The Student Who Knew Too MuchWritten by Sue and Chuck DeFiore
This article is for those of you who coach or mentor. Does this sound familiar?“Can’t I just try to mail or email, do I really have to call” “I was thinking I could wait to get business cards” “I wanted to be successful first, before I start to market or network” “Why do I have to do it that way, I thought I could do it this way” I could go on, but I think you get picture. I am always amazed by students who pay us for coaching and then question every thing we tell them to do. The business card one was kicker. I had just spent 20 minutes telling them how important business cards were, how and who to give them to, and then they had audacity to tell me that they wanted to wait. So you say, what do you do. Well, I tell them you paid me to coach you. You said you wanted my expertise, you wanted to be successful, you wanted to make money. However, in order to do that you need to get cards made up and you need to network, and market. You will need to use telephone and other forms of marketing outlined in manual. However, remember this is YOUR BUSINESS. If you choose not to follow methods I have outlined, then don’t expect to succeed during time frame we initially discussed. When your business doesn’t take off, and you don’t get referrals; which in effect, cuts down on number of deals (transactions, sales, etc. fill in blank here depending upon type of coaching you are doing) don’t ask me why you didn’t succeed, because I will tell you “I told you so”.
| | “Penny Wise and Pound Foolish”Written by Sue and Chuck DeFiore
This saying came to mind when reading my Icop newsletter. JL was discussing things that Chuck and I talk about all time. A couple of weeks ago while listening to Jim Edwards’ audio newsletter he ranted about “psycho freebie seekers” (love that name). Jim rants almost as well as Dennis Miller.Anyway these two newsletters and what they had to say have been rolling around in my head for a couple of days now. What came to mind is that people who run Internet businesses from their home are no different than those who ran businesses out of their home in 80’s…..they don’t want to pay for anything. You would think with all failed businesses they’ve had it would dawn on them that it is because they have done no research, no business plan, no determination on whether or not there is a market for their business in their vicinity. They don’t do mission statements. I could go on and on. Unfortunately, too many people still think all they need is a computer, fax, and some business cards. In fact, they don’t even give out business cards, they leave those in their office in nice little card files. A lot of good that’s doing them. They will spend money on all trappings but not on education, mentoring or consulting. As Chuck once said to me when I started my first business, and didn’t do any marketing “You will be most organized business in bankruptcy court”. It was a wake up call. As Jim and JL discussed, and Chuck and I run into every day, people want to pick our brains for information and answers. After all, they have been conditioned that IT’S FREE. They feel it is their right to do so. The Internet especially has made people think that information is FREE. Yes, it is, but those of us who have niches, and have written books all put in a lot of time, effort, and energy in researching, writing and marketing our products. SO NO IT IS NOT FREE. We worked very hard to put together excellent products to best of our ability and WE EXPECT TO GET PAID FOR THEM.
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