I spend most of my time , building my business. I found out, when you work for someone else, your paid what your job is worth. When you work for yourself, as many of us do, your paid what your worth. Ouch !! I'll be the first to admit, I want more business. I believe that if you help enough other people get what they want, you will automatically have what you want. To be sucessful, find a need and fill it. If your in business and you have a great product or service that truly fills a need, why wouldn't you want to benefit as many people as possible. Can you ever help to many or have, to much business? If I could only give you one piece of advice, it would be to create symbiotic relationships with others. In a symbiotic relationship, both parties survive and work together each benefiting, in one way or another, from its association. Take the rhino and a certain species of birds, they live symbiotically. Each depends on the other for survival. The rhino has ticks that the bird needs for food. The bird helps the rhino in two ways. It not only provides pest control, but when it (the bird) sees an animal that might attack the rhino, it jumps up and down making the rhino know it is time to run for cover. They need each other and so do we.
Comments
Robert says:
Gary makes an excellent point concerning "symbiotic relationships". It's my personal belief, after 25 years as an eldercare professional, that connecting with others in this field is the single greatest growth strategy small eldercare business professionals can employ.
Beware the “find a need and fill it” strategy. It does not apply to any eldercare business that relies on the customer/client paying the bill. The need for eldercare services is huge and growing rapidly. But to survive as independent business owners eldercare professionals must look more closely at the data and embrace a more realistic philosophy.
Need doesn’t pay the bills, Demand” does!
Unfortunately those with the greatest need often do not have the ability to pay for the products and services that are best suited to meet their need.
A major objective of the NEPC community is to form the symbiotic network Gary refers to , so we can collaborate on finding and serving those who can afford our services.
June 2, 2010 at 1:15 PM | Permalink
Nancy says:
I can vouch for Bob & his sympiotic relationships - I've been a product of that for the past 16 years and more to come. Balance is one of my goals and aspirations that I'm working hard at - all work and no play is a good receipe for 'boring'. Being only a giver all the time can also be an imbalance - feeding yourself first gives you the energy to feed others better.
June 5, 2010 at 10:51 AM | Permalink
James L. says:
So, so true. I think it's a pretty typical (read: human) response to think that once you've started a business, you have to do everything yourself. It's so much more worthwhile to work with other people -- you get a sounding board, plus, you both have the opportunity to make one another more successful. Great stuff.
June 28, 2010 at 10:31 AM | Permalink