Saturday, January 24  

Doing business

I've gotta drink less! I know I may have written something about this previously, but I simply can't remember where. It may have been here, it may have been an article, it may have been in my fabulous kit that I'd be very surprised if you haven't purchased already!!

If you have read the following sort of stuff before from me, then don't blame me. Blame beer. Or my mother-in-law. Either one. I'm not fussed!

Deals offered

On Thursday a business colleague rang me and offered a deal. It was for me to take a chunk of a busness and do the marketing for a company. After a quick chat I had identified the following -

* the company has many partners,
* some of those partners are related,
* there is infighting about how the business should go,
* the company has been going for a few years with barely any sales, and
* they have no money left for marketing.

I said "Thanks, but no thanks." (Lots of partners, infighting and no money. Not for me.)

On Friday a guy emailed me after finding this web site via an online directory search. He wanted to know if I'd give him a job to continue to develop a revolutionary online advertising thing he's been working on with a New York web studio.

I emailed him back and said "Nope, that's not our core business." (I don't know the guy. His email was basic. He'd found us through a web search, which means he was trawling for anyone. My gut said "No.")

The same day a guy emailed me and then telephoned me about an opportunity he'd like to develop after reading my kit. He gave me his credentials and sounds like a good possibility.

I said "I'll review and consider it." (This was an approach made after some research. the guy was credible, established and knew what he was doing.)

We have a guy who designs some sites for us. He's a terrific designer and very easy to work with. We'd identified his talent from some work of his we'd seen and approached him from that. We made a deal.

Business is about making the right calls

I'll get offered a lot of different deals over the course of a month. I also need to identify the right people for a particular job a lot of the time. I need to be making quick calls on a variety of issues. I need to very quickly identify the market shifts. I need to figure out how we can move this business forward.

As businesspeople we can't get bogged down. one of the guys I said no to (the New York guy) was too happy about me saying no. He emailed back some smart comment. Which instantly proved that he's an amateur and not the sort of guy we'd want to deal with.

The sort of people we want to deal with would go, "Okay Brendon. Thanks anyway." And move on. It's business. It's not personal.

As half decent businesspeople we need to be making every minute of our working day count. Someone said to me today that we were lucky to get such a good designer. Luck had nothing to do with it. I was actively looking and identified this guy's talent. I then made the apoproach. I then developed the relationship to ensure this guy liked us.

None of that was luck. It was good strategic business work.

My point is this. As businesspeople we (you and I) are doing deals all the time. We might not always recognise them as deals, but that's what we're doing.

Don't undervalue the importance of your deal making skills. And keep looking for deals every day. That's all business is.
And don't be afraid to contact someone and offer a deal. "Howdy. I have an idea that I think could make us both money................" Now that's a great way to start a sale/deal.

Have a good day.

Cheers.

Brendon