I do a bit of wrestling with the role of my EGO in my home business. I do not always think that ego is a bad thing, but it can get out of control. Trying to figure out when to allow it to run free and give it my ego the upper hand, and when I need to get a grip and let other parts of my psyche rule can be a bit of a challenge when it comes to the entrepreneurial process… Ego is a hard concept for me anyway–I have read so many conflicting things that I am … Continue reading
I was having beverages and chat with a group of forty-something colleagues and friends of mine and we were talking about how our attitudes around working and our careers had changed and morphed over the years. We all admitted to feeling pretty darn seasoned and knowledgeable in our fields. We went so far as to define ourselves as “experts.” I think it’s pretty common to figure that by the time you’ve been in the workforce, and in a particular field for twenty or more years, you’ve learned a thing or two and that you are definitely NOT a beginner. But, … Continue reading
We can learn so much from the Old Testament. Nehemiah sets a great example for Christians in how to behave. Nehemiah 5:1-5 The Jews complained that were being hard done by and suffering extortion, not from outsiders but from their own Jewish brethren, verse 1. Some were large families without property. Some had mortgaged their fields and houses to provide food for their families. The third group had borrowed money for the king’s taxes and as a result their children were forced into being slaves, and they saw no way out for them or their family. Their complaints were valid. … Continue reading
I just want to go on record as saying that I am NOT a big fan of the quota. One of the chief motivators for working independently and running my own home business is to not have to work at someone else’s speed or meet externally-set quotas. But, I have found in chatting with other home business owners, that some individuals do work well with quotas, and for those people who are doing direct sales (working with a parent company as an independent contractor), quotas do play a role in their home-based businesses. If you work with quotas–whether self-imposed or … Continue reading
It takes a lot of effort and hard work to attract and keep customers and clients–more energy is spent on attracting and cultivating new customers than maintaining the ones you already have. That is one of the reasons it can be so disconcerting to lose a client. You may wonder what you did wrong, and what could have been done to maintain the customer or client relationship–or if there’s anything you can do to get that customer back. Sometimes, customers may leave because of something you did as a business-person, but other times, it may be for reasons completely out … Continue reading