Introduction
1 - Master Potential
2 - Master Goals
3 - Master Time
4 - Master Money & Work
5 - Master Small Business
6 - Master Real Estate
7 - Master Health
8 - Master Mind
9 - Master Relationships
10 - Master Life
Conclusion

Lesson Five - Master Small Business

Operational Guidelines

Control your own future by owning your own small business.
Offer a quality product or service that the market demands.
Appreciate your customer.
Copy success.

   With the uncertainties of working for someone else, you may decide that your best career option is to opt out and become an entrepreneur, working for yourself. As an entrepreneur, you decide on your own compensation and your own working conditions.

   No boss or business owner is likely to pay you the salary that you would pay yourself. You might receive little bonuses and raises but managers tend to be careful in not appearing to favor one individual over the team. Or, if there is a union involved, your pay is likely tied to a contract regardless of your individual performance.

   Begin with the realization that most bosses and business owners are themselves just average thinkers and doers. Many simply plod along in a routine from Friday to Friday. They themselves are not highly motivated. Many managers rise not as a result of talent or even ambition but simply as a consequence of seniority or attrition. These supervisors may be unaware or unimpressed by an energetic subordinate. It is possible that you could find yourself on a corporate treadmill where hard work is unacknowledged and unappreciated.

   In boom times, companies are expected to honor quota systems, provide career training and pile on vacation, health and retirement benefits. During recessions, administrative power reverts back to companies who will hire more part-timers, hire/fire at will and slash compensation and benefits.

Own Your Own Business

You can take control of your career and financial future by owning your own small business. There are three simple rules that you must follow to run a successful small business.

You must offer a quality product or service that the market demands and charge a fair price.
You must appreciate your customer and ask for more business.
You must copy success. Find the leaders in your industry and do what they are doing.

   That's about it.

   Mow lawns. Clean houses. Build decks. Cut hair. Take baby pictures. Organize weddings. Cater. Manage beach cottages. Set up office electronics. Make movies. Promote musicians. Drive a taxi. There are thousands of different products and services that your local market demands and will always demand. Work hard. Work smart. Work for yourself. Do what needs to be done. Do simple, basic jobs and your economic future is close to recession proof.

   The object of being in business is to make money. You follow the three rules to business success. Work is work. Work at work. Many jobs are not glamorous or fun but they are career opportunities that will pay the bills and allow you to build an investment fund. You can become rich and retire early, running a golf pro shop or selling cosmetics. Or, you can become rich and retire early by pumping septic tanks and hauling hazardous waste. Take your choice; both strategies can work. It is your style and attitude that matter.

   You are a thinking person of action. You can own one sandwich shop and build that one shop into a chain of dozens or hundreds or thousands of sandwich shops. Others have done this. You can do what others have done.

   You can own a small martial arts dojo and keep expanding and improving that one dojo until you have a long waiting list of applicants. When you have a premium product or service in high demand, you can demand premium rates.

   You are always alert and aware and thinking. You see a successful gourmet cheese shop in one upscale town. Why can't you replicate this business in another upscale town? Copy success. There are millions of millionaires; why not you?

Owning a small business provides a wonderful instructional tool for raising hard working, responsible children.

   Yes, you really can take over your uncle's dry cleaning business and leap beyond your peers. Yes, you really can turn your uncle's one store into your six stores. Yes, you can get rich from ironing shirts and mending pants.

   You decide. You are smart. You are hard working. You are in control.

   Yes, you really can mow lawns. Yes, you really can wash windows or clean houses or office buildings. You can detail cars. You can groom pets. If you're good with numbers or computers, you can be a freelance bookkeeper or web designer for small businesses. You can broker domain names. If you are well organized, you can be a property manager. If you are well organized and tough, you can charge a premium as a property manager in a tough neighborhood. If you are handy or have a trade, you offer property maintenance/trade services to homeowners, commercial building owners or landlords. If you are really good at something like tennis, guitar, chess or Chinese, you can organize clinics and start tutoring. Find a specialized online niche. You can sell autographed movie posters or topaz jewelry or antique fly fishing equipment.

   Start bootstrapping. Find a product to sell and start selling to family, friends, neighbors, colleagues and local businesses. If you like driving, lease a limo or a truck and start finding customers. If you love baking, sell baked goods at farmers markets, to cafes and restaurants. If you love antique cars or rare books, find one car or book and then find a buyer. Find a buyer online or at a convention. Buy another classic car or rare book. Repeat. Build a business base with one satisfied customer at a time. This is not easy. This is not supposed to be easy. Knocking on doors and selling is the hard part of the job. Delivering the product or service is the easy part. You are hardcore. You do the hard things. If you wish, you can save time and grow by hiring others to do the easy parts of the job. However, as the business owner, you can not delegate everything. You are still responsible for the rain making which means creating a buzz for your company. You must find a continuing stream of new customers, making sure that those customers become your ambassadors, sing your praises and, ultimately, stay loyal, repeat consumers.

Since it is ten times harder to find and sell to a new customer than to resell to an existing satisfied customer, you build your business on loyal, repeat customers and not one time samplers. Who but your customers is giving you money? Identify and satisfy your customers' needs. Constantly let your customers know that you appreciate them. Constantly communicate with and feed your network.

The Workforce

   Alert and aware, evaluate your workforce. Typically, seventy percent of workers are average performers simply doing their jobs, going through the motions. This type of worker is available in ready supply. Ten percent of workers may be underperforming and should be replaced. The top twenty percent of workers are highly motivated, take pride in their accomplishments and their performance generally exceeds expectations.

   You are in business. Your business is your benign dictatorship and not a socialist cooperative or even a democracy. You do have to treat all employees fairly regarding working conditions. However, unless you are constrained by a union contract, you do not have to compensate all employees equally. You will have top producers who are not easily replaceable. These top producers can, should and must be pampered. Give the elite few everything they want to stay motivated, loyal and happy. If your replaceable employees grumble, well, replace them.

   Alert and aware, constantly be on the lookout for top performers. If you meet them working at Starbucks or at an industry convention, hire them. Also, reward your best employees for finding and recommending other extraordinary workers. From the beginning, make it your policy to take your time and hire the right employees. If you hire poor performers, all your speeches and all the feel good management handbooks will be of little use. It is almost impossible, to teach and motivate a slacker, or to retrain or reinvigorate a burnout.

Businesses are built hiring one productive employee after another. Hire slowly and fire quickly. One good apple can motivate. One bad apple can ruin the bushel.

The Parable of Mario

   Mario is a young Master of Success. Mario starts with nothing and gains everything.

   Mario has a positive mental attitude. Day one, Mario's only physical asset is a rusty old lawnmower. However, Mario's greatest assets are his mind, his determination and his willingness to take decisive action.

   Mario gets up early on the first day of the rest of his life and starts knocking on doors asking, "May I mow your lawn?" He goes from house to house. Usually, no one answers. When a door is opened, he is cordially rejected or rudely dismissed. He persists. After three hours of knocking, his life changes forever. He gets his first customer. Mario is in business.

   It isn't easy mowing a lawn with that rusty old mower yet Mario puts in the effort necessary to do a good job. Mario follows up to make sure that the customer is satisfied. He asks his customer if he can come back to mow the lawn again. He asks if there is any other yard or inside work that the homeowner needs. He removes an air conditioner and cleans a garage. In three hours, he makes sixty dollars. Mario asks for a testimonial and a referral.

   The first day Mario knocks on doors for three hours and works for a single customer for three hours and he makes sixty dollars or ten dollars an hour. For someone who had nothing, he now has something. Most importantly, in exchange for a quality service, Mario has a satisfied customer and has begun a business relationship which may generate thousands of dollars in income over the coming years.

Every successful business is built one satisfied customer after another. Do a good job. Show your appreciation. Communicate. Follow up and ask for more business. Repeat. You don't stagnate. You don't presume. Build a brand and keep that brand in front of your customers. Testimonials are most important. Your website presence is important. Your advertising and public relations and giving back to your community are all important.

   That first night, Mario buys a pre-paid cell phone. He goes to the library and prints a flyer outlining his landscaping and homeowner services. Of course, he proudly includes his testimonial which is an independent verification of the quality of his work. At the copy shop, he prints a hundred flyers. The next day, he is back to knocking on doors, and if there is no answer, he leaves a flyer. If there is an answer, he introduces himself and explains his work in the area. He mentions his testimonial and he leaves a flyer. Mario also posts his flyers in all of the pizza shops and laundromats and markets.

   What kind of a crazy nut would do what Mario is doing? Doesn't he realize that what he is doing is demeaning and fruitless? Isn't the economy in the tank? Aren't people cutting back on expenditures? What about the cost of gasoline and the banking crisis and Chinese trade policies? Doesn't Mario read the financial press? How many people have to tell Mario that he can't do what he is doing?

   Within a week, Mario is working six hours a day and canvassing two hours. He has eight satisfied customers. He is mowing lawns and doing odd jobs. One of Mario's customers is a graphic designer who helps Mario design a better flyer and a yard sign to post while he's working. In exchange for mowing her lawn five times, he barters a design for a simple web page.

   Mario is frugal and in a month, he has saved enough for a down payment on a used truck. He hires his first employee. The graphic designer creates a logo for Mario's Home Services. To project a professional image, Mario's sister embroiders the logo on a few polo shirts and he has two dozen t-shirts silk screened with the logo. He has business cards and stationary. Mario's professional appearance separates his premium landscaping service from the local competition.

   Mario knows that he can't sit on his hands waiting for business to come to him; he goes after the business. He is pro-active. He is a rainmaker accepting responsibility both for keeping old business and finding new business.

   After a few months, Mario has built a loyal base of satisfied customers. This relationship of trust is an asset and allows Mario to expand his service offerings. All homeowners appreciate competent, reliable and clean contractors who follow up. As he continues to build his business, Mario supervises sub-contractors: carpenters, plumbers, masons and electricians who are capable and willing to meet his demanding criteria. Mario consciously brands his company as a dependable premium home services resource.

   After the first year, Mario's business has grown to the point that he can organize separate crews with separate managers. Mario works from a small office and co-coordinates projects. He is a problem solver. He begins giving back to his community. He plants trees and buys an outdoor seating bench for the town senior center. He makes sure that the town's war memorials are properly landscaped. His voluntary activities are noted and he garners positive publicity for his business which garners more business. Mario does well for himself by doing good for others. His success isn't magic. He provides a valuable service, does an excellent job and appreciates his customer.

You are the boss. You are the owner. You must be the catalyst, the person of action. Especially in the formative stages of your business, you must be prepared to work very hard to build a strong foundation of loyal employees and satisfied customers. You lead by example and with a policy manual outlining expectations and consequences.

   In the coming years, Mario can continue to build on his strong base. Perhaps he starts a commercial cleaning division. Maybe he buys out competitors and smaller companies. He could start a retail/wholesale nursery. With his construction contacts, he may decide to enter the home or office building businesses.

   Mario is a Master of Success; a tough, thoughtful, spiritual, person of action. He works hard and builds his business step by step by step. Take an idea and move that idea forward. Get going: research, attempt, build, adjust, hire, fire, appreciate and follow-up. Who is doing what you want to do? How can you do the same or better? Copy the leaders. Profit and invest back in the business. Find one customer, then two and then a hundred and two. Inspire your staff. "We work very hard. We do a great job. We all make good money. Mediocrity is not an option. Get with the program or get lost."

   Mario's story is illustrative of what a Master of Success can accomplish with a small business following the Action Principles®. Whether you want to produce and market homemade salsa or be a wedding planner or a roofer or a songwriter, it is all about finding a customer and following up. It is doing a good job and selling more to that satisfied customer and asking that satisfied customer for referrals. It is about finding the leaders in your industry and doing what they are doing and becoming a leader yourself. It is hard work. It is smart work.

   If you have to give free haircuts to show your talents, you give free haircuts. If you have to give a fee to the funeral home to be one of their preferred floral vendors, you pay for the referral. If you have to sponsor a little league team to introduce your business to the community, you do that. You pay the price. You give five free haircuts and gain one new customer for life. That's a great return. You give the funeral home director twenty dollars of every hundred dollar order he refers. You are happy for this business and you price accordingly. You sponsor a little league team and sell two luxury cars or one large house and your return on the investment is justified. Get in the game. As long as it's ethical and legal, do what needs to be done. Let others balk or twiddle their thumbs; you welcome the opportunity to present your product or service.

   Remember that the average majority will never appreciate or fully understand your efforts. Most will ignore you. Some will mock you. Let those of less ambition seek the comfort of a guaranteed paycheck. Regardless of the potential rewards, the majority does not want to voluntarily assume the risks, hard work and rejection of entrepreneurship. Embrace the reality that being successful, self-reliant and hard working, you are not in the majority. You are not ordinary. You are extraordinary.

You find the leaders in your industry online, at trade shows and by reading trade publications. You find them through vendors and customers. You ask questions. You listen to the answers. You copy what will work for you.

Not For Most People

   Most people will never voluntarily place themselves in the path of rejection. They have zero interest in going door to door and having almost all of those doors rudely slammed in their faces. In contrast, the Master of Success reads "almost all" rejection as the beginning of success. "Almost all" means that some people will buy. Who would suffer twenty slammed front doors to mow one crummy lawn? You will. Of course, you were never interested in mowing one lawn for short money. You are looking for the opportunity to acquire a long term satisfied customer and a long term income stream.

   As a Master of Success, you are never frozen in time. You stay active. If you are a lawyer, or a painter or a short story writer, you may be very talented but talent alone is rarely enough. You must learn how to promote yourself to showcase your abilities. You must be able to clearly define your next career goal and identify who or what it will take to raise you to that next level.

   Following a traditional path, the novice lawyer wants to become a partner at a prestigious firm. The young painter seeks representation with a prestigious gallery. The first time novelist hopes for positive reviews from influential publications.

   However, the Master of Success is forever a realist. Your path to your objective might be conventional or might require unconventional thinking. Working for or being represented by the establishment might be nice but it could be a long shot, entailing too much time and too many concessions. You are not like everyone. You will have options. Calculate the rewards versus the risks for each option. As an artist or writer, you might find a celebrity agent or you might create your own website and build your own online buzz. As a lawyer, you might shoulder up with the blue bloods or you might go rogue and seek unpopular clients or causes on your path to fortune.

   Constantly challenge your thinking. Is what you are doing now bringing you closer to your goals or not? If not, adjust. Take back control. To own your own business, you'll want to love something so much that work won't seem like working. You won't regret the time that you invest in your business. You won't be afraid to put all the money you've saved to work. You won't mind traveling a thousand miles to study a business similar to your own where the owner has already achieved the success you desire. You have confidence and aren't easily discouraged. You are good at dealing with people. You like being the boss and assuming the responsibilities of leadership.

Acceptance

   On your journey, often you will have to pause, take a deep breath and swallow hard.

   Mostly, the deserving person gets the break or the promotion. Mostly, better businesses have more customers. Mostly, hard work is respected and appreciated. Mostly, fairly treated employees will respond with loyalty. Mostly, vendors are honest. Mostly, problems beyond your control are treated as such.

   But life isn't always predictable or fair. Expect a few rough patches. Through no fault of your own, you may be let down, lied to, cheated or mocked behind your back. Your trust could be violated, and your loyalty not reciprocated. The sure thing might turn into a disaster.

   Even with the best of intentions, with the odds and all indicators in your favor, you will slip and possibly fall. You will lose time and money. Your hope may turn to disappointment. As a Master of Success, you get back up, feel the bruise, learn the lesson and push on.

If you live in a distressed area, you may find a profitable niche or you may be better offer relocating to a growth area. You don't want to be engulfed by the gloom. Grandma may tell you not to move. Yes, grandma may not want to move away from her friends at the senior center. You aren't grandma. Realistically, what are the best options for your business plans and your family?

   Your character will be tested by success and adversity. Do you have the inner discipline to carry on when the going gets challenging? Are you willing to slog forward although mired in the mud? Can you bite your tongue, look the other way, retreat and start again? When things are not as you want them, can you accept your situation, assess your options and move on?

   Yes, you are tough. Even when you are right, without tantrums, defenses or excuses, can you let your ego go? Know when it is important to fight and when to accept the flow.

   If you are a chef and a patron wants to put barbecue sauce on your signature pasta dish, smile.

   If you are an artist and one critic doesn't understand your genius, that's OK. If every review is critical, rethink, adjust or let the critics be damned.

   Do it. If your mentor would like you to help paint his house, get a brush. If the admissions director suggests that you write a new essay, rewrite. If your best client loves karaoke, take the microphone. Do it with a smile of appreciation. Pay the price. This is win/win.

Non-Acceptance

   It's reality. The customer is not always right. Sometimes the reward is not commensurate with the hassle. Some home buying prospects will be prospects forever. They will never make up their minds. The smart realtor may decide to refer these eternally indecisive lookers elsewhere.

   Many people are tone deaf, have no acting ability or the poise for ballet or the patience for golf or the aptitude to learn Farsi. Some people just aren't very bright. Some people are lazy and others lack ambition. Some people are mean and selfish. Some people are stuck on transmit.

   In some professions, your job may be to deal with the inept and the odd character. Do a good job. In most professions, if your instincts tell you to beware, beware. If you are in a two person partnership and your partner wants to hire her spouse and you are getting bad vibes, don't do it.

   If you own your own successful small business, do not hire problem employees. Do not hire problem employees, even to please your mother. You do not want to hire, even temporarily, your obnoxious, untalented malcontent of a cousin. He has a track record of bad decisions. You don't have to follow suit. Always keep your priorities in focus; you are an entrepreneur and not the family social worker. It is better to listen to your cousin's tale of woe and then lend him two hundred dollars. Do not hire him. Instead, let your loan be a good reason for him to avoid you.

   Do not compromise your high standards. Have a written employee code of conduct which is understood and followed by everyone including you. Discrimination, bullying, stalking, threats and harassment are never acceptable. Gimmicks, tricks and lures in advertising are never a good policy. Cutting corners and deceiving customers is never OK. Some offenses warrant a second chance and some warrant immediate termination. Do not be intimidated or blackmailed into compromising your values. Stay strong and earn the respect of your employees and customers. If you make a mistake, honestly admit it.

   Successful businesses are about sales and profit and cash flow and minimizing expenses. Your best employees understand that you are in business to make money and not socialize. They will want to work for your company because you strictly enforce a serious business environment allowing them an opportunity to make money. At work, we work.

You solve most business problems by making more sales and more money.

   Dream. Wake up. Get Going

   You have to think for yourself. Do the research for yourself. Meditate and reach your own informed decisions.

   Some may tell you:

   "No, this is the dumbest idea that you've ever come up with. Don't quit your wonderful fry cook job. Doesn't the boss keep telling you that you are one of the best fry cooks that he's ever seen?"

   "Don't be foolish. If your idea were any good, someone would have already done it."

   "There are enough restaurants."

   "The world doesn't need another Internet search engine."

    "Your designs aren't that different from everyone else's."

   "People don't play the piano anymore."

   "You don't have enough education, money, talent or experience. Stop dreaming!"

   No, start dreaming!

There are risks to owning a new business. However, you will have minimized your risks through your continual research and commitment to excellence in product delivery and customer service. Let your competitors beware.

   Those who love you the most will often be the most cautious. They don't want to see you fail and be hurt. They want you to stick with the known, the status quo, and keep frying potatoes for another six weeks, six months, six years. You can't allow yourself to become hypnotized by excuses, either your own or from others. You can't allow others to tap into your self-doubt and lull you into complacency. It will always be easy to listen to excuses and quit. Instead, be bold.

   This is important. Every successful business started small from some rebel's idea and grew through action. Start your own personal revolution and keep fighting.

   This is worth repeating. Every successful business started small from some rebel's idea and grew through action. Start your own personal revolution and keep fighting.

   Many of your peers grew up crushed under a misguided, non-competitive, politically correct system which told them that all the children are smart and all the children are hard working. This system produces an underachiever with an overinflated self-worth and sense of entitlement. The long term consequence of false appraisal is a chronic inability to deal with the demands of daily living. Many with broken expectations will forever be crippled, clueless, depressed victims. They will never able to figure out what happened and, hence, never able to recover. In the real world of real competition, you benefit from their weakness. As competitors or customers, welcome the weakling. As employees, beware.

Imitation before Innovation

   See what others have done. See what you can do. Copy it. In general, you want to stick closely to the tested and tried and true as possible. After you are established, there will be plenty of time for you to innovate and try new ideas.

   It is much easier to become successful by cloning an established business concept than by attempting to create a new business category. If your plan is to make money without drama, imitation trumps innovation. You can make your fortune selling donuts or running laundromats. However, trying to tie the two businesses together in some novel cleaners/restaurant way may be a brilliant idea or, more likely, a money eating and time consuming disaster. If no one else has ever done it before, there may be a good reason for that. Find success and copy success.

   As you think about career opportunities, don't forget any networks or connections that may give you an advantage in starting or developing your own business. Did you acquire skills working as a child in a family business? Can you take over an established family business? Does your uncle or your neighbor or your brother-in-law or a former classmate have connections to assist your business? Somebody you know probably knows somebody who would be willing to give you special assistance because of a personal contact. Build positive business networks. Associate with others committed to self-improvement and helping others. You can go far by yourself and even farther with the help of other people.

What is your Unique Value Perspective? Be brutally honest. For what compelling reason would a customer choose to do business with you rather than a competitor? What is better, easier, faster, cheaper or more efficient about your product or service? Put yourself in your customers position.

This is what the Master Success System is all about. Who will help you? Who will take an interest in your career? As you become more and more successful, you will have increasingly greater needs for a good lawyer, banker, investment advisor, real estate agent, accountant, contractor and a host of others. Find them now. Ask people whom you trust for recommendations. Masters of Success are on a mission. They love their ideas and are full of optimism. Risks really don't seem like risks. Failure isn't on their minds. They have lots of self-confidence.

Many new businesses fail from a lack of planning, underfunding and from unrealistic expectations. Start small and learn as you grow. The highest probability for success is a business with few employees. If you are a sole proprietor, working alone, you only have to worry about yourself. If you are starting with the obligation to meet a staff payroll, you have to worry about what you have to do and what others have to do. It is easier to be a successful electrician, tailor, graphic designer or landscaper working for yourself than to open a full service restaurant. And, if you do own a restaurant, you may want to cook, but your real job is to make sure that people come in the front door, love their meals and want to come back with their friends.

Finding new business, collecting debts, paying bills, motivating staff, testing new ideas and replacing weak performers can be challenging. It is being the owner, the boss, being in control. These are the types of more difficult work tasks that the slackers try to avoid and that achievers willingly accept.

   The status quo is a comfortable cocoon. Just follow the safe routine, day after week after month after year, and there will be fewer surprises. If you own a sub shop and are netting seven hundred dollars a week, are you content? Or on your free time are you investigating sub shops that are netting a thousand or more a week and trying to figure out how you can do what they are doing?

   Are you aware of trends in your industry? What's selling now and what are the predictions for next year? Do you read industry publications? Surf industry websites? Participate in trade organizations?

   If you work for someone else, are you doing so with an entrepreneurial spirit? Are you working hard for the company, constantly on the lookout for ways to do your job more efficiently, offer new products or services and generally increase productivity and profits?

   If you are in business, you must stay current with Internet technology. You must. You can't be left behind. Even if you are a local landscaper, accountant or house cleaner, you must provide a website and social networking pages for your current and prospective customers. They should be able to learn about your experience, testimonials, services, availability and prices. Let them order and ask questions online. This is all happening right now. If you can afford to run a successful business, you can afford to build and maintain a strong on-line presence.

Buying Businesses

   The business you build will prove to be a valuable asset. You will know this value. On a regular basis, you will inventory and estimate the value of your business based on comparable businesses.

   As a small business owner, at the end of your career, you will have more to show for your decades of service than a cheap engraved clock. You will have a company to sell. If you were smart and owned the real estate associated with your business, you will have a significant asset. Rather than paying a commercial landlord rent, you can be the landlord and pay yourself.

   Buying an existing enterprise may be a smart, viable option to start or quickly expand your business. With experience and research, you can become proficient at business valuations. Based on the number of customers and neighborhood and equipment and income and expenses and goodwill, you can arrive at a fair market value for a floral shop, liquor store or accounting firm. What is the online reputation of this business, if any? Does it make financial sense to buy an ongoing enterprise? Does it make financial sense for you to sell your established business? In certain circumstances, it might make sense to buy a competitor's company just to put her out of business and gain a monopoly position. As a Master of Success, you are always calculating.

   Getting started, you might consider looking for small business owners who may be nearing retirement. Can you negotiate a win/win deal to work for them and gradually take over? The simple act of asking can open the doors to many opportunities that slackers never consider. Asking costs nothing.

   You can find businesses for sale through business brokers, online searches, newspaper classifieds or trade papers. Talk to vendors and suppliers. Join associations. Go to industry gatherings. Network and let others know of your interest. Above all, knock on doors and ask.

The secret to success in commercial real estate is to have a great tenant. You are that great tenant. Make yourself rich.

Franchises

   Most franchises provide turnkey business set-up, operations management and training.

   As a Master of Success, you ask yourself if you need the hand holding and support. You are a thinking person of action. Be patient and conduct the research. Some franchises are worth the money and some are a joke. All franchise operations have some failed units. Ask the franchisor why the failure occurred and be satisfied with the answer. Certainly, before investing lots of money and time, you must fully understand the business and make the commitment necessary to succeed.

   Here is the essential test before committing to buying any existing business or franchise. Forget the brochure and the power point presentation. Get your hands dirty. Identify the best existing franchise locations and volunteer to work at one of them for a few days or weeks. See the good. See the bad. See it all. Determine if this is really how you want to invest your money and spend your time. Can you replicate what has made this particular franchise unit successful?

   Get beyond the hopes and prayers and initial euphoria. Be brutally honest. Hard work you can do. A staff you can train. However, a bad business concept, a poor location or depressed local economy may be fatal.

Working On Commission

   If you can sell, it doesn't matter if you went to a big name college, a no name school or no school. It doesn't matter if you are a man, a woman, black, brown, white, gay, straight, young, old, born in Boston or Bombay, because it is performance that counts. You can sell: real estate, insurance, sports radio advertising, automobiles, airplanes, cosmetics, clothes, vacations or mutual funds. You can represent models, athletes, musicians, and artists. What are the sales jobs behind those products or services that you love? Join those sales forces. Love the adventure. Make your fortune.

   Salespeople rule. They are tough. They are the elite. Every company relies on its sales force. All the jobs in the company depend on the sales force's ability to sell. A person who can bring in business is a very valuable asset. That is why sales people are highly paid professionals. Most people can't do their job. They can't work alone. They can't knock on doors. They take rejection personally. They aren't Mario.

   If you have the courage to talk to customers about buying a quality product or service at a fair price, your fortune is made. Forget the advanced college degrees. You don't need partners or venture capitalists. You don't need start-up capital. You don't need daddy's contacts. You don't need your own business. You already are your own business. You are already among the business elite. If you have the courage to knock on doors, offer a fair deal and follow through with service, your fortune is made. Now, save, invest and retire young.

   If you can understand and accept the following little reality of marketing, you can be a successful commissioned salesperson. "Some will. Some won't. So what? Next!"

   As a commissioned salesperson, be unashamed to shout about your product or service. Every person is a potential customer or a lead to a potential customer. Businesscards are cheap. They are your calling cards. Hand out lots of them. Businesscards are an effective and inexpensive one-to-one marketing tool. Develop a brief elevator speech. The best salespeople can tell you convincingly in two minutes or less why you should buy their product or service. Develop an ever improving personal web presence.

   How do you become a successful salesperson? You learn all you can about your product or service. You learn all you can about your customers' needs. You learn all you can about sales.

   Look for the sales leaders in your industry. Find them. Take them to breakfast or lunch. Find out what they are doing. Do what they are doing. Become their assistant. If the contact is worth it, take an unpaid internship and then stock supermarket shelves at night. Remember that everything passes from old hands to young. Remember that whether your goal is to become a million dollar realtor, a celebrity shoe designer or a Navy Seal, you must be prepared to do whatever it takes. Put yourself into the middle of the action. Make their connections your connections. Be impressive. This sounds simple. This is simple. It will be hard, smart work. Bring it on!

   Where do you find mentors and superstar advisors? Read the trade papers. Research the web. Join all the applicable trade organizations. Above all, ask. Who is the best? Ask. Who makes the most money? Ask. How do you meet these people? Ask. If you want to go into the real estate business, would you like to have breakfast with the best salesperson in your area? Ask. An enthusiastic newcomer asking for their advice will not intimidate successful salespeople. In fact, they will probably be flattered. If you listen, take their advice and later follow-up by telling them that you have acted based on their advice, you may well end up with a valuable mentor. Sell yourself. Ask. Listen. Say thank you. Follow-up.

Don't be surprised if your superstar role model is a goal-oriented person who is customer service oriented and works hard. You know this. Your role model will only confirm everything that you've learned from the Action Principles® and the Master Success System.

Always remember that the key to successful commissioned sales is to offer a quality product or service at a fair price. It is your job to make sure that whatever you are selling meets these criteria. To be an effective salesperson, to be believable, you must believe in your product or service. It is your responsibility to know that your customer is getting a good deal and not simply that they are ignorant of the fact that they could get a better deal down the street or on the Internet. You want your customers to be satisfied with their purchases. You want every new customer to become a regular customer. You want your regular customers to become your sales ambassadors singing your praises and giving you leads to new customers.

If you are a salesperson and your fellow sales associates are disdainful of their customers and apathetic about their products, get out because you are working in the wrong place.

Beware of commissioned sales opportunities that sound too good to be true. They are too good to be true. Be suspicious of working in a packed sales office where all your equipment is a telephone headset and all your training is to read a corny script. Be equally suspicious of being invited to convention size rally type events where average people seem overly eager to give up good jobs to sell mortgages, media services, coins, lingerie or anything else. You can't make a thousand dollars a week at home stuffing envelopes. Setting up house parties to sell merchandise is tough work and you'll run out of friends fast. You won't be in business for the long term if your real business is to recruit other people to sell as your sub-agents and nobody seems particularly interested if any of the innovative revolutionary product or service is ever actually sold.

Be aware that the Internet is changing and will continue to change the way most goods and services are sold. You can open your eyes and harness the Internet's power or blindly pretend that it doesn't exist. Many direct sales jobs are being eliminated as a consequence of on-line ordering efficiencies. Companies have much to gain from switching from a traditional sales force to an inter-active Internet based sales strategy. Unlike a salesperson, a website doesn't require support, desk space, salaries, commissions or benefits. However, the bottom line will always be that a top salesperson need never fear being replaced by a soulless avatar.

Go Hardcore

Hardcore is being Mario. It is knocking on doors and doing a good job and getting paid. It is following up by asking a satisfied customer for testimonials and referrals. It is building from a base of one customer into two into a hundred and two. It is hiring and firing until you have a dedicated staff that will follow your clear and present direction. It is local promotion and public relations. Everyone knows who you are and what you do. You are proud of your company. It is overwhelming or absorbing your apathetic competitors. Do more and better. It is constantly striving to emulate and the leaders in your industry. Have a plan and aggressively implement that plan.