Be Prepared to Stick With Your Business For the Long Haul
By Desty on Jul 11, 2007 in Business
We’re a society in trouble. In just two to four generations, we’ve gone from a hard working, industrious nation to a culture that refuses to wait. We want something and we want it now mister! Gone are the days of starting something, be it jobs, relationships, investments, or hobbies. Too many people want instant results.
Refuse to LoseEveryone’s a Winner
There are several reasons for the decline of our population’s lack of patience. As I was getting ready to leave school in the late 80’s, a movement was starting where it was considered wrong to tell a child he was wrong, incorrect, or lost. This was start of the notion that there were no losers, everyone was a winner! Competition was bad. Psychologists were so concerned with a person’s self esteem that teaching started to revolve towards giving a child the idea that he wasn’t wrong or lost, that it was ok.
With failure becoming permissible, quitting was no longer a big deal. You don’t like something after trying it once? Fine, go ahead and quit. Calculus 201 too hard, drop it. The first scheduled softball practice too hard or the coach made you run some laps? Don’t go back.
If You Don’t Succeed Right Away Go Ahead and Quit Pay Your Dues
While its now acceptable, from a culture standpoint, to expect a holding-your-hand treatment, the business world does not work that way. In business, only the strong survive! In not only with customers, who believe they’re entitled to the best products at the lowest prices, but in B2B (business to business) transactions, if you can’t deliver on time, give quality customer service, or provide a competitive product, forget about it! There is no second place. You don’t like that, going to quit? Fine, there are two more companies right behind you that will work and will hustle for the business. Keep these following points in mind when you run into obstacles in business:
- Pay your dues – don’t expect to hit a home run the first time at bat. There are companies out there that have brand recognition and years of goodwill built with their customers. Unless you can really wow the customer, and I really mean WOW them, you’re going to have to build your business one customer at a time.
- Prepare to fail – before you even start your business, you must expect to lose and throw your money out the window for the first three years. It usually takes one to two years for a start-up business to break even. Plan for the worst case and you’ll be ready should it take longer to make a profit.
- Treat every customer like your business depends on them – having a higher price than average can be acceptable if your customer service warrants it. It’s not enough to treat the customer as if they were #1; you must treat the customer as if your existence depends on them. If they say jump, you jump as high and as hard as you can, then ask if that was good enough because you can do better.
Business is a dog eat dog world. If you can’t be tough and be ready for whatever is thrown at you, it’s better if you take your sensibilities and stay out of the real world.
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“With failure becoming permissible, quitting was no longer a big deal.”
So true. Stick to what you believe, keep your motivation high and you will go far.
Great quality post. Keep up the great work.
It truly is amazing how relatively fast our culture has changed. It seems to be all about coddling, political correctness, and instant grat. Good post.
After I wrote this post, I immediately thought it meant I was getting old. I don’t know, but it just feels like another way of saying, “in my day, we walked to school, up hill both ways, in 5 feet of snow.” All I know is that people don’t put any effort into anything, everyting is just too easy to quit, and no one cares if you quit anymore.
Nowadays too many people want to see the immediate effect, they should be more patient to see the results, after all, patience is a bitter plant that will bear sweet fruits
I read an article yesterday about a guy who wanted to jump on the make money online bandwagon. He quit his job to do it full time. Using PayPerPost and TextLinkAds, he was able to make a decent living, but he was working more time than he was before. Then the Google slap happened and it all went down the drain. He’s gone back to working full time, but now is focusing on his blog as a LONG TERM project to make passive income.
Wish I could have talked to him before he quit his job…