In previous editions of the Tip of the Month, you have had a chance to review the first twelve Secrets of Success from Jeffrey Gitomer’s The Little Red Book of Selling. Below are the last 6.5 secrets to help you reach your greatest potential.
- Willing to risk: No reward worth getting comes without a little risk. While a little risk can be a good thing, use common sense and know when to avoid it.
- Keep your eyes on the prize: Think about where you want to take your business in the next year, two years, etc. Develop a list of goals and post it somewhere so you will see it every day. This will help you stay focused on these goals and make you more likely to achieve them.
- Balance Yourself: Your physical, spiritual and emotional health is vital to your success. Your business requires a significant amount of your time but remember to make time for yourself. Between family, friends, work and other responsibilities, a balance can seem impossible. It can take some time to find the proper balance, but fear not, it can be done. An annual vacation can be just the trick to clear your head and refresh.
- Invest, don’t spend: There should be a 10-20% gap between earning and spending. Success requires time, patience and, yes, money. Spend wisely and distinguish between a good investment and a waste of money. It may take ten ideas to generate one that will grow sales and the bottom line. Keep active in the industry, read industry magazines, attend local tradeshows, make friends with your fellow carwasher and be a pioneer of new ideas. This will increase your path to success and keep the fun in carwashing.
- Stick at it until you win: Most people fail because they quit too soon. Make a plan AND a commitment to see the plan through. Plan your time wisely and allow yourself time to take care of extra projects. Don’t let your good ideas slip away. Put a deadline down on paper at the idea inception and hold yourself to accomplishing the project within that time frame.
- Develop and maintain a positive attitude: Positive attitudes make achieving success much easier. If you don’t believe you can do something, why is anyone else going to believe it?
- Ignore idiots and zealots: Idiots and zealots will try to rain on your parade. Avoid them and don’t let them stand in your way of success. In reference to two of the above secrets, stay focused on your goals and remain positive, and these negative people will have no chance discouraging you.
“The victory we call success goes to the best prepared, self believing, right associated, self taught, responsible person who sees the opportunity and is willing to take the risk to seize it.” I hope that these Secrets of Success have helped you no matter what you are trying to sell, whether it is selling the top car wash package to customers, chemicals and equipment to operators or yourself to your employer to show why you were hired in the first place. Try to focus on one at a time, and you will see your efforts pay off. Very few people are willing to put forth the effort to succeed. Now that you have the secrets, are you willing to make the effort to reach your best potential?
Brent McCurdy, Managing Director, Blendco Systems
Blendco manufactures a full line of detergents and waxes for the professional carwash industry. You can contact Blendco at: www.blendco.com.
