Without question if you want your business to grow you have to upgrade your business repeatedly as well as things that you do and the people you deal with. It’s unfortunate but everyone is not going to grow with you and some people will even hold you WAY back from forging ahead. Finally, success is not defined by millions of dollars, it is defined by success and leadership. the man or the woman who does their own thing and does it well. Successful entrepreneurs are looked highly upon and we are few and far between.There are hundreds of thousands of people who have fake business cards and fake businesses with email addresses that end in gmail.com or yahoo.com and they are telling people they are entrepreneurs. They are not and they give us a bad name but for those of us that are successful
This week, a friend in Atlanta called me to tell me about a guy that he knew that is trying to promote his exercise business. I knew this kind of call so well and I don’t like doing businesses with friends.It never works out well. My friend was trying to impress his friend by telling him that he knew someone in show business, marketing and promotion. My friend, who I talk to every few months went on and on about this guy and how he really believed in what he was doing and wanted me to talk to him. At times, I am far to concerned about the feelings of others and I felt obligated to finish the conversation as if I owed my friend that much but I didn’t.I did not ask him to do what he did.
This is incredibly uncomfortable for me because I am too busy to follow though with fake clients. I asked my friend, “Does this guy have a budget” he said “I’m sure he does” which in no way means yes, so I suddenly got another call (not really) because I didn’t want to waste another minute having this discussion. A few minutes later, my friend called again, I answered and he asked me to talk to the guy because he told him I would talk to him (why am I obligated to fulfill YOUR obligations?) I told him I had to take another call and that I would call him back. I’m not sure if you have had to deal with these kinds of people before but perhaps it’s a good idea to reevaluate the friendship because you begin to realize you are being used. At any rate I cut the conversation short again and told him I would call him back hoping he would get the message that I did not want to be bothered with this but trying to be polite at the same time.
The next day my cell phone rings and I see that it’s a number I don’t know. I answer and it’s the guy. My friend gave him my CELL number without my permission. I was angry but it was too late and I felt very uncomfortable about the whole thing. I was being preyed upon by a situation that I knew was a waste of my time. I told the guy I would call him back. He called me back an hour later. He was already coming of as inconsiderate which was a turn off. A person who has money to spend has no problem waiting for you to call them back. I am always suspicious of clients who are too eager.
A few days later, I called him back and indeed, it was a waste of my time but I knew the experience would be great for readers of Blog Wallet who have their own businesses to know the warning signs. Here are a few tips for you to look out for. At the start of the conversation, this guy went on and on about how his business worked and how successful he was. He told me his product was in several countries and that it was very successful. I knew this statement would come back to haunt him as we talked further. He was lying and I could tell…. (click “Next” for the next story)
