Nuggets of Knowledge

7 moments of Truth

The Eight Action Steps to Success

Top 20 Biggest Wastes of Money

Ritual of Personal Reflection

Create a Theme for the Year

3 Ideas for Creating White Space

7 MOMENTS OF TRUTH

There are seven moments in dealing with your customers when you have an opportunity to make that one time customer a lifetime customer and advocate. Everyone faces these moments. It is how you handle these moments. Look them over. Make sure you and your staff know what you are going to do when they occur. Have a plan. Practice it. Do you know what a customer is worth? Look back over the life of your longest customer. What is the revenue? Make all these moments, work to convert your customers to LIFE TIME CUSTOMERS.

1. The moment your customer complains.
2. The moment one of your new customers comes back to place a second order.
3. The moment a customer has thanked you.
4. The moment one of your customers has been through a hard time because of a foul up on your (or their) part.
5. The moment a customer needs a favor from you.
6. The moment you see your customer in public.
7. The moment your customer brings in a referral.

Presented by Susan DePue, a Guerilla Marketing Certified Coach. When you're ready to take your business to the next level, call Susan (615-312-7238). Please do not use without our permission.

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The Eight Action Steps to Success

In order to move forward, it is important to develop a plan. There are Eight Action Steps to Success. Business owners will sometimes react to situations, or just begin doing, when a plan will save time, save money, and save effort.

You know how this works. Your best client calls with a problem, you listen, get off the phone, blame someone else or yourself, rant, rave, stress, and fix the problem. Or another situation might be that you find sales are down; you call in the team or get on the telephone yourself. You rush to fix the situation. Does it work? Absolutely! We all know that. Is it the best way? Not really, usually this method involves lots of stress, a knotted stomach, headaches, fear.

Another way and better way, would be to develop a plan in each of these situations. The following action steps work for you in crisis, in planning, or in everyday building your business.

The Eight Action Steps to Success

1. Get the facts. Take the time to get all the facts from every side and every angle.
2. Get a goal. Know the best outcome for you, your company, your employees, and your clients. Know this before you go further.
3. Examine, educate, and enlist your resources. Make a list of all your resources: employees, friends, knowledge, tools, suppliers, etc.
4. Turn old business into new business. Serve first the people who have given you business in the past. What else can you provide for them? Because they did business with you, they at the least once needed and wanted what you provide. Start here.
5. Give them something tangible to remember you by. Whether this is a memorable proposal or something of value with your name on it, make it easy for them to remember you, find you, and think of you.
6. Break ranks. Be bold. Success does not come to those doing what everyone else does. Do more. Be better.
7. Get visible. Don't be the best kept secret in town. You can be totally remarkable and if no one knows about you and your business, you will not succeed. Get out there. Let potential customers know you exist.
8. Saturate all of the above with prayer (belief). This is an important step. See it happening. Concentrate on the outcome. Know that it will happen.

Jones, Laurie Beth. The Path: Creating Your Mission Statement for Work and for Life. New York: Hyperion, 1996.

Presented by Susan DePue, a Guerilla Marketing Certified Coach. When you're ready to take your business to the next level, call Susan (615-312-7238). Please do not use without our permission.

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Top 20 Biggest Wastes of Money

1. Buying lottery tickets and entering sweepstakes
2. Purchasing a new car every two years
3. Investing in commodities, options, land in Transylvania, or anything else you are clueless about
4. Buying credit life insurance
5. Purchasing extended warranties on appliances and electronics
6. Taking action on a "hot" stock tip
7. Lending money to friends
8. Shopping on QVC or the Home Shopping Channel
9. Claiming the wrong amount of deductions on your W-4s
10. Getting suckered into "get rich quick" opportunities
11. Paying fees on your checking account
12. Using credit cards like a regular bank loan
13. Buying name brands on a regular basis
14. Keeping money in low-interest savings accounts
15. Buying anything at convenience stores
16. The car dealer extras
17. Shopping at ritzy clothes and grocery stores
18. Paying an annual fee on a credit card
19. Eating at upscale restaurants
20. Buying food and drinks at the movies or ball games

Presented by Susan DePue, a Guerilla Marketing Certified Coach. When you're ready to take your business to the next level, call Susan (615-312-7238). Please do not use without our permission.

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Ritual of Personal Reflection

Personal reflection is nothing more than the habit of thinking.

There are many ways to use a personal journal. One idea for business growth is to use it daily in the following manner.

At the end of each day write down the following:

List all activities, thoughts, and interactions.

Just a brief note, or a few words about the activities you completed, what you though most about, and who you came in contact with on that day.

Note the specific activity you completed to reach your number one goal.

List five things you are thankful for today.

Use this as your benchmark

• For measuring improvement,
• For creating a daily reminder to keep the main thing the main thing,
• For seeing your progress.
• For staying focused.
• For keeping centered.

Presented by Susan DePue, a Guerilla Marketing Certified Coach. When you're ready to take your business to the next level, call Susan (615-312-7238). Please do not use without our permission.

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Create a Theme for the Year

Having a theme for the year is helpful because it provides a focus for the year. What we focus on expands!

To create a theme, ask yourself the following questions:

• What would I like to focus on this year?
• Why is this important to me?
• How does this fit with my values?
• How does this theme support my mission, vision, and purpose?
• How will I be different at the end of the year by choosing this theme?

Examples:

Presented by Susan DePue, a Guerilla Marketing Certified Coach. When you're ready to take your business to the next level, call Susan (615-312-7238). Please do not use without our permission.

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3 Ideas for Creating White Space

Of all the business owners I COACH,
There is not one who has enough time in the day to accomplish all they feel they need to do. Consider this a national epidemic: too much to do, too little time. At the same time, when asked, most business owners say they are completely in control of the way they handle their life, not the events of their life but in the manner in which they respond to those events.

With that being said, why not plan our day to have too much time and too little to do. What? No adrenaline, no stress, we would not know how to function. Our company would do less, make less money, and serve fewer clients. Would it? Just not possible you say?

Stay with me here. I'm not much good at doing this either. I have a tendency to make a long list, promise to help everyone, push like crazy, and rush around. I'm tired. I'm ready for a better way.

Let's fill our lives with what those in the print business call "white space". You know the part in the ad that is blank. White space is also the part of the painting that is left blank. It makes what is said, or depicted, stand out more and have more meaning. In our business lives, it might make the service we deliver more valuable, the product better delivered, the time spent more enjoyable, the profit margin larger. Who knows?

How about experimenting with me for a week? Let me know how you do.

3 Ideas for Creating White Space

Idea #1: Plan to do LESS

If 20 % of your activities, produce 80% of your results, Plan only 1 important thing (20% activity) to do a day.
Give yourself time to think, to study, and to really do a good job.
Give yourself time to enjoy the process.

Idea #2: Say NO!

I know that successful people are busy and do lots of good in their industry, community and family. Just for this experiment, say no to a couple of things. Just for fun. Remember you when you were 2 years old and you said no to everything. Say NO when asked to do something else. Tell them you can tomorrow or next week. Keep the day open.

Idea #3: Do something FUN everyday

Apply the law of the slight edge: Small changes, over time, Make a big difference. Start with something small. Call a friend and laugh. This is your life we're discussing. Take the time to enjoy it. You'll do a better job. Your life will be more valuable.

Presented by Susan DePue, a Guerilla Marketing Certified Coach. When you're ready to take your business to the next level, call Susan (615-312-7238). Please do not use without our permission.

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Copyright© 2002 Beneffects Inc. All rights reserved.

You know how this works...

" Your best client calls with a problem, you listen, get off the phone, blame someone else or yourself, rant, rave, stress, and fix the problem. Or another situation might be that you find sales are down; you call in the team or get on the telephone yourself. You rush to fix the situation. Does it work? Absolutely! We all know that. Is it the best way? Not really, usually this method involves lots of stress, a knotted stomach, headaches, fear."

From "The Eight Action Steps To Success".