Two Minute Business Wisdom

Too many people throw themselves into business because of a feeling. But too many get trapped in their business because they never learn how to handle the truth. Understanding a Profit & Loss Statement is how you get to the truth in your business.

The kids at the counter of your favorite fast-food restaurant are marketing geniuses. Until you come to terms with upselling, you will not master business sales.

You pay your employees to do stuff for you instead of other people. You pay your new hires specifically for impact (maybe even instant impact). You pay your current employees to stay with you because you need continuity.

Multi-Level Marketing is big right now. They are easy ways to make supplement income and become a ‘business owner.’ And they are quick ways to get hopes dash and scammed out of your hard-earned money for the investment. It’s just a matter of doing your research before you join that upline.  

Jargon becomes the official language of a business entity easier than you think. But want those working on the businesses tend to forget is your customers and the general population does not know how to translate your jargon into plain speak.

Drug dealers have a product that people will stop at nothing to find a way to pay for. I am not suggesting you add trafficking to your menu of services, but that mentality that your best customers can afford whatever you charge.

You started your business as a means of financial and professional freedom. Making it so that you are the only person to complete all the critical jobs is not a path to freedom.

It is possible to obtain valuable wisdom from advice that cost you little or nothing to obtain. It is possible that some free advice you receive is not worth the time it takes to process it. Know the worth of the advice you get for free before you install it or consider paying the source for advanced knowledge.

Your relationships with potential clients work just like your relationships with potential lovers, and you can usually see the crazy and dysfunction early in the courting process.

If you want to run a business, prepare yourself to run an actual business.

Worry less about sparking a revolution with your product and more about using proven methods (and seeing things that already work) to earn money in your business.

A great way to juice your recruiting efforts is to cultivate a culture where being a member of your team has greater benefits than just a paycheck and maybe free snacks.

You can offer up your services for 'free' to those who can give you exposure or who need you but can not pay your full rates, but even this action requires you to know the true worth of your time.

The echo chamber that is your normal life can become a prison of thought that holds you back in business and in life.

Take the time to do a deep-dive into the core of your business to understand what you really do, and learn to communicate that to your customers.

Even if you operate a business in an industry with historically high turnover, it is essential to do what you can to retain trained talent, especially top-level talent.

Who is your customer not going to buy from when they start buying from you? Answering this question will help you in finding new customers and fight off losses of other customers.  

In case of an emergency, you want the most competent personnel you can find to handle the problem at a cost that is not obscene. You don’t have to like them, and they don’t have to like you.

Your packaging matters. Your promotional materials matter. Your product and performance will make the ultimate difference, but what they see on the way in matters a lot.

You may observe a business relationship that is akin to a marriage where one person ‘married up.’ These relations are more equal with respect to what each partner gets than you think.

The inability to manage credit is a quick way to lose control of your business. Credit is not given in order to buy expensive things, it is given for making delayed payments on things you can afford.

In order to have a successful business, you've got to get business done. If you are a one-person operation, then it is all up to you to get all the business done.

It really does take access to cash to make a business run. But how you spend that cash makes a difference in your real success.

You are always told to charge what you are worth, but how do you determine what that is?

The dark side of internet marketing is tempting. Do not be seduced by it. Unless you really want to.