When I turned 23, I was only concerned about graduating from college. It was the only thing I wanted because I was exhausted from five years of studying without breaks. All I wanted was a chance to work and apply myself in a job that I liked and could see myself growing in, before starting a family and following in the footsteps of my parents. Now, five years later, after I just turned 28, the feeling of getting a little bit older is discomforting. I am now solidly part of that group of individuals Read more [...]
Who Are Loyal Customers?
In my years of being a salesperson, I have identified five types of customers. They’re grouped according to their spending behavior. The first group is the discount customers. They are regular shoppers, but they only buy based on our markdowns. Then there are need-based. These are people who shop because they have a need to purchase a specific item. There are also what I call the impulse customers who don’t have anything particular in mind to buy. They just come to the store, probably after getting Read more [...]
Downtime Activities for the Homepreneur
As a home-based entrepreneur, a lot of people ask me what it’s like to not have to go the office like the rest of the world. To finally put things to rest, here’s my typical schedule: 12 am: Sleep Like a Log 7 am: Wake up, eat anything that’s left from dinner and get my daily dose of CNN and BBC while booting up the PC 7.30 am to 11 am: Work 11 am: Lunch while seeing what’s good on HBO or Cinemax 12 pm: Go back online and bother people, followed by siesta 1.30 pm to 6.30 pm: More Read more [...]
Satisfying Hotel Guests
Unless the name of the hotel contains the words “Hilton,” “Ritz-Carlton,” or some other suitable high-end luxury brand name, then there’s a good chance it doesn’t offer any conveniences that its competitors don’t. That’s the risk of these service-based businesses: all the competition tend to offer the exact same thing, making it hard to stand out. The obvious solution is to find ways to make customers go “We stayed at an amazing rental!” the first time out, to impress them to the point where they Read more [...]
Computing For Man Hours
Small business owners have a tendency to be very mindful of the cost of anything. The law of displacement in small business means that every opportunity they pursue is at the cost of another. They often operate on small, tight budgets that get hit hard with every cent that gets spent. These factors make them prone to balking when their investment in Microsoft Dynamics CRM isn’t paying off as quickly as they’d hoped or when they figure out that the deal they got into is far more high-risk than they Read more [...]