Spend the Money

One of the biggest reasons small businesses fail is undercapitilization. If you're self-employed or compensated mostly on commission, you own your own business - like it or not.

Make sure you have sufficient funds to invest in the most valuable asset you have - YOU. Better clothes, better marketing materials, even an assistant - one that will allow you to utilize your wonderful strengths and not force you to do things you hate doing and frankly, are not good at.

Don't have the funds? Then why did you take this career path to begin with? Beg, borrow and steal to give yourself the needed resources to fulfill your potential. If that scares you a little, too bad. No one said this was going to be easy. Enjoy it and embrace the challange.

Living = taking some risk and believing in your ability.

Best tip I can give you - take UCLA or Louisville in your office pool. Have a great Wednesday!!!

Written versus Verbal

A customer verbally tells you that they "must have" 4 things in order to consumate a transaction. Are they telling you the truth or exagerating? Did they even give it much thought? Are they realistic?

If possible, try this - ask them to confirm, via e-mail, what they told you verbally. "Susan, can you please confirm what you must have in order to move forward with this purchase? Sorry to ask again, but I want to make sure that nothing is missed. Thanks."

You can say this a million different ways depending upon the situation and what you're selling. The bottom line - was the message consistent? Did their needs list increase or decrease? Did they not even respond, confirming that they may not be as serious as you initially thought?

Get it in writing and you will be that much closer to either making the sale or cutting them loose. Either way, you benefit.

Past, Present, Future

A big reason people never fulfill their potential is because they live in the past or the future. I know you've heard this before, and I'm not here to lecture you. But the fact remains, I work with sales people and entrepreneurs everyday, and this is one of the biggest factors in limiting their success.

"What could I have done?" Learn from the past but don't let it be the anchor that "sinks" you. There is still "time" to accomplish things in life. Reflection is good, obsession is not. Learn and move on.

"What should we do?" Look too far forward and you will miss the great things that happen every day. Also, you will spend way too much time in "planning" mode versus "doing" mode. Put a plan together for the future, and then get all of the little things that need to be done today, to make those BIG things happen tomorrow.