Questions

Been away in Tassie with family and faced a barrage of questions about why am I looking so tired. Probably doing a lot or endeavouring to do so.

One thing I did realise was that I was trying to train for a huge bike ride, plus move office, say good bye to a dear friend who died and my children and grand children who are moving away was too much. You might say a bit too too much stress.

I had to re-evaluate why I was trying to do so much and what was the priority. The new office won. The bike ride can wait and my grief will fit around all of that and sneak up on me at times and I will give it space.

My friend died while I was away with family and so I spent time grieving when travelling. I was in the back seat so I could afford to be quiet.

Business still went on and will continue to go on but everything has to be at a measured pace because this body can only take so much stress and then it will complain.

Believe

Did you start your business because you were inspired? Because you believed in your product? Because you wanted to try?

On the road the storms and tempests will try to distract you. Stay focused! What has changed? Is your product still good? Do you still believe in you?

Don't let yourself be robbed of your dream by the storm. Believe and continue to believe and keep walking. At times it might feel like one step at a time, that is ok, you are still moving. When you stop moving then you actually begin to slide backwards, so keep moving.

Constantly re-evaluate! re-calibrate! This is important but don't let the storm take your heart, don't let fear in the door.

Be wise with what you have, use it well, don't waste your precious resources but build on them, slowly, steadily, keep going!

Believe!

Before You Spend

We can, in unfamiliar territory, be persuaded the only way forward is to spend money. For example if we are not familiar with the Internet.

I was making myself ready for an inspection of my electronic system on Wednesday and it hit me that I did not arrange my Internet security properly. I went on-line to download what was previously free to being asked to pay.

I could see no way around having to pay so I did. Then when I was needing to install said protection an error cropped up and the solution was to pay someone else. I was just about to buy something I now know I did not need when I decided to call my son who works in IT.  He said 'call AMP, they provide all that for free.' AMP is the company I work for. So I did. He was right. I then proceeded to remove what I had bought and get my money back.

When I was having my new protection installed the technician informed me that the second product was a scam, when they tell you you have 293 errors don't believe them, get good help from someone who does know.

The funny thing is, when I finally had my inspection, which I passed, there was not a question about my protection. The inspector was more interested in how I kept client files only.

Don't allow lack of knowledge or panic to push you places you do not need to go. Having said that, don't be slack and not be diligent or things will fall apart, a delicate balance isn't it?

Be Consistent

In a day when markets gyrate, people follow their own whims and fancies someone must be consistent. Clients still want the product, yes it has to be the best for the best bargain around but you have to have it. all sorts of things come against you to push and pull away from a consistent path.

However tempting it is to follow euphoria and run off the waste what is promised and not yet in the bank, don't. Conversely do not follow the doom and gloom as it will shut you down as well. Stick to the plan!

What did you say you would do? Write letters, make calls? Do it! Post that Blog, do that website, do that Facebook, consistently, do it!

Consistently turning the wheel at the flour mill gets you flour to make your bread. Consistent priming of the pump causes the water to flow. Don't become discouraged or distracted and you will have a harvest.

Service

What does service look like? Or should I say 'good service'. I have been in stores where I have been ignored, I have been in stores where I have been too quickly cared for. Both are distasteful. So what does the right service look like.

I think being over anxious to please deters, yet being ignored does as well. I think supermarkets could be used as our most often experienced purchase. We like to go and browse and buy what we want but if we cannot find what we want we desire that employee to be there, right at hand to direct us. Well that is how it is for me. We like the shop set out in a way that pleases.

I remember in the past being involved in a group that owned several businesses. One of them was a mobile phone shop. The phone samples were all around the wall with information about them close by. The sales person was at the desk at the end and noticed if a serious browser tarried they might like some help. There was a one way glass window from which the supervisor could watch and monitor and be alerted if he was required.

When I go into a phone shop I go straight to the service desk and ask for help, unless I have prior knowledge and am just looking, feeding my want factor.

I know I like having signs up indicating what is where, I like to touch, and see and I like friendly, but not over helpful or pushy staff.

I am now in a service industry such as, say a bank. People like to decide for themselves when they go into a bank but they want to know that the people there know how to help them, have the right products and can them them to them quickly and efficiently.

By the time people come into our business the marketing has been done. Now what is needed is unobtrusively providing the service, quite a challenge if we don't know the person and know we have less than a minute to do so.

This is where first impressions are important. What is the front door like? Does it welcome? Is the shop orderly or cluttered, can people find what they are looking for or are they overwhelmed? Is the atmosphere in the shop what is conducive to buying? Is there music? Is it the right music?

Is the person available to serve able and willing? Do they look the part? Does you business shout 'I am here to please you?'

Your Uniqueness

What is you, how will you stand out above the crowds?

Yesterday I had a manager question me regarding this? He would like me to specialise in the retiree market. As I have been spending time looking at what I am and how I can best present it to clients I knew what my answer was.

How will your business stand out against all others on the area? I Googled financial planner in the Albury Wodonga area that I live in. It was interesting to see the results. How do I want people to find me. A noted a couple of search engines and determined which I wanted to find me.

I also knew how I wanted my community to know me. What group of people do you do community with? What do you belong to? A church group? A football club? A business forum? Who do you relate to? Do they know you are the best in your industry?

First you have to do everything in your power to be the best and then how do you promote yourself? Are you on Facebook? Being on Facebook requires you to do life in the small things but it is in the small things that people get to know you. Are you prepared for that?

While spending time strategising yesterday I knew what at the core of my being I am. I love to give. Give compliments, encouragement, gifts. So then I thought how can I use this gift and not go broke giving it all away? I thought about the events that I see happening in those in my world.

Babies are being born, people are dying, people are in hospital, people are having wins, people are having losses. What can I do? I bought a batch of cards. What do I send with the cards? For the babies I am giving a $5.00 deposit and a bank account. Yesterday someone close to me had a death, I sent flowers. Someone I know was in hospital, I sent them a get well message. Do you think my head is lifting above the crowd? Can I been seen? What do people see? I trust they see a generous person.

You see I know,'what you sow, you reap.' People don't want to hear how good your product is, they want to know how good you are to them. How will you bless them? touch their need? Show you care?

Now it is your turn to discover what is your uniqueness. Don't just copy me, people smell a fraud. If you are not like me they will spot it.

Uniqueness

New opportunities are right in front of us, however if we are bogged down with the doing of the business then we cannot see them. We can only see them with the right side of the brain. The left is where all the whirring of work is carried out.

Yesterday I knew I wanted to tap into the right side of the brain, the imagination, the creative. At times like this I will paint or garden or even play music.

The whole day was a struggle until I picked up my ukulele and spent time playing, then the ideas came. I quickly wrote them down. the 'Ah!' had arrived.

We can easily think 'no I must work, do the doing', yet it is draining and unproductive. We have to tap into freshness, life and breathe.

I know there is more, so today I will do less of the doing and more of the creative. I want what makes me unique in the market not a carbon copy of someone else, I have to find my uniqueness.

Creative Solutions

In the middle of every problem is the seed of it's solution. There is a creative solution to every problem. Steve Jobs was a great believer in creative solutions. Stepping up into the creative is where breakthrough happens.

The bog of the problem cannot contains us to the point of starving out all creativity. Shake it off and dream. This is where I love to take a break and paint a picture, go for a walk, garden anything but be caught in the doing in the bog.

Today is one of those days. I know there is more than the bog, more than the mundane, there is the creative life inside, I have to find it. I want the spectacular not the boring same old.

Time to dream!

Encouragement

Encouragement is something we all crave and need. It can feel real lonely at times and especially when we are facing our own wall.

It is important to remember the very thing we need, we need to sow into someone else's life an it will come back to us, because it is out there now.

Remember the song 'What the World needs now is Love sweet love'. Well we don't need to go to mushy stuff but a real act of love for our fellow man and woman is encouragement. It takes effort as does praise.

You want some praise for a job well done and no one is in sight? Find someone who you can praise and watch what happens!

Go!

Stick to the Plan

I am so grateful for a business plan. In the establishment of my business it has taken far longer to set up and far more resources than I had planned but I must keep moving on, according to the plan.

The plan produces results. The plan brings the next stage into focus. It is like going up in an escalator. Until you reach the top you cannot see clearly the path from then. If another escalator is the next step to get to it requires negotiating the crowd and to get to it, it is usually not straight in front of you.

Being anxious about the next step is a waste of time. "Today has enough troubles of it's own." Keep a cool head and control the emotions and keep on walking.

As I send out letters and make follow-up calls I am finding less results than I thought I would get, but I keep walking, I keep making the calls, keep sending the letters.

Focus is so important, it will keep you on track. Control your mouth and speak the plan not the circumstances and you will arrive.

Coping With Unfaithful Clients

How do you cope with the failure of others? Are you greatly disappointed? Do you turn away from those who disappoint you? Do you have clients who choose not to buy from you but go elsewhere?

When others fail us we need to remember 'there but for the grace of God go I'. I fail, I make mistakes.

I have had what I consider good clients who I have worked tirelessly for and failed walk away from me and buy elsewhere, it hurt, but hey if I cannot deliver someone else can.

We cannot expect total faithfulness from clients and friends if we are unable to deliver. The client wants the product and they will have to get it from a stranger if we cannot provide.

This is life! We would do the same. So be gracious to others when they fail you in the area of faithfulness.

Follow the Lead

Do you get an inkling you should go a certain way, call a certain person? You probably do and if you are not cluttered in your mind and heart you will. Women call this intuition. Guys call it luck.

In business you will have a plan and there are, like a jig-saw puzzle, many pieces moving into place. You know they are all important and at the right time you will pick up a piece and know where it belongs.

Struggling and straining to make pieces you do not recognise go into place uses valuable energy and wastes time.

Being of a cool spirit helps. If we don't allow the demands of the day dictate we can tune in.

The way to deal with the dictates is to write them all down, then they are happy they have been put somewhere, on paper. Once they are all out of the way, intuition can kick in.

Yesterday I had such a day. I knew I needed to go and look at furniture for my new office but I also knew a contact was out the same direction so I went, I made contact and the timing was right.

I have country trips planned. One was going to be at a later date yet I know I need to go earlier as a contact will be in that town at the same time. When the contacts are there, then it is time to go.

Timing is important, more important than dictates!

Keep Your Word

If you say, "I will call you before 5pm", do it! If you say "I will get that information for you today", do it!

Remember that the little things are important. If you are waiting desperately for some information for your own life and that person does not get back to you, how does it make you feel?

You word is worth cherishing it shows that you respect yourself and others.

If you have trouble remembering write it down, keep a log, do what it takes to keep your word.

You will find that because so few people do return calls you will gain a reputation of being a man or woman of your word and you will be respected.

I have been let down again and again lately and the one thing I really appreciate is a person who keeps their word. Would I pay them more? Definitely!

What is Important

Are you driven by the dollar? Do you see houses, cars, furniture you want? Do you want a bank full of cash?

Do you want a secret or two?

1) Don't waste your time looking at stuff, look at people, learn to like them

2) Learn to give. As you measure it out it comes back to you

3) Don't wear yourself out for money, it will kill you and destroy all those you love.

Try simple medicine! It works!