PERSONALITY and RELATIONSHIPS—two key concepts for the success of your business!

Personality determines how well you do in business.
Building relationships is a major key to staying in business.

If you can determine where you are in these two issues, you might just have the winning combination of a life-long business.

Your personality determines, in part, how your business will succeed, because there are some things that are not a part of your human make-up and therefore you just can’t do them well. Are YOU a people person who can relate well to others? If not, you need to find someone who can help you build relationships with your customers. Take for example a person who does not like to be in a crowd.

Now, put him/her at a conference in a booth and see what happens. The conference offers seminars throughout the day and one has just ended. Over 100 people are coming down the isle. Many of them stop to take a look at the booth and what s/he is there to offer. What do you think s/he will do?
a. Will s/he greet them with a smile and share with them what s/he has to offer?, or,
b. Will s/he sort of fade into the background of the booth and try not to make eye contact?

You get the picture. Our personality-based time management quiz is a fun generalization at its best. If you’re an A Compulsive, you KNOW IT. If you’re a B messy, you KNOW IT. Trying to fit a B Messy into the world of an A Compulsive will just not work! So find a person to help you who does well in areas where you are not adept. For example, I personally am not good at doing finances. What did I do? I hired an accountant. Web design is fun but very time consuming. What did I do? I hired a professional web designer.

But what happens when:
a. You aren’t good in one or more aspects of running your company?
b. There isn’t enough money to pay for someone else to do it?, or
c. You do well in all aspects of the business, but there isn’t enough of you to go around?

I’ve heard all this from the thousands of women I’ve come in contact with, both online and offline. Solution: Find someone who cares about others who can help you.

Here, building relationships can be a key to success. When I have an issue in my business that I need help with, I look for someone who has experience in this area. Sometimes I don’t know who can help so then I ask my customers. I’ll call some of my customers who feel like family and have dealt with us for many years, and ask if they’re knowledgeable in that area. There are many people who don’t want a full time job, but to do something to help out a company they like is usually no problem. For us it’s a quick solution. I never want to take for granted how valuable someone’s time is, so I trade free products or pay for their time and interest.

Take for example, my web site designer, Hilde Mott at www.iwgd.com. She LOVES day planners and being organized. I asked for help on one of my online network lists and she contacted me with an idea for a design.

After going over what it would take to create the design, she agreed to barter. After seeing the first few pages, I was hooked! I had friends look over the old and new sites and vote for one or the other. The feedback was 8 to 10 in approval of the new design. Then we posted the new site for all to see. It was a hit! Not only did my sales go up, but I also received many letters thanking me for, or complimenting me on the ease of use and the calming effect of the site. After Hilde received her products, she TOO was thrilled and a beautiful relationship started to develop. The site redesign brought in enough extra money to start paying Hilde monthly until I could take over.

I have many stories like this in my business. Another is about mailing lists. I have two large lists but don’t know how to maintain them to their fullest potential. I met Sue, a computer programmer, at developer@heptite.com, shortly before I first purchased the Busy Woman in 1999. We met online in a network group. At that time I needed help with my new site in general. Sue was great and helped me experiment with all sorts of ideas, scripts and new web things. As the company grew, I asked if she knew how to deal with mailing lists. After all, she is a programmer. Her specialty just so happened to be databases! Sue agreed to barter and again, her help brought in enough to pay her monthly until everything was in order.

Now I request Sue’s help whenever I have any online or offline mailings, contests or drawings. I could do this myself, but it would take me SO much time that it is worth more to me to outsource. My time is better spent on doing the things I do best.

Again, the best way to build relationships and take time to care for your customers is to find people to team up with. Often, you’ll actually have people around you who you probably never thought of. If you don’t know a person very well, but think they can help meet your needs, get references. Ask around, whether on your network lists or in your neighborhood. If you have comfortable relationships with your clients, start talking to them too. If you mention your specific need enough times to enough people, someone will speak up. You could also try joining a group at Yahoo!Groups ( http://groups.yahoo.com )under the topic that suits your needs and get involved in discussions. After a while, you will get a feel for who you might want to work with.

Another idea for building relationships is this: I keep notes in my database for almost everyone I speak with each day. I also keep updates in my planner about those people I speak with more often. So when they call again, or I need to call them, I look at my notes and am better equipped to speak with them then. For example, I might record what we talked about, how their child is recuperating, if they needed to be re-contacted, and so on.

A successful business is all about relationships and how well you build and maintain these relationships! The relationships you build in your business today could also help you through any other business for years to come. If I were to go into a new line of products or a different type of business tomorrow, most of my customers would be happy to come with me. How can you attain this for YOUR business?

Copyright © 2003 Susie Glennan - The Busy Woman, Inc.

Susie Glennan has been happily married since 1982, is mom to 3 teenagers, and is a Home Maker, Nurturer, Teacher, Author, Professional Speaker, Toastmaster, President of The Busy Woman, Inc., DBA - The Busy Woman's Daily Planner®. She teaches time management seminars, offers FREE consultations with your order, and will help you set up a schedule that's right for you. 800-848-7715 ­ www.thebusywoman.com