March Mad-Awesomeness!
My Goal for the month of March was to ‘Have No Goals and Enjoy Myself.’ Well, it turns out that this was the best month I’ve ever had in a long time. I started this blog a month and a half ago because my life had become a series of Train Wrecks after Train Wrecks. Today I am up to date on all my bills (except the College Loan, I am still 4 months away from being current and am working with them on that), haven’t had an over draft penalty since February, My body is sexier then ever, I have cash in my bank account and every morning I wake up happy. I am happy I took the time to enjoy myself now because the busy Season has started. I’ve learned some things, too; and this blog entry may not be so much for my fans as it is for my fellow brothers in the business, but if you are reading this
#1- “It’s My Life Now. I Have to Live It For Myself” This was a piece of advice given to me last year and I didn’t start taking it to heart until this month. I can’t live my life the way others want me to live it, it has to be the way I want to live it or else I will always be depressed. What a concept! It was 3am, I was coming home from a job and I was mad at myself for staying up too late. I was supposed to make an early phone call to my mom in the morning and I knew that wasn’t going to happen. My mom still wants me to be a Lawyer or a Teacher because of my impressive communication skills. I have no intention of being either of those. That is when I pulled that awesome piece of advice from the file cabinet in my head and when I called her at 2 in the afternoon I told her that I was out until 3 in the morning and didn’t get to bed till 4. That was That.
#2- “If I Don’t Like Doing It, Then I Don’t Do It; Or At Least I Ask For More.” I am not an upseller and pride myself on not being one. But, there is a specific service that I completely dread doing and I usually do it anyways because I am not an upseller. Not anymore. I was speaking with young guy we recently added to the site and him and I were discussing all the crazy things clients ask us to do. He flat out said that he has to ask for more money when it comes to a few specific services. I was always afraid of upselling because I didn’t want to get bad reviews because of it. But, that one service I dread doing could easily be eliminated from the client’s list of needed services if I asked for more money to do it. Sure enough, I started asking for an extra $100 (in a kind and gentle way) and I either did not have to provide the service or I made an extra $100. It’s been a winning scenario.
#3- “Just Look at Previous Months.” Somehow every month, with the exclusion of February, I have pulled through and made substantial financial gains. I never seem to realize that and always think I am behind the ball when Im getting no phone calls. The gains, though, have come in mini-spurts of business that I thought followed no regular pattern. Well, after looking back, I realized that there was a pattern that follows no direct schedule, but rather a form of orderly financial chaos that stretches for 2 months and at the conclusion of a 2 month period, if I save my pennies properly, I end up with a large profit at the end. Its hard to put into words, but here’s an example: This first week of this month I received 3 jobs and 1 agency call; the following week I received only 1 job, 1 Overnight that unfortunately turned into a 5 hour and no agency calls; On week 3 I received 8 jobs (yea… thats a lot) and no agency calls; Last week I received no agency calls and no jobs until the weekend where I received 2 jobs and 1 bad agency call. This week I have no jobs, but a possible overnight on Friday. When looking back, in the long run that is an average of 4 jobs a week. Most calls I get are for over an hour, or they tip properly. So when I put that into prospective, there was a lot of money there. I just got to keep my hands off the cash and it will all be fine.