Sara Hand

The Secret to Success (Part Two)

With all the changes in business, people are looking at how to be more profitable.

Start by taking an inventory of what you currently have. Comb through files, closets and storage and make a list of all your assets and liabilities.

What products, services and information do you have?

What products, services and information do you have access to?

What is costing you money to keep?

 Will it produce more that it costs? And when?

After you answer those questions

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

What do you have in your hand?

You can’t imagine how many times I have heard that. And it saddens me to tell you this, but that just isn’t true. It doesn’t matter how great your product or service is, or how much it is needed. People don’t buy based on need. There is someone who needs it, that won’t use it, even if you gave it away.

However this is one of the most liberating and profitable epiphanies of the business world! Understanding this, I can make more money in less time. I can arrive home at the end of day facing clients and looking for prospects with my ego intact…no longer beaten and bruised.

WHY? Because I am no longer trying to sell everyone on the fact that what I bring to the table is wonderful. I no longer have to jump through hoops trying to convince someone who will never buy that they should. I have made make peace with the fact that I am not a fit for everyone, so like a miner sifting and searching for gold, I am sifting and searching through leads for prospects. Some people are not going to buy and it isn’t because I stink, it’s because they are not a fit for the value proposition I can present.

The secret to utilizing this understanding is…I must know what my prospects look like and I must know how to recognize them when they come across my path. I still have to be skilled at my craft. I still need to do and say and bring to the table my best, but my results are going to be significantly more profitable.

Yes I read E-Myth, and if you haven’t you should. Yet sometimes I still get so busy in the doing, actually lost in the activity of getting somewhere that it is somewhat like driving quickly in circles or like a dog chasing its tail. It looks like it could be productive, and maybe it is. But maybe it isn’t…we all know looks can be deceiving.

 So what do you do?

 I have had to learn to evaluate frequently. STOP! Step back. What am I really doing here? Is there a better, simpler way? Is there a way I could utilize resources that have already been created? Is there a way I can leverage my time so that my actions have more impact? Where do I start?

 I don’t know? AND I never will if I don’t take the time to answer some of those questions. What better time than now? The kids are back in school. We are moving into the final stretch of this year. How I finish this year, will have a significant impact on how I start the next year. Some things about this year have been great, some things I definitely want to leave in 2009!

So join me this week and this weekend…AND STOP!

I am what people call a “connector.” If someone were ever looking for a new mechanic, a doctor, a great book…they would say, “Ask Sara, she knows everyone.” Of course I didn’t and don’t know everyone. 

 So I went about life meeting cool people and connecting them and the resources they needed together…I do believe we are a lot closer than 4-6 degrees of separation. And then one day I had an ahha moment, when I realized that out of everything I do (and I do all kinds of stuff), that what I love most is meeting and working with cool people and helping them find the other cool people doing cool things that will leverage whatever it is that they are working on.

 So that’s great…you finally were able to narrow it down, but what’s that mean?

 It means I could begin to figure out how to monetize this; because if it is not only fun, but profitable then I can spend more time in this place. I am still working on the model, still doing some of the other things that I can do and I enjoy doing…but moving forward on the highly rewarding track of what could be called “The Cool People Project”.