3/5/2015

$100 Challenge

Well this has been a much better week on the $100 challenge.  I little change in the company: Sell any item new or used for the customer.  This includes bazaar type items.  Does not matter what it is as long as I can sell it out of the home.  This brought me in more goods to sell.  Not that they have sold yet but just the motivation of doing something different has spurred me on to keeping up with the business on a daily task.

I have made a list of what needs to be done daily, which is mostly taking items that are online for sale and making sure they have not expired, if they have posting them again online.  I have also figured out the perfect timing for putting them on so they are at the top of the list for Saturday morning.  Saturday morning seems to be the best time to sale.

When I sale an item I talk to the customers about my project and where the money is going.  In turn I don't have any  haggling over the price and some of the customers have brought to me goods to sale for them.  I have items from complete strangers that have trusted that I will mail them the money if their items sale.

Setting up a simple accounting system in the beginning has made it a lot easier.  The minute I get the money, even if I am in a hurry, I put it right off in the right envelope with the right sheet and it is all together.  No money just laying around thinking I will remember or I will get to it later.

Things I have learned

Hire slow and fire fast - probably the best 4 words in a business.  I have watched my husband sweat through having to let someone go.  He usually spends a sleepless night before going into the office to talk to the person.  It would be so much better to just hire the right person from day one.

I like the list we learned in HMM to get ready for an interview

1. define the job requirements
2. recruit promising candidates
3. interview
4. evaluate the candidates
5. make a decision and offer

Guys advice that it is better to hire someone who loves the job more than someone who does not but has the qualifications.  Enthusiasm makes a big difference.  A motivated person will do what it takes to get qualified to do the job.  Of course the best is the right education and motivation combined.

E-myth revisited - not sure I agree 100% with everything but basically it is this:

Takes three to run a business
1. Entrepreneur who has vision
2. Manager who manages
3. Technician who does the work

The business goes through 3 phases

1. Infancy - when the technician is the business
2. Expansion - when better management skills are required
3. Maturity - where an entrepreneurial perspective is needed

Turn-key or Franchise perspective - the best model for building a successful business.

Business development process

1. Foundation activity #1 - Innovation - the new idea is put into practice
2. Foundation activity #2 - Quantification - numbers that show how much impact the innovation has made
3. Foundation activity #3 - Orchestration - process of embedding the best practices into your business.

Step 1: Primary Aim - what is your life purpose and your business purpose
Step 2: Strategic Objective - how you will measure your success
Step 3: Organization Strategy - need an organizational flow chart
Step 4: Management Strategy - simple systems put into place which will allow ordinary people to produce extraordinary good marketing results.  Make it simple
Step 5: People Strategy - Create an environment in which fulfilling their responsibilities is more important than avoid them.
Step 6: Marketing Strategy - Forget about your vision and focus on the customer exclusively.
Step 7: Systems Strategy - Three types of systems
            a: Hard systems - inanimate objects
            b: Soft Systems - animate objects such as people, ideas, procedures
            c: Information systems - provides data about the interaction between soft and hard systems.

Quotes I love:

The difference between a warrior and an ordinary man is that a warrior sees everything as a challenge, while an ordinary man sees everything as either a blessing or a curse." Carlos Castaneda

You should know now that a man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting, nor by thinking about what he will think when he has finished acting. A man of knowledge chooses a path with heart and follows it."  Carlos Castaneda