Posted by Greg
March 30, 2010
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.
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