Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you! This is my favorite time of year so I am enjoying spending time with my family and friends. My prayer for you is that you all are also enjoying your family and friends at this special holiday.
   Because this holiday also coincides with the end of the year, we naturally turn to the idea of old things passing and new things arriving, just in time to temper the winter doldrums. Winter has just peeped into our time, so spend this time wisely for the next three months. If you are planning on changes in your personal or business life, this might be the perfect time to implement them. Keeping your goals in mind is a priority. I highly recommend visiting Dan Miller's website, 48days.com, and printing out his Goals for 2012. We have several different areas in our lives and making separate goals for each area keeps us honest and focused on what is most important to us.
Perhaps you have difficulty deciding what is the most important priority in your life. Use this time to make that priority list and recognize that you are responsible for your own happiness and success. Discern your calling, if you have not already done so, and plan a new life around that calling. Keep in mind what you really want to tell people about yourself, your desires, what you have to offer to others in each area of your life. We all have a purpose in life and ways to bring our best service to make a difference in the world. This is the week to explore, write down musings, and make your plan. If you need more help, read what Dan Miller has to say. Have a wonderful time with your family and friends.
Have a terrific day!
Patricia

Gratitude and Attitude

   In recognition of Thanksgiving, it is an appropriate time to talk about gratitude and attitude. These are two of the major ingredients to having a successful business and in your customer relations.

   Gratitude is one of the most powerful emotions you can experience and express. There are few people in this world who do not have many things for which to be grateful. If you live in a country that recognizes you are created by God and have certain rights given to you by God, you should feel enormously grateful. In the United States we are about to celebrate our gratitude for the success of many of the first people who came to our shores and built homes, businesses, churches and schools. Those first New Englanders knew they survived by dint of the efforts of their neighboring Indian tribes. Without their help the first Pilgrims would not have survived.

   Our nation has done more than survive…we have thrived. We have more reasons to be grateful than to be contentious. Despite the difficulties in our nation and in our world, we are all living better than anyone has in history. Most Americans live better in 2011 than wealthy people lived in the past. While we have problems now, we can overcome. This year give thanks for your life and everything in your life. If you have family and friends you are blessed. If you have a place to live, food to eat, clothes to where, and a place to work, you are very blessed. If you lack any of these blessings, you can live in hope that things will get better.

   In addition to feeling gratitude, it is time to examine your attitude about life and what you are doing. Whether things are great or you’re struggling, your attitude informs the quality of your life. If you remember to be grateful for everything good in your life, your attitude will improve, and so will your day. Even the pain we feel can teach us something and might be used to help other people live through their own difficulties.

   However and wherever you spend Thanksgiving, try to remember how God has blessed you, your family, and our nation in so many ways. Reach out to people in need and share some blessings with them. We all have something to give back to the world and not just this week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay, Let's Go!
   Every morning the two dogs circle around me while I put the kettle on the stove to boil water for the French Press coffee pot. Then I feed them, give them fresh water, give the cats their food and water, run outside to pluck the paper off the driveway, and hustle back inside. When the coffee is ready, with the cup of very hot, black sustenance in it, I wander toward the back of the house and the sunroom. The dogs follow me and stop dead at the step down into the room. Their habit is to wait at the step until I put the coffee on the table, flick on the lamp, turn around and extend an invitation to go outside by saying, "Okay, girls, let's go!" Only then will they set foot on the sunroom floor and head for the back door. They don't do this the rest of the day...they usually knock me to the side in their rush for the back door. But they have developed this game of waiting to start their day and I invite them to go outside! The habits we form, whether animal or human, are indeed powerful!
   The reason I relate this little story about the dogs is to remind you that you are in charge of your day and how you want to start that day. You don't have to wait for permission to get on with the business of living, or the business of business. If you wait for an invitation to talk to your customers, it could be a long wait. You can find ways to talk to them frequently. It helps to remind people that you are in business, that you seek their patronage, and that you might just have the solution to their problem. Just don't be like the dogs and wait until someone calls your name!
Have a great day and send me an email if you need some solutions for your writing problems in your business.
Patricia

Yapping Dogs and Customers

   What do yapping dogs and customers have in common? Well, let me tell you a story.

   My neighbors believe in leaving their dogs outside all day while they are at work. The problem is that the dogs hate it. Especially when it’s too hot or too cold outside. Here in Albuquerque we get both those weather conditions, so the dogs are pretty unhappy most of the time. This situation is far beyond the loneliness dogs experience when mama and daddy leave the house. The poor pups are uncomfortable, maybe even miserable. Naturally, they express their misery by yapping on and off all day long. They yap and yap, then stop for a rest, and start in again. They are very clear about voicing their misery. But their owners are deaf to the dogs’ pleas for a change.

   Maybe your potential customers have the same problem. They are miserable and want a change. While they look for a solution and hope someone can help, their pleas fall on deaf ears. Why is that? Believe it or not, it’s because many people who are selling something don’t really listen to their potential customers.

   The average sales training tells sales agents to hustle their way past a gatekeeper and then dazzle the business owner with features and benefits, whether or not they have anything to do with that business owner’s needs. If you are in business or in sales, you can picture this scenario easily. As the owner, you seldom have the opportunity to express your needs or frustrations first. The sales person is too busy baffling you with garden compost to hear what you want. Or, even worse, you tell him what you need, and he ignores you in favor of telling you why his product will do things you don’t care about!

   Rather than belabor the point, I believe you understand the underlying problem. So let’s look at the solution. If you want to get a message to potential customers about what you do, you must first look at their needs and think about what they want. It doesn’t matter what you want, what your boss thinks people want, or what some sales professional tells you people want. You are the one standing face to face, either literally or figuratively, with your customer. Find out what he needs and whether or not you can actually provide a solution.

   The short way to say this is: yapping dogs and customers need your immediate attention with something that can help them. Put the customer first, forget about what you want, and focus on customer service.

   Establishing a reputation for actually helping people will win you the referrals you want to grow your business. The Golden Rule is really the best business model. Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay cosmetics, built an empire using the Golden Rule: Do unto others what you want others to do unto you. You can’t improve upon that one!

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

(and it’s all small stuff)

   Richard Carlson wrote a useful and charming book by the title above in the 1990s. The subtitle is “Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life.” His advice is to stop making mountains out of molehills, whether in your personal or business life. That message could be a reminder to you every day to keep things on a simple basis. One way to make your life simpler is to seek advice and professional, technical, help with your communications. Whether you struggle with business letters, annual reports, website content, display advertising, sales letters, or direct mail campaigns, you can get help. So don’t sweat the small stuff!

   You can lower your tolerance to stress by letting a professional writer and editor work for you on an as-needed basis. Whatever your project, there will be a solution. You have a problem and your answer is here at Mariposa. We guarantee our work. Read our testimonials to see how some of our clients like their results. You want quality work, we provide that. Plus, we always give a little something extra. Excellence and client satisfaction are our priorities.

  

Tips: When you want to tell people about your business, remember that they are more interested in a solution for their problem than your business background or history. Your firm might be 150 years old, but so what? How does that help the small business owner attract more business, or solve his accounting or tax problem, or to hire highly skilled people? Remember to focus on your customer’s needs, not on your wants.