Increase Sales Without Spending a Dime

by Bradley C Smith
 
The dream of becoming an entrepreneur.
 
Work from home.
 
Be with my kids when they get home from school.
 
Make extra money.
 
Travel when I want.
 
What is not to love about having your own business? But where do I begin? I would say this is the most common question that I here from my clients. They know that they can benefit from having a business, but they do not know what they want to do. These people may even have an idea of what they want to do but it is not yet a business. The difference between an idea and a business is that the idea lacks the structure that is necessary to generate a profit. We have to remember that for the majority of us we are in business to make a profit. I want my readers to understand if you want to succeed in your own business that you have to take the time to build the structure that will work.
 
When I was 16 years old I had the opportunity to travel to the Darien Jungle in Panama. While I was there I learned a valuable lesson. The lesson I learned was the "Value of Being Structurally Sound". I learned this lesson on the first night after we arrived in the village. You see the tribe that we were staying with used two methods of transportation up and down the river. After dark some members of my team were invited to go look for caiman. Now for those of you that do not know the caiman is some strange cross between an alligator and a crocodile. So if I'm going to go and look for prehistoric creatures I want a sound vessel to do it in. Now here were my choices. First I had the logs that were roped together with a large staff to move around. Second I had the hollowed out tree with a small 10 horse power motor that someone bought on a trip to the city. Now I had seen one to many movies to trust anything that was tied together. I took my chance in the hollowed out tree with a motor.
 
Looking back I feel that I made the right choice. I wish I could say that there was a dramatic ending to this story, but all I can say is that when we saw the caimans I felt a lot better knowing that I had a motor on my boat.
 
Now back to business. If day to day life is the caiman infested waters of the Darien jungle how structurally sound is your business? Have you taken the necessary time to dream and plan for success? Do we make sure that we have a strong entrance and exit strategy? Do we have one, five, ten and twenty year plans? If you find yourself in a position where you must answer no to any of these questions please take a moment and consider the statistics. Nine out of ten small businesses fail. These numbers lead to one point, and that is that only one out of ten small business owners took the time to ensure that the structure was sound. The next question that we must ask our self is what we can do to ensure that we have sound structures. I will discuss this in the future, but the top three things that we can do is first seek advice. Find someone out there whether it is a peer, a pastor, or mentor to give some insight on what you plan to do. Second take some time to look inward. Look inside and find out what makes you tick. What would you do for the rest of your life if you had zero financial obligations? Third I suggest that you be willing to be one of the nine that fail but fight like crazy to be the one. What I mean by this is that you have to be willing to fail. You have to be willing to take a chance, but do what ever steps necessary to avoid failure by always being open to sound advice.
 
About the author:
Matthew Habuda is the Founder of Habuda Consulting Group and Professional Success Consultant. He has spent his career in Sales, Customer Service, Learning and Development, Business Development, and Managerment. To learn more about Habuda Consulting Group, or to get in touch with Matthew send an email to Habudacg@gmail.com