Archive for Inspiration
Using What You Have in Your Home Business – Making It Work
Posted by: | CommentsWe have a ritual for doing our weekly shopping and make a game of it. It’s a way for us to be out together, not doing business, having fun, and getting an errand done at the same time.
There are 6 different stores we shop in and they are all in an easy route around us so we’re never going out of our way to get to one of them.
Part of the game is finding the deals on what we need for the week. It’s all about spending less. This is a strategy to use for your home business as well as your weekly household shopping. Most stores send out weekly fliers so you can pre-shop for almost anything.
I go through the fliers first and find which store has the best prices on what we need. Because of the way we shop, eat, and live, my list of needs is usually pretty short but the fliers always steer me to the store we’re going to visit.
One of the stores on the route always has a clearance section in the meat department; the meat they need to sell that day. There’s nothing wrong with any of it. They just have to move it that day or it will go to the trash as spoilage.
We don’t go into this particular store just to look at the clearance meat but when we’re do stop there we always look at what the butcher has put on clearance.
One day we were there and found a number of packages of chicken wings, all identical except that two were marked at 50% off and the rest were marked at 30% off. Naturally we asked the butcher about the difference.
His comment? Laughing, he told us, and this is the whole point of the story:
"I ran out of 50% discount stickers. I even had to pull the ones I found off other packages. I had hundreds of the others so I just used them. I had to make it work so I used what I had. Just tell the cashier to give you the 50% discount on the ones you buy and she can call me if she needs to."
No matter what you home business is, what your office set-up is, or how you manage your time, things always happen to create less-than-perfect situations. You will have to do whatever it takes to achieve the results you want.
Like the butcher who used a lesser discount to move his clearance inventory, you will need to refine the skill of improvising and sometimes using what you have on hand to achieve your results. It may not be the best solution for you, but it will keep your home business moving forward.
Note: Our postal worker isn’t happy with us. He wants us to stop the junk mail but we actually welcome it. So, oh, well. He’s going to have to keep delivering.
Also, remember that asking for additional discounts is a habit you want to acquire. If you don’t ask, you certainly won’t get. And if you do ask, all they can do is say, "No!"
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Have a Home Business that Excites You
Posted by: | CommentsA friend invited me to a networking event for a college alumni group. I didn’t attend that college, but my friend said they like to use the event to connect with other graduates and meet new people. So I grabbed some business cards, the directions to the event, and I was off.
When I walked into the room, the first person I ran into was someone I’d met years ago but had lost contact with. In fact, it was the person who designed and printed business cards and stationary for one of our businesses. It was nice re-connecting and hearing how her business had grown and evolved. During the conversation she was so enthusiastic, it was hard to get a chance to speak. She has had some challenges, but it was clear she was enjoying the business.
After a few minutes, I moved on and continued to make my way around the room. I saw a few familiar faces, but most of the people were new. One woman I met was from Peru. She had studied here in the States at a culinary school and was now selling deserts from her homeland. She had a big smile on her face as she talked about the product and being able to use what she’d learned in school.
Near the end of the event I was chatting with the person who had invited me. The crowd had thinned out and everything was winding down. As we talked, we saw a man standing nearby. He had a plate with snacks, but was standing alone. Since this was a networking event, my friend and I decided meet him.
The conversation started with the usual. "Hello. What’s your name? I’m Philip and this is Eric. What do you do?" He said he worked in the family’s real estate business.
As we talked with him about the business and his role in it, his responses were lackluster. There was no energy or passion in his responses. My friend asked him what he had studied in school and how did that relate to the work he was doing. He said he’d studied in the hospitality industry, hotels and restaurants, but that it had nothing to do with his current work. His work is simply a job.
Then he said what he really wanted was to have a Bed and Breakfast. In that moment, his voice picked up. There was a brightness in his eyes, and his whole physiology changed. He stood up straighter and looked more vibrant.
He may be good at his "job", but it isn’t feeding his soul. His passion isn’t being fed and it shows in how he spoke to us during the first part of the conversation.
One day I hope he gets his dream. I suspect it will be a delightful place to visit.
We are creatures of emotions. When we do something because we have to or we think we should, the job may get done, but at what price?
When we do something because we want to, and because we have a passion for it, we feel good about. Apply this to the home business you choose.
If you don’t love what you’re planning to sell, don’t start the business. You’re only exchanging a job you hate for a business you aren’t enthusiastic about.
Success a passion go together. And you spend too much time working in and on your home business not to love it.
Brian Tracy’s Seven Cs of Success for Your Home Based Business
Posted by: | CommentsBrian Tracy is a well known and highly respected motivator. He speaks and writes about success. Millions of people have learned from him and use his principles in their own lives. After studying top achievers and peak performers for over 25 years, Tracy came up with what he calls the Seven C’s of Success … the skills and characteristics mastered by those men and women:
Competence – You can’t climb to the next rung on the ladder until you are excellent at what you do now.
Constraints – Eighty percent of all obstacles to success come from within. Find out what is constraining in you or your company and deal with it.
Creativity – Flood your life with ideas from many sources. Creativity needs to be exercised like a muscle, if you don’t use it you’ll lose it.
Courage – Most in demand and least in supply, courage is the willingness to do the things you know are right
Continuous learning – Read, at the very least, one book a week on business to keep you miles ahead of the competition. And just as you eat and bathe, organize your time so you spend 30 minutes a day exploring e-mail, sending messages, going through web sites, because like exercise, it’s the only way you can keep on top of technology. If you get away from it, you’ll lose your edge.
Acres of Diamonds in Your Home Based Business
Posted by: | CommentsHave you ever read the story "Acres of Diamonds" by Russell Conwell? If not, the story has a powerful message and I suggest you pick up a copy from our Resources Page.
The short version of the story is that a man leaves home and travels the world to find his fortune. He traveled all over never finding the riches he was searching for. He came home penniless and died a pauper. Meanwhile, in the back yard of the house he’d sold to chase his fortune was one of the richest diamond mines ever discovered.
He never looked in his own back yard.
Recently a friend told me the results of an interesting survey:
The people surveyed were prospects for a high end product . The question they were asked was about how the salespeople had followed up after they’d said they wanted to think about the purchase before actually buying.
The overwhelming response was that the salesperson hadn’t followed up at all.
The people were also asked if they would have purchased the product if they had been contacted and overwhelmingly they said, "yes."
Business owners often complain about not being able to find qualified buyers. Yet this survey shows that many sales are lost because of no follow up.
Money and resources had already been spent to find the prospects who wanted to think about it before buying but they were allowed to slip away.
The salespeople (in the case of the survey) were off spending more money to find more leads.
The diamond mine in their back yard (their database) was ignored. This company operated under an assumption that the qualified buyers were in the outside world.
Are you effectively mining your database? It’s easier and more cost effective to sell to someone who already knows, likes, and trusts you.
The lesson: Look in your backyard before traveling the world.