Brilliant Customer Handling Hints

Every business thrives with the support of its loyal patriotic customers. Every businessman’s secret fantasy is to rake in as much people as he can get to patronize his product to get his business going. Just how is that possible? Simply show them thoughtfulness and caring. Make them feel important because that is exactly how they are: Important.

Recently I came across an internet write-up made by a self-confessed food lover and apparently a good cook too. And just like any other kitchen fanatic I know of, he searches for food outlets anywhere he wants to which offer just the right ingredients for him to concoct his own majestic dishes. According to this guy, he came to find a new deli downtown which offers almost the same excellent ingredients as any of the other stores. That is, the new food house doesn’t offer exclusivity when it comes to parma ham, parmesan cheese, pepperoni or what have you. He doesn’t even notice if this new-found place offers fresh picks at a cheaper price. So as a new customer, what made him patronize this place when it does not particularly offer an edge to other food stores? The answer is pretty simple: he was made to feel important there. Unlike any other store, he experienced careful customer handling within its walls. I believe the words he chose to describe his experience were “they have good customer service and are just so darn thoughtful.”

If every businessman’s goal is to gather more and more customers each day, every customer’s desire is to feel valuable. Customers don’t like to wait. But of course, in reality, it can be unavoidable at times so making them realize their wait will be worthwhile is the trick. As a businessman here’s a suggestion: try to rustle up what may appear to be impromptu activities to entertain your waiting customers. As our blogger experienced while waiting, he was offered a little bit of everything that is being sold in that establishment! Bits and pieces of everything sure can’t hurt your day’s income most especially when you are not looking to spend costly advertisements. At the close of business, surely you will have chuck up bits and pieces of everything anyway so why don’t you convert these loose pieces into advertising tools, right?

Give and receive is the golden rule we’ve learned for ages. This time, it’s not just being said but it’s actually being done.

Every now and then, a businessman encounters an indecisive customer. This is your typical fence sitter who wants something but due to the vast choices available, finally falls into the indecisive trap. The key to reading this customer’s mind is to offer them what you have. If for example he wants to buy coffee beans, offer him an idea how to choose! Just how to do this? Make him a small cup of coffee of that recommended bean. Make him taste it. Start from that little gesture and work your way to getting him to buy it.

In the end, it all boils down to one thing: let them feel important. In all honesty, this is how you get to have loyal patronizing customers who will get your business going.

Emulating Richard Branson With His Publicity Stunts

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Have you done something that defies convention? Have you tried emulating the publicity stunts that Richard Branson is famous for? Maybe it is now the right time to try to take a plunge and see if indeed it works.

Richard Branson is a very daring businessman. His audacity defies the established marketing and publicity methods and conventions but his results are stunningly positive. He has done a lot of publicity stunts that he is on his way of making a great name for himself aside from being an astute billionaire. He is even a lot more famous with all his stunts than the companies he tries to endorse.

It would be relatively easy to pull a publicity stunt when you are considerably famous already. To site an example is the known skirmish between Gordon Ramsay and Tracey Grimshaw. Their public battle is a huge publicity opportunity waiting to be utilised and exploited. It has been a subject of interest within the political community, domestic and abroad. Publicity however is not strictly limited to those who are originally famous. Ordinary citizens could definitely do the same with almost the same effect. An example of this was when Alain Robert , an ordinary Frenchman, climbed the RBS. Had you been able to convince him to advertise your business while on top of RBS, sure your business would have generated an unprecedented publicity. That is the true power of publicity; it could literally change and revolutionize a business. It does not necessarily have to be as daring as what Richard Brandon usually does; it only has to possess the essentials of an effective publicity stunt. It has to be creative enough to capture the interest and grab the attention of your audience. When my mother-in- law owned a number of dressing salons many years ago, someone threw a brick against her windows. She made the situation productive by getting creative with the incident. She painted the cracks to project an artistic effect and then had it photographed to be included in the daily newspapers circular saying that people can’t wait until morning to gain entrance into her salons. That was such an impressive publicity stunt!

If you wish to do your own publicity stunt, make sure to have solicited enough ideas from your mentors and closest friends to give you a good grasp of the risks and preparations involved. Ask for advice, learn from those people who benefited from it, and ask them how it could have worked.

Boosting your Business Revenue in less than a Year

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Krista Neher, launched Boot Camp Digital sometime in 2008. During that time, Boot Camp Digital is a social media marketing company that already had quite an impressive list of clientele. But like any business owner, Krista wanted more.

When asked what was her game plan to grow the business, Krista mentioned that during her first year, she reevaluated her business model. She wanted more revenue streams. During her re-evaluation, it seemed that the most logical way to expand her business was to hire more people. This was one strategy though that she didn’t want to employ.

It was then that Krista came up with an ingenious solution. She began to develop products that highlighted her expertise. Instead of her doing one-on-one training sessions on social media, she decided to use technology to reach out to a bigger audience.

Boot Camp Digital launched their Social Media DVD in March of 2009. Now, training videos can be bought from the Boot Camp Digital website. Krista also began offering social-media boot camps at her office. So, instead of doing on-on-one sessions, she can now facilitate these sessions with a bigger audience- about thirty people at a time.

In less than a year, Krista Neher has expanded her business from a few clients to thousands. When asked on what she advice she can share for entrepreneurs like us, she has these pieces of advice in expanding a business.

Her first advice is to look at your current business model. Krista suggests that business objectives should be well-defined by what success looks like to you, as a business owner. Moreover, she also suggests to come up with very creative ways on how to change one-on-one interactions to one-on-one-hundred situations.

Furthermore, in evaluating your business model, she also suggests to also consider changing the way you sell and changing your location. Krista gave a coffee shop she came across as an example. This certain coffee shop started selling at a farmer’s market during weekends. According to her, she talked to the owners and found out that the coffee shop was making about eighty percent of their revenue while operating at only twenty percent of cost by selling two days at the market.

Aside from coming up with clear-cut business objectives for expansion and changing the way to sell and looking at the best locations, Krista also suggests to come up with scalable marketing ideas. She has done this in Boot Camp Digital to boost her bottom line. What she did was instead of attending a lot of networking events, she signed up for her local Chamber of Commerce. She then posted her training classes on their calendar. What’s more is that she joined as many local calendar listings she could find. She also built an email list, employed search engine optimization techniques, and improved her website.

The result of all of Krista’s effort is that she is looking at the potential of doubling her revenue for the next year. It might also be a good idea to try out her suggestions to achieve the same success she had.

Negotiation Skills are the Keys to any Business Deal

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Negotiation will always be a required skill for business owners. Negotiation not only involves closing the deal, but also coming up with a desirable situation for both parties. The ideal result in any negotiation is to have an agreement where both parties can get the best results. Here are nine suggestions that you can employ in order to make your negotiation skills work for you.

1. Know your product very well

It’s your product and you should be the expert. Customers are coming to you under the perception that you have what they need. As a business owner, your job now is to ensure that your clients fully understand what it is that you’re offering, and how they would benefit from your product or service. Likewise, if a client is giving you a low-ball offer, knowing the ins-and-outs of your product can come into play. Knowing your product’s features, advantages, and benefits like the back of your hand can pretty much allow you to re-negotiate the terms and make the customer realize that the product or service deserves more than what they’re initially offering.

2. Make sure to Communicate effectively

Negotiation, very much like any form of communication, is a two-way street. In negotiating, you always need to make sure that you communicate with the other party effectively. You can do this by actively listening to what the other party is saying, then saying your piece, then repeating the process until an agreement is reached. One major no-no in communicating is when you talk-over the other party. Make sure to only talk when it’s your turn, ask questions when you need clarification, and paraphrase your customer’s statements when necessary. Doing so will avoid any miscommunication.

3. Don’t Trade in Your Values just to Make a Quick Buck

People respect those who stand by their principles. And believe me, there will be times when your personal integrity will be put to the test when doing business deals. Stay true to your ideals and you will be respected by your clients.

4. Avoid Low Margin Offers

Low margin offers may look good initially. It’s easy to overlook contracts with minimal profit because it is safe to say that at least you’re still earning; but think of the long term effects. Contracts with low margins eventually cost more in the long run. You might not realize it but, your investment , especially time, sometimes cost more than the contract’s worth in the long run.

5. Don’t take the First Offer

It is always given that during negotiations, the customer will always start at the lowest possible rate or price for your service. Always keep in mind that your client’s agenda is to get the best possible service or product at the lowest possible rate. As a business owner, it is your job to make sure that you also get what your service or product is worth. Being amenable to the first offer might strip you of any potential of higher revenue.

6. Actions Speak Louder than Words

As a business owner, you also need to have the knack of reading your customer’s actions. Even though your customers may not explicitly say it, but you can always gauge where you are when it comes to the customer’s list. Some good body language from the customers are quick return calls, strict adherence to appointments, and getting back to you at the time they had promised.

7. Be Consistent

Like in any other negotiation, consistency is always the key. If you used certain formats for a letter, email or presentation, always remember to stick to that format during the entire process. Being consistent, even in the smallest of details, tell your customers that your product or service is also consistent when it comes to quality.

8. Don’t Count Your Chickens Before They’ve Hatched

We’re all too familiar with this expression. There are a lot of things, foreseen and unforeseen, that can happen during any negotiation. Only celebrate your success in closing the deal once you’ve already put your mark on that contract.

9. Always follow the Process

Don’t try to circumvent the negotiation process by doing some things that are ‘under the table.’ Your customer, or his/her representative, are bound by procedures; and so are you. Engaging in agreements not found in any company policy or work contract might not only lose you the deal, but it might also earn you years in the slammer as well.

Bad Employees & Franchises

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Here is the scenario. Investing with a franchise is what you have been thinking for quite a time now; however, there is just one thing that you do not want to compromise with. You affirmatively do not want to be tormented with employees. Existing franchisees confirmed this. Earning good and trusted employees is like one in a million. They are hard to find and yet it is more challenging and resource-exhausting to retain them. This issue has been an argument for the past 15 years for most franchisees.

Consider the aforementioned scenario to be more of a challenge with a readily available solution. If you do not want to deal with employees, then you can purchase a franchise that does not necessitate any of them. On the other side, this scheme may not be capable of embodying your dream business, the business that can reflect your joy and passion. It only embodies basic and typical sales roles. Another downside of it is that it can obligate you to possess specialized skills where only you can fulfill and perform satisfactorily.

I might say that it is not feasible and rational, for practicality’s sake. There are unveiled truths in order to keep you from being tormented by your employees.

Initially, decide what franchise companies you will be concentrating on to confine the number. This will lead you to companies that will most likely decrease employee hassles. Distinguish the kind of products and services they render, the number of employees it will need to progress effectively and efficiently and the degree of difficulty to recruit and hire them. Consider the accessibility of the local companies for you to inquire about the current number of employees. Furthermore, take into account the overall appearance of the business environment that can maintain your employees to continuously work there than other comparable business environment.
Next is to contemplate on the type of business where the average employees can celebrate on better compensations and benefits. The business should also foster a working environment where the employee skills learned are exclusively for the chosen, and not for the masses. A combination of both factors will give you higher luck on better employee recruitment and retention. Moreover, the cost of recruitment and retention will be lesser as you keep happy and experienced employees in the long run. Most of all, you will gain their loyalty.

Lastly, you have the freedom to ask queries from current franchisees about the issue on employee hassles. Take the advantage while you are still performing your investigation. You may question about the number of employees and the ways they maintain them and the compensations associated. You may also ask how they resolve employee dilemmas and if the going gets tough, the estimated finances it require them to recruit new employees. The way they supply you the answers can help you discern whether this type of business can control the problems.

In the event that you emerge as a new franchisee, keep in mind that the related experiences will be on a mainstream first. If existing franchisees are experiencing employee dilemma and if you selected the same franchise, then it will be more probable that you will share the same commonalities as them. If otherwise, then you can hope that neither you will encounter such.

A spark of hope will hit you when you know that a few years back, franchisees do not treat such issues as extensive and burdensome. Yet being ignorant about it the can lead you more harm than desirable, so do some thorough research and discussion about this issue before you venture on a type of business franchise.

Attraction: The Best Public Relations Strategy

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You might need to change your public relations strategy in time for an ever changing market trends. Your previous strategies may not work anymore to gain business deals. You should start using attraction in developing your business.

Attraction is presenting your business in front of your potential clients, with all its strengths, capacities and capabilities, in such a way that they feel attracted to doing business with you. Simply put, your business should hold out a performance that will surely entice your clients. That is how attraction works.

Attraction could best be exemplified in an event where your audience will have a firsthand experience of you and your business’ unquestionable expertise. They must literally be able to test the authenticity of your claims for you to gain their trust and confidence. You must obviously get the attention of your audience by making a connection with them. Give them some practical examples that they could readily identify and relate with. Identify their needs and talk how you could respond to those needs. When you do this, you are certainly doing the principle of attraction.

The following are some benefits of attraction:

Practicality

People will find this strategy practical because they will experience it first hand and will have a good grasp of the message you are conveying.

Less effort, great rewards

You do not spend much effort attracting people than when approaching them. People who basically have the same perspective as you will just easily get attracted to you. People mostly prefer doing business with someone of the same vibe.

Statistically favourable

In attraction, all you need to do is present your business with great craft, and theoretically will leave the people to decide. There is no failure here, because you did not approach, you just attract, therefore giving you a greater probability of success.

No rejections

Since you do not approach people to avail of your business, there is no opportunity for rejection. You don’t get to experience the demoralizing effects of rejection.

Greater coverage

In attraction, you have no biases whom to approach because you initially do not do the approaching. Your efforts are centred on attracting businesses to you. You are not bound by limitations; on the other hand, you get to have greater coverage because people and other businesses that you do not even know existed, approach you.

Peculiarly relevant

People sometimes need something new, something entirely different than what they are used to. Through attraction, you offer a relevant difference among your competition therefore increasing your chance of bagging a business deal.

Image of leadership

Attraction will afford you the opportunity to present yourself as a leader in your industry, which will all the more attract more people towards you.

No selling

You do not need to worry about selling because there is no actual selling anymore. All you need to do is talk and write about your business, and then start for the attraction to set in.

You are actively participating

One good thing about attraction is you are actively participating to the new ideas available. You are always ahead of the game and are always on the lookout to attract more, to attract more than your competitors do.

You may have to invest time and resources before you see the results of your attraction efforts, but over time you will reap the rewards while you are enjoying the tasks. Start polishing your public relations strategy now through attraction, and be on your way to success.

Full Use Of Marketing Budget

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One dollar is already worth an investment, especially for the marketing budget of most small businesses. How will a small business cover its expenses given with a moderate amount of budget? From a minimum allocation to an ample return of income, presented are action plans which can result to something more.

Find other ways to advertise. Advertisements are too economical to produce and to operate. Luckily, there are ways in which you can publicize with the least expenditure. Ensuring that your advertising messages get straight to your target audience can recompense its meaningfulness.

Gather your reprints and disseminate them to your target consumers in every possible way you can imagine. You can incorporate a reprint of your ad in a whole deal or package when prospects will inquire about something. Placing your ad in direct mails such as reply letters and cards is also an advisable method. The more they come across with the message, the more your ad will be recognized and emphasized.

Start within your departments. To double the effect of the strategy, disseminate your ads to your sales agents so they too can be notified with your current marketing and promotional schemes. They should possess copies of the ads in order for them to impart the promotion when they come face-to-face with the customers.

Maximize the spaces utilized in the reprints, from the front portion to its back. Additional information and specifications will maximize the consumers’ exposure to your advertisement. Plus, you will have the benefit of reducing the costs in creating a new blueprint.

The main point here is to take advantage of your ads in variations and sharpen your creative thinking. Increase the iteration of your ads. Overtime, it will also increase the consumer attention.

Be Loyal. Why will you alter a marketing campaign when it is still reactive and effective to the people? This practice has become a mediocrity among marketers. Break the monotony. One should not waste on what is still useful in marketing promotions. Persistence is more than just that. It can be very rewarding as well. You do not have to go back and start all over. If the campaign just needs an update of information, then do it simply so long as it is still serving and convincing for the people.

Creativity and originality does not sacrifice the functionality. That is the truth for advertisement print outs and literatures. When a business has an additional budget, it should not exhaust much on manufacturing fancy, brightly colored, glossy-feel and thick prints. The physical property of the prints show should always complement and reflect what your products and services are all about and not by any outside influential factors. What you want is to be understood by your target audience, not to create confusion and complication among them.

Not an ordinary product literature. Contesting about how to promote a service or product to different sectors in the market is one of the disputed points especially when the budget is only limited for small businesses. One resolution of the given predicament is to use a modular product literature. A modular product literature is simply a brochure that contains carefully tailored sections for varying market divisions and specific readers. It is like an all-in-one layout of a product literature suitable for a wide range of audience to satisfy unique market needs and demands. The modular layout can be edited and customized depending on the type of audience with the use of the same basic template.

Support with article reprints. Having a limited budget for product literatures can be almost impossible for small businesses to meet the demands of the audience for a more customized sales literature. They require for such in order to be presented with a definite explanation of the product or service’s features. The answer for the problem is to support your sales literature with reprints of articles.

Have your staff members write an article for the designated topics and publish them on journals. The articles can be then reprinted and used as more creditable sources of information to support product literatures compared to separate promotional pieces.

Discover other economical means for a wide-spread generation. Organic searches, public relations and banner advertisements are cheaper substitutes to competently generate leads in the market. Publish your press releases on available and feasible media outlets and on your promotional online sites. Boost the optimization of your press releases with keywords to induce more traffic for organic searches.

Wisely hire other competitive talents and not overspend in exchange for the services of outside experts who can charge you with more than what you can afford. There are those capable and highly competent freelancers whom you can hire and pay within the means of your budget. It is impractical to give much of the compensation for some experts for hire where in fact, the task can be actually fulfilled excellently with freelancers who only require a more minimal compensation in exchange for their services.

Better to use the inside resources. For practicality, it is more cost-saving to let a reliable staff of yours to complete a task that is within his or her skills and capability. Having a full-time, part-time or dedicated worker to manage some operations inside is a definite advantage too. Only then will your hire for outside consultants or agencies when the tasks to be done are in dire need of specialized knowledge and skills.

Be resourceful. To reduce and save time and effort, you can adapt previous or existing illustrations, texts, images, diagrams or any blueprints for another promotional literature. The concept of reusing and recycling is basically applicable here in this strategy. Ascertain only that the items you will be reusing are qualified for the new project.

Be prompt in payments. Being punctual in making payments to your valuable vendors will award you with possible discounts. Settle the payments on time and always be true to your words. Your reputation should not be blemished with any falsifications. For the forthcoming projects, you can have more decent services and prices from them.

10 Social Media Marketing Commandments

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Pay Attention. Commandments aren’t meant to be interesting.

Applying the basics of social media and content marketing can give a competitive edge for your business to upraise the current level of your consumer base. However, in order to use and enjoy the full potential and capacity of these marketing strategies, you should first establish a strong understanding and comprehension about their specifications. Without previous experiences and insight, it can be challenging to learn their languages.

Only when you learn the basics of social media and content marketing will you take advantage of their capabilities. Therefore, you can’t disregard the purpose of the fundamentals. If you want to advance, then better know them by heart. Abide to the commandments and you will attain your greatest mean, the bottom line.

The Commandment of Paying Attention

The ingredient of the social media and content marketing success is less talk and a lot of listening. You have to be WITH your target audience and know what their best interests are. In fact, it is not all about you. It is all about serving the best interests and affection of your target audience. Read their thoughts written online. Associate yourself with them through online forums. It is only then you can intensify and strengthen consumer value.

The Commandment of Specialization

With specialization comes greater opportunity to surpass and to be superior. A vague social medial and content marketing strategy has a minimal contingency of success while a distinctive centralized strategy brings forth the chances of success.

The Commandment of Essence

The essence and feature win over the figures. Better are few World Wide Web networks and intermediaries wherein they focus and discuss quality contents with their own consumers than having a million online connections which will abandon their consumers when they initially keep in touch.

The Commandment of Endurance

Success is not instant. The same thing happens with social media and content marketing success. One must endure and commit to the journey in order to attain the pleasing repercussions of patiently waiting and working.

The Commandment of Connection

Developing highly-structured and error-free contents together with establishing a network of quality online followers results to linkages and bonds. As your loyal followers tend to repost and somehow advertise your contents on their blogs and other social media accounts, it will lead to a promising broadcast. And through that course, it will give birth to new dimensions where numerous potential consumers can discover you as competent.

The Commandment of Prominence

Online users will tend to flock on the giant and influential networks and markets. It is therefore worthy correlating to them who have the same enthusiasm with your business and lay a strong foundation of professional and working relationship with them. They might present your content to a large online audience.

The Commandment of Worth

Do not just limit your focus only on promoting and advertising your products and services. You must be cognizant about the value of hosting sensible conversations with your target audience. Take time to know what your audience’s preferences are and create a strong relationship with prominent online authorities. Generate more comprehensive and impressing contents. After all, they are possible catalysts of spreading your business throughout the market.

The Commandment of Appreciation

Keep your doors open for those people who may come and reach out to you. Learning to appreciate them will help nourish possible relationships that can be an undoubting asset to your social media marketing success.

The Commandment of Availability

Circulating your contents and then vanishing will definitely violate the ethics of professionalism. Always be consistent and receptive with your audience. Continually publish your contents and partake with communication. Losing your valuable followers will eventually take its toll on you.

The Commandment of Mutuality

Both parties mutually benefitting from each other—this is the concept of reciprocity. Reciprocating by sharing and discussing other’s published content is a way of helping to disseminate your own content across the Web. The golden rule supplements this law when you “do unto others what you want others to do unto you”.

Any Publicity Is Good Publicity. Or Is It?

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Today, do you think that majority of the publicists and experts in public relations still believe in the saying that goes “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”? Well, many of them still have this sign placed on their desks.

Most of them take the aggressive resolution for publishing press releases. The same thing goes for some business owners. And their fundamental hope is to win the many hearts of the public. It upholds acquiring of the approval from the possible consumers on some ambiguous webpage, even with only a small amount of hope, that it will in a way build and expand their existence as body of business. That is the reality business owners are biting into.

It will not always be on the unsatisfactory side though. There are some who come out as victorious. If you want to announce a grand launching of a business through every forms of media outlet, then spreading the good news to your local neighborhood and nearby, adjacent communities and possibly beyond can be as compelling. What are the chances if you came up with your new and good book? Then you may have an interest in offering your business to some Web portals to quote a passage lifted from your book. To be more distinct however, it is more persuasive and striking to take a targeted approach.

Covering the general public with press releases and other advertisements can have four aspects to potentially backfire. Namely, these are:

Endorsing your own news to uninterested consumers attempting them to patronize your goods and services can just result to financial resource, time and effort wastage. It is just as awful as having an unreturned attention and income.
Possessing a substandard public relations and connection with the target audience subjects a website to slow down the traffic, or worse, drive the traffic off of the site.
When the overall appeal of the media outlet you have appointed for your news does not have the quality reputation, is just plain boring, is just jam packed with disrupted layout of cheap pay-per-click advertisements and worse, the website’s contents are unedited and are full of erroneous information, expect that it will do your reputation more harm than good.
Not putting worth on the contents and not including essential information does not put a competitive edge in your brand or business. That does not at all give justice to it.

Content marketing and public relations have more important purposes. One of which is to create a focus of your proposals to writers, bloggers, editors, reporters and other public influencers and advertisers who exercise similar enthusiasm to broadcast your announcements and thoughts that you generate. Centering your attention to media outlets which have consumers that are interested in your products and services can escalate the chances of you winning over their favors.

Through the ability of the reputable content marketing and public relations, rest assured that out of the billion people worldwide, there are those consumers who will give value to what you are trading them. Through the mentioned aspects, there are no questions about the quality and relevance of the site where your business contents will appear.

So, you already know the proposition that there is such an existence of bad publicity. And worse, there are other ambiguous media outlets which will just produce and publicize anything creating a scramble of ideas headed toward nothing. It devalues your business and reputation hence driving your potential consumers away and navigating you towards no accomplishment. Bad publicity or good publicity, you are always prompted with a choice.

Self-Assessment on One’s Readiness to Work for One ’s Self

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Are you in love or just in love with the feeling of being in love?

Starting a business is much like falling in love – you finally get to do what you love doing, earn a living from it and get the chance to actually contribute to the betterment of the market you are targeting. But like falling in love, one has to do an honest self-assessment prior to starting a business to make sure, for one’s own sake and sanity, that the urge is indeed genuine and will thus be sturdy enough to withstand the tests surely to come.

Self-Assessment 1: Uncover the Real Objectives Why You Wish to Work for Yourself

If you are currently employed, what is moving you to drop your position for a business of your own? Determine if it is simply frustration from your current work. Is it the colleagues around you, the superiors handling you, the company culture misaligned from your own or the present compensation package? If it is the pay, is it the dream to earn a better living the motivating force that is driving you to start your own enterprise? Is it independence that you wish? Or is it all because of your gut feel that you have a head for business so you think you’ll be good at it?

Take heed in these guide questions because they form the very thin line between victory and downfall.

One blogger once shared that her friend and neighbor, who goes by the name of Brian, knew she worked at home and had been doing it for quite some time by then. Because Brian had had enough of his then boss, he called it quits and decided to make it on his own. Having experienced human relations management for some years then, Brian thought he’d try his hand on real estate selling using the skills he has acquired. Passing qualifications and becoming an agent was easy. But as Brian realized, it did not end there.

It became a chore for Brian to have to wake up each day to get property listings because without those leads, one will not be able to make a sale. Because it is only after work that potential clients have free time to actually discuss business, Brian’s phone rang nonstop most evenings which caught him unawares and horrified.

Last she saw him, he was a wreck, ready to place himself back in the employment market again to find another job. Brian realized there is more to self-employment than not having to undergo daily travelling to and from your office.

Self-Assessment 2: Instill Self Discipline to Work for Yourself

Understand that being your own boss does not immediately spell freedom to do whatever you want and when you want it. Throwing all caution in the wind will only lead to disaster. If you dream of success for your own business, you must understand that with it comes self discipline. Prepare yourself to spend long hours especially at the onset of your start-up company. Excite yourself with opportunities every day such as gaining new skills like marketing or developing improving habits like waking up early every morning to make things work.

Your support system must also be brought up to speed on your new venture. They must understand that although you will be more or less handling your own time, this does not necessarily mean they can simply butt in any second and expect you to drop everything just to focus on them.

Self-Assessment 3: Cash Management

Once started, keep in mind that there are two types of capital in business: your start-up and your working capital. Once the first few deals are sealed and paid, be cautious not to feel like a one-day millionaire and surprise the town on a spending spree thus draining you of cash needed to keep your business operations going from day to day. If at the moment money for you feels like an exhilarating opportunity to spend for something – no matter what it is, it is recommended you take a quick course on money management.

Self-Assessment 4: The Importance of Perseverance

When you start a business, ensure that what you invest into is really your passion. There will come a time when things will turn rough and stormy, that is a fact. If you are not passionate of your business, you will not have the will to continue and simply give up. Perseverance is one of the best traits of successful entrepreneurs. Just like a flower seed newly planted in your garden, you cannot expect to sow it today, water it later and enjoy its bloom the next day. Remember, easy come, easy go. Once you start your trade, invest time and patience in it long enough to see it grow to eventually give you the rewards you’ve been dreaming of.