Franchisor or Business Owner

I once heard “if you are not bringing your customer closer, you are pushing your customer away”. I relate that to revenue running my own business. I am always looking for ways to generate revenue. For the longest time I would hear or read ads telling me how I could make money online. I was to the point where I though the only way to make money online was to have an online store.  I guess. Some people say making money online means driving people to your website to come to your store, sure. 

I didn’t know quite what to expect when I joined the group. From attending my free sessions, I did know it was the type of group I wanted to belong to. Their transparency was obvious, and the founder truly understood what he was teaching so I had confidence I would learn something. 

What I wasn’t expecting to learn was common sense knowledge I could apply to the day to day markets, but also to the day to day operations of my business. Being a business owner allowed me the flexibility to adjust  my schedule to attend the sessions. It took me a year to learn strategies to apply to business, apply those strategies and to maintain those strategies. We are talking simple strategies that when you hear it, you say, “I knew that” except to apply the strategies effectively is a whole other thing: 

Practice makes perfect. No practice doesn’t make perfect. “Perfect Practice makes Perfect”. I am in the marshal arts and I think about being in class, practicing my forms and my kicks, yet looking forward, I put much more thought into every movement rather than “just going through the motions”. 

If you want to make 10% on your money, always ask for a 10% discount. When our founder made several sessions out of this simple strategy, it really took me off guard. Now, no matter what vendor I am dealing with I am always asking for a discount or I am shopping the service. I try to write checks to all my vendors. It makes me realize I am spending the money and it makes me realize I need to be aggressively requesting and getting discounts from my vendors. 

 Its easier to save a dollar than to spend a dollar. I know way too many people who think that working longer hours, working multiple jobs, jumping into get quick rich schemes (Multi Level Marketing) is the way to financial freedom. I learned, after joining the group, I need to worry about what I have so I don’t have to worry so much about what I need. Something easy is my love for Starbucks. I used to get $6 lattes. Then I found I could get a quad espresso in a tall cup and fill it with cream for ½ the price and twice the coffee, what a deal 

 Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves. I live in the City and take walks. Like most three-mile walks, I will find a penny or two. My friend found a $10 bill not long ago. The other night we took a three-mile walk, my friend found a wheat penny in a car lot, then shortly after, I found 4 pennies at the McDonald’s parking lot. Then 1.5 miles into our walk, I found 4 more pennies at the threshold of a sushi restaurant. The people who lost this money must have too much money. I was fine with picking up 9 cents because that is 9 cents I didn’t have. Thinking about it, I was paid 9 cents to take a walk. Someone paid me 9 cents to talk a walk. Who made money in this scenario, I did!!!