to take shape. I was at a critical junction in my life. Would I join a company once more as a salaried worker and find myself slapped in the face, or would I opt for self-employment?” she details. “Initially I weighed the idea of opening a boutique placements company but found problematics with the model and realized that agent recruitment was the real driving force in real estate offices. I saw that agencies lacked optimal practical tools for managing their businesses, which led me to building a unique one stop shop organization directed at addressing the real estate field’s needs. I offered the full range of services they needed. Currently I recruit agents, recruit function holders, train agent recruiters and mentors, and provide strategic consultancy to real estate offices from initial setup to structuring the office’s framework, including annual work plans at the level of overall office and individual agents. I offer everything a real estate business needs to reach successful management and profitability.”
How did the Zinuk Program contribute to your success?
“As far as management tools, the program unequivocally gave me what I needed most. For the first time I sat down and faced intake and expenditure, understood what they implied, how to price a product correctly, how to structure a work plan linked to the budget, and so much more. I learned that every management move requires procedures, methods, observation and correction towards understanding how to improve processes. Zinuk teaches how to plan, examine, manage. No less importantly, if not the most important aspect of all, I learned that a good deal of the impact is conscientiousness. Great management tools aren’t enough. Management needs to be an action of awareness, mindfulness. I realized that being a professional is not sufficient. Professionalism alone does not bring about development and growth. Knowledge, knowing how to manage the business, does.”
“The Zinuk Program is a business growth incubator”
In its first year, Aviv’s business was showing profits, but in its second year and following her participation in the Zinuk Program, she doubled her intakes and set targets that would ensure the growth rate’s continuity. “My experience with Jasmine greatly assisted me, particularly the fact that the Zinuk Program guided me throughout a full year, a significant time frame for seeing results. Tools can’t be assimilated within short periods but Jasmine’s program is geared to long term meaningful outcomes. It’s very important to know that as a business owner, you’ll experience isolation, for better and worse. Zinuk as a framework is an incubator, a greenhouse where consistency is shaped, obligating participants to put their businesses front and center. And that’s what brings results. The Zinuk Program hones in on business development and management: Jasmine’s program demands results. Had the program continued for a further year, I’d be the first to sign up! That’s because the challenges I’m facing now that my business has grown are different to those I dealt with at setup. Jasmine makes it possible to seek advice, to consider different aspects, to receive feedback, and to take the leap forward.”