Cold Calling SUCKS! But what are you gonna do?

I have to really sike myself out when it's time to make cold calls. Quite honestly I don't really like doing it, but hey its a necessary evil. Over time I've gotten much better at cold calling, but I still don't enjoy it. I had an epiphany a few months back, and now I want to share with you what works for me. Here is one HUGE tip to help you be a successful cold caller. It works!

1. Get someone else to do it for you genius!
Some people are great at cold calling, but don't have the desire to run a business. These are the people you need to hire. They can use their skills to set up appointments for you. That way you can spend your time closing the big deals. If you spend all your time prospecting, you wont have time to build an infrastructure for success. You'll constantly be on the phone going no where fast. The beauty of hiring other people to do it is that you can duplicate your own efforts many times over and only pay them when they produce. People need work right now. A wise man once said to work smart not hard. Otherwise, enjoy the rat race my friend.

Business owners need rest too... 5 tips to a good night sleep.

The early bird gets the worm. The early bird also went to sleep before the other birds. Sleep is extremely important if you want to operate a successful business, but sometimes its hard to find the time to get good sleep with so many responsibilities. Here are 5 tips to help you get to sleep early, and to be more productive in your day.
1.Go to bed as early as possible. Just remember all the times where going to bed late has given you horrible results. This should help to force you to turn off the computer and television.
2. Know your limitations. You're not a machine. Your body and mind will literally shut down if you don't get enough rest.
3. Put your work to the side a couple of hours before bed. If your mind is racing it's hard to get to sleep. Give your brain a chance to wind down by leaving the work alone right before bed.
4. Create a routine before bed. Maybe you take a shower, then read a few pages of a book before bed. Whatever it is, try to make it a relaxing routine that you do every night. This will help you get to sleep.
5. Make sleep a priority. Get serious about sleep and don't let anyone or anything stand in the way of YOUR sleep!

Put Down the Phone! Communicate Through Email!

Keeping in contact with customers is critical, but it can also be a very time-consuming task. There are so many things to do in a given day, and it never seems to be enough time in the day to keep in touch with customers the way you'd like. This is why you need to make a habit of using email to communicate with your customers.

Although, this may seem like common since to many of you business owners out there, you'd be surprised by how many people don't use email as a primary form of communication. By using email, you can send a message any time, anywhere and your customer can read it at his or her convenience. This is much more efficient that trying again and again to call on the phone. It can also be discouraging if you've left several messages on the phone with no response. Send an email instead because many of your customers may be extremely busy people and just don't have time to talk. It doesn't mean they don't want to talk, it just means they don't have time to talk. There's a big difference between the two.

Remember to use email when you want to communicate with customers or potential clients. You can send one thousand emails at once in a few minutes. How long does it take you to call 1000 people? Efficiency is the key when running your own small business, so ever minute matters. The goal is to achieve as much as you can for the energy you put out. Don't work harder than you have to if its not going to bring you results.

Take Care of Your Customers!

Eighty percent of your business comes from twenty percent of your customers. I'm sure many of you have heard that before and know that to be true. But what have you done lately to capitalize on that knowledge? Are you just going to keep loosing customers and chalk it up to the economy? What are you going to do? Pick up the phone right now and call 3 of you best customers and tell them thanks for the business. That's a start.

Support Black Business

If you're an African American in this country, you need to support black business. I don't care if it's the man that owns the hot dog stand up the street on the corner. What's important is, you were able to contribute to, and positively influence a black man or woman's life through financially empowering them. We've gotten so caught up in the market economy philosophy, that we forget that huge corporations got huge by people supporting them through the years. If we don't help each other, who will?