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Seeds For Thought Success requires a commitment to continuing education. Advice can be well meaning but inaccurate. Stay focused on serving your customers. New bosses or owners may signal change for better or worse. Make God your mentor. Pray. Seeing Time As Your Asset    In Lesson One, we identified a financially successful person as being a self-reliant, thoughtful, spiritual person of action. In our case, a good Catholic. This is the type of pro-active corporate person who routinely gets promoted. This is the type of pro-active entrepreneur with lots of customers.    We also learned that in the majority of situations, business success is not complicated. Making business seem complicated or mysterious is often just a convenient excuse for inaction.    As consumers ourselves, we know what the marketplace wants.    Consumers want a quality product or service.    Consumers want fair, competitive pricing.    Consumers want to be acknowledged and appreciated for their patronage.    Most consumers are creatures of habit. If you are a landscaper and you do a good job mowing the lawn, you will probably have that job for a long time. If you are a lawyer and you do a good job on grandma's estate or helping junior get out of a minor scrape, you'll probably be that family's attorney for life.     Honor the golden rule. Do the job that most people expect you to do. Stay in communication with them. Your company succeeds. This isn't magic. This is business and you don't need an M.B.A. to understand it.    Next, if you want your business to be extraordinary, make the sales experience extraordinary. If you own a dress shop and your client is buying a gown for a big night, you help your clients choose not simply the dress but a complete look: jewelry, shoes, bag and, maybe, undergarments and hair and makeup. You sell from your inventory and then make appropriate referrals. You are totally honest. If you haven't got the right color shoes, you get on the phone and try to help the client find the right color shoes. Above all, you follow up. You make a call to the client a day or two after the event and inquire how everything went.     Is this above and beyond hand holding and pampering of a customer justifiable? It almost always is because your satisfied customers will become your sales ambassadors recommending your product or service to others. This is called "buzz marketing," and an unsolicited testimonial from one person to another is the best type of marketing and it's free.     Okay, you shake your head because you already knew this. It is human nature and common sense. You know good businesses. You know bad businesses. And, that's the point. As a businessperson, you consistently strive to do your best while focused on the needs of your customer. With this approach, your business and your career will be exceptional.     It's a mistake to think that all you have to do is read a few books, take a few courses or even earn a degree in business and then that's it. To a successful businessperson, that is never it. To continue advancing your career or expanding your business, you must commit to continuing self-education. You must keep reading industry-specific books, and manuals and reports and magazine. You must keep surfing the Internet for websites and blogs. You must keep taking courses and attending conventions. You must keep studying the competition. Find out what the best are doing and do what they are doing.    This is very important. Find the people who are doing what you want to do and do what they are doing. Immediately, start observing the best business people in your chosen field. What are their positive traits? How are they dressed? How do they speak? How interested are they in their customers? How willing are they to solve a problem or do a little extra? How often do they follow-up to ensure customer satisfaction? A young waitress can do this. A young physician can do this. A young artist can do this. As you will learn in the course, finding mentors and cultivating a strong apprentice/master relationship can take you a long way. Do You Have What It Takes?    Do you have what it takes to achieve financial independence?    Being a practicing Catholic is a good foundation. You start with a strong set of values. You are a person willing to listen and ready to do the right thing. Logically, whether they, themselves, are religious or not, customers, given the option, would have more confidence that they would get a fair deal from a believer in God than from an atheist. It's all about accountability.    It's also interesting to note that many successful adult entrepreneurs were young entrepreneurs. If you were the kid with the lemonade stand or who mowed lawns or would baby-sit, you are the type of person who should consider entrepreneurship.    In seeking your fortune, be aware that the first high hurdle you may have to surmount is the overly cautious advice, the outright rejection or the ridicule of those with whom you share your passion and dreams. In other words, those closest to you may be your earliest critics.    Yes, you've got to be tough skinned, patient and resolute.    Joe Demanbro will someday own a large successful landscaping company but day one, he may hear from his girlfriend, "You graduated from high school to cut grass?"    Malaika Mullen will someday own a string of corporate day care centers but day one, she may hear from her grandmother, "Don't most girls give up baby-sitting at age sixteen?"    Scott Dyer will someday own six quick-lube and auto detailing centers but day one, he may hear from his best friend, "Haven't you got something better to do than work on that car?"    Actually, the more you've accomplished in the eyes of others, the less support you may receive for your entrepreneurial venture.    If you were a good student and a good, all-around person, people are apt to encourage you to be a lawyer, a doctor, or an accountant and not a pet storeowner or a house painter.    On the other hand, if you were a disappointment to many people, then other people are going to look for anything positive in you.    If you said to them that you intended to straighten yourself out and open a pet shop or paint houses, they'd probably be very encouraging and say that either choice was an excellent idea.    Remember that the status quo, procrastination, is always going to be resting on your shoulder like a devil saying, "It's okay, sit back and wait until tomorrow. You don't have to decide now ".    To become extraordinary, you must resist the pull of your ordinary self. Seinfeld was a great show but can't you find something more productive to do than watch the same rerun for the fourth time? You are a teacher and you want to become a principal. How do teachers become principals? Find out and start down the road. Turning off Seinfeld is the first crucial step.    As an entrepreneur, you must accept that you will make mistakes.    You will make mistakes.    You will do stupid things and you will suffer from self-doubt. At times, it will seem that your critics were right.    We Catholics are lucky. We have prayer.    Praying is never a bad idea and prayer gives you the opportunity to stop, relax and reassess. When you are praying, you are conversing with God - not a bad mentor there! What is God telling you to do?    You may be getting honest, heartfelt career advice from well meaning people who have no idea what they are talking about. And, you may waste your life fulfilling someone else's idealized dream for you rather following your own instinct. In ten years, you may regret that you caved in to someone else's advice because you did not want to be a disappointment. In those ten years, you may have become a chiropractor when you really wanted to become a jewelry designer.    Somebody is going to be a famous jewelry designer. If you love designing jewelry and are talented and have good people and business skills, then that person could be you. It will be someone. Why not you?    Or, you might avoid taking six college courses in microbiology if your real life's ambition is to travel the world as a successful yacht broker.    Or you may not have to spend ten years working for a computer company, when what you really wanted to do was to breed horses.    Say your prayers. Confide in those you trust. Find mentors and then, be an independent person of action capable of making up your own mind. Go out and make some mistakes.    Many colleges and private agencies have Career Resource Centers offering counseling and placement services. If you are unhappy in your present job or unsure of what direction to take, shouldn't you avail yourself of these services? If you are working in a negative environment with a bunch of slackers, do something. Get out. Save yourself.    But, do you really need someone else to tell you what kind of work you would love doing every day?    What does your heart tell you to do?    Start doing the research today.    Many well meaning people will advise you against starting a small business because they have a sense that these businesses have a high failure rate. And, they are correct. About 55% of all new small businesses fail in the first year.    There is an old story about a glass filled to the midpoint. An optimist sees it as being half full. The pessimist thinks that it's half empty.    An entrepreneur is probably going to look at the odds for small business success from a more optimistic "the glass is half full" perspective. "What you really mean to say is that 45% of new small businesses are successful after the first year."    With the Catholic Action Principles as your guide...    With your focus on your customer...    With your thirst for knowledge...    With your willingness to word hard...    Do you have any doubt that you will be in the winning 45%?    Even if the worst happens and she fails in a venture, the entrepreneur will have gained something. She will be satisfied that she will not have seen her life pass without having given her dream of success a serious try. Yes, yes, yes, God will appreciate the effort. Dora The Meat Cutter     Dora Johnson is thirty-five years old and has worked for twelve years as a meat cutter at Friendly Fred's Supermarket.    She does the job.    She doesn't love the job.    Dora loves portrait photography. Portrait photography has always been her hobby and part-time business. Dora is an excellent portrait photographer. She is a whiz with a digital camera. Graduates and brides and business people seek her out.    As Dora carves meat, hour-by-hour, day-by-day, she dreams of someday opening her own full-time portrait studio. This won't be easy since she's a widow with two children to support.    Dora continues to procrastinate in making her decision.    Not making a decision is easy for Dora.    However, one day, her working world changes and not for the better.    Friendly Fred retires and hands the store over to his son who is anything but friendly. He is a little tyrant referred to behind his back as Little Ferocious Freddie.    Now, Little Ferocious wants to make money and he wants to make money now. Forget the family atmosphere. Little Ferocious is not going to be a push over like his old man. He does not like the fact that his number one non-inventory expense is the salary and benefits for all "the lazy employees that his father has coddled for years."    Immediately, Little Ferocious takes a chain saw to the payroll. In the very short term, he is gleefully smug. He does make more money.    To explain the firings, Little Ferocious uses the excuse that the economy is bad. He demands that anyone interested in a future with Friendly Fred's will have to start working a lot harder. If someone doesn't like the changes, Little Ferocious suggests they quit. Little Ferocious puts the entire staff on edge.    The employees' focus shifts from doing their jobs well to keeping their jobs.    In the meat department, Little Ferocious replaces one of the full-time butchers with a part-timer. He tells Dora that to compensate for the lost man-hours, henceforth all cold cuts will be cut in advance and not custom cut to order. Dora tries to explain to Little Ferocious that one of the main reasons that people buy deli meats rather than pre-packed meats is because of the freshness that comes from on-site custom cutting. Little Ferocious tells Dora to do what she is told. "Get with the program, Dora."    Little Ferocious goes through all the departments in the store like a tornado. He saves money quickly and loses customers gradually. As business drops, he becomes more and more confrontational, blaming the world, national, state, regional and local economies.    He blames the parking.    He blames the local government.    He blames the employees.    Finally, he blames the customers.    Within eighteen months, as his customer base shrinks and profits fizzle, Little Ferocious starts to lose interest in the supermarket business.    Philip Wong, who owns the Ford dealership next to Friendly Fred's, is interested in the supermarket building. Mr. Wong wants to demolish the building to expand his car lot. He makes Little Ferocious an offer for the real estate.    Little Ferocious, sick of the daily management routine and ready to grab a windfall of cash, accepts Mr. Wong's offer. And, just that quickly, it happens, "Goodbye, Friendly Freddy's." What happens to the loyal employees? This isn't about the employees. Ask Little Ferocious. This is about the economy, the fickleness of consumers, superstores and all the unmotivated employees who are afraid of a little work. At his club, walking to the first tee, the other players in his foursome nod in agreement.     Dora is out on the street. Do you feel sorry for Dora? How many warning signs of impending doom did she ignore?    Why did she stay to the bitter end? Was it wishful thinking? Any employment is better than unemployment? Maybe Little Ferocious will be born again and become a better person?    The Friendly Freddie Supermarket has been in business for fifty years, an independent industry leader. How could it close in less than two years! Failure is unforeseeable - to the ostrich.    If you work for someone else, your financial future is in someone else's hands.    Awareness on the job is your responsibility.    If business failure is possible, have options and an exit plan.    If business failure is probable, be ready.    If business failure is imminent, get out first.    Dora had plenty of warning signs. Perhaps, she is ready. Maybe this will be a positive development for Dora. Maybe she will be forced into entrepreneurship and live happily ever after. We hope so.    At least, Dora, has the possibility of a fall back plan. Most of the laid off employees at the supermarket are probably wandering around in a daze, "Gee, what happened?"    It can happen at Friendly Freddie's Supermarket.    It happened at Enron.    It happened at Polaroid.    If you are working for someone else, then you are working at the whim of someone else. You could be a loyal employee working for Arthur Andersen, one of the largest accounting firms in the world, and one-day one employee makes a big mistake and the entire empire begins to crumble.    Open your eyes and ears. Say your prayers. Why Some Businesses Succeed While Others Fail    Starting a small business often requires a major commitment of time and energy. In addition, many small businesses require substantial start-up capital and, often, your personal guarantee to cover any and all loses should you fail.    Are you willing to put your savings at risk?    Are you willing to work 60, 80, 100 hours a week?    If you are going to start your own business, make sure that this choice is your first choice and not some kind of last resort. You can't expect to be successful if your attitude is, "What the heck, I'm unemployed. I'll give this a try." You must possess a burning desire to succeed.    Starting a small business presumes a willingness to listen to and learn from others. At least in the beginning, you will probably find yourself being much more imitative rather than innovative.    This is actually a tough business concept for many new small business owners to accept. They are new business owners. They want to be in charge. They have lots of NEW ideas and very often they are overly innovative.    Find out what has worked successfully for others in your industry and do what they have been doing.    This is worth repeating and repeating and repeating.    Find out what has worked successfully for others in your industry and do what they have been doing. At least in the beginning, you will probably find yourself being much more imitative rather than innovative.    Don't let your ego get the best of you. Unfortunately, some new business owners will plunge forward with arrogance and unwarranted conceit. "I know perfectly well what I'm doing and I don't need any help, thank you."    Everyone may not like a restaurant that serves eleven kinds of pumpkin soup.    Everyone may not like a lawyer who wears Hawaiian shirts and sandals.    Everyone may not like to patronize a karaoke bar/Laundromat/barber shop.    On your way to your first million, there is nothing wrong with being a copycat. In fact, being a copycat is the smartest route you can take to success. Let somebody else use trial and error to find a winning formula and then you copy the formula.    This is not a bad thing.    This is a good thing.    Copy success.    Get real; starting a small business must relate to market demand and not just your wishful thinking.    It' s not what you want.    It's what the market wants.    If you want to fail quickly, just say something like, "I used to love the Latin mass and I just had this fantastic idea about how wonderful it would be if everyone could speak Latin."    Starting a small business must be done from a realistic perspective.    Talk to other people in your industry who have started businesses similar to yours. How long did it take them to get established? You probably shouldn't say, "In a month or two when I've got this place up and running, I'm going to treat myself to the best vacation I've ever had. I've earned it!"    The wrong people, for the wrong reasons, start many small businesses.    There is a payback for the arrogance.    There is a payback for ignorance.    It is failure.    Business is about identifying a consumer need and taking appropriate actions to fill that need. Successful businesses must evolve to match a changing marketplace.    The entrepreneur must be completely open minded and flexible.    The entrepreneur must continually monitor and survey his or her customers' attitudes to better ascertain what it is that the business is doing right and which products, services or attitudes might be added, corrected or deleted.    Have patience.    It may not take you four years to get established but all new business will need some tweaking and fine-tuning. Your successful business will take shape around the wishes of your customers.    Don't worry; your customers will be giving you feedback. They will come back smiling or they won't come back at all.    The successful entrepreneur does not take any of his customers for granted.    The successful entrepreneur is always ready to show sincere appreciation for the customer's business.    Remember. It is only the buyer of your products or the user of your services who will give you the money to repay your loans, pay your bills and give you a working salary while you figure out a way to get rich.    Love your customers.    Keep to your faith.    Say your prayers.    Do your best and consider the motto of Gucci, "Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten."    The entrepreneur must be devoted to continuing education by reading and studying materials of both a general business and specific business nature.    The entrepreneur must have a willingness to associate with others in his/her industry and the general business community, in the hopes of sharing ideas and keeping in touch with new trends and developments.    Consider not just joining but actively participating in organizations like the Knights of Columbus and Legatus where you can interact with other Catholic leaders.    Here again are our three rules for business success. The Three Rules Of Business Success Offer a quality product or service at a fair price. Appreciate your customer. Keep improving the business. Ask your customers how. Go to Lesson Three 1 | 2 |  3 | 4 | 5 | 6 Index

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