Making the Calls

A part of the way I work in my field is I write letters and then the week later I follow them up with a call. Come call time there is a natural inclination to find myself busy. However, if I discipline myself to make the calls I am rewarded.

Have you heard the phrase 'Prime the Pump'? Well how it works is you do what you have decided to do, regularly, almost in rote so that you get the results. Now the results don't always come from the place where you put in the effort but they do come.

I remind myself not to be disappointed by the No's but realise that the results will come. Just as throwing the ball into the air knowing it will not sty there but indeed fall so will doing the stuff bring the right results. It is called 'making good habits'.

I am currently marketing to Tasmania of all places and really enjoying it. I have a policy that if I see movement at the station (client base) I call. Now people are not used to being called so promptly and they either enjoy it or are challenged to think by my actions.

Be proactive, make it happen! Do it!!!

What DO You Watch?

If you watch the news and the stock market report your emotions will go up and down. Do you watch the bottom line on your bookkeeping? What do you watch?

I remember a story about a man who sold hot dogs by the roadside. He had a good manner and his hot dogs were very tasty. His sales grew and so he bought a bigger cart and more hot dogs and again his business grew. His son was away at unit studying business. When he came home he was horrified. 'Dad haven't you seen the news? We are in a recession. You can't plan to expand anymore.'

 His father thought because his son had been to uni he must know what was going on so he started to cut back and sure enough his sales fell. He said 'my son must have been right.' His son was not right and the father listened to the wrong advice. Because he began cutting back his standard dropped and the customers became dissatisfied and went down the road.

Yes you have to be aware but not influenced by the news. Remember the news is based around sales and the news reporters know bad news sells better.

So again I ask you, 'who are you listening to?'

Network

If you are in business and not in a franchise then you need to find somewhere to belong. Preferably a group in the same industry.

When I was a broker in Sydney I wrote business through an aggregator. The aggregator invited me to training days and events. This helped me belong.

Why do I need to belong? Belonging help the psyche, belonging keeps you updated, belonging keeps you honest, in touch etc

If you are in an unique industry where you are the forerunner then you need peers in business around you who you actually talk to, not bluff, or try to bluff.

Your peers can be a part of a local business group, they can be your accountant, solicitor, you financial planner or all of these, but you need them. We can become out of touch with reality unless we are grounded by belonging.

If we don't belong we find ourselves taking shortcuts, deceiving ourselves that what we are doing is ok. We all see the businessman or politician who believed they were above reproach and ended up with mud on their faces or worse in jail.

Today decide to belong, find a group to belong to, and make sure it is a legitimate group and not a bunch of thugs.

Technology

I am enjoying the path of discovery I am on. I thought creating  business Facebook page was all I needed but hey there is more so much more.

I have trialed uploading documents to a yousendit.com box that was fantastic. I watched a webinaire on creating and storing videos on-line. I am now using cloud technology to store all my data, I have published a book on-line and yet there is so much more that clever technos are creating. I am loving the experience.

Learning is a key to life. If you enjoy it rather than resent you have to do it life takes off.

I admit I have been a Start Treckie in the past. Mind you I don't watch much of anything these days, I prefer to investigate and learn.

Technology can open the way to better business. Technology will definitely leave us behind if we don't get on board.

If we, the business people, learn technology then we will stay in business and be on the forefront of business.

Buy a ticket to the future today, decide you will embrace technology and win!

Oh dear the Blog spell checker needs a ticket, it doesn't even recognise Facebook.

Opportunities

Opportunities are around but are we ready? It is not being in the right place at the right time or knowing the right people that is important but are we ready.

How do we get ready? How does an athlete get ready for a chance at gold? Although an athlete is not chosen to represent their country at any time they may be called upon to step up to the plate, they must be ready not sitting around in attitude or slothfulness.

There are stories told of athletes from different countries who were not on the original team but because they were ready and called upon did an amazing job.

Being ready means having done the study; sat the exams; passed the exams; having the cash; having the systems in place; doing business with a good attitude.

I remember listening to a CD by a speaker who was given an opportunity to take over a car sales lot, not because of his experience in car sales but his diligence in his existing field and his great attitude. He had the ability to raise what it cost him, a mere $50,000 compared to it's worth.

Others are watching you even when you wish they weren't. You ways are being observed. What do people see?

Disaster PLan

Last Friday I wrote out my disaster plan. What would I do if....... Yesterday I had a chance to test my plan. My computer crashed.

I followed the plan, tested it. I found areas that needed fixing. I realised that my second laptop was needing to be brought up to speed and be able to function just like the first one. I also realised I needed phone numbers in my IPhone that I had relied on finding on the Internet.

It is good to have a plan that is documented and tested.

I had only just organised a 'cloud provider' to do data backup for me daily and had just purchased a separate external hard drive. I do the plan, I backup as planned.

As it turned out the problem was not major and was fixed within hours. I did not need to full plan to be implemented but I was ready.

I am about to move into a new office and will need to extend that disaster plan. New elements will come into play. There is another person involved now and he will need to be involved in that plan.

It is important to have a plan and to work the plan.

Do You Do Deals With the Devil?

What do I mean? Have you been backed into a corner and made believe there is only one way out and that involves compromise?

Hang on and look for the right way. Don't sell yourself short. You will be found out and what will that look like? How will it affect your family? Will it cause you to lose them forever? Is it worth that?

You might be saying but you don't know what I am up against? Don't I? All of us are in a corner at least once in our lifetime and all of us are faced with the hard choices.

If you have an addiction to gambling, drugs alcohol, get help and sort it out. Your business needs you to be clean, your family need you to be clean. Look down the years and see your children grown. Will they be saying 'thanks for your example', or will it be 'I don't know you, go away'.

Make the hard choices, get help and get into a network and move on. Sure you might have a lot of hard work ahead, you may need to take on another job as well but it will be worth it.

I made the decision that I am going to live without a credit card. There are times when I don't have the money to do what I want to do. I have to wait. There is nothing wrong with waiting. Waiting is good for the character. Fast money destroys character.