training manual - pre-loved clothing business

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Establishing a Profitable Establishing a Profitable Establishing a Profitable Establishing a Profitable Designer Label Designer Label Designer Label Designer Label Pre Pre Pre Pre-Loved Clothing Business Loved Clothing Business Loved Clothing Business Loved Clothing Business One of the many training manuals written by Nicole Kelly Nicole Kelly Nicole Kelly Nicole Kelly

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Page 1: Training Manual - Pre-Loved Clothing Business

Establishing a ProfitableEstablishing a ProfitableEstablishing a ProfitableEstablishing a Profitable

Designer Label Designer Label Designer Label Designer Label

PrePrePrePre----Loved Clothing BusinessLoved Clothing BusinessLoved Clothing BusinessLoved Clothing Business

One of the many training manuals written by

Nicole Kelly Nicole Kelly Nicole Kelly Nicole Kelly

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Establishing a Pre-Loved Clothing Business – authored by Nicole Kelly ©

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HEY

FASHION LOVERS!

Want to start your own small business but don't have the

capital?

Do you love clothes and fashion?

Then learn what to do to get started in your own Designer Label pre-loved clothing and accessories business that can commence on a part-time basis and will cost you next to nothing to set up.

In this workshop you will learn:

• where to go to find your stock

• how to get fantastic top-quality clothes free of charge

• how to promote your business so that others know where to find you

• and once you set up your shop, what to do to make it look good.

This business can be run part-time while the kids are at school and can give you contact with other fashion loving people.

Why pay thousands of dollars to buy someone else’s

business when you can learn how to start your own, and be flooded with customers?

Stop placing your destiny in the hands of others. Become self-

employed and take back the control!

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Introduction Have you been thinking about starting a business...but you're not really sure it's what you want? Are you too

young or too old, experienced in a narrow niche, leaving a dying industry and/or high-profile in your field or

region? Your fastest track to career freedom may not be a new job. You may see money faster when you start

your own business than when you pound pavements and blast your resume all over town.

Most people worry about insurance and tax forms. They're important -- but don't let them stop you. The real

challenges are:

What structure of business will you start?

What are your first steps?

How can you find the help you need?

This workbook-style manual gets you started answering these questions and helps you deal with the healthy

fears faced by all entrepreneurs. We will discuss:

The single most important question to ask before you begin

How to save hundreds of dollars in consulting and coaching fees

The single greatest time-waster (almost everybody does it)

How to develop your business intuition

How to build on strength

How to face the toughest decision of all - give up or keep going

How to replace wet blankets with supportive mentors

Once you have decided which direction is right for you and whether you have what it takes to be successful,

you should go about putting things in place to get started. This training manual will guide you in becoming

successful in running a Designer Label Pre-Loved Clothing shop, home-based or market-stall business. You

will be introduced to retail selling and given tips on the easiest way to run your business. The workshop also

contains advice, strategies and planning for being a super salesperson and successful stock purchaser, as well as

a wonderful customer service person.

Your aim in your new small fashion business is to provide quality clothing that looks good and is priced such

that your valued customers save money, while at the same time looking good and feeling great. Each customer

should feel that they got a bargain and that they enjoyed the experience of shopping with you. The success of

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your business depends on you and how you can make each one of them feel special. This begins from the very

start when they first meet or call you and continues through every action you take with them.

You will learn how to set up your shop or stall, how to control your finances, how to make sales and how to

provide professional service. Also, how to stock your business with fashionable clothing and accessories for

little or no outlay. All of this information combined will make your business a total success. It is recommended

that you have most of the business basics that you will learn from the business section of the workshop in place

so that selling the stock is easy.

With these few tips in mind, you are about to embark on a wonderful journey in your new small business. If you

study the manual after completing the workshop, and then follow and implement these guidelines, your business

should become very successful. So I wish you all the best, and remember to refer to your Guide, or call me if

you need help.

About the writer of this manual

The writer of this manual is Nicole Kelly. She is 37 years of age and lives with her two cats at Sutherland in

Sydney’s south. Nicole was educated at a selective girl’s high school in Sydney’s south, but does not credit that

time for any of her success. Like most entrepreneurs, she couldn’t wait to leave school and get out there and

start working for herself, and because she knew she wanted to do this she began learning a profession that

would allow her to do so.

She competed as a Ballroom dancer from the age of fifteen, and at nineteen she became a qualified contract

dance teacher who specialised in Ballroom and Latin American dancing, from which she went on to establish

her own dance school at age 21. She has experienced teaching both adults and children and has proven ability to

impart her knowledge in a constructive and comprehensive format.

The skills being gained while running her first business led her to also set up her own party-plan costume

jewelry and lingerie business (and model for the catalogues used to sell the lingerie). She ran both her dancing

school and her costume jewellery and lingerie business alongside each other, often working 60 or 70 hours a

week for the next three and a half years. From her party-plan business she learned the dynamics of this type of

selling and how different tastes in products appeal to different people. She learned that no matter what a

person’s opinion is about a product or service, there is always someone else out there that often sees things very

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differently. So, if you happen to like one type of product in the range of items you sell, it doesn’t necessarily

mean that your customers will like it. And vice versa – if you don’t think it will sell you may be pleasantly

surprised when it does. This knowledge helped her to start a designer-label pre-loved clothing store at Cronulla

in 1997 where she saw the same principles applying here.

In 1991 she closed her dancing school and her party-plan business, took a break and then began a cleaning

service that grew into a cleaning agency within 12 months from starting. She then went on to successfully run

major domestic cleaning businesses in Sydney over the next 12 years, creating work for over five hundred

people during that time, those people servicing more than 6000 clients overall.

From late 1999, Nicole began writing training manuals about the various businesses she has run, and further

developing her understanding of business, namely the Internet and on-line services. In the last eighteen months

she has taught at five adult education colleges in Sydney, with a range of 12 different workshops all developed

by her. Her students have then gone on to set up their own businesses from the information that they were

taught at her workshops.

Nicole has been widely recognised for her unique ability to successfully market her businesses, allowing her

business names to fast track into the minds of the people those businesses serve. While running her most recent

cleaning agency she established a leaflet distribution service in order to reduce the costs of marketing the

business. Once that was done she was able to market her cleaning business for next-to-nothing. She has also

studied the techniques that enable Multi-Level businesses to become profitable and believes in working smarter

rather than harder.

Her entrepreneurial spirit has led her to continually develop strategies to enable her to fine-tune the various

aspects of being in businesses, which has given her a very wide range of experience. Through her ability to

write she brings to you a comprehensive study guide that you will gain great benefit from. If you study this

guide in depth and put into action the suggestions contained within it, you will gain the strength, knowledge and

skill to make this business a big success for you.

A message from Nicole - If you need support then feel free to call on 0404-000-077 or email me at [email protected]

and we can arrange a time to do some further training together. I charge for one-on-one consultations and/or email support to

help you get started. Customer support is available for all purchasers of my manuals, so if you need help please contact me.

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List of Chapters

1. Do you Have what it Takes? 11

Know Yourself 11

Strengths and Weaknesses 11

Character Type 12

Values 13

Aims 14

Questions and Exercises: Self Assessment and Activities 14

Personality Types – Surround Yourself with Complementary Help 16

Power Types 16

Questionnaire 16

Adding up the Score 18

The Personality Components 18

Relationship-Type Personality 19

Action-Type Personality 21

Strategy-Type Personality 23

What to do Now that you know your Personality Type 25

2. Personal Skills needed to be a Success 27 Assertiveness 27

Defining your Purpose 31

A Brief Overview of Metaphysics 32

The Four parts of our Whole Being 32

Why Most People fail to Achieve what they Want in Life 34

What do you Feel is your Life’s Purpose? 37

Action Steps to Defining your Purpose 38

Emotional Development and How it Affects you in Business 38

Questions and Exercises 41

3. What are the Real Challenges 44

What Structure of Business will you Start? 44

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What are your First Steps? 44

How can you Find the Help you Need? 45

What is the Single Greatest Time Waster? 46

How to Develop your Business Intuition 46

How to Build on Strength 47

How to Face the Toughest Decision of All 47

How to Replace Wet Blankets with Supportive Mentors 48

Questions and Exercises 49

4. Getting Started 50

To Risk 50

To Buy or not to Buy, that is the Question 51

Partnership or Sole Trader? 54

Types of Business and what it takes to Succeed 56

When to Begin - Seasonal Variations in the Industry 59

Setting up Your New Small Business 60

Fixtures, Fittings, Stock and Supplies 60

Open Two Separate Bank Accounts 61

Registration of Business 61

Choosing a Name for your Business 62

Signing a Lease 62

Small Business Pre-opening Checklist 64

Paying your Taxes 65

Position, Position, Position!! 65

Questions and Exercises 66

5. Business Promotion Simplified 69

How to Design and Place an Advertisement 69

Distributing Leaflet Advertising 70

How Often Should I Promote my Business? 71

Who do I Pay to Distribute my Leaflets? 71

Editorials 72

Promotions 73

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Working from Home 73

Questions and Exercises 74

6. How to Get Free Stock 76

Imagine a Business with almost NO Start-up Costs!! 76

Conditions that you should impose on Consignment Stock 78

Stock that isn’t free but isn’t far off it!! 78

Pricing your Stock 80

Tagging and Coding Consignment Stock 80

Purchasing Stock from your Customers 81

Purchasing Stock from Garage Sales 82

Shop and Window Displays 82

Taking Lay-buys and Giving Refunds 84

Avoiding Theft 84

Choosing Staff 85

Developing a Regular Customer Base 86

High Turnover or Quality Items at a Higher Fee? 86

Alterations 86

A-frame Boards 87

Carry Bags 87

Washing and Ironing for Presentation 87

Music and Colour 88

Trading Hours and Days 88

Questions and Exercises 88

7. Sales Techniques 91

The First Point of Contact is often the Telephone 91

Be Ready 91

Be Quick to Respond 92

Use Both Your Own and Your Callers Name 92

Have a Bright and Cheery Disposition 92

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Be Polite 93

Be Accurate 93

Selling the Garments 94

Fashion and Body Image 95

Take time for 12 things 96

Mobile Phones, Messagebanks & Answering Machines 97

Various Ideas for How to Run your Business 97

Selling Merchandise through Garage Sales 101

Questions and Exercises 105

8. The Early Stages 107

What are your Motivations to be in Business? 107

The Establishment Period 108

Statistics 109

Questions and Exercises 109

9. Making Your Business Profitable 111

Asking for and Managing your Money 111

Budgeting for Business and Personal Needs 112

How to Work with your Budget 113

Seven Principles of Prosperity 115

Budget Planning Form 116

Budget Forms 116a + b

Insurance 117

Questions and Exercises 117

10. Good Public Relation Skills 119

Gaining your Customer’s Trust and Confidence 119

Becoming a Good Conversationalist 120

Using your Voice 121

Develop a Magnetic Voice 121

How to Improve your Memory 123

Communication 124

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Pieces in a Puzzle 127

11. General Hints on Presentation 128

Washing, Drying and Ironing 128

Before you leave….. 129

Window Cleaning 130

Cleaning Windows with a Rubber Squeegee 131

Questions and Exercises 132

12. The Mindset of a Businessperson 133

Goal Setting, Responsibility and Self-Acceptance 133

Summarising 136

Other training manuals written by the author 138

Inspiration 140

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Chapter One – Do you Have what it Takes?

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step – Martin Luther King Jnr.

Know Yourself

Knowing yourself will help you to make correct choices concerning the business venture you go into and your

future. Self-evaluation, knowing your strengths and weaknesses, and identifying your needs, personality type

and values will help you to see yourself as the character you really are and to project yourself as the person you

want to be and help you to be successful.

Life is constantly changing and so you will need to adjust and change. In order to achieve your aims, set short-

term targets to be realistic and to mark your achievement. You will need to evaluate your performance on a

regular basis if you really want to know yourself, and be successful.

It is vital if you are going to operate a successful business that you first know yourself. When you are able to

evaluate yourself and know your strengths and weaknesses, you will be able to identify your needs and discern

strengths and weaknesses in your colleagues. There are certain key areas:

Identify

• Your character type

• Your strengths and weaknesses

• Your values

• Your aims

These will help you to know yourself and plan the future.

Strengths and Weaknesses

What type of person are you? Are you:

• Self-motivating

• Honest

• Smart

• Willing

• Ambitions

• Hard-working

• Self-confident

• Strong

• Caring

• Enthusiastic

• Friendly

• Self-reliant

• Patient

• Sympathetic

• Energetic

• Competent

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Character Type

What do you like doing?

Do you enjoy: using your imagination

creating new ideas

forward planning

trusting in a chance idea If so, you are: �

CREATIVE

Do you enjoy: tackling problems

analysing situations

implementing solutions

accuracy when working If so, you are: �

A THINKER/PLANNER

Are you good at: listening to people

helping individuals to understand their worth

assessing moods and feelings If so, you are: �

A GOOD SOCIAL INTERACTOR

Are you good at: meeting deadlines

being well organised

completing routine work

being single-minded If so, you are: �

A GOOD ORGANISER

Fortunately, as we are all individuals we do not fit into one ‘box-type’. We often find we have more than

one major quality. This is when a knowledge of our own values can assist us.

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Values

Analysing your values and adding them to your natural strengths and aptitudes helps you to begin a happy

and successful time of self-employment. Once you have decided your own goals, you can aim for them.

Do you value: a secure working environment?

If so, don’t think about leaving the position you currently have. Instead, set-up and

run your business part-time and keep your current full-time position along with the

income derived from that.

Do you value: freedom and flexibility?

If so, think about developing a business that moves around a bit. For example, set up a

party-plan style business that always has you going to different venues and working at

different times each week. This will give you the variety that will keep you happy and

the constant chance to meet lots of new people.

Do you value: achievement?

If so you must set your aims at short-term goals, and you must work in a situation

where your achievement is recognised and rewarded. Perhaps after setting up your

business you could enter into the Small Business Achievements awards, or enter the

Rotary awards that are held for small businesses.

Do you value: financial success?

If you aim to achieve a good income, you must be prepared to work towards having a

full time business. You will need to develop many skills and become competent at a

variety of tasks. Determination will get you there over a period of time.

Do you value: power and leadership?

If you want power and leadership – to be the best and to arrive at the top – you should

look at developing a business that is not confined to the one premises that will give

you plenty of experience and opportunities to succeed.

Do you value: people?

Working closely with colleagues and having time to talk to clients can make your

working life a pleasure. Good communication skills and a friendly working

environment are sometimes lost in the busy, non-stop pressure of a high-powered

business. You must decided on the right business environment to provide the

opportunity to mix with others.

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Aims

Once you have identified your aptitudes and values, you are able to identify your aims and set goals.

• Short-term targets are best if you are to be successful. Your aims will also be governed by the type of

image you intend to project.

• Will you be a confident, smart, knowledgeable, reliable optimist?

• Will you build your reputation on your skills and personal qualities? What will you do?

Questions and Exercises: Self Assessment and Activities

What type of person are you? List your personal qualities

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Identify your character type(s)

a) are you an organiser or a thinker?

b) Are you a creative person?

c) Are you a social interactor?

Answer:

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

b) Make a list your strengths and weaknesses.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

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What are your values?

a) Do you value security?

b) Do you value freedom and flexibility?

c) Do you value financial success?

d) Do you value power and leadership?

e) Do you value achievement?

f) Do you value people?

Place these in order of importance to you.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

How will you decide on your aims?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Why is it important to know yourself? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. When you have completed this section you will have successfully made your first evaluation.

1) List the transferable skills that you have that could be used in your own business.

2) Identify your personal weaknesses and strengths then give examples on how you would cope with them

in your own business.

3) ‘Being professional’ – what does it mean to you? Explain your answer.

4) What would you look for in another person to complement your own skills and talents and help in areas

that you don’t have strengths or skills?

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Personality Types – Surround Yourself with Complementary Help

We can only ever begin from where we are today, so even if a person has not developed their skills or their

personality well enough to handle each and every aspect of the business, they can employ others who have

those skills and traits that they lack within themselves and who are capable of handling the aspects of the

business that they are not.

Here we will do an exercise to help you realise what aspects of who you are at this point in your life will

help you, and what aspects of who you are at this point in your life will hinder you. Sometimes your greatest

strength is also your worst enemy if allowed to operate without control. I learned much of what I write here

from getting it wrong – my mistakes were my greatest teacher. At times, those aspects of myself that I

needed to change were only dealt with after I had experienced events that forced me to look at myself. I can

only say these things here because I am able to see my journey from where I stand now. While I was in the

midst of less-than-efficient ways of operating I could not see my own under-development and my inability

to make good judgements. So I urge you to make your own improvement a regular part of your life so that

your business can grow as you grow. Each one of you will be faced with different challenges as well. What

is challenging to one person is easy for another, yet what is difficult for them the first person handles well.

Those aspects of ourselves that are well-developed or less-well-developed help determine which category of

the following personality test we fall into.

Power Types Of all the different personality tests I have done, none seemed to explain things so well to me as the one I

am about to show you here. Mark your answers here to work out your own personality type, and then you

can fill out the missing words on the different pages as we go through the traits of each of these three types.

Questionnaire (circle the most appropriate response) Mostly Sometimes Never

1. i) Do you have:

a) a lot of friends 1 0 -1

b) a few close friends -1 0 1

ii) Do you prefer to: c) take risks 0 1 -1

d) play it safe 0 -1 1

iii) When making decisions do you: e) do so on your own and without prompting 1 -1 0

f) wait until forced 1 -1 0

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Mostly Sometimes Never 2. Which answer is most appropriate?

When at a party where you don’t know very many people, do you:

g) feel insecure 0 0 2

h) try to reach out and connect with other people 2 0 0

i) try to become the centre of attention 0 2 0

3. i) Which answer is the most appropriate?

When something goes wrong do you: j) hit the roof 0 2 0

k) talk to someone 2 0 0

l) withdraw 0 0 2

ii)Which answer is the least appropriate?

When something goes wrong do you: j) hit the roof 0 -2 0

k) talk to someone -2 0 0

l) withdraw 0 0 -2

4. i) Which answer is the most appropriate?

How would your friends describe you? m) open and friendly 2 0 0

n) vivacious 0 2 0

o) quiet and reserved 0 0 2

ii) Which answer is the least appropriate?

How would your friends describe you? m) open and friendly -2 0 0

n) vivacious 0 -2 0

o) quiet and reserved 0 0 -2

5. Which four (4) terms or statements best describe you? p) direct 0 1 -1

q) willing to compromise 1 -1 0

r) will deal with problems immediately -1 0 -1

s) orderly/pedantic 0 0 1

t) resolute 0 1 0

u) shy and retreating -1 -1 1

v) when dining, prefer refined cuisine 1 0 0

w) hearing is sensitive to loud noise 0 -1 1

x) will gain weight easily 1 0 -1

y) tend to be impatient -1 1 0

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Now add up your scores. The highest is generally your dominant trait, the lowest your least dominant.

Adding up the Score

When you add up the scores you will have a total score at the bottom of each column. The first column

indicates your score in the area of Relationship. The second column indicates your score in the area of

Action. The third column indicates your score in the area of Strategy.

Your highest score indicates your strongest personality component. Your lowest score indicates your

weakest personality component. In order to become balanced overall you may need to temper your strongest

personality component and strengthen your weakest personality component.

The Personality Components

When evaluating your personality type, it is important that you consider all three components together. First

of all, the whole model shows your overall, individual personality, in which all three components work

together.

The Strongest Component This shows your most outstanding characteristics. Herein lies the key to your success, but also – if this

component goes out of control – the origin of your problems. Familiarise yourself with your potential.

The Second Component This shows further potential of your personality and it compliments the strongest component. Try to

combine correctly the meaning of both components – according to their proportions in your power type

model.

The Third Component This shows you which limits of your potential you need to come to terms with and in which direction you

are better not to seek your goals, because your personal disappointments are mostly already pre-programmed

with all the intentions that you form here.

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Relationship-Type Personality

Is Motivated through Positive Relationships

You are motivated to take action if in doing so you can improve your relationship to your environment. For

example, in sport, you don’t fight for the sake of it, but rather to please your trainer and to be with your

team. Relationships are the most important thing for you, and you will do everything to improve these

relationships. You can be motivated with pain if someone shows you how disappointed they can be if you

don’t achieve your goals.

Main features of the relationship motivated character

Lives, remembers and likes to talk about……………………………………………………………………… Reaches decisions influenced by the …………………………………………………...…………...of the past Is in charge of ……………………………….……………….and……...………………………..……………. Success through ……………………………………………………………………….……………………..… Quickly seeks and finds ……………………………………………….……………….……………….……… Goes to people and feels that he/she belongs with them ………………………………………………...…….. ………………………………….…….and…..……….………………...……….are very important to him/her He/she loves the comfortable …………………………………………………………………..……………… Sociable, a mediator, has………………………………………………………………………………………. Has a great interest in ……………………………………………..and in your…...…………………………. Often finds it difficult to say ……………………………………………………….…………………..……… Due to his/her nature, to their …………………………………..…………………...…., people come to them He/she is inclined towards ………………………………………………………..…...., he/she builds on trust

Personality-Type Model

Hence the strength of your orientation towards relationships is a good yardstick for how loved you can be in

your human environment – even without your own conscious actions. Human isolation is unbearable for

you. Your ability to make use of your past experiences is one of your strongest characteristics. Every human

being has an enormous supply of unconsciously stored life experiences. The more distinctive this component

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is, the more is this treasure of experiences available and the more it gives you a strong and distinctive sense

of security. You feel better and safer if you can build up your collection of acquaintances and intimate

friends. You don’t like to give up memories and habits. You avoid radical changes and are more interested

in constant development.

The reliability of your instinct strongly influences your environment with your brilliant instinctive

judgement of people, your instinctive feeling when interacting with them. Even if you can’t logically explain

such feelings, you will often receive clear confirmation of them through experience.

What you should do and what you should leave alone, if Relationship power is

your strongest component You are successful because people like you. So, build on this advantage. Do what corresponds to your

nature. Do people favours without immediately questioning the value of them. This way you are the winner

– especially if you don’t frantically concern yourself with the outcome. Focus on your strength being in

gradual progress rather than in dogged rings. When you face strong resistance, just hold back and wait for

your opportunity.

Confidently put your trust in your reliable feelings for people and situations. Learn to recognise and take

notice of these subtle signals from your subconscious, because you will often receive better guidance from

this unconscious evaluating of your stored up experiences than from advice or long searching.

But with your easy style of contacting people and your delight in the contact, just be aware that not all

people have such a strong need for contact or are so readily disposed towards it. Make sure that in your

efforts to come close to people that you don’t come too close. Respect the need for personal space which

many people need around them, and which you may not invade, otherwise you will create a defence

reaction.

Missing Words from Relationship Motivated Character

1. the past 2. experience and results 3. their intuition and their feelings, sensitivity towards others

4. empathy, people, caring, involving people 5. contact, others 6. easily, instantly

7. safety/security, trust/acceptance 8. fellowship and belonging of being part of a group

9. understanding, trustworthy, tolerance 10. people, welfare 11. no

12. friendly, approachable behaviour 13. the past

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Action-Type Personality

Is Motivated through Winning Power

You feel motivated when you can be better than others, when you are Number 1. In sport, for example, you

are motivated to win, to stand on the victory podium, so that you can feel that your best is better than

someone else’s best. With regard to pain, you can be motivated when someone points out the humiliation

you would feel if another person won and looked down on you.

Main features of the action motivated character

Lives, thinks and speaks a lot in the …………………………………………………………………………… Distinguishes between ……………………………………...…and…………………………….……………... He/she loves the …………………………………………………………………....……and seeks superiority Strives after superiority and has……………………………………………………………..…………………. Affects others very …………………………………………………………………………………..………… Takes advantage of the moment and decides very …………………………………………..…………….…... Is brief …………………………….……………………...and………………………………………………… From every situation he/she gets …………………………………….…………………………….…………... Success with colleagues through ……………………….………...and………………………………………... Goes easy on ………………………………………………………………………………………….……….. Tends to …………………………………………………………………………………………………..easily

Personality-Type Model

You want a lot. Possessions and success are important to you. You are a real adventurous type. You want to

rise high. For this reason you are prepared to invest a lot in the game. But you also have enough discipline to

reach your goal or goals. You look for competition and risks in all areas of life – and you enjoy it, you love

it. Rest and patience are foreign to you. You experience situations with uncertain outcomes not as stressful,

but as welcome challenges. Thoughts of security bore you. You want to move on. Not only because of

money, but because you are interested in everything new.

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You love to pit yourself against others. For you, competition means a challenge, which you happily accept

and which stimulates you to give of your best. It is not your style to give up easily and step back, but rather

to show others how it is done. Your strong will power to get through things gives you a natural authority,

which others sense and recognise – even when you don’t deliberately show it.

You have the ability to recognise and seize the opportunity of the moment. Your element is the here and

now, that which can be done at the moment. Your reactions to the reality of the moment are spontaneous and

immediate, little restricted by lengthy consideration. This concentration on the needs of the moment explains

your delight in decision and readiness to take risks. You need activity, there must always be something on

the go, and that immediately. The dynamism of your nature is contagious and relates to: Wherever you are,

there’s always something happening.

It is more your style to grasp things than to brood over them at length. Your attitude is “Trying works better

than studying”. You are skilled at improvising and are able to help yourself in most situations.

What you should do and what you should leave alone, if the Action power is

your strongest component You are successful because you make an impression. Therefore, put into play the suggestive, infectious

affect of your personality. Your dynamism, delight in decisiveness and your optimism are contagious, even

if other people don’t acknowledge it. It is in your nature to achieve. You can rely on your natural authority,

which will be recognised on some level by others, even though generally unbeknownst to them.

Do not put so much emphasis on “Making a good impression”. You don’t need to, otherwise, through your

conspicuous and conscious need for admiration you lose much of the power that you naturally radiate.

It is characteristic of you to react quickly and without lengthy consideration. Learn to differentiate between

fast and rash. Rein in your inherent inclination to react immediately, so the goal oriented dynamics and

decisiveness do not become lack of reflection and futile hectic behaviour. Particularly when in a state of

excitement or anger you should not react immediately, but take a brief pause to consider. In that way, you

can avoid a lot of rash behaviour, which could hurt you and later cause you unnecessary problems.

Missing Words from Action Motivated Character

1. present 2. friend, foe/enemy 3. compete, victory, win 4. superiority, dominate

5. firmly, authority 6. quickly, spontaneously 7. direct, resolute, practical 8. maximum

9. drive, ambition, passion, enthusiasm 10. planning, repetitive 11. Hit the roof, loose patience

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Strategy-Type Personality

Is Motivated to Strategise and Plan Ahead

Your behaviour is mostly rational and practical. “NDF”: Numbers, Data and Facts are not foreign words to

you. You don’t fight with others but measure yourself above all by your inner standards. In sport, for

example, it is more important for you to develop yourself, even almost to compete against yourself, than to

be the first. Your pain motivation is being shown that if you do not reach your goal, you will not really live

up to your potential, and that you behave illogically and so miss your chance.

Main features of the strategy motivated character

Lives, thinks and speaks a lot about the …………………………………………...…………………………... Considers consequences, does nothing …………………………………………………………………….….. Even though in contact with other people, prefers to be rather …………………………………………...…… He/she likes to be …………………..………………and to stay ……………………………………………… He/she thinks in numbers data and facts ie: ……………………………...……………………………………. He/she is very sensitive to …………………………………………………………..…………………….…… Succeeds with other people through ………………………………………………………………..…………. Often in the role of observer ………………………………………………………………..…………………. He/she is very ………..…………………………….………..and ……………………………………………. He/she often makes himself/herself ……………………..….…………over …………………………………. Must always achieve …………………….…………….that are measurably …………………………………

Personality-Type Model

Important values for you are safety, peace, harmony and contentment. You avoid as much as possible

situations where you can not judge what’s going on. You are rather reticent towards strangers and new

people. It takes a while before you warm-up to people. You generally don’t give the same impression at first

meeting, but tend to gain confidence with further acquaintance.

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You always want to decide the way things are to be done and leave nothing to chance. The largest part of the

blue component is a measure stick for the safe distance that you need between yourself and other people.

You are sensitive and thin-skinned and feel dislike, indifference or apathy from others very strongly. But

other people tend not to notice your feelings. You are interesting but complicated, and often ‘hard-to-see-

through’ is the assessment given of you.

Your distance from others, but also from yourself, makes others see you as critical and reserved, rather than

instinctively prejudiced.

You have the tendency to anticipate and imagine the future, and are always a little way out of the present.

You quickly grasp the fundamentals, understand connections and recognise the natural laws behind

apparently unconnected details. You are not satisfied with the superficial, but look for the background

structures and connections. You are able not only to recognise and build on logical connections and orders,

but also to have a natural gift for arranging such connections to others in an understandable and easily

remembered way. Your facility to use language like a precision instrument is a useful adjunct to this talent.

What you should do and what you should leave alone if Strategy power is your

strongest component. You are successful because you convince people. Your systematic, orderly thinking, your ability to grasp the

essentials and your gift for sharing the logical construction of your thoughts to others give you a decided

advantage in every discussion. Make the most of this advantage.

Missing Words from Strategy Motivated Character

1. future 2. planned 3. reserved, withdrawn 4. distant, aloof 5. thinks about details

6. loud noise 7. convincing, persuading, facts 8. distance, detachment 9. orderly, punctual, late

10. stressed, worried, future 11. results, known

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What to do Now that you Know your Personality Type

Well, there’s no use knowing what your strongest component is in the personality-type exercise we just did

if you can’t take that knowledge and do something with it. So we will look at what you should do when one

of the three types is dominant in your personality.

Action-type

If Action-type is strongest, then you may not be best suited to a customer service role. Make sure you put

someone that is a Relationship-type into this role. Or, if you can’t arrange to do that straight away, then only

work the business long enough to leverage yourself out of actually doing the customer service role and more

into the business-building role. Then go about hiring others to run the shop for you, but keep control of the

purchase of stock. Don’t give this information to your staff as you won’t be able to prevent them setting up

on their own if you do. Also, set up a camera in the shop – so you can watch your staff as well as your

customers.

You may also want to send in your friends and relatives from time to time to make sure your staff are not

discounting the price, because relationship-style personalities like to please people, but they should not be

doing so at your expense. Being who you are, be careful that you are not too hard on your staff, because

action-style personalities tend to get very terse with people very quickly, and if you want your business to

succeed then go easy on your staff.

Relationship-type

If Relationship-type is strongest, you will be perfectly suited to running the shop. But because you love

creating good and harmonious relationships with people, make sure you have someone in the background

that is, perhaps, a strategist-type. You will need this person to do the bookwork, remind you to pay your tax

and order the stock from the suppliers. Because of who you are you will hate doing all the boring

paperwork, so make sure you have someone around you that can help you in this area. Also, be careful that

you don’t try to please people so much so that they can take advantage of you. If someone wants to return an

item, remember that it is pre-loved and there should be no returns on your stock. Who knows, the person

trying to do this could have already worn it, so don’t do anything that means you will lose money. Be firm –

it will be difficult because of who you are, but you need to develop this skill or you will go broke.

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Strategy-type

If Strategy-type is strongest, then you will need to develop a more outgoing personality if you intend to run

the shop yourself. You should also set a date and get started even if you don’t feel you have everything in

place ready to go. Things don’t have to be perfect before you start. If you wait until everything is perfect you

will never get started, so just set a date and do it. Like Nike says, ‘just do it”!! Also, read as much

information as you can find about the art of selling, as you naturally won’t have the kind of outgoing

personality that is needed to succeed in sales, but you will be able to develop one if you really want to. An

alternative to running the shop yourself is to hire someone else, and you do the behind the scenes work that

keeps the business running. Like the Action-type, you could be behind the scenes doing the purchasing. But

unlike the Action-type, you will be diligent enough to do the bookwork yourself. Action-types can’t stand

sitting still for long enough to do that. You would be wise to have an Action-type in the background giving

you the push you need to keep the business moving, because you may sometimes fail to take an opportunity

to expand if you don’t overcome your fears of going for it before having to have everything perfect. The

Action-type will encourage you to go forward.

A Blend of Two Traits

If you are lucky enough to have a fairly even blend of two of the traits of the personality types, and only one

of them is fairly weak in comparison to the others, then you might be able to run this business without too

much help from anyone else. If this is the case, just be aware of your weaknesses and watch (in the same

way an observer would) yourself to see that your weaker traits aren’t going to be your undoing. The fact that

you are aware of where your weaknesses lie helps you avoid them having a detrimental affect on you. So,

for example, if you know that you absolutely hate doing the bookwork, hire a competent bookkeeper and

meet with them once a week or once a fortnight. Or, if you know that you have a good blend of relationship

and strategist styles, but might be afraid of taking the next step when your business was ready to expand,

then make sure you have a mentor that you check in with who can help motivate you when the time is right.

Nobody can expect to be competent in all areas, and this is why we work well when we are interdependent

on others. We can offer our strengths to help others and they can do the same for us. You are not a failure if

you can’t do everything on your own, and you shouldn’t expect yourself to be able to. Just do the very best

with the skills and strengths you have, and be open to accept help from others if you need it. You can still do

extremely well in business without having to be perfect, so go ahead and start, and don’t worry or be afraid!

Everything will work out fine in the end.

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Chapter Two – Personal Skills Needed to be a Success

Assertiveness

Part of the reason why you are considering becoming self-employed by attending my workshop or

purchasing the training manual is because you probably want more freedom, and this means having more

independence and control over all the areas of your life. To have total freedom you will need to develop an

assertive personality, one that does not allow others to impose their intentions on you should that not be your

desire, and one that is able to make things happen so that life gives you what you want.

Basically, having an assertive personality boils down to being totally centered and contained within yourself,

and not leaning out into the world looking for acceptance from sources outside of yourself. It means that the

greater majority of the time you are calm and relaxed, with very few events that are happening around you

pushing you off-balance. It sometimes comes naturally to those people who have been properly nurtured and

loved while growing up, but for those that haven’t you will need to develop this attribute yourself.

From the moment we are born we are told what to do, how to do it and when to get it done. We are taught to

conform, to fit in and to be a part of society. All the structures around us, from governments to religious and

educational institutions want to make sure that we do. They set rules and regulations that are so stifling that

in the end the people just acquiesce and go along simply because they would rather not think about, rally

against or fight these laws. But if you desire to free yourself of the imposed shackles of these societal

institutions you will need to develop your own viewpoints, know what you want and be able to ask for it.

Part of becoming free is being able to go against the status quo and to take an individual stand on life.

The setbacks and restrictions you face along the way strengthen you as you are forced to face them head-on,

and although they may feel overpowering at times, in overcoming them you develop an individuality that

defines you and sets you apart from others. So if you find that you have experienced tremendous troubles

and strife in your life try not to see it as such a bad thing. If you have been able to go beyond those forces

that were against you, you will have developed persistence, tenacity and strength. All three of these

characteristics will give you the power to manifest whatever you want out of life.

To develop your assertiveness you must see yourself in a non-judgmental way and not criticise or condemn

yourself for what you do or have done, or what you don’t do or haven’t done. Eventually you should become

able to look at all of your life, see it for what it is, and be accepting of and know who you are. You may

desire to make changes to aspects of whom and what you are, but basically you are settled in the knowledge

that this will come with time and is something that you are quite capable of doing.

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Assertiveness is the ability to take yourself out into the world and be who you are with those around you,

while at the same time not being pushed off-centre by their reaction to you. If you are assertive you can be

yourself, talk about your life, have opinions of your own and not be attached to whether or not other people

accept you for those things. You can basically leave it up to others to react to you in whatever way they

choose to react. And, when you have truly mastered detachment their reaction will not matter to you.

If you cannot do this then you are not allowing the beauty that is within you to be free to be. You will be

projecting to the world that you have no worth, no value or no capabilities. This is basically fear, and as the

saying goes ‘a life lived in fear is a life half-lived’. The first part of assertiveness then is to accept yourself

as you are, wherever and however that may be. If you are around someone who makes you feel ‘less than’ in

some way, ask yourself ‘what is it about this person that intimidates me?’ When you have worked this out

you will then discover an area within you that you need to accept. For example, if someone asks you out and

you feel that you can’t accept because you aren’t good enough for that person, ask yourself ‘what is it that is

holding me back?’ If it happens to be that they are very wealthy and you aren’t, then you will need to work

on accepting that you have value to offer without having to have loads of money. Once you can do this for

yourself on all levels, you should also give those around you the very same acceptance.

Next, assertiveness requires you to have very clearly defined goals in life and that you know what your

purpose is. If you have no idea about these things you will not be able to become assertive. If you do not

know what you want the first step to take is to work out what you don’t want from life until you have

narrowed down your list to what you do want from life. Underlying what you want will be your purpose –

the reason for you being here. If you are able to define this you will be able to assertively say no to those

things in life that you do not want that go against your purpose, and assertively speak up for those things that

you do want in life that fit in with your purpose.

In order to strengthen your self-image never put yourself down. It is very important that once you begin to

develop an assertive personality that you always speak of yourself in a positive manner. In doing so you will

begin to create around you a shroud of serene strength that does not invite those people into your experience

that are likely to try to take advantage of you. You don’t have to brag and you don’t have to boast, but you

should be happy to say to someone ‘I am a very good cook’ because your whole family enjoys each and

every meal that you serve them. Or ‘I am a terrific seamstress’, because the clothes you make are top quality

garments and you know it to be a fact. Or, 'I was the smartest accountant to graduate in my class' because

you received honors and much recognition at your graduation. It is simply a mental discipline of watching

yourself speak and catching yourself when you say something that puts you down. It just takes practice.

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You will then begin to exude self-worth, a quality that is sadly lacking in many people, purely because they

have taken on the opinions of others, or because of the treatment that they have experienced in the process of

going through life. You have to reach the point where you can walk away from the judgments and criticisms

of those around you and not be affected by them, and where you can stamp out from your life those people

that are going to treat you with anything other than respect. Once you exude self-worth, developing the skills

of clear and precise communication will enable you to control misunderstandings as they arise between you

and those around you.

Many people were never taught how to set boundaries and how to say no, and at various times in their lives

they have had their own boundaries invaded by parents, friends and/or lovers. This places them in a weak

position while dealing with people in their new business. If you haven’t already, it is very important that you

learn to set boundaries, as this will form the foundation that will allow you to remain in control while being

self-employed. Also, applying assertiveness at the appropriate moment and to the right degree is an aspect of

setting boundaries that should also be developed.

How this is done incorporates body language, voice projection and knowing where the limits are to your

boundaries. Good communication skills help you to deliver your boundaries in a way that does not provoke

resentment. The combination of being able to set boundaries and being able to say what they are in a non-

aggressive manner will place a person in good control of most of the situations that arise with his or her

customers, clients and suppliers in business.

Setting your boundaries does not mean being confrontational. It requires that you have a healthy self-respect

that allows you to insist on being treated properly and paid accordingly through using good communication

skills as opposed to aggression. I have seen some people actually create a confrontation with their customers

or clients in an effort to prove something, but this is aggression rather than assertiveness. Insisting on being

right in an aggressive manner may make you feel good, but it does nothing to help the growth of your

business and does not make the person you are dealing with feel like they have received value for money.

Your business’ success relies on making sure this person and every other one feel supported by your service.

On the other hand, you may walk away if it is they who are attempting to create conflict. If the situation

requires you to be assertive in order to remain in control do so in a non-threatening way. Your ability to

remain calm in the face of aggression or conflict will determine your level of control. It is wise not to add

fuel to the fire when you can feel that there is a tense situation developing. If you are providing a service it is

better just to stay quiet, finish your work and leave calmly. This is why you should collect your payment at

the start of the job when providing a service to people because you can never predict what your client’s real

intentions are. If you are selling goods, just agree with your customer for long enough to make the sale.

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Let us look at a few practical strategies on setting boundaries and delivering those boundaries using good

communication skills. Let’s say, for example that you are setting up a cleaning service. Once you know what

rates to charge for the different cleaning services you need to stay within these boundaries with every client

that you deal with so that you get used to setting boundaries and keeping to them. If you are asked to do

extra work and the rate that you are charging does not cover these extra requests then just look your client in

the eye and say ‘I can certainly do those things for you during a Spring-Clean. Would you like to order a

Spring-Clean, Mrs Jones?’ If they ask again, just repeat your offer to do a Spring-Clean. Then, if they insist

that you do the work they want without ordering a Spring-Clean, you simply say 'no, these services will need

to be charged at a higher rate' clearly, calmly and without emotion. Stating what you will or won't do for the

fee that the client is paying needs to be done clearly and precisely, without any negative emotion. Good

communication only becomes aggression if you add negative emotion to your delivery of what you are

trying to say.

Over a period of time your aura will begin to exude an ‘I cannot be easily controlled or taken advantage of’

feeling about it, and when you say ‘no’ your clients will know that you mean what you say. They will, on an

unconscious level, know that your ‘no’ means ‘no’. You will find then that fewer and fewer people try to

push you to do things that once before you would find yourself doing but feeling resentful of because you

really didn’t want to do those things in the first place. A really nice thing begins to happen. People can feel

that they can’t manipulate you, so they don’t try. Occasionally you will run into someone who likes to

railroad people into doing what they want, and under these circumstances you will need to be more firm

with this type of person, but with practice you will find that you can even handle them as well.

Practice saying no whenever somebody in your life (outside the boundaries of good business relations) asks

you to do something that you would normally say yes to doing. Just say no for the sake of learning to say no.

It may feel awkward and difficult to begin with but after time you will learn how to say no without feeling

any guilt or obligation around it. Then practice asking for what you want. This may also be difficult to begin

with, but once again with time even this will become easy. Practice speaking up for yourself too. If someone

pushes in when you are waiting to be served at the shop, speak up for yourself and say ‘I was next, thank

you’. That way you don’t gather resentment towards others for things you should have protected yourself

against but didn’t. Begin to claim your right to enjoy all the benefits of being a worthy individual.

Assertiveness can become an integral part of your being, if you take the time to develop it and to make your

life special. It is only a matter of focusing on developing those skills, and with time anything can be learned

and achieved. There is a whole workshop devoted to developing assertiveness that you can do as a follow up

to this business development workshop. If you would like to attend this workshop please see me after class.

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Defining Your Purpose You may be wondering why I have included this subject as a chapter in my training manual. The reason is

simple. If you don’t know why you are doing things then your chances of success will be significantly

reduced. If you are to succeed in business it is vital that you know the reasons why you want to go into

business for yourself, and it is vital that those reasons have their foundation in the best interests of all

concerned. The essence of who you are (which I believe is the Soul of who a human being is) knows the

lessons it needs to learn and the direction it wants to head in so that you can bring happiness and support to

those around you.

I am going to give you an example of what I mean here. In my youth I was a competitive Ballroom and

Latin dancer, and have seen many performances by great dance couples. The performances that gave the

most to the audience that watched them were those danced by couples whose aim was to show the beauty

that is contained in the form of dance so that the crowd could experience a touch of the Divine as they

watched. Those couples not only were true masters of the dance floor, but they knew how to give of

themselves so that the people in the audience could briefly be reminded of the magnificence within

themselves. For twenty or so minutes the whole room would stand still as the dancers performed, and it was

only those couples who offered themselves to the audience in dedication to the magnificence within them

that were able to take the breath away from those who sat in awe of what they were seeing. For that brief

moment in time the couple on the floor seemed to become one with all time and space around them, and for

everyone watching it was almost like having an encounter with the Life Force or the Divine. Couples who

were not really interested in giving of themselves and only danced for their own vanity were not able to

touch the crowd.

Being in business is very similar to what I have just explained here. If your reasons for going into business

are selfish reasons, there is no chance of long-term success for you. There must be a higher purpose behind

your motivations for being in business if you are to be a success. You must come from loving the people,

and your actions must come out of service and dedication to those people who will do business with you. I

am not advocating here that you lay yourself bare for others to take advantage of you or to manipulate you.

What I am saying is that your intentions should be honourable if you are to succeed. It is my belief that

being in business is as much of a spiritual journey as it is a personal one, so if you go into this venture with

that in mind you are sure to give yourself a far greater chance of success. If you partner with the Divine in

all that you do you are sure to succeed because people will feel that you are genuine; they will intuitively

know that you have their best interest in mind; and therefore they will not resent giving you their money.

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A Brief Overview of Metaphysics

In offering my viewpoint here I expect that some of you will accept it and some of you may not. Some of

you will already have beliefs in place that work for you, and if this is the case then feel free to skip this

section. However, if life is not working for you at the moment then consider what I am about to explain, as I

have found this information to work well for me and it may very well do the same for you.

There is more to life than meets the eye. Every inanimate object and every living thing on this earth is made

up of and exudes energy. Scientists have long since realised that all matter is made up of energy, and it is the

combination and amount of this energy that solidifies an object and makes it appear real. As humans we

exude energy, and the amount of energy we exude depends on how much we have worked upon and

concentrated on improving ourselves. By working on ourselves, getting in touch with our purpose and

aligning our life to what we feel is our reason for being here we begin to resonate an energy that is very

pleasing to be around.

People can feel this energy on a subconscious level and if you have a lot of this Life Force coming from you

then they will come from miles away to be with you, just because you feel so good to have around.

Becoming aware of your energy levels and achieving a pleasing resonance is simply a matter of working

upon oneself in every way possible. It begins from fitness to health and relaxation, from personal

development to Spirituality and from intellectual development to assertiveness. It creates a complete

package, one that steps way, way beyond the confines of competition. You can guarantee that others will

feel this higher energy level - they won't quite be able to pinpoint what it is, but they will know that you feel

good to have around.

When going into business for yourself, by aligning with your purpose and creating a ‘complete package’ you

will be able to operate from a space that has no limit to the amount of money you can make. Or, if you are

working for others then very soon you will find yourself being promoted or outgrowing your position within

the company you now work for, hence moving on to bigger and better things. The people around you will

feel that you are calm and balanced, and this will make them feel safe around you. Hence, those who also

resonate at that higher energy level are going to want you on their team.

The Four parts of our Whole Being

As humans we have four parts to our being, each part quite separate and complete, yet each one needing the

other in order to function. These four areas are our physical body, our mental capacity or intellect, our

emotional self and our spiritual body. We will cover what needs to be done in order to function well in each

of these areas in other modules, but as a brief overview this is what each one needs:

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• Physical – the body needs exercise, rest and good nutrition in order to function well. It also needs

time out to rejuvenate, and time out to have fun. The physical is also the realm where you take

the thoughts produced from your mind and turn them into reality. They go from being just

thoughts to becoming manifest in the physical plane.

• Mental or Intellectual Self – this has to do with what you know and with what ideas your mind

can come up with. The mind is hungry for learning, so in order to look after the intellectual self

you need to feed your mind good, positive information that will assist in your development. As

with the body, do not feed your mind ‘junk food’. There is some information out there that

actually hinders your growth, so be choosy about what you read, are told or are taught. Also, you

need to allow your mind to flow with creative ideas. We wouldn’t be where we are today without

people who have had a vivid imagination.

• Emotional Self – the greatest thing you can do for your emotional self is to feel satisfied with

your life and the circumstances you have around you. To pine for things to be another way is to

lean out into the future and stop creating the best that can be done in the now. A good way to

help the emotional self is to keep a Gratitude Diary, and write down things that you are grateful

for at the end of each day. This will settle any restless feelings within you. Cultivate feeling good

about yourself and your life, and develop patience. The things you want can be had with time and

effort. Also, get help to clear any unresolved emotional issues so that you can progress forward.

• Spiritual Self – our essence is connected to the Life Force. All that we need is within us. Harness

your own inner knowing and spiritual abilities to help you when you need it. Be aware of the

difference between your psychic self and your Soul – they are not the same entity. A person can

be extremely psychic and intuitive but not be operating from their connection with God / the Life

Force / Love / the Universe or whatever term you use for your understanding of God. Don’t

confuse the two. You are not grounded in Spirituality if your intentions aren’t honourable and if

you do not come from a space of humility when you deal with others.

Each one of these areas needs to be looked after and balanced, as all four are interdependent. They should all

be functioning well individually so that when they come to interact with the other three they can do so in an

effective way.

Most of us have an idea of what we want from life, but our goals are not very specific. People will drift

along knowing that they are unhappy but not quite knowing why or how to go about improving themselves.

Making our lives as productive and happy as possible depends on doing things effectively and being

specific. Our lives will not work if we operate in certain ways or without certain standards. Perhaps you

could ask yourself questions listed overleaf.

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Why most People fail to Achieve what they want in Life

While working out for yourself how to improve your life you will need to clarify if any of the following

questions are relevant to you. These questions are for you to answer in your own time so that you can see

where you may possibly be letting yourself and others down. Be honest with yourself when you answer

them, and make a resolve to do something about the questions that you don’t like your own answers to.

1. Do I aim to be better than average at the things I do?

2. Do I actually put into action the steps needed to creating the outcome of my desire?

3. Have I spent the time educating myself in the areas that most interest me?

4. Do I control my negative thoughts and bad habits? Do I have self-discipline?

5. Do I tolerate my own poor health, which may be caused by self-abuse such as overeating, poor work

habits, lack of exercise, smoking and misuse of alcohol and drugs?

6. Do I procrastinate on things?

7. Do I lack persistence? When the going gets tough do I give up?

8. Is my negative attitude about my own potential or the potential or possibilities in a given situation

preventing me from having or achieving what I want?

9. Do I control my sexual energy and channel it into creative efforts?

10. Do I expect life to be handed to me on a platter rather than working my way towards its’ achievement?

11. Can I make a prompt decision and stick to it?

12. Have I released myself from the following fears:

* fear of poverty * fear of criticism * fear of poor health

* fear of rejection * fear of old age * fear of death

13. Have I selected my partner carefully, making sure they share the same interests, standards and dreams?

14. Am I willing to take a chance?

15. Am I working with people who neither inspire nor motivate me to achieve all that I can?

16. Do I accept superstition and prejudice which closes my mind and creates fear?

17. Am I staying in a career that I don’t like, even though I know I would be happier somewhere else?

18. Am I scattering my energies and not concentrating my efforts on one definite aim?

19. Have I learned how to manage my money so that I am not in fear of poverty all the time?

20. Do I lack enthusiasm? Do I demonstrate an interest in things?

21. Am I able to listen to other peoples’ views on religion, politics or racial discrimination? Am I tolerant?

22. Do I know how to co-operate with others?

23. Do I lack satisfaction because the things I have in life I was given; therefore I don’t feel that I deserve

them?

24. Am I intentionally dishonest? Do I have a bad reputation that restricts me because others can’t trust me?

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25. Am I egotistical and vain? Do I think only of myself and not really care about others?

26. Do I guess instead of thinking of or getting all the facts before making a judgement or decision about

something?

27. Do I ask for help from my concept of God or the God Force?

28. Do I show other people that I love them by spending time with them?

Write down areas that you think you could improve

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What do you want from life?

It is never, ever too late to blossom. Many people are late bloomers who do not blossom until they are in

their thirties, forties and fifties. Allow your creative mind to give you answers on what it is that you want

from life. Ask yourself the following questions:

What would make me happy?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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How do I define happiness?

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What do I want from life?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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If you do not know what you want the first step to take is to work out what you don’t want from life until

you have narrowed down your list to what you do want from life. Underlying what you want will be your

purpose – the reason for you being here.

Here are some questions to ask yourself that will help you work out what you want from life. Ask yourself

‘What type of life do I want? Do I want:

To work alone or with a team of people?

To build many friendships or only a few?

To work for someone else or work for myself at some stage?

To work from 9 am to 5 pm or work a variety of hours?

To be an expert at something?

To spend time each day learning about my favourite subject?

To spend some quiet time alone each day?

To travel as often as I can and see other countries and lifestyles? Where would I like to go?

To belong to a family of people?

To create a piece of work like a painting, sculpture or book that will outlive my own life and give pleasure,

beauty and inspiration to others?’

Questions like those above will help to define what you want. If you are unable to think of many other

things that you want, ask yourself the next set of questions: ‘What do I not want in my life?’ Do any of the

following questions sound true for you?

To work for, with or have people working for me who do not appreciate the value of my efforts.

To work in a job or set up a business where I am not using all my skills and abilities.

To work in a field that is not interesting exciting and fulfilling for me.

To work all my life and not get ahead and improve my lifestyle.

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To be constantly in debt and not be able to afford to do the things I want in life.

To not be in touch with my intuition, that part of me that knows what is ultimately best for me.

To be easily swayed into making decisions that may not necessarily in my own best interests.

To have other people telling me what to do all the time.

To not have my parents and family in my life or to not have a good relationship with them.

To be involved in a relationship that does not support my constant growth and development.

To be involved in a relationship that feels like a rollercoaster all the time.

To be ineffective or destructive in my communication with people.

To not be able to let go of any anger or resentment that stems from the past.

To hurt other people through my reactions to things.

To not have or not be aware of the skills needed to be a good parent.

What do you feel is your Life’s Purpose?

As with anything we do, if there is no purpose behind why it is done then there is no reason for doing it. The

same is true for our lives. People who do not feel that they have a purpose spend all their days without

direction, without achievement, without self satisfaction and hence without happiness.

Lying beneath all of your life’s experiences will be a theme, a set of lessons you have learned that seem to

form a pattern throughout your life. From these lessons you will have developed an idea or a knowing about

what it is that you are here to do. Mostly, it is to take what we have learned and use it to help others or give

them beauty and pleasure in their lives. Artists and musicians can offer the beauty of their work for others to

enjoy. Writers can produce works that entertain or teach valuable lessons that help people. People who work

in positions where they serve others help by giving relief to the busy constraints of life, or in sickness or

times of need. Or, if you have overcome unfortunate circumstances and risen above them to become a

leader, you can teach others what you have learned so that they can be inspired to lift themselves out of

unfortunate circumstances as well.

Somewhere amongst all that you have experienced lies your purpose, and by coming to understand what that

is you place yourself on a path that is easy to keep to, once you know where you are going and what it is that

you are here to do. If you combine this knowledge with an assertive personality you will be able to

assertively say no to those things in life that you do not want that go against your purpose, and assertively

speak up for those things that you do want in life that fit in with your purpose.

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Action Steps to Defining your Purpose

Ask yourself ‘What is my purpose?’ If you have no idea what it is, then sit down, take out a pen and paper

and answer the questions below. Is your purpose to:

1. Learn to be accepting of yourself, warts and all?

2. Become an independent thinker?

3. Make manifest or create the possibilities in my mind?

4. Learn to love and respect others?

5. Develop a more positive attitude that can be used to help others?

6. Work in a field where you are making a difference to the lives of others?

7. Make a difference in the lives of others in your day to day living?

8. Help others?

9. Achieve something everyday?

10. Give 100% effort in everything you do?

11. Learn something-new everyday?

12. Have a better understanding of and your own unique relationship with the Life Force?

13. Help nurture and protect the Environment?

14. Help develop better conditions for the animals and birds that live on this planet?

Once you have discovered your purpose you will be able to work towards that, but you will need to have

very clearly defined goals in each section of your life.

Emotional Development and How it Affects you in Business

As has been mentioned earlier in this chapter there are four aspects to our being, one of which is our

emotional self. Most people are familiar with the physical self and the intellect, and they work on

developing those aspects of who they are. Some work at developing their spiritual self or their intuition and

psychic self, but very few people tackle their emotional self because it is sometimes too difficult or

confronting for them to deal with.

Success in business is highly hinged on how much of the ‘garbage’ you have cleared from your life. By

holding on to past regrets or by telling yourself your version of the events that have occurred in your life and

not releasing the negative emotion surrounding them, you actually build a wall between you and the world

around you. Sometimes this is done to protect you, and initially it helps you to survive. But if you leave it

unattended to for too long that wall actually becomes a prison from which you cannot see out of or escape. It

becomes a filter through which you see life, and your judgement becomes impeded by it.

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I cannot begin to tell you how important it is to address any issues you may have that may prevent you from

relating to those around you in a helpful and loving way. The essence of our spirituality is at the core of our

being, and inside each one of us is a really lovely person just waiting to love and be loved, to help and to be

helped by others, to give and to share and to join in all that life has to offer. When emotional issues remain

unaddressed we become reactionary to the world around us, and whenever there is a perceived threat to our

survival we go into attack mode as a way of defending ourselves. This is actually a biological response – it

starts in the brain in the limbic system and is generated in areas such as the Hippocampus and the Amygdala.

Originally these responses helped the human race survive if there was a genuine fear of death confronting a

person, so the brain helped the mind go into a heightened state of awareness in readiness to fly into action if

need be. But in today’s reasonably safe environment those safeguards are not as necessary as they once

were, yet the prehistoric emotional structure of the brain survives and our emotions respond accordingly

when challenged. Challenge can mean different things to different people. For example, some will respond

to criticism in a defensive way because it was dealt out to them in a destructive manner when they were a

child, and because of that they are unable to deal with criticism now. But in order to survive their childhood

they had to defend themselves against criticism because they had no control over their environment. So they

now do the same thing as adults but mostly in an inappropriate way. Another example is when a person feels

threatened when their partner talks to members of the opposite sex. This feeling is usually stirred from

previously having someone they loved leave or betray them, be that either a parent or partner, and this event

made them not feel safe or capable of surviving, so now they feel fear and jealousy.

When strong emotions surface in the present they originate from these kinds of experiences, and instead of

being able to respond to life a person goes into ‘fight or flight’ syndrome, no matter how much they try to

intellectualise themselves out of it. Logically they know they could handle things better than they do, yet

they seem unable to do so when the situation arises. If you recognise similar actions in yourself, it is only

once you have unraveled yourself from the negative emotional charge around past events in your life that

you can begin to make a choice as to how you handle a challenging or confronting situation.

On the energy continuum, thoughts are less dense than powerful emotions, and the physical body is more

dense than either of these. So it is my understanding that trying to intellectualise yourself out of the way you

act or react when there are strong emotions involved is useless – thoughts simply cannot control powerful

emotions. You can use your intellectual abilities to change your belief patterns, but they rarely assist you in

the handling of your emotions. Plus, when you work with a therapist at this level you may also have the

tendency to relay how previous events in your life occurred from a viewpoint of always being the one who

was the victim. However, I can guarantee you that there were times when you, through your actions, were

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the instigator of the infringements placed on others. But your mind (or rather, ego), in hoping to survive, will

not allow you to acknowledge your part in things. You could go to a psychiatrist or any kind of cognitive or

talk-therapist for years and see little or no real change, or the change will be very slow, because you will

imagine, arrange and relay the past events as they occurred to suit the survival of your self-image. In order

to change you must work at a deeper level than the conscious mind.

By bypassing the conscious mind you will access levels of awareness that can be used to help shift away the

negative emotional charge surrounding the events of your life. You can work with the subconscious mind

and the physical energy fields that surround the body and have tremendous shifts in your emotional self.

Plus, these shifts will occur at lightning speed as well. You won’t be forced to wait or live through several

lifetimes before you get results. Throughout the history of humankind there have always been mystics and

shamans who were aware of the great healing powers available to them, and they worked on restoring both

physical and emotional health to people. There is a practice known as Reiki that the Bible refers to as ‘the

laying on of hands’ that has been around for centuries, and there are many other mystical forms of healing

such as Kinesiology (also known as muscle testing), or therapeutic massage, or even crystal healing. All of

these arts can be used with various complimentary techniques to release any pent-up emotions that may be

impeding your ability to respond to life rather than reacting to it. When you begin to shift your emotional

blockages you will see dramatic change and improvement in your life, and it’s not such a difficult task to get

through the day with little or no upsets anymore. Life gets less complicated because you don’t create a mess.

The ultimate way to handle your emotional development is not to avoid the emotion when it comes up for

you. However, until you have done some work with people who can facilitate some of the shifts in the early

stages of your development you won’t have the ability to confront those emotions when they do rise up in

you. After working with these therapists you will reach a point where you feel that you need to go even

deeper to clear away negative charge in your emotional self. When you reach this point all you have to do is

sit down, turn off all phones, televisions, radios and other noisy appliances, and just allow yourself to feel

the emotion. Let yourself experience it, and then ask yourself what lies beneath that emotion. As long as you

don’t wallow in the emotion for too long, you will find that there is another emotion lying underneath the

first, and yet another one under that. These emotions will lead you to remember an event that they originated

from, and if you can access that memory you will be able to go back and find out what you were feeling at

the time and how the events of that particular occasion affected you. If you then do a visualisation and ask

the people associated with that memory what was going on for them as well, it will give you understanding

that you may not have previously had. This understanding will help you to forgive the people involved,

therefore allowing you to release the blocked emotion that is causing you difficulty in the present. All you

have to do is sit and feel it to begin.

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By helping yourself mature emotionally doing this work you will assist your own success in business, as

every inappropriate reaction costs you money. Amazingly you will soon be able to maintain harmonious

relationships where once you had to defend yourself constantly, and the reaction of others to you will no

longer bother you. Also, you will have shed ‘emotional weight’ and will no longer need to have a wall

around you, which then allows the very essence of whom you are to shine forth and be an example to others

– with strength and purity and love. Ultimately, this is what each of us seeks if we are honest with ourselves.

If you are to be a success in business you must do the work involved in this chapter. Your business will be a

reflection of you – it will grow to be as successful as your inner capacity allows it to be. If you are all locked

up within yourself with anger, sadness, fear, hurt, anxiety, loss or whatever emotion is holding you back,

your business will be a reflection of that. It will only grow as much as you allow it to, so if you would like it

to become a success (and you are going to have to sit down and define what success means to you in order to

realise when you have reached your own success), you will need to work upon yourself on a daily basis. By

embarking upon this adventure you will be prompted at various different stages you reach along the way to

do more work on yourself, so you don’t have to be fully emotionally mature, skilled or finished prior to

commencing your business. Simply by getting started you will be shown the next step on the path as you go.

Don’t worry too much either if your business doesn’t last for more than about two or three years. I know that

there are lecturers and teachers out there who will tell you that if you do shut down in that time then you are

one of the statistics that state that 95% of all businesses go out of business in their first five years. So what?!

So what if you decide to change direction?! So what if you discover that this is not for you? Does that

necessarily mean that you have failed? No, of course not! As long as you have learned some of the basic

principles of being in business for yourself you have not failed. If you decide to discontinue running your

business after two or three years you are not obliged to keep going just to avoid becoming a statistic. That

would be ridiculous to expect a person to stay when they no longer wish to be wherever they find

themselves. Projects such as this are meant for your growth, not for life. In my many years of being in

business for myself I have realised that as I have grown and changed so too have my wants, my needs and

my priorities. What suited me two years ago does not necessarily suit me now. What challenged me two

years ago does not necessarily challenge me now. I do not tie myself to anything, and neither should you.

Questions and Exercises Why is assertiveness such an important skill to have?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…

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…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. How is the best way to handle a difficult situation?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………… What could you do to assist your own development in the area of assertiveness?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Why is getting clear about your goals and your boundaries helpful in the development of assertiveness?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Why should you define your purpose in life?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. How will it affect you if you don’t define your purpose?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. What other actions could you take to assist your success in business ie: healthwise?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…

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…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. What could you do each day to expand your mind and your understanding of business?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Exercises

1. Whenever you quote the price tag to a customer, practice not being moved or phased by their reaction to

what you have said.

2. In the early stages of your business, and even throughout a well-established business, keep practicing

your value skills by quoting a decent price for the garment. Give what you may think are rates that you

feel uncomfortable quoting, just to expand your comfort zone. If you look at a garment and see that it is

worth $15, then quote the customer $18. Push up against firstly, your own discomfort, and then the

reaction of the customer to your prices.

3. When you can see that the customer has reacted negatively to your prices, practice not being moved by

their reaction. Go on to speak of the benefits to the customer of purchasing the goods. Speak of the level

of quality of the item. Show examples of clothing purchased elsewhere for the same price but not the

same quality, and talk of the way that the goods make the customer look and feel.

4. Do not be afraid to let the sale go if you can see that the customer is only concerned about the price, not

the quality. When this happens, let the customer know they are welcome to visit again by saying ‘please

feel free to call by again sometime to see if we have what you are looking for then.’ Practice maintaining

an air of ‘I can give you the results you would like, but I don’t need you to be my customer’. This will

give the customer the room they need to make a decision that comes from them, not a feeling of

obligation instilled in them by you. You don’t need to manipulate people with negative emotion.

5. If you are to develop these skills then you will need to make sure that the quality of products and service

that you have and give is of a very high standard. You cannot charge a high price without having a

quality item and giving an equally high service. You should still be studying your competitors’ rates,

what the new price is on Designer Labels, and how to mix and match to produce a unique look for your

customer.

6. At the start of your new business, read one book every two weeks that will assist you in becoming more

skilled in the area of sales and marketing, and in the area of customer service.

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Chapter Three – What are the Real Challenges?

What Structure of Business will you Start?

What structure of business will you start? This question has baffled many people, and often because they

don’t know what kind of business they would be happy in they don’t even get going. It all becomes too

much to make that final decision as to which way to go. However, if you have read the previous chapter and

have begun to understand your strengths and weaknesses you will be able to start eliminating ideas that will

simply never work for you. Remember, your personality plays a big part in the success of your business.

You would be wise to take that into account when considering any proposed venture put in front of you.

Some people love the challenge of getting a business up and running, yet they cannot stand the tedium of the

day to day running of a business. Their interest can be kept for the period of time it takes to build a business

to a certain point, and then they get bored. This type of person would do well setting up small businesses,

getting them going and the selling them quickly to someone who does not have the courage to take the initial

risk involved in trying to take an idea from the realm of imagination to the realm of the physical and making

it a success. Others become very proud of their achievement in getting a business going and prefer to stay

with their fledgling project until it matures into a real going concern. Some stay with their initial venture for

many, many years, and the knowledge they gain from that venture can be used at some stage further down

the track in their next project. Others stay for long enough to achieve whatever goals they had in mind when

they began, then they either phase out their project or they absorb left-over stock and use it for themselves.

There is a place for everyone in business – you just have to know yours.

What are your First Steps?

Firstly, decide where your interests lie. You cannot make a success of a business if you do not have an

interest in the product, knowledge or service that you are about to promote. It is best if you can find

something that you absolutely love, as this will become evident to your customers, students or clients when

doing business with them. I love to teach my knowledge of business, and because of that I can put my heart

and soul into my teaching. My students get a lot out of my workshops, because the love of what I do comes

across in the energy I put into my work. My students are lifted by my knowledge, understanding and energy,

and they often come away from the workshop telling me how much they enjoyed it and how much they got

out of it. This is what you should aim for when you find the business you want to be involved in.

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Secondly, evaluate how well prepared you are to go into business. You don’t have to be perfectly ready to

get started, but you do have to have something behind you to, be that either experience in or knowledge of

what you are about to go into, and some money to get you started.

My recommendation is that you commence your business on a part-time basis at first, testing the results and

experimenting with marketing methods. You will suffer fewer setbacks if you have some experience at

being self-employed (even if it has been on a part-time basis) before committing yourself to the costs of full

time self-employment. Allow your business idea to gradually grow into a full-time venture that takes over

from your current form of income, if that is possible in the situation you are in. Use your weekly pay check

as a supporting income while you build your new venture, and this will take the emotional pressure off you

while you attempt to keep your personal bills paid and build your new business at the same time.

You will definitely need to write a business plan for yourself, or hire the services of someone who has the

skills to be able to do that for you. This is an area that I am able to help you in, as it is one of the services I

currently offer to business owners and potential business owners looking to either start, expand, buy or sell a

business. A Business Plan helps you understand what you will need to do to survive in your first year in

business, and will provide you with a road map for success. If you have spent the time researching your

intended venture, and then planning to succeed, there is far less chance of careening off track due to

circumstances you did not foresee before you began.

How can you Find the Help you Need?

Getting started in business can be quite challenging if you don’t have help from people that have faced those

same challenges before you. You are certainly most welcome to request for my coaching services, or you

may like to find your own business coach. Also, you will need the help of a knowledgeable accountant, and

if you do not have strong money management skills you would be wise to hire the services of a qualified

bookkeeper. You will also find that there will be people that can help you at your local Business Enterprise

Centre, and there are often magazines for sale in the newsagents that have advertisers who specialise in

offering help to people getting started and operating small businesses.

You will save hundreds of dollars in consulting and coaching fees if you are willing to read. There are many,

many books written on the subject of starting, operating and selling a business, and your local library has a

plethora of valuable information that can be tapped into if you can set aside the time to read.

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What is the Single Greatest Time Waster? (nearly everyone does it)

The main reason why people who are looking at starting their own business waste time is because they think

that they have to wait until everything is just right before they commence. There is no ‘just right’ time to go

into business. If you don’t have the resources to start, you could be doing your market research and

analysing your competition in the meantime. You could also be educating yourself on the products that you

would like to sell, or reading up on the skills needed to become a good salesperson. It is important that you

begin with whatever resources you have at the time, or you face the risk of never getting started. There are

many inexpensive ways to test-run your idea – you don’t have to outlay a lot of money to get an clue as to

whether or not you are likely to succeed. Just put your idea to paper, work out a simply way of trialing your

idea, and give it a go.

How to Develop your Business Intuition

There is a knack to being in the right place at the right time in business. One of the ways you can increase

your chances of having life unfold the way you would like it to is to repeat affirmations to yourself so that

you can expand your mind’s way of thinking about the opportunity at hand at a sub-conscious level. Some

of my favourite affirmations were taught to me by Stuart Wilde, and they are ‘I am always in the right place

at the right time’. ‘All my needs are constantly met’. ‘I am blessed with unlimited abundance in love,

money, friendships, opportunity and talent’. ‘It is safe to trust the process of life’. ‘I am guided and

protected’. And last but not least ‘Opportunity finds me’.

Once you begin saying these or similar affirmations to yourself, and you have gathered a bit of experience

behind you, you will find that you begin to get into ‘the Zone’ in business. That’s when things will begin to

fall into place for you in all that you do. Remember to train yourself to believe that you don’t have to be

constantly involved in activity for your business to succeed. If you can make each action you take become

effective, then you won’t need to do so much work in order to achieve the same result. People who are

constantly running around trying to get everything done are taking on too much or not doing things

effectively. The truly successful people make running a business look easy – because it doesn’t have to be

difficult. It’s only when your belief system says that massive amounts of activity are needed for you to grant

yourself the right to make lots of money that running a business becomes difficult. If you choose the right

product or service, you don’t really have to work very much at all in order to make money. Train yourself

out of thinking that success has to be difficult, because it doesn’t. Work with the subconscious mind by

repeating affirmations in order to cancel out some of your old ways of thinking, and watch as the dollars

come to you easily and effortlessly.

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How to Build on Strength

Once you have started the ball rolling with your new business venture it is important that you grow your

business steadily over a period of time. Don’t go rushing to make everything happen at once. Many

businesses have fallen over in their first six months because the person trying to develop theirs did not do

their homework or tried to make their business expand way, way too quickly. Once you have had some

success, allow a period of consolidation to occur before moving ahead into the next stage of development.

Within yourself you will need to integrate what you have learned over the last few weeks or months, so

don’t go rushing into the next stage of growth too quickly.

If you chart the growth of your business using statistics, it will become obvious when it is time to push to the

next stage in your business. If you need to take on staff in order to handle the extra work, always employ

them in a casual capacity or as a contractor, never as an employee. They will be too difficult to get rid of if

they prove to be unsuitable to the position you have given them if they are an employee. Maintain control at

all times by not having people employed in full-time positions for you.

How to face the Toughest Decision of all – Give up or Keep Going

How does one know whether to give up or keep going in business? The way for me to tell whether

something was working for me was to look to see if things were flowing well in the business. Am I making

money? Are people approaching me for my services by responding to my marketing? When they make

appointments are they turning up for their appointments? Are my prices being accepted by my customers,

clients or students? Do the representatives of my company work with me or against me? Am I enjoying what

I am doing?

The answers to these types of questions will determine whether or not to keep going with the venture you

are trying to develop. It is always difficult to give up on something that just isn’t working, especially if you

have put your heart and soul into trying to make it work. Don’t fret, however, because you will have learned

something from the exercise. As long as you come away wiser then it has been a worthwhile exercise to go

through. Your project will not have been a failure if you have learned enough from it to be able to do a

better job the next time you have a go. And you can take what you have learned from this venture and apply

it to the next project you take on. Who knows, your next project may be the one that works if this one

doesn’t so never give yourself a hard time if you don’t do as well as you anticipate with this. It takes many

years to become truly successful in business, and very few people make it first time around. In fact, the

really successful business-people often went to the wall a couple of times before they found the one business

that really worked for them. You may have to try several times to find what works for you too.

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How to Replace Wet Blankets with Supportive Mentors

It is very important whom you share your dreams and plans with when you first go into business for

yourself. There are lots of people out there who are quite happy to tell you that your idea won’t work, or

isn’t viable, or is doomed for failure for one reason or another. These people are often the ones that have

never been involved in the project you are looking at going into, so they often don’t speak from experience

anyway. You need to be very selective as to whom you talk to about your new project. Unless that person is

supportive of you in other areas of life, do not mention what you are about to do. Also, as you go along, do

not seek advice from others unless they have been in business for themselves, and then look for people who

have previous experience in the industry that you want to get involved in or are involved in. Experience in

one line of business does not mean that a person will be knowledgeable in all areas of business or in all the

types of structures within business.

For example, people that have experience owning only retail businesses do not have experience in MLM,

therefore they would not be able to give you advice about MLM structures. Neither would they understand

party-plan businesses or be able to give you advice on the way to run that particular type of business.

Therefore, it would be useless to seek advice from someone whose only experience were in a different field

to the one you would like to go into.

Also, be aware that as a woman you will face criticism from any man who is close to you who doesn’t want

you moving forward in your development because to do so would threaten his position in your relationship

with him. If he isn’t secure enough within himself to be able to give you the support you need then it is

likely that he will try – whether he is consciously aware of it or not – to sabotage any effort you make to

move forward in your own life. Going into business for yourself will challenge you to develop in ways that

you simply will not experience when you work for others. If you do go ahead and grow because of being

self-employed then you will find that you are stronger in areas of your life where you were once held no

strength. This may mean that you resonate at a different level to your partner, and because of that he may

feel challenged by your growth. I have often had the men in my life try to put me down when I have been

making various attempts to grow my businesses, and my mentor said to me of these people ‘it’s as if they

are trying to put out your fire because they can’t handle the strength of the light within you once you get into

your creative zone’. I then thought about what he had said and realised that this is exactly what was

happening every time I started to become a success. Ladies, don't sacrifice your development just to stay

with someone who isn’t prepared to work on their own growth as well. If you outgrow him to the point

where staying with him will only be detrimental to you, then leave. It’s time to find someone who is more at

your level, and if you have made a success of your business then finance won’t be a problem so you will be

able to leave without the fear of not making it in life.

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Questions and Exercises

Why is it so important not to discuss your new venture with anyone other than those who are already in

business?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

What is the one thing you should try to learn from going into business?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

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Chapter Four – Getting Started

TO RISK

The Greatest Risk in life is to risk nothing

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental

To reach out to others is to risk getting involved

To show your feelings is to risk exposing yourself

To place your ideas and dreams before the crowd

is to risk their loss

To love is to risk not being loved in return

To hope is to risk pain

To try is to risk failure

But risk must be taken, it absolutely must be taken.

Because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing does nothing, learns nothing,

develops nothing and produces nothing.

They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they simply cannot

learn, feel, change, grow, live or love.

Chained by their certitudes and inertia, they are slaves,

and have forfeited their freedom.

ONLY THE PERSON WHO RISKS IS FREE

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To Buy or not to Buy, that is the Question

You may also be wondering whether it is best to establish your own business or to purchase one from

someone else, be that either a franchise or an independently operated business that is already established. I

will write here about what I feel are the pros and cons for both ways of going into business for yourself, and

then it will be up to you as to what you decide to do. This manual is dedicated to teaching you how to do it

yourself.

Purchasing a business is often a costly exercise and has no guarantee of being successful. What makes a

business a success is often the person running it, the systems they have in place and the people that are

providing the service. If you are investigating purchasing a business where the owner is more or less the

only person involved in the business, then you will need to take into account the fact that it is their own

unique personality and style that makes their business successful. You would then have to consider whether

you have a similar personality and style and if yours could slot into the same position that the current owner

is taking. If you don’t have a similar personality and style you may find that after purchasing your new

business the amount of money being made by the business quickly decreases. This is due to the fact that

your personality doesn’t mix the same way that theirs did, and your clients or customers prefer the previous

owners’ style, therefore they no longer desire to do business with you. This can be devastating to any new

business owner who has dreams of doing well. When this happens the new owner is inclined to think that

they have been sold a ‘dud’, but the truth is that they simply aren’t able to provide the same service as the

previous owner. It was their unique blend of traits that allowed their business to be a success, and if the new

owner doesn’t have that same blend and use it in the same way, they are definitely not going to get the same

results. This could happen to you, so be aware of this when looking at buying a business.

Next, if you think that you can borrow money to buy a business you will need to think again. Banks know

the statistics on business survival and will not lend money to people going into business for the first time. It

doesn’t matter how well the business is doing, banks will simply not risk lending their money out to people

who want to buy a business. The business is not a tangible asset like property is, and it is difficult for them

to take it away from you to retrieve their money if you don't repay your loan. Well, they could, but that

would mean hiring someone to run it for them and that would be too much hassle as far as they are

concerned. The only way they will lend money to buy a business is if the loan is secured against your

property – and I wouldn’t like to risk losing my home just to buy a business that isn’t guaranteed to survive.

Often too, the price being asked for a business is way over-rated in my opinion. Yes, businesses are priced

according to a formula, and that formula is often one year’s net takings, but considering that it would only

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take about eighteen months to grow into a business if you were to build it yourself why would you risk

spending the money? It is the fear factor that sets the price of a business – your fear that you can’t do it

yourself. Well, after reading this manual you won’t feel that fear and will have no need to spend the money.

You should also watch out for hard-sell sales techniques used by business brokers. They make their money

from being the gofer between the seller and the buyer, and they don’t really look after the interests of either

party in my opinion. I have been on both ends of the experience and have never had truly honest, interested,

supportive service in any of the three encounters that I can speak personally about. When you are a

purchaser you should never show any sign that you are interested in a business. Once you show signs of

interest you can be hooked into the deal before you know it and end up spending money that you don’t need

to because of your excitement and enthusiasm.

It has been my experience that brokers have no scruples – they need to make the sale in order to put food on

the table for and put a roof over the heads of their family members. They work neither in the interest of the

seller nor the buyer – they work only for themselves. It does not matter to them whether you are suited to the

business. It does not matter to them whether you are capable enough to handle it. All that matters to them is

whether you can come up with the money to buy the business, from which they receive a commission for the

sale. This can only work in your favour if you are the person selling the business, so I would only use the

services of a broker in order to sell a business. Then I would recommend selling it well before you were too

desperate, so that nobody could manipulate you into selling for less than what you want. Remember, in this

case the broker works for you, not the purchaser. If they can’t get the price you want tell them you’ll find

another broker who can.

Never vendor-finance the sale of your business either. Vendor finance is where you (as the person selling the

business) allow the person wanting to purchase the business to put down a hefty deposit and repay the

difference with interest over a two or three year period from the date of the sale. No matter how much

money you were making you can almost bet that your purchaser is going to try to say that you sold them a

‘dud’ and will refuse to make their repayments. Being in business is more difficult than people first expect,

and this is often quite overwhelming, especially when they take over an already thriving business and are

then placed in the position of having to keep up with the hustle and bustle of the goings-on in the business.

They won’t have grown into it as they would have done had they developed it themselves, therefore they

will often find that they cannot cope with the demands of the business and will emotionally fall in a heap

and try to blame you. They may try to take you to court, and even though you have evidence to prove that

the business was earning the money you said it was you are still going to have to spend money and time

defending yourself, which is a hassle nobody needs or wants. Cash up-front or not at all.

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The only time I would consider buying a business is if you are thoroughly acquainted with the industry that

the business is related to and if the business is set-up in a way that allows you to take over without too many

interruptions to the goings-on of the business. By this I mean that the person selling the business has other

people in place doing the work and serving the clientele or customers, and they themselves are behind the

scenes managing the whole operation from the background. When they leave in this case their absence

won’t interfere with the relationships that are established between the service providers and the people

buying the products or services. The only relationships that will need to be nurtured then will be those that

you will have with your staff.

A good manager knows not to come into a new environment and ‘rock the boat’ in too many ways. If there

are changes that need to be made they should be done gradually over a period of time so that everyone who

is involved in the business – staff, service providers and customers or clientele - can cope with the changes.

Too much change too quickly will break the cycle of prosperity currently being experienced by the business

and could be the downfall of what is currently a good business that could potentially become a great

business.

The only time I would instigate rapid change is if I happened to purchase a business that were experiencing

difficulty and were able to get it at a good price, and then (and only then) would I go into the business and

make dramatic change. Installing new fixtures and fittings, changing staff, giving the business a real face-lift

could work under these circumstances. But I would only risk this approach if I were able to purchase the

business at a rock bottom price and only if I had a few years of experience behind me to know what to do.

It is my opinion that growing into a business is the safest approach. In every workshop that I teach I

recommend starting on a part-time basis and working the business while you still have a supporting income

coming in from somewhere else. This way you are able to re-invest the money you make from your growing

venture back into itself, therefore helping the business to mature into an income stream that can eventually

support you and pay for the costs needed to continue operating. This and many of the businesses I write

about in other manuals can begin on a part-time basis and can eventually grow into full-time operations. If it

is your desire to achieve this and you remain focussed, you will certainly be able to do so within twelve to

eighteen months without having to hock yourself to the eyeballs to do so. Plus, the benefits of establishing

yourself this way are that you will gain the experience needed to cope with the business as it grows. With

experience behind you there will be fewer occasions that upset you or overwhelm you and the likelihood of

failing is significantly reduced. In my opinion this is the only way to start up a business. So let’s move on

now and shortly take a look at what it takes to succeed.

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Partnership or Sole Trader?

I have often been asked when teaching my workshops what is the best option when starting up a business.

Does a person go into the business on their own, or do they take on a partner? I will speak from experience

here and advise you as to what I think is the best way to go, but only you know all the facts about your

situation, so ultimately the decision is up to you.

I have had many partnerships throughout my career, especially when I was dancing. In fact, competitive

Ballroom Dancing requires you to have a partner in order to be able to do it, so there is really no choice.

Being an action-type my partnerships would rarely last very long if I was matched with another action-type

personality, as we would clash too much. When matched with someone who I didn’t clash with my

partnerships would last about three years. I would always keep my commitment to train when in a dancing

partnership, or to turn up for work when in a business partnership, but I would find in some partnerships that

my partner did not have the same level of commitment that I did. I would find too that I often had more

natural talent at different tasks, and so spent quite a fair bit of time holding my own growth back in order for

my partner to catch up with me. So for me the best way was to operate as a sole trader and to employ the

people I needed to surround myself with in order to balance out the operational capacities of the business.

I was involved in one partnership where the other person would constantly cancel our meetings because of

her commitments to her daughter or her studies, so I found myself doing nearly all the work while she

expected to get half of all the money we made. It didn’t take me long to work out how unfair that was and to

extricate myself from that arrangement. Another business partnership I entered with a male friend of mine

had me doing the running of the business while he kept his regular daytime income, and I worked from 8am

to midnight, once again with a 50/50 split on the profits. Basically the business was mine, but my partner

expected to get half just because he had done a bit of the petition work in the office while setting up the

business. Another situation I was involved in when running my cleaning business had me become entangled

in a partnership with a lady who knew more about the Builders’ Cleaning side of the business. But once

again I found myself supervising the staff, dealing with the Builders and doing all the paperwork (not to

mention mopping up the messes – so to speak – when the staff weren’t doing their job competently).

After observing myself for all these years I realised what it was that made me think I needed a partnership

anyway. Firstly, I had been involved in some very successful partnerships when dancing and had expected to

find the same when running a business. Secondly, I didn’t actually believe in myself and my own talents and

capabilities enough to be confident that I didn’t need a partner in order to make things happen. Once I began

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to realise that I was more than capable of handling a business on my own, and that because of who I am I

needed to find the business that was right for me ie: one that took advantage of my own unique strengths and

talents, I stopped looking for business partners and began working totally on my own.

Nowadays I avoid running businesses that require lots of staff to be supervised, lots of customers to handle

and lots of paperwork to do. Being an Action type personality I am not the best when it comes to handling

people in a customer service role, so I have taken my original training and capitalised on that. I do very well

as a teacher or trainer, and by teaching one day workshops I find that I can give 110% of myself for that

particular day and the students go away with all the information they need to go out there and become

successful. Plus they usually get a strong burst of enthusiasm after hearing me speak as well, which then

helps them take off in their new venture of creating their own business.

So, I guess what I am trying to say here is to get to know yourself so that you can enter into your business in

a way that capitalises on your strengths. Then you won’t have the opposition within yourself of trying to do

something that you aren’t particularly suited to. Or, work out a way of doing business within the field that

you are interested in so that you don’t have to rely on other people in order to become successful. Become as

self-contained as you possibly can so that all your needs are met by you. The fewer people you have to rely

on, the more likely you are to succeed.

I am not saying here that having partners or staff is all bad. As I said I was involved in some very successful

partnerships when I was dancing, so if you find the right people to work with your business can be very

successful. If you are thinking of going into partnership with the person that you are involved with in your

personal life, this can work quite well as you both have each other’s best interests in mind when building

your business. A business built by a husband and wife team works really well, especially when you are both

in roles that are suited to the strengths you have and are doing separate jobs that have you working apart for

most of the day. For example, if you were running a shop in the Pre-Loved Clothing business and you both

wanted to be involved in the business, one could be the person who runs the shop and the other could be the

person who does the purchasing and the accounts. This would work extremely well if you have enough

capital to purchase the collection bins that will be strategically placed around the city or town you live in,

and the husband does the collecting of stock, the sorting and the washing, then brings the stock into the shop

to sell. He could then also take the stock that is not moving from the shop and sell it at the markets.

Meanwhile, the wife is busy running the shop, pricing the garments, making sure the marketing is getting

done and handling the customers. As she does this she could also be looking for the right person to run the

shop while she sets up another branch of the business in another suburb nearby. When two people work

together like this the situation can work extremely well. But you must know and trust each other well first.

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Retail Selling and what it takes to Succeed

There are many, many ways of running a business. It all depends on what it is that you have to offer to

people. Setting up a shop in the fashion industry belongs to the Retail Selling. Besides learning about this

method of running a business there will much to gain from starting out in Retail, as the principles you will

learn can be applied to any other type of business that you may decide to go into at a later stage. There are

other ways to run your business besides selling your stock from a shop, but essentially no matter how you

sell your stock, the industry you are interested in becoming involved in is the retail industry.

Another way of marketing your items in the pre-loved fashion industry is to sell them either at garage sales,

market stands or on the Internet via e-Bay. We will go into these other methods at different stages in this

manual, but for now I want to talk about setting up a shop or market stall. Much of your success relies on

the location you choose from which to run your business. Then your success is greatly influenced by the

way you handle your customers. Much of your business can be built on referrals if you treat your customer

base well. Also, your success is hinged on the quality of your stock, and if you are looking to start your

business using the methods I will inform you of later in this manual, then you will need to have strong skills

of assertiveness in order to make sure the only stock you have is of a high quality. Consignees will always

want to off-load stock that you shouldn’t take, and if you aren’t firm with people on a continuous basis you

will find that the quality of your stock gradually declines, simply because you can’t be firm enough to say no

to people.

If you feel that you don’t have the skills to handle the never-ending needs and desires of the people you will

deal with face-to-face in the retail industry, then you would do well to consider selling your items via e-Bay.

When you sell a product in this manner you have time to consider every request made of you by the people

you will be dealing with. The only way to communicate is via email through this method of selling, and

because of this you will have time to think about your response to the customer’s questions or demands.

When dealing on a face-to-face basis with people you can sometimes find yourself being dragged into their

needs or demands, and if their need is overpowering you will find yourself doing things you don’t want to

do. If you haven’t as yet developed an assertive personality then begin your business in this way. Selling via

e-Bay also allows you to keep a regular position in an employed capacity before steeping into full-time self-

employment. You can gain some much-needed experience in this industry starting out this way. However, if

your personality is such that you need the people-contact that running a shop or market-stall gives, then

selling via e-Bay won’t suit you at all. Do the personality test and work out what’s best for you.

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Within the Retail industry is there is much that you cannot control. Here you rely on the customer entering

your store or visiting your market stall in order to make a sale, so it is important that you are ready to make

that sale when they do. Your shop or market stall must be clean and well presented and you must be in a

state of mind where you can concentrate on serving your customer in a pleasant way.

In Retail you are able to be proactive only to a point – you cannot actually go out and stand on the street

outside your shop door and coax the people into the store. Well, you could, but that would be an imposition

on them and could actually turn more people away than encourage them to enter. It is through your

advertising and promotions, through the window display and the racks outside the door, and through the

position you take when setting up shop that will bring people through the doors of your business. Then, once

your customer is inside your shop or standing at your stall you should aim to make the experience as

pleasant as possible for them. Be attentive without being overbearing and show enough interest to attend to

their needs without appearing needy yourself.

It is important to note that Retail businesses must continually make sales in order to pay the bills and make a

profit. Therefore, you will need to develop your sales skills. This type of business does not create what is

known as residual or passive income, which, for those of you who are not aware of what this term means, is

income that rolls in without having to make a new sale. Rental properties create for their owner residual

income. In other words, when you have rent coming in each week from the person or people living in your

property you do not have to continually sell them on the idea of purchasing another weeks’ accommodation

– they agree to pay you weekly rent for anything up to two years length of time when they sign a lease. If

you’re lucky you will find good tenants who do exactly that – and look after your property as well. But

residual income is not the case in Retail, unless you are selling consumable products which is not so in the

fashion industry. There certainly are repeat sales, but the time it takes to wear out an item of clothing is a lot

longer than the time it takes to use a bottle of shampoo, for example. So you will need to make a high profit

per sale in order to survive in your business, which is very possible with pre-loved (recycled) clothing.

We will briefly go over the skills needed to lead a person into a sale so that you can quickly get your

business up-and-running, and with practice you will learn how to adapt the principles of selling to your own

style of relating to people. Each person has their own style, but by following a few simple guidelines you

can use your own style of selling to profit from your business.

Next, there are only three ways to earn money by providing a product or a service.

1. You do the work and earn the money.

2. Have money work for you through investments.

3. Have a select few talented, dedicated people working for you.

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Trying to do things yourself severely limits you, as there are only so many hours in a day for you to do what

you do. But at this stage in your business experience you would do well to learn about the first level of

running a business. Then move on to #2 and #3 when you have created a profit.

Since you may not have either money or people working for you it is possible that you could be stuck in a

low paying job working for someone else the rest of your life, unable to get started in your own business due

to having no capital. That is until you learn how to get out of that situation. Armed with this information you

will see that there is another way. It is known as OPM. Other People’s Money. By using other people’s

money to get you started you can begin a business where previously there was none. Other people’s money

can assist you with your stock, and other people’s money can assist you with your venue.

With the real estate market the way it is at the moment there are boundless opportunities around to set up

your business with little or no cost involved. Depending on your negotiation skills you can haggle with the

landlord over how long they are prepared to give you as a rent-free period, and if you hold your ground you

may be able to get four to six weeks rent free, possibly longer. This will give you the time needed to

establish your new shop in the area. But you will have to be focussed and disciplined in order to succeed.

Basically by doing this you are once again using other people’s money to help you succeed. You are using

the landlords money (tied up in the property you will be renting from him or her) to support you while you

get started. Or, by selling your stock through the Party Plan method you are using the venue provided by the

hostess, and it is her and her partner’s money that is helping you get started in your new business.

As has been previously mentioned, you can hook-up to the structures that other people have set up that will

allow you to sell your items on the Internet. Here the people who have set up these sites have outlaid

thousands of dollars to put their systems in place, and all you are doing is utilising their resources, skill and

hard work to provide you with an outlet from which you can sell. Often these sites (such as ebay.com.au and

sold.com.au) have thousands of people clicking onto them to see what they can sell or buy, so you can tap

into an immediate, established customer base. Once again you are using other people’s money to get you

started, and here you are tapping into other people’s skills as well by using the website.

Like I have already mentioned, if you don’t like the lack of people contact on e-Bay, you will need to sell

face-to-face with people. I recommend that you practice your sales skills first by setting up a stall at the

markets to ‘test the water’, so to speak. If you do not have previous experience selling fashion then it would

be wise to experiment in this way before committing yourself to a lease. When holding a stall at the markets

you can pay on a casual basis, so that if you make no sales on the day (which is highly unlikely) you will

have lost only your time and perhaps thirty or forty dollars for the rental of the market position. But you will

gain much needed experience and will then have an idea of whether or not this industry is for you.

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When to Begin - Seasonal Variations in the Industry

Pre-loved (or recycled) clothing is not a passing fad – this product will survive even the worst economic

depression, so you have chosen a safe field to go into if this is your first endeavour in business. However,

you should be sure of the following: Do you have enough money to keep you going until the cash returns

come in? If you do, then the next biggest risk in business is yourself. No amount of capital can save a misfit.

You must first determine whether you have at least the basic abilities to handle your intended career,

whether you are prepared to work long hours, and whether you are willing to study and develop your talents.

Then you may ask when is the best time to begin promoting your Pre-Loved Clothing business. Well,

depending on how you intend to sell your stock there are definitely certain times of the year that are better

than others, and I would never suggest commencing your business during a school holiday period if you

want to run a shop or hold a stall at the markets. Don’t blame yourself if business is slow during this time as

you have very little control over the number of customers visiting your shop or stall. If you want to run your

business over the Internet you can start anytime, as someone somewhere around the world will want to buy.

If setting up here in Sydney it is my suggestion that you commence your new business just after the school

holidays are over, and summer holidays are always better than winter. These times would be at the end of

January, after the Easter break, and around the beginning of September or October. You may start at other

times, but these are the times that are very good for getting your new business off to a great start.

If you are anxious to start your business and it happens to be school holidays then you can always begin

gathering together the things you need to get started. Set up your shop, design your ads and flyers, and

purchase your stock. Speak to your printer and have your flyers ready to distribute after the school holidays

are over, and be ready to serve your first few customers then. Make sure you are open to do business at the

times you have listed on your flyers, or if advertising your mobile number keep it switched on

Hit your local area with an onslaught of ads and flyers (see Business Promotion Simplified) and be prepared

to serve all the new customers that come in as and when they do. Once your shop is full of lovely garments

and people know where you are your business should get off to a great start – until you hit another holiday

break. Then you will find that there will be a slight drop in the number of customers entering your store

because they will all be away on holidays themselves. You should always make allowances for this when

you are in the peak seasons and put some of your earnings aside to combat these quiet times. Don’t worry

though because after the break things will again pick up. Just keep doing the things you should do in order to

always have a constant flow of new customers and consignees – remember to market your business

consistently. Let’s look at setting up your new small business…….

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Setting up Your Small Business

It will be in your best interests to have the basic details in order before commencing your new small

business. We will look here at what is needed in order to run a shop or market stall, even though previously I

mentioned the possibility of running your business over the Internet.

Establishing a location from which to run your Business

LOCATION: When you first start out in your new business it is advisable that you keep your overheads to a

minimum. Therefore it is best to set up from either a market stall or a shop in an area where the rent is cheap

and the position is good. Take advantage of the overabundance of rental properties at the moment and

negotiate a rent-free period.

Fixtures, Fittings, Stock and Supplies:

1. Stock – clothing in all shapes, sizes and styles for your target market.

2. Tables suitable for displaying clothes if you are running a market stall.

3. Hanging space or portable hanging racks.

4. Plenty of coat hangars – preferably all the same colour and style.

5. Business telephone.

6. Stationery, envelopes, business cards and other related supplies, pens, pencils etc.

7. Receipt books for lay-buys and sales, and Consignment books to record stock left with you.

8. Shelving to display belts and handbags if you happen to be running a shop. Also, display racks

for shoes to be displayed on. You might also like to have baskets that you can place smaller items

into, such as swimming costumes, lingerie (new), socks, etc. And if you are lucky you may be

able to find a display cabinet in which to place costume jewellery and hair clips.

9. Mannequins that you can dress to display a particular outfit, or frames that you can place clothing

on that will give the idea of how an outfit can look when co-ordinated.

10. Decent mirrors for your customers to see themselves in when trying on clothes.

Storing Stock and Supplies:

1. Cupboard space for storing lay-buys. 2. Shelving space

2. Hanging space. 4. Area should be kept dry at all times.

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Open Two Separate Bank Accounts

Initially you will have to balance your earnings so that your fixed business expenses and your living

expenses are covered before anything else. You should allocate these appropriately, making sure that you

maintain the payment of your business expenses above and before other expenses.

There is a section in this training manual that specifically deals with budgeting. If you follow the advice

written there, you will be able to keep some order in your financial dealings, and you will also begin to make

provisions for wealth creation.

OPEN A BUSINESS ACCOUNT: You must bank everything you earn from you work into this account.

From this account you pay all business expenses, and you will draw a wage also. Do not pay personal bills

from this account.

OPEN A PERSONAL ACCOUNT: Draw enough money to cover your fixed living expenses, plus a small

amount of spending money, and also a regular amount to commence a savings plan. Once your business is

earning enough to cover all fixed expenses, it is a good idea to put yourself on a commission basis to earn

over and above the amount you have decided to withdraw. Pay all personal bills from your personal account.

Set up an Accurate and Effective Bookkeeping System

It is very important that you keep honest and accurate records of all your earnings. The Taxation Department

requires you to show accurate records, and when you acquire for yourself an informed understanding of the

Taxation laws you will be able to work within these laws to your own benefit. Also, in order to make your

business a saleable commodity further down the track, the accuracy of your record keeping will determine

the price of your business when you wish to sell.

You will also need a competent Accountant and Solicitor. However, for the basics you should refer regularly

to your weekly budget and your bank statements, and draw up Profit and Loss statements to help to see how

you are going.

Registration of Business

You will need to register your business with the appropriate government Department in your country. If you

have chosen a name for your business that is already in use, you can place your own name in front so that

you can use that name. For example ‘Rhonda’s Ritzy Fashions’ allows Rhonda to use the name she wants.

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Choosing a name for your Business

Shakespeare was only half-right when he decreed that a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.

True, but call it a stinkweed and nobody will want to even smell it. Choose something catchy that creates

and instant association with something they are already familiar with, and if necessary register the name you

want with your own name in front. Your own name can then be written very inconspicuously at the start of

your logo on your business cards and letterheads or the sign-writing on your shop window so that the name

you actually want stands out before your own is noticed.

When choosing a name for your business try to think of something catchy. My pre-loved clothing business

was called ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ and the logo I had drawn depicted a well-dressed and accessorised lady with

lovely hands and nails. She was certainly a Ritzy looking lady and this logo (which is copyrighted, by the

way) has been used for many of the things I have done in business. You can turn to the section on Business

Promotion to see an example of my Ritz lady. Try to have something like this done for yourself so that your

customers will associate the image with your shop or product whenever they see it.

Signing a Lease

It is important that you read each lease presented to you before you sign. Whilst there are variations in the

Landlord and Tenant Acts between the separate States of Australia, in the main the principles are the same.

A tenant can escape from the terms of a property lease merely by proving that he cannot pay the rent. It is

not so easy for a landlord. He has to prove that you have committed waste (which means that he can sue for

eviction for lasting damage or depreciation done to his property. This can also apply to unauthorised

improvements), or that you have breached some other lease condition.

You should read the draft of a property lease thoroughly, then have it examined by a good solicitor. Here are

some of the matters you may have to reject or bargain with:

• Rent in advance for six months - Why should the landlord be able to get interest on your money for so

long?

• Where a lease requires you to pay a half or a third of all repairs to the property - Actually you should be

liable for only internal maintenance. The landlord is usually liable for the externals like the roof and the

outside wiring and plumbing.

• All increases in local council and water rates to go on to your rent – This could be fair enough provided

that such increases are from the date of signing the lease or renewing it.

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• Rental increases yearly to the national inflation rate – This could bankrupt you. Make it a limit of 10%.

• Be careful with leases with an escalating form of rent if your sales turnover goes up. If you cannot have

this clause deleted, see that there is also a provision for this to operate vice-versa.

• Usually the tenant is expected to pay the high legal costs of drawing up the lease. Try to get a lower

quote.

Before you Sign the Lease

• Leases are usually full of obscure legalese jargon and extremely long complicated sentences. Do not be

timid about asking your solicitor for interpretations.

• Know what conditions, if broken, can make you liable for eviction, such as sub-letting without

permission, committing nuisances, refusing landlord right of inspection and so on.

• Make a slow thorough inspection of the premises. If the place is old, have an electrician inspect the

wiring, switches etc. Look at the roof, toilets, water pressure, natural light, ventilation, fire hazards, dock

facilities, possibility of flooding, adjacent noxious industries etc.

• Consider the location (see section further on in this chapter), whether the premises are really suitable for

your purpose and if there is room for expansion. See the local council about operating restrictions. If any

repairs or alterations are necessary, get a written assurance from the lessor that such work will be done

by a certain time.

• See that there is a clause giving you first option for renewal on the expiry of the term of the lease. You

wouldn’t want to build a good business and find that your landlord can give the lease to somebody in the

family who comes in and sets up the same business as yours, and basically reaps the results of your hard

work.

• Then haggle, haggle, haggle to obtain a lower rent.

• If after signing the lease you find that one or more clauses are ‘harsh and oppressive’, you could

challenge them at law.

• Find out if the premises you intend to lease have had frequent changes of tenants. This could mean

nothing or it could mean half-a-dozen things such as a bad landlord, flooding, adjacent noxious

industries or neighbours and so on.

Goal Setting

What is a goal? A goal is something you want to do, or have, or become, that is more important than the

effort and time necessary for it’s achievement. It is usually something that you want so badly that you give

your all in order to accomplish it. Goal Setting, therefore, is the process of systematically writing down your

goals and deciding how to achieve them. You will need to set goals in all areas of your life to help you get

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started, however the goals that we will concentrate on will be those relating to running your business

successfully and the basics of budgeting. Firstly, get your business to the point where it is making some

money, and then we can look at how to budget that money once it is being made.

Complete Forms for Business and Personal Goals

You may order weekly and monthly Goal Sheets through this workshop, each with a review form on the

reverse side. These should be used to break down your Annual Success Plan into easy to handle steps by

setting goals for yourself at the start of each year, then breaking them down into monthly, and finally,

weekly goals.

Alternative Methods of Payment for your Customer

There will be some customers who will prefer to use their Visa, Bankcard or Mastercard or Eftpos in order

to pay for your stock. You can arrange to have these facilities available by contacting your local bank.

Small Business Pre-Opening Checklist

1. Decide whether you will commence your business as a market-stall business, an Internet-based business

or a shop-based business. Remember to factor in your particular personality type in order to succeed.

2. If shop-based, find the right property, check out the lease, negotiate a rent-free period and have the

repairs and alterations done before moving in. If market-stall based, research your market venues and

find suitable ones to work from. Try to find an undercover market or an area within the markets if

possible, so that when the weather is bad you can still do business.

3. Check your stock to make sure that you have a healthy balance of a variety of pieces, and that any

garments you will be selling are in good condition with no tears, holes or stains. Have them dry cleaned

if necessary.

4. Make sure your shop is well presented and that the various coloured garments are arranged in such a way

that your stock becomes appealing to the eye.

5. Business Cards – Use your logo or letterhead on all printed matter, flyers, printed copy of your ad etc.

Before you start have your leaflets ready for delivery. I recommend Alan and Charlie of St. George

Instant Print for very competitive rates on your printing requirements. Their number is Sydney 02-9546-

1599.

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6. Insurance – Public Liability and Income Protection. For all your insurance needs I recommend Tony

Vadala on 0414-541-863. He had given me great service for the last 15 years.

7. Telephone – If you or somebody else cannot be there to answer your business telephone at all times then

you will need to have a mobile phone. Answering machines are not as effective as a trained individual

for correct answering of the phone. See the chapter on Telephone Techniques for how to answer the

phone correctly. As was mentioned before, train all family members to answer the phone in a business-

like manner if aiming to minimise your set-up costs. If they are not trained they will end up costing you

customers and consignees, so make sure that they all know how to answer the phone.

8. Cheque accounts – Open a business account and a personal account. Keep the two separate. If you can

afford to you may desire to purchase a company in order to reduce your provisional taxation in the first

year of business. See your accountant for advice.

9. Visa (V), Bankcard (BC) and Mastercard (MC) and/or Eftpos, but only if really necessary.

10. Accounting System – business records – use the budgeting forms weekly, and see your accountant every

three to four months.

11. Lawyer – have a good lawyer overlook your lease before you sign it. I recommend George Gourlas at

Simpson Freed Solicitors in Caringbah on 9524-0651. When I had to fight a court case over not being

paid $50k from the sale of one of my businesses, he sued another lawyer for me, and won – go George!!

12. Walkers to distribute leaflets interviewed and ready to work, or time set aside to do this yourself.

Paying your Taxes

Be careful in your first year in business, because if you do not set aside the right amount of money for tax

you may find that when you do have to pay your tax bill you haven’t got the money. I am no expert in this

area although I do have one suggestion on this topic – set aside 10% of your weekly sales to contribute

towards your taxes in your first year. They probably won’t be that much because you will have all sorts of

deductions to claim, but just in case it is better to have the money ready. The best advice I can give you on

this subject is ‘get a good accountant’!

Position, Position, Position!! (also known as location, location, location)

In a retail store position is everything. The biggest advantage to any business is to have people walking past

or seeing your shop regularly. This means that you should seek to run your business from either a shop that

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is in a high pedestrian traffic area, or one where cars stop at traffic lights that are positioned outside on a

regular basis. You must also check for parking, because if there is nowhere to park for your customers they

are unlikely to come in to see what stock you have to offer. You will also find if you do your research that

one side of the road in a shopping centre does better than the other. Customers will often stop on their way

home from work to pick up something to take home, and this is when you will make sales based on impulse

purchasing if you are on the side of the road coming home from town and there is parking outside.

If you are running your business from a market stall try to arrive early and find the position where the most

number of people will walk by. Regular stallholders at the markets often take these places, but stall positions

such as this do come up when businesses move on. You may have to take up a position that does not have

the maximum advantage, but as long as you are in that same position week after week people will get to

know you and will come looking for you in that position each time they visit the markets.

Questions and Exercises

What questions should I ask myself before going into business?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. When is the best time to begin promoting your new small business? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. What things should you have ready before you commence your advertising? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

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What other products can you add to your range as you go along? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… To get your shop up and running what should you do every two weeks for the first 2 or 3 months?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Where is the best place to advertise when it comes to newspapers and magazines? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What should you be looking for when considering a position for your new shop? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What should you be prepared to do depending on the outcome of the previous question? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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In promoting that you now have your own recycled clothing business, what else could you do to let people

know of your services?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Exercises 1. Test the waters by selling some of your own clothing or that of your friends by having a stall at the

markets in your local area. Experiment with your ability to talk to people and to present your product.

2. Design your own leaflet for distribution to local homes in your area.

3. Set up your display room, either being your shop or a room in your home.

4. Open Two Bank accounts.

5. Ring your local paper and cost your ads, preparing to spend this amount when you do your budget

6. Train your family to answer your phone the right way.

7. Design some business cards and have them printed. Remember to use both sides of the card to promote

yourself and your garments or items.

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Chapter Five – Business Promotion Simplified In a small business with its limited capital, advertising expenses have to be correctly allocated. You must

find out what kind of publicity is suitable for your type of business. First look at what your opposition is

doing. Some businesses such as a well-established corner store may need no advertising. A serviceman such

as a plumber may do best with a small continuing advertisement in the local paper. In some cases it pays to

place leaflets in local home letterboxes.

If your business supplies a market over a wide area, then publicity through the advertising section of the

telephone directory is a good method. Never believe that all advertising is good advertising. Do it wrongly

and it can break you.

Ultimately, the best form of advertising is goodwill, so if you want to build that, never overstate your claims

in advertising. You will build your business much faster through recommendation than anything else, so if

you give people a fair deal, they will, in the long term, do the rest for you through word-of-mouth.

How to Design and place an Advertisement

What I have found to work in business in order to create fresh new customers all the time is to:

BE SEEN

BE REMEMBERED

DO IT CONSISTENTLY

If you cannot set up your shop so that position does it for you, then you are going to have to advertise. When

advertising your new small business there are a couple of guidelines to stick to:

1. If advertising in the local paper it is more important for your ad to appear constantly than for the size of

your ad to stand out. A small 3-5-line ad that appears week-in, week-out will pull in more customers

than a big, bold, glossy ad that appears once a month. Remember that the basic principle of advertising is

repetition. The more the public sees and hears your name, the more responses you will receive.

2. When advertising your shop or stock to new customers, you will find that your ad will work better in the

classified section than in the display section. You would also do well to run an editorial, and this would

usually be done when you pay for a large display ad.

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Distributing Leaflet Advertising

When distributing your own form of leaflet advertising keep your message fairly simple, uncomplicated and

free from clutter. Most people are either too lazy or just don’t have the time when it comes to reading, so

make your ad easy to read by having lots of space around the main content. Also, in order to appeal to a

female customer base it would be good to have your leaflets printed on pink or lavender coloured paper.

In the example below you can see that there are three questions being asked here, and if you were to place

yourself in the position of one who would be likely to enter your shop you would find yourself answering

yes to all three. Also, the leaflet is not ‘busy’ – it is easy to read. The name of the business is large and bold,

and the leaflet does not try to prove itself to the customer. It just appeals to what is in it for them and to their

need to help their family.

Colour is very important as well when having your leaflets printed. If you use black ink on coloured paper

you will find that your printing costs are reduced. You may also like to ask your printer to print your leaflet

on white paper using the ink from the last of a run that he has done for somebody else. If you have a good

relationship with your printer they will sometimes do this and not charge you extra for the coloured ink.

LADIES, would you like to look good for a fraction of the price?

Could the money that you would normally spend on expensive clothes be better spent on

your mortgage or your children’s needs?

Are you the type that loves to shop for a bargain?

THEN COME AND SEE US HERE AT

DESIGNER LABEL PRE-LOVED FASHION

AND ACCESSORIES

We stock all top labels such as

Jag, Trent Nathan,

Kerry McGee,

Adele Palmer,

Simona, Covers

and many more

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How often should I promote my Business?

When it comes to leaflet distribution, once again the key to success is repetition. Obviously, you will need to

keep within your budget when investing in printing and distribution, but be aware also that the promotion

will create income for you, therefore paying for it’s own costs. On the first distribution people will probably

pick up and read your brochure, then either respond, store and keep it, or discard it altogether. If you market

your brochure correctly the ratios will look like this:

• 3% will respond

• 10% will store and keep the brochure

• 87% will discard it altogether

On the second distribution, which should be done no more than four weeks later, people will respond with

one of the above three actions, however, the ratios will be different. The amount of inquiries will be greater

because you will be reminding the 10% that put their brochure away the first time to once again call or see

you, plus there will be a response from the 3% who may have seen your leaflet for the first time. So you may

be right to expect about a 4 - 5% response.

On the third distribution there will be even greater numbers of inquiries. This system will work better if the

minimum amount of leaflets delivered is 10,000. During the running of my shop I would pay for that amount

to be delivered at a time, especially in the early stages of getting the businesses off the ground. This created

local public awareness of my new business, which helped my shop substantially as I learned through not

having a good street position for my shop that POSITION IS EVERYTHING in retail.

Who do I pay to Distribute my Leaflets?

There are many companies out there who will distribute your flyers/leaflets for you. The smaller companies

are charging around $35 per thousand, and the larger companies charge anything up to $70 per thousand.

This is a lot of money to pay when you can either distribute the flyers yourself or place an ad for walkers

who will distribute them for you. By placing an ad for walkers you can link up with people who already

work for big distribution companies, and they will be happy to accept much less than you would pay through

their employer. You can even set the rate yourself. I have often advertised for walkers and told them that the

rate of pay was $20 per thousand, which they were happy with if they were already distributing for other

companies. Look for senior pensioners who would like to earn a little extra cash – they are very reliable and

trustworthy and they actually enjoy the work as it gives them the gentle exercise they need.

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If you decide to distribute the brochures yourself, then only do so on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

You will find that on other days of the week the homeowner has not checked their letterbox to collect their

addressed mail, and most flyers/leaflets will get thrown straight into the bin when they do because of the

backlog of brochures that have accumulated. This tip is important to keep in mind when you have walkers

doing the job for you as well. Stipulate that they should only deliver on these days for the same reasons. I

advise you not to distribute your flyers in the school holidays – there are many families away at this time

and it really is a waste of money doing any distribution then. Give yourself or your walkers some time off in

the school holidays. You and/or they will appreciate the break and will come back to work refreshed and

ready to go. You’ll also save money on printing and distribution that doesn’t give you the best result.

Another thing, make sure that you flyer/leaflet is no bigger than postcard or DL envelope size so that it slips

straight into the mouth of the letterbox. That way it won’t get wet if the weather happens to be raining as it

will be fully and safely inside the box. You will find that on rainy days if your brochure happens to get wet

in the person’s letterbox it just sticks to all the other brochures that are delivered on that day and will tend to

get thrown out rather than read. Also, if it is any larger than this it may be folded in half by your walker in

such a way that it doesn’t get read or seen as soon as it is taken out of the box. It is important that you give

yourself maximum chance of being noticed in order to get the best result. When it comes to which ink to use

you can use black ink on coloured paper or red ink on white paper to save printing costs as well.

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Editorials

To get your business off to a great start you should try to think of some different angle to grab the readers’

attention and write an editorial to send to your local newspaper. For example, if your were to donate all the

money you make in your first month of being in business to your favourite local charity, the newspaper

would favour your article and place it into the community interest section of the local paper, giving your

business the push it needs to get started. Or, you could write your story from the angle of perhaps being out

of work for many months and deciding to start your own business instead of failing all the interviews you

have been attending. Local papers generally do not publish stories that seem only to be promoting the

business and do not have a community or charity appeal. You must come up with an idea for promoting your

business that would appeal to the community. Donating your earnings to charity would certainly appeal to

the community, as would picking yourself up from a difficult situation and triumphing over adversity. These

approaches to your story would also bring new and return customers to you. Make sure you have a photo

ready that shows you standing at the counter of your shop or behind your table at your market stall, serving a

customer that is purchasing an item or garment. Or, perhaps you could be displaying one of the items you

are selling. But have a photo ready that clearly shows you smiling at the camera while doing your work.

Promotions

Another method of gaining new business is promoting yourself through Networking. This is achieved

through handing out your business card to as many different people as you possibly can, as often as you can.

You will find that when you strike up a conversation with someone that you haven’t met before, invariably

they will ask you what you do. This is the right time to hand them your business card and casually suggest

that if they ever need your service to give you a call.

It is important that you develop an unrestrictive attitude of ‘there is plenty for everyone – Plenty of

customers, plenty of business and plenty of opportunities’. This allows you to give freely of yourself in

order that someone else may benefit or reach their goals. It is known as ‘giving without hooks’ or giving

naturally rather than to gain something in return. Then when you hand a person your business card they do

not feel an underlying obligation to use your services. In the networking environment it is not whom you

know but rather who knows you. Therefore let everyone know who you are and what you do. Your business

card is a very inexpensive tool for creating new customers. Make sure you show clearly who you are, what

you do and how to contact you. You should utilise both sides of your card as well, describing your services

on the reverse of your card with room for writing down their next due date to meet if that is what is needed.

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Working from Home

When teaching my workshops I have been asked about the safety of working from home. Personally, I have

never been afraid to run my businesses from home, but that’s just me. Others have voiced their fears of

doing this in case they inadvertently invite someone into their home that has ill-intent. When working from

home and advertising your clothing or other pre-loved item business, do not place your address into your

advertising, be that leaflets, business cards, ads or whatever. Have your clients ring you so that you can

decide if you would like to give them your details. You will be able to sift out those voices that you don’t

feel good about when you hear them on the phone. Make your service ‘by appointment only’.

If you use your intuition when dealing with your callers over the phone, and if you have the section of the

house that you run your business from separate from the rest of your home, there should be no problems

arise from inviting your customers to your home. If you do feel uncomfortable about a particular caller, then

ask them if you could bring some samples to them first at their home, or get them to ring you when they get

outside the front of the block where you live and then go outside and collect them – don’t give them your

actual address. When you do go down to meet them you will then be able to use all of your senses (ie. Sight,

hearing and gut instinct) to determine if you would like this person to come into your home.

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Questions and Exercises

When is the best time to begin advertising your new small business? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What things should you have ready before you commence your advertising? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

What other products can you add to your shop or stall as you go along? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

To get your shop up and running what should you do every two weeks for the first 2 or 3 months?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Where is the best place to advertise? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. What should you be looking for when considering a position for your new shop? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

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In promoting that you now have your own Designer Label pre-loved clothing business, what else could

you do to let people know of your services?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Exercises 1. Place an ad for people to distribute your fliers for you. Test their work by having your fliers delivered in

an area where your friends live so that you can check to see if the work was done.

2. Have enough fliers printed so that you can have them delivered to at least three or four suburbs

surrounding your shop, three times over.

3. Write an editorial and send it to your local paper, or phone them to come out and do a story on your new

business if they are interested in doing so.

4. Practice handing out your business cards to anybody who will listen. Don’t worry about their reaction to

you – if you mention your business in passing and don’t make a big fuss of what you are doing or

saying, people won’t get offended.

5. Regularly promote your business by having your fliers delivered every couple of months after the initial

few leaflet drops. This needs to be done just to remind people of what you are offering.

6. Remember, the best marketing is always the little things you do for people that they go away and tell

others about. Find something that you can give away for free if the customer makes a large purchase.

When you have stock that hasn’t moved and you want to get it out of the shop, perhaps you can give

these ladies that make large purchases something for nothing – it won’t hurt your business and serves

two purposes in that it helps you get rid of old stock as well as making your customers happy.

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Chapter Six – How to Get Free Stock

Imagine a Business with almost NO Start-up Costs!! Sounds too good to be true? Believe me, it’s not. For around $200 and about three weeks of time you could

fill your market stall or shop with enough stock to get your business up and running. From there you could

put the profits back into the business to keep filling your stall or shop so that eventually you have a well

stocked business that can offer something to almost everyone.

So how is it possible to start your business with so little capital? You may remember me talking about using

Other People’s Money to help you get started. Well other people have spent their money purchasing

beautiful pieces of clothing, shoes, belts, handbags and costume jewellery that either they no longer want,

they do no fit into anymore or they have decided does not suit them. So lucky for you there is a goldmine

out there waiting for you to tap into. By offering people the opportunity to sell their unwanted items through

your store on what is known as ‘consignment’ you can fill your store to the brim with lovely items that will

sell very quickly.

In order to find those people who would like to sell their unwanted items you will need to place an

advertisement into a newspaper such as The Trading Post, the Buy and Sell newspaper or your local

newspaper. Although it is probably advisable not to advertise locally because it would be most embarrassing

for one of your customers if she was to purchase an item through your store that belonged to someone she

knew. The two ladies may find themselves at the same function, with one wearing her good friend’s

clothing, shoes or accessories and feeling uncomfortable about it.

You should write yourself a script in readiness for those calls, aiming to have the consignee bring her

unwanted items to you, although you may have to be prepared to go out and see those people who cannot get

to you – they might have something really saleable in the garments they want to sell. You can also offer to

purchase some of these items if you know that you can make a higher return by owning the garment rather

than selling on consignment. This will give you a chance to gather the most lovely of items for your shop.

You will have to decide on a price you want to charge when the garment is sold, and how much your

consignee’s share will be. Usually he or she receives 50% of whatever the item is sold for.

Write out a receipt for your consignee with the items she has left with you listed clearly, and mark on the

receipt that ‘unsold stock must be collected within six weeks or it becomes the property of …….(your

business name here)’, and have her sign the receipt. Make sure she knows to come and get her unsold items

and that if she leaves them with you she has no claim to them after six weeks.

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You should have your receipt books ready before you place your advertisement, and you will need to have a

stamp made with the business name, phone number and terms and conditions set out on it. Then just stamp

several receipts in your book in readiness for consignment stock. In the early stages of your business there is

no need to spend a lot of money on having proper receipt books printed with your business name, logo and

terms and conditions on them. This you can do later on when your business becomes better established and

more profitable.

Just a quick word of warning here – always keep some money in readiness for consignees who will ‘just pop

in’ to your shop to collect their share of the sale price of their item. It will place you under a lot of stress if

one of your consignees arrives and you cannot give her the money that is due to her, so you should always

put the consignees’ share of the sale price into a safe or a cupboard somewhere so that you can hand it over

when needed. Items that don’t sell need to be stored somewhere and given back to their owner later, as you

should always have new stock coming in to keep your customers interested in what you have to offer.

Conditions that you should Impose on Consignment Stock When speaking to people who would like to leave their items with you on consignment you should place the

following terms on the items before she brings them in:

• all items of clothing must be the current season ie: if it happens to be either winter or summer, then the

items need to be appropriate to the season you are in or approaching.

• These items should be washed and ironed and hanging on hangars when brought in, or they need to have

been professionally dry-cleaned before you will accept them. If they are not you can tell the client that

an amount for cleaning will be deducted from the money that they will be given when their items are

sold, or if the goods don’t sell then items to the value of the cleaning will be detained.

• There should be no swapping of consignment stock for items that are already in the shop – this interferes

with your cashflow.

Stock that isn’t Free but isn’t far off it!!!

Another way to fill your racks and shelves with stock is to contact the rag traders (and by this I mean the

businesses that actually cut unwanted clothes up for rags) and ask whether or not they will sell sugar-bags

full of clothing to business owners like yourself. When I ran my shop I would visit Ross Industrial Wipers at

9/63 Allingham Street, Condell Park to purchase bags of clothing full to the brim for $35. I made a lot of

profit from the items I bought for $3 a kilo through Mr Fuad Ross, and being a lover of bargains I enjoyed

doing the hunting and searching for the items that I thought would sell. His number is 0413-179-495.

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Here are the details for other companies that will sell you good quality pre-loved clothing at extremely good

rates:

Waige and Company Anglicare Industrial Wipers

12 Excell Street 105 Carlton Crescent

Banksmeadow 2019 Summer Hill 2130

Phone 9316-8136 (speak to Yael or Sue) Phone 9798-7600 (speak to David Wilson)

$10 per kilo (A grade) minimum spend $250 $4 per kilo (B grade) no minimum spend

You may choose your own stock You may choose your own stock

Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

Kenden Cleaning Rag Supplies Blanca Rags

37 Lisbon Street 6/64 Heathcote Road

Villawood 2163 Moorebank 2170

Phone 9755-0755 (speak to Bonny) Phone 9824-0133 (speak to Noeline)

$7 per kilo (A grade) minimum spend $40 $8 per kilo (A grade) minimum spend $80

You may choose your own stock You may choose your own stock

Email: [email protected] Email: please phone for email address

A.B.C. Cleaning and Polishing Cloths Naziri Enterprise

105 Cawarra Road 1/132 Long Street

Caringbah 2229 Smithfield 2164

Phone 9531-1190 (speak to Sylvana) Phone 0405-128-786 (speak to Ali)

$10 per kilo (A grade) no minimum spend $5 per kilo (A grade) no minimum spend

You may choose your own stock You may choose your own stock

Email: [email protected] Email: please phone for email address

You could also stock your shop by spending one day a week visiting the charity stores in suburbs where they

tend to stock the shop with better quality pre-loved clothing. I found that Chatswood Vinnies was good, and

stores in areas like the Eastern Suburbs or areas where there is a bit of money always seem to sell near-new

items. You can purchase these for under $10 and mark-up the price to $30 if you like, as long as you are

promoting ‘exclusive’ high quality items.

Items are on sale from the Smith Family charity store at times when they are overstocked. Sales do not occur

regularly. They only occur when the chain of stores becomes overstocked with items that are not selling. So

you will need to phone and check with them as to when the next sale is on. Items are priced between $2 and

$10 each and you can buy in bulk. Here are the details for how to contact them: Smith Family Store - 2

Birmingham Avenue, Villawood 2163 Phone 9725-7555 Email: [email protected]

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If you have little or no money to get started it is my recommendation that you begin your business with

mostly clothing that is left on consignment with you by others. Then when you are making a profit you can

begin to change the ratio of items on consignment with shop-stock from mostly consignment to mostly shop-

stock. This will help to increase your profits, but it leaves you with another dilemma to deal with – you will

have stock that won’t sell that you seem to be unable to get rid of. When this happens it is best to put the

items that won’t sell onto a bargain rack, or take them to the markets and sell them for just over what they

cost you to purchase. Your aim is to clear the backlog of clothing that is building up and recoup your

investment. It’s no use having stock that isn’t selling and not having the money that is invested in that stock

available to purchase other items that may sell. Better to let them go, and sometimes you’ll get back no more

than your investment from them, but at least you can re-invest in other items.

Remember, in your first twelve months in business you should aim to keep your outgoings as low as

possible. It is during this time that you are going to strengthen your sales skills and the knowledge of your

particular market and customer base, and while you are doing this you should place as little pressure on

yourself as possible. It is best to work the business yourself so that you know the type of garments that seem

to sell well. You will need to take into account that you will always promote the items that you like more

than the ones that you don’t which places a bias on the statistics of the business, so always be open to selling

quality clothing that isn’t necessarily what you personally prefer to wear. Then, when you have gained a

fuller understanding of the nature of your business you can either hire shop attendants to run your shop for

you while you go out and purchase the stock, or shut the shop for two days a week to give you the time to do

both purchasing and selling yourself.

A hint on presentation – make sure that you have a variety of colours and styles in your stock, but when

hanging the stock make sure that all the fittings in your shop match each other, and that the coat hangars are

all the same colour and style. Because the items of clothing are all completely different you need to have

some uniformity in the way you present them if you are to make your shop look good. Below I have listed

some phone numbers for manufacturers of coat hangars and shop fittings, and you will find these businesses

mostly in the Alexandria / Surrey Hills area of Sydney.

Henmark Storeworks Henmark Storeworks Henmark Storeworks

460 Gardeners Road 211 Woodville Road 48 Hotham Pde

Alexandria 2015 Villawood 2163 Artarmon 2064

Phone: 8338-0010 Phone: 9892-4575 Phone: 9966-9360

Email: www.shopfittings.com.au These suppliers also stock mannequins as well as coat hangars.

Or phone Ryan Clifton on 9279-4444 or 0416-151-506 if you would prefer to purchase used shop fittings

from Metro Shop Fittings auction.

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Pricing your Stock

The amount you price each garment for should be in relation to its quality, age, condition and label.

Obviously, if the item is a very exclusive/expensive Designer Label then the price you place on it should be

in relation to it’s original price. This may involve a bit of research on your part so that you know the going

rate for high quality clothing if this is the range of goods you are aiming to sell. If you are aiming for high

turnover and your stock is not exclusively Designer Label then the price you sell your goods at won’t be as

high as if you are selling only Designer Label clothes. Have a standard set of prices for each of the different

types of garments and adjust your price according to the quality, label and condition of the item.

The area that you set your shop up in will affect the price of your goods as well. In areas where the women

must wear religious clothing over the top of their daily wear they may not have a need to purchase a lot of

high quality Designer Label items (although you will find that if you are selling brand-new lingerie they will

spend a fortune on their underwear). You must know a little about the people who will be shopping at the

shopping centre where you set up your shop. If you are set up close to a railway station where it is a major

inter-change (like Sutherland, for example), lots of people get off the train after work to go to their cars. It

may pay to stay open until 6pm if this is the case so that you catch the after hours shoppers. If you have

people coming into your shop who are working they will have more money to spend, so you can price your

goods higher. They will also be looking for a different type of clothing, so you should have plenty of

business suits in the range of clothes that you sell.

Tagging and Coding Consignment Stock

Once you have your stock it is important that you tag and code it correctly in order to keep track of what you

have sold and whom you owe money to. The tags themselves need only to be made of cardboard and be cut

to business card size. You can use your stamp to place the business name onto each tag to give your business

a sense of being more up-market than a charity store. The code that you place on each tag needs to contain

the number on the receipt that you gave to the consignee, the date on that receipt, and the item number on

the receipt. Therefore it is important when you are taking the items from the consignee that you give each

item a number. You can also have the initials of the consignee contained in the code for quick identification

as well. The code should look something like this:

ES.104.5/1/03.15

The breakup of the above code is: ES – Elaine Smith

104 – Receipt number

5/1/03 – date that consignee left the items with you

15 – item number on receipt

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You will need to purchase a tagging gun as well so that you can attach the tags to the garments in the

traditional manner. Just be careful when using the tagging gun because they are a little dangerous, and don’t

leave them lying around when mums with kids come into your shop. A child can do a lot of damage with the

gun (both to themselves and your stock) if they get hold of it while you are not looking.

In order to remember which month of the year your stock went onto the shelves you could use different

coloured tags to place the code for the item on. For example, you could use the colour red for January, blue

for February, yellow for March, green for April, purple for May, and cream for June. Stock should not sit on

the shelves or hang on the racks for more than about four months at the most, so by the time you run out of

colours and begin again, none of the stock from the first month (say, red for January for example) will still

be in the shop. Also, by having coloured tags it helps you to quickly identify how long the items have been

in the store and assists you to know whether or not to negotiate with the customer if they are trying to

bargain with you on the fee for the garment.

PS. If you are tagging and coding shop-stock (ie: stock that you own) then the initials at the start of the code

should be SS – Shop Stock. There will be no money paid out to a consignee on stock such as this. If you

would like to be able to remember how much you paid for your shop-stock so that you know how much

room you have to negotiate with your customer you can add another code that is made up of the first ten

letters of the alphabet. For example, if you paid $8 for an item you would add the letter ‘H’ after SS so that

you know that the item cost you $8 to buy or ‘A’ if it were $1. You may have marked it at $35 when pricing

it to sell, so in that case you have a lot of room to negotiate if the customer wants to bargain with you.

Purchasing Stock from your Customers

Once your business becomes established you will find that customers will bring stock to you without any

prompting by you or any advertising for them to do so. This will give you the opportunity to either take their

stock on consignment or purchase it from them at a very good rate. Whether you are dealing with women’s,

men’s or kid’s clothing these principles will still apply.

Once you know the fee per item that you normally pay when you go to the clothes suppliers or to garage

sales you can use that knowledge as leverage to help you negotiate how much you are prepared to purchase

the item for from your customer. So, for example, if you know that you can purchase a particular piece for

around $4, then as you look through the items that your customer has brought to you, using a calculator that

prints out a list of the transactions you have just recorded, punch in that item at $3 - $1 less than you know

you would have paid for it elsewhere. Do this for all the items that you are interested in purchasing and if

you have 30 items in total and they add up to $90 altogether, offer your customer either $90 in cash or a

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credit voucher that she can spend in the shop for $110. Your customers will nearly always take the voucher

and will often spend more than it is worth, so you both end up winning from the deal.

When customers want to bring their clothing to you to purchase they should be encouraged not to do so

during normal trading hours. You don’t want them to turn up when you have a shop full of people and they

expect you to give them attention when you should actually be serving the people who are interested in

making a purchase. If you are closed on Mondays or both Mondays and Tuesdays then those are the days

that these customers can make an appointment with you. Have a sign in your shop that says ‘All consignees

and people wishing to sell their stock to us here at ………………….(your business name here) need to make

an appointment on Mondays (or Monday or Tuesday if you are closed on both those days). Stock will not

be taken during normal working hours’.

Purchasing Stock from Garage Sales

Later in this manual I write about selling merchandise through garage sales, but here we will talk about

buying your stock from garage sales. Unless the person holding the garage sale is running their sales as a

business, they are likely to be selling items for around $1a piece. Garage sales are a fantastic opportunity to

purchase great stock at very good rates. If you arrive early enough to a garage sale that has particularly food

quality clothing on offer you can mentally calculate what all the items add up to and offer the seller a bulk

price for a rack of clothing. Often they will take it just to get it off their hands. If the seller is resistant to

lowering their price ask if you can take their number and call them at the end of the day to see if they have

any stock left over. Most people will give you their number, and you can call to see if they are willing to part

with whatever is left for the price you want to pay. However, I would not let on that you are purchasing their

stock with the intention of on-selling it from your shop or market stall, because if the seller realises that you

are going to make money from their items they will be reluctant to lower their price. It is best to keep that

information to yourself.

Shop and Window Displays

Throughout your shop you should have displays of how to combine articles of clothing so that they look

good. This will help to sell your stock and will give customers ideas for their own purchases. You should

change these displays on a regular basis so that the customers think that you have new stock coming in all

the time. Also, move the stock around within the shop. By doing this customers who saw one thing last week

but missed another may make a purchase that they could have last week if they had known that the item was

on the shelf or rack. With so many different pieces they are bound to miss something.

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I had a mannequin to display some of the clothing in my shop. It made a big difference to sales and created

interest, as she sat on a seat just inside the door. I would sometimes place her outside the door as well and

people would see her dressed in bright colours as they walked by. She was quite lifelike so she was often

mistaken for being a real person, until the customers became familiar with the fact that she was there.

If you display your stock well it is almost half-sold before you even have to open your mouth. Try to place

each garment or article in such a way that it can be seen to its best advantage. If possible, arrange your shop

so that there are no short-cuts across the room. In other words, make your customers walk past every article

or garment in order to get to the other side of the room. If there is a table of clothing reduced to say, $8 per

piece, put accessories into a basket next to the table and mark them at the price of $2 per piece. That way

you are likely to earn the full amount from a $10 note and not have to hand back your customer any change.

Other aspects of good display are constant change and improvement; originality, novelty, decoration,

variety, lighting and colour; is the shop clean, tidy and well organised? Are the price-cards and banners

properly positioned? Is new stock in a prominent position?

When it comes to lighting it is important that you use the correct globes in your light fittings. If the light

shines yellow on the garments, because they are not new to begin with they are going to look even older

than they are, so I recommend that you use full-spectrum lighting, either spotlight globes or fluorescent

tubes, depending on the fittings that are in your shop. Full-spectrum lighting emits exactly what it says – the

full spectrum of colours of the rainbow, which then produces the whitest of white light just like sunlight.

This will help you if you have chosen to use a shop in an arcade where there is little or no natural sunlight

coming through the shop window. It will also improve the number of sales that will happen because the

lighting helps to make the shop feel less dark and dismal. I have always preferred to shop in places that feel

open and alive, not ones that feel closed and secretive (which darkness tends to do).

If you need full spectrum lighting I can supply you with globes and tubes, as I worked as a commission-only

sales representative for a company that specialised in full-spectrum lighting after I ran my cleaning agency.

Actually, when running my shop one of the representatives of that company sold me some full-spectrum

fluorescent tubes and I was so impressed with the improvement in the look of my shop that I remembered

the company and rang them for a job!! So yes, good lighting does make a difference.

If you happen to have set up your business in an area where there are other shops selling the same product –

pre-loved fashion – then poor display alone can put you out of business. As much as possible have your

display arranged so that people can see what you stock, make their selection and even pay you without sales

talk. Try to avoid having high shelving as most people seldom look up. Avoid cramming the racks and

shelves with stock, and give people room to move.

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Always remember that you and those who work for you are on display as well. Look and act the part by

dressing well, and no chewing gum or smoking cigarettes while serving customers. I might have mentioned

this before but you should go outside if you desire to smoke when working in your shop, as smoking inside

will make the stock smell of cigarettes, and not all of your customers will be smokers themselves. In fact,

why not have an oil-burner with some rose or lavender oil burning while your shop is open. That will make

an impression on your customers!

Taking Laybys and Giving Refunds

When your customer wants to purchase but has only enough money to place a deposit you can make up a

layby for them. This will help you to sell your stock, however, you should have a stamp made up that has

the terms of the layby written on it so that you can use that to inform them of the terms. Those terms should

be that laybys are only held for a maximum of two weeks. You need to do this so that the cashflow of your

business does not get affected by having stock set aside that has not been fully purchased. This is especially

true when the items are a popular size, colour and style – they could easily be sold to someone else. So if the

person who has placed them on layby does not return to pick them up after two weeks, then as long as they

have been informed of the terms you are well within your right to place the items back on the shelves or

racks to be sold again. Just quickly – when it comes to refunds there should be a sign in your shop that says

you have a no-refund policy, as the items are recycled and should be chosen carefully before purchase.

Avoiding Theft

It will sometimes occur that customers will steal from you, and unfortunately due to the nature of the items

you are selling it will be difficult to avoid this happening. If you are the owner of the business and are the

one working in the business (rather than having someone else serving your customers), you will need to be

alert at all times in case a customer swaps their own clothing for your stock. This can be avoided by firstly,

knowing your stock, and secondly, giving each person who wants to try on garments for their size a tag that

says how many items they have taken into the changeroom with them. You might recall seeing a similar

system operating at places like K-Mart and Target – you might not be able to get hold of the same tags that

they use but you can always make your own out of cardboard or something similar. Watch out for customers

taking your stock into the changeroom and trying it on, but swapping it for the clothes they have on at the

time. If they bring an item out to you and it has no tag on it, check to see if they are wearing your stock.

Also, if a person brings an item to you that once again does not have a tag on it (customers will pull the tags

off in the hope that you will forget the original price that you placed on it and sell the item for less than what

you want for it), you can say to them, ‘I’m sorry, but this item has no tag on it and will have to go back into

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storage until I can find the receipt for it and who it belongs to. I will need to make sure I sell it for the price

the consignee has agreed for it to be sold’. It doesn’t matter if the item was left on consignment or is Shop

Stock – the person you are dealing with doesn’t need to know any of that information. All they need to know

is it can’t be sold to them. They may not have been the person who took the tag off, but then again they may.

You can also install one or two cameras in your shop. There is software available these days that records

what happens each day so that if you realise that something has gone missing you can check back over your

disks to see what went on in your shop that day or that week. It won’t be hard to find the culprit if it has

been recorded on disk. With regards to your staff stealing from you, this can be picked up if you do a weekly

stocktake – however, there is nothing stopping them from buying their own stock and selling it through your

shop. You are simply going to have to have trustworthy staff if you are not going to run the shop yourself.

If you own a large shop and you or one of your staff notices that a customer looks suspicious, you can let

other staff in the shop know to watch their behaviour by using pre-determined coded language. Simply begin

speaking in that language or using those words to other staff members in the shop so that they too can watch

out for whatever is going on with that customer.

Choosing Staff

When it comes to choosing staff, the best source of staff can be found from those people who shop with you.

It is very important that the person who does your selling believes in the product, and if a person has been

purchasing from you for a period of time then you can guarantee they will be happy to promote your

garments to your customer base. Your business will suffer if your staff don’t think that recycled (or rather

pre-loved) clothing is up to their standards, and you wouldn’t want someone like that working for you

anyway. Get to know them first so that your intuition can guide you as to whether or not they would be an

honest employee, but also put structures in place that allow you to check on whether they actually are being

honest with you or not. These could be systems such as spot-checks on stocktake, having them cut off and

collect all the tags from the items sold for the day and checking those tags against your stock records,

dropping in on the shop unannounced, sending in your friends to buy stock while you are not there etc.

Also, by sending in your friends, mother, sisters or cousins you can check to see if your staff are giving good

service to your customers. It would be business suicide to have someone working for you who was being

rude to your customers while you are not there. Make sure the person you choose has a relationship-style

personality. These people are very good with customers, and this type of role is best suited to them. An

action-style personality would not be the right one for the job, neither would a strategy-style personality.

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Developing a Regular Customer Base

As with any business it is important that you develop a regular customer base. Despite the fact that you are

unlikely to have customers shopping on a weekly basis with you, it is still important that they feel that they

would like to return to shop with you again. If they have a positive experience buying from you they are

very likely to return, so your aim should always be to make their shopping experience as positive as you can.

If you cannot provide them with the item they are looking for on occasions, still make the experience

pleasurable for them. To prompt your regulars to return you could try leaving a basket at the front of the

shop with clothes that you are giving away one day a month. This is a good way to get rid of old stock, and

it entices people into your store – people who may not have entered if they hadn’t grabbed a bargain.

High Turnover or Quality Items at a Higher fee?

You may have already come up against the dilemma of whether to sell only top quality Designer Label

garments or items that are the latest in fashion, or to sell good quality items priced so that you will have a

high turnover of sales. Both systems will work, but just how successful they both are depends on the area

you set up in and the amount of expense you go to in fitting your shop out with classy presentation.

A clean, pleasant smelling shop that has, let’s say, polished wooden floorboards and carved cedar frames for

the clothes to hang on with deep colours painted on the walls would present a classy image that would

demand a higher price for the goods. But a tidy shop that didn’t worry too much about presentation would

better suit a high turnover of sales of garments priced at around the $8 - $10 mark. Which way you decide to

go is totally up to you, but you will find that investing in a high level of presentation in some areas is

necessary because the customer base would not shop with you if you didn’t. In those areas the customers

still like to think of themselves as snobs, and they would be lowering their standards to shop with you if you

were catering to high turnover at lower prices rather than exclusive items for a higher price.

Alterations

If you have skill in the area of sewing and alterations this could prove to be very beneficial to your business.

It could mean the difference between closing a sale and completely missing out on one if you can offer this

service to your customers. Always have a measuring tape and a box of sewing pins available nearby so that

you can offer to take a garment up or in, or to let it out if need be. Customers will appreciate you doing this

for them and will be happy to pay the extra money required if you can.

You may like to have a sewing machine on-site in the room at the back of the shop, but if you decide to do

this I would advise you to set up some sort of system to let you know when someone has walked into the

shop, such as a laser light system that sets off a buzzer as people pass through the door. Or you might prefer

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to have a camera set up so that the whole shop is being monitored at all times. However, unless you are

watching the screen constantly you won’t always be aware if someone has walked in. Having a system set

up that alerts you to their presence via loud sound is the best way, I feel.

A-Frame Boards

Make sure you have an A-frame board placed outside your shop so that others can see when they drive past

what it is that you have to offer. Bright, fluorescent colours always attract attention so do have one this

colour. You will gain many new customers from having one of these boards, so don’t be afraid to make such

an investment. Have your business name and logo printed on the board, and make sure you always put it out.

Also, make sure that there is a way to lock the board open. There should be some kind of lever that holds the

legs apart so that the wind doesn’t blow the board over. I didn’t have this on my A-frame board and had to

constantly go out and pick it up on windy days.

Carry Bags

Another way of promoting your business is to have paper carry bags with the name and logo of your shop

that you put your customer’s purchases into when they leave the store. This subtle yet effective form of

advertising works long after they have bought from you when they go to use the bag again. Plus, many

people will appreciate the reusable aspect of the paper bags. They can be recycled more easily than plastic.

Washing and Ironing for Presentation

Further on in this manual is a section on Presentation of the garments, but here I would like to mention that

if you have the room available to set up a washing machine and a dryer at the back of your shop you should

do so. There are times when running your business that nobody is about shopping, and you will want to be

doing something to contribute to the success of your business. When you aren’t doing your books, tagging

and coding your garments, or arranging the look of your shop you could be washing, drying and ironing

items that would sell more easily if they were presented well.

Once again, I would advise you to set up some sort of system to let you know when someone has walked

into the shop, such as a laser light system that sets off a buzzer as people pass through the door. Make sure it

buzzes loud enough that you can hear it over the washing machine or dryer, or this will be the perfect

opportunity for someone to steal items from your shop because you aren’t watching what is going on.

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Music and Colour

If you would like to make the most number of sales that you possibly can be aware of the influence of sound

and colour on your customers. It is a known fact that soothing, classical music lowers a person’s brain-wave

patterns from the rhythm used during waking consciousness to the rhythm known as Alpha. When this

occurs people become more relaxed and open to suggestion than when they have full control of their

conscious thought patterns, so I would always have music playing in the background that came from that era

of time. Certain colours affect people as well, and I am not completely knowledgeable in this area, but I do

know that lilacs and mauves are healing colours that also affect the brain-wave patterns of your customers –

in a way that works in your favour.

Trading Hours and Days

When having your shop window painted with your logo, show the business days and hours on the glass of

the front door. If your shop doesn’t open until 10am there should be some sign or printing there to indicate

that fact. Don’t inconvenience people by not providing the information. People expect retail shops to open at

9am and will go out of their way to visit you at that time. Let them know if you open later or not at all. A

good idea is to have a business card holder or pamphlet holder attached to the wall or the framework of the

door outside your shop so that people can take a card or pamphlet if they are walking past when the shop is

closed. Your card should have the business phone number and the trading hours on it so that those who don’t

have a pen on them at the time can take your contact details away with them.

I may have mentioned this before, but if you are the business owner who is doing all the buying and selling

and running the books and doing the banking, it would be a good idea to shut shop one or two weekdays per

week in order to get all of these things done. Businesses I have known in this industry still flourish even

though they don’t open every day of the week because they have specialised goods, and people will go out

of their way to shop with you if your items are good value and quality. Besides, you should have one day off

yourself to stay in balance, and I always recommend that! Or, make your trading hours 12noon to 7pm. That

way, consignees can come in before the shop opens, and you can cater to people visiting after work.

Questions and Exercises

If you had no capital, how could you get started? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

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How would you find the people who could help you get started by leaving their clothing on consignment? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. What should you give to the people who leave clothing items on consignment with you? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. What should be written on the receipt that is given to the people who leave consignment stock with you? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. What conditions should you impose on consignment stock before the consignee brings it to you? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Where else can you get hold of your stock? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Are consignees as important as customers, and if they are, why? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… What process would you go through to establish whether your caller has stock suitable for you to sell in your

shop or business?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Why should you try to get the consignee to bring their clothes to you rather than you going to them? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…

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When pricing the stock what should you look for to help you determine the right price for the goods?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. When coding the stock what information is important to have on your price tags?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Exercises

1. Buy or borrow some books or tapes on selling and read or listen to the experts on how to assist a person

into making a purchase.

2. If setting up your business in a shop, do whatever fit-out work needs to be done in order to hang the

stock and show it to its best advantage. Make sure the lighting, colour scheme and arrangement of isles

is set up well.

3. Design a form that helps to keep track of items that have been sold. This record-keeping system should

contain information like the sale price, the consignees’ name, a description of the item sold, the code on

the price tag and the date that the item was sold. There should also be a place for the consignee to initial

when they collect their percentage of the sale price.

4. Write out a few phrases that you could use to open the conversation with customers as they walk in the

door of your shop so that you don’t have to think about how to handle the situation as people come to

you.

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Chapter Seven – Sales Techniques

The First Point of Contact is often the Telephone

The telephone is often one of the first points of contact with your customer, therefore it is very

important to handle this introduction to yourself and your services well. It is the first place where you

will practice the skills known as selling.

There are six points to consider:

* Be Ready * Be Quick to Respond * Use both your Own and your Caller’s Name * Have a Bright and

Cheery Disposition *Be Polite and * Be Accurate

Be Ready

There are seven key points to consider in being ready. These very much depend on your own level of

personal development as to how well you will do.

• Listen so that you may respond and be helpful.

• Have a genuine concern for people.

• Develop a positive attitude towards selling.

• Use an outgoing manner.

• Have an active (rather than passive) style.

• Be non-discriminatory in your attitude about people (incl. sex, race, creed, colour)

• Treat others as you would like to be treated.

In working out how other people tick you only need to consider how it is that you like to be treated. You’ll

get further with people if you treat them this way, and even further again if you treat them better than they

expect to be treated.

One of the prime motivators in people is the search for recognition. After all, isn’t one of the reasons you

have decided that this form of self-employment is better than working for an employer because you lacked

the recognition you deserved. Haven’t you at some stage of your career felt this? And have you noticed that

you work better for the customers who tell you that you’ve done a wonderful job rather than those who

constantly criticise your work? Well, consider this – your customers will be more responsive to you if you

treat them well too.

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Be Quick to Respond

By being quick to respond, people subliminally receive the message that you are ready to do business with

them. Also, if you are quick to respond to any messages that are left for you people will doubt you less.

Their impression will be that you are committed to looking after them. In order to be really prompt you also

need to answer the phone before it rings three times whenever you can answer the phone. This gives the

caller enough time to prepare their questions to you after they have dialed your number and not so much

time that they feel that you will be neglectful in other areas of business as well.

Use both your Own and your Caller’s Name

Greet your caller with “Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening” followed by “this is” and

then your own name. You may also add, “How may I help you?” but this is not completely necessary.

By doing this you show the caller that you’re a person – not an object. You are also showing the caller that

you want to be friendly towards them. In response people will generally treat you with equal friendliness and

respect.

When you use your own name it encourages the other person to trade names with you, with the underlying

assumption that the personal touch really counts. Also, you can sometimes prevent bad tempered people

taking their fury out on you if they are not happy with a purchase they have made from you. By the way that

you answer the phone they may realise that you are a person just as much as they are, and this will tend to

slow them down a little. And last but certainly not least, use the caller’s name as often as you possibly can.

There’s nothing more pleasant to the caller’s ear than the sound of their name being used sincerely. Be

personal.

Have a Bright and Cheery Disposition

It is important to replace negative phrases with positive ones. This all starts with being aware of the

words you are using when you speak to people. The picture that you should aim to paint for your

caller is that your operation is a CAN-DO one. “Yes, I will look out for that type of garment for you

Mrs Jones. I’ll let you know as soon as one comes in. May I take down your number?”

Phrases such as “I’m sorry, I can’t do that for you” should be replaced with “I’ll make sure that gets done for

you Mrs Jones. ” Or “I can’t do that until Friday” needs to be replaced with “I can do that on Friday for you

Mrs Jones”.

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As you can see, the picture that you will be creating will be a positive one where your customer experiences

as little resistance as possible from you towards their requests. There will always be the occasion where you

either do not have the skills, knowledge or products necessary to help your caller, but they can still

experience a positive outcome from calling you when provided with the information they need in order to

get what they want. In seeking to satisfy the caller’s needs you keep the door open for a time when you can

help them. Always be positive, and never be sarcastic to your caller.

Be Polite

In being polite you need to listen. Listening is part of communicating, and good communication skills

need to be developed in order to make a total success of your business. Try the O.A.R.S. principle:

Observe – observe the way in which your caller communicates to you and match their communication if you

can. Slow down the speed at which you talk if you are talking faster than your caller is. Speed up your

sentences if you are talking more slowly.

Acknowledge – acknowledge your caller so that they are aware that they are getting their message across to

you. Using words like “right; OK; yes; Uhuh” etc show that you are listening. Because the caller cannot see

you over the telephone they cannot observe your body language to know what you are doing. So you must

keep your connection with them through regular acknowledgement.

Respond – in responding to your caller they are giving the message that what they have said to you has been

understood e.g. “I see what you mean”, “I know what you are saying”, “I’d feel like that too.”

Summarise – Summarising what has been said to you is beneficial to both you and the caller. This way you

can iron out any misunderstandings that may occur, plus you re-iterate what the caller has said to you. You

could use phrases such as “The way I understand it is like this…..” or “So what you are saying is…..”

If you happen to be accessing information that the caller needs via your computer and it is taking a very long

time to provide you with what you want, explain this to the caller e.g. “I’m just opening the file right

now……it’s busy thinking….ah, there it goes, it’s only just opened up for me now. Let’s see what I can do

for you Mrs Jones.” Or “that’s going to take two minutes for me to organise, will that be OK?” Try to give

the caller the option of saying yes.

Be Accurate

And finally, make sure everything is right – give the perfect answer!

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Selling the Garments

The very first thing you will need to develop is your ability to handle rejection in selling. When you are able

to do this you will turn many more ‘lookers’ into ‘purchasers’. There are a few very simple techniques to

follow in order to maximise the number of sales you make from the people who come through your doors. If

you follow these guidelines you will turn a high percentage of your inquiries into sales.

• Don’t try to make people buy more than they ask for. Assist them to purchase what they want, but don’t

push too hard to sell them more items. You can make suggestions, but don’t push. People buy small

ticket items more on impulse than pressure.

• The five most common causes of lost sales are untidy appearance; staring at incoming customers;

smoking or chewing in their presence; having an untidy shop; or too much talk. There is no need of

much talk if the customer came to you by way of recommendation. You must learn to know the

prospective buyers from the idle lookers, but sometimes, even idle lookers (if handled correctly) can be

turned into buyers.

There are five steps to take to make a sale:

1. Open, qualify and approach. This includes the courteous greeting and the assessment of what type of

person you are dealing with. You then mould your sales method accordingly. The way you speak will

depend much on the way they speak, as to gain their confidence and trust you should mirror them to

some extent.

2. Present your merchandise describing its qualities, features and price. Wait for the customer’s reaction.

3. Trial closure of sale: ‘What dress do you prefer?’ or ‘Will you be purchasing with cash or by credit

card?’ are always good ways to close a sale.

4. Overcome objections. Do this convincingly but briefly.

5. Close the sale.

When it comes to becoming really good at selling you have to be able to handle your customer saying ‘I

don’t like your product’ and ‘I don’t want to purchase, thanks’. You must be able to cope with these

rejections and not take them personally. If you have never been involved in sales before this can be pretty

scary for you at the start, but it is only a matter of time before you will get used to it. Just persist and learn to

detach from needing to have the customers who look at your stock approve of what they see. When you

build the business from nothing you will get very attached to it and treat it like your ‘baby’, so don’t take

things personally when people reject what you have to offer. Their taste in fashion is not a reflection on you,

and for every one person who doesn’t like what they see there will be five others who do.

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Fashion and Body Image

Here is an important aspect of running a business in the fashion industry that very few people mention when

they teach this topic. I’m sure you are all aware of the effect that the media has had on women and their

body image. It causes much distortion for many women and their view of themselves, and it is something

that you should take into consideration when selling your garments to your customers. If you have been

asked to comment on how an item looks on a particular customer when she tries it on, you need to be careful

of how you answer that question, because you will not be aware of how her mind works when it comes to

her own body-image or self-image.

My way of handling this situation was to turn the question around and say to the customer ‘well, how do you

feel wearing it?’ or ‘how does it make you feel?’ If she were enthusiastic about the garment then I would

never dampen her own enthusiasm, but would then ask the various questions that would lead her into a

purchase. However, if she was unsure about the garment I would ask questions like ‘What was it about the

garment that made you pick it up? Was it the cut? Was it the colour? Was it the style?’ and from her answers

I would find out if this was the item that was right for her. If it weren’t the right item for her I would seek

out similar items that were in my range of stock and show her those. I would then probe into her mind a little

to find out if she felt good about herself or if she had issues with her weight or body shape. If I felt that she

did I would be careful about how I handled the customer because people like this are likely to get home with

the garment and decide that they shouldn’t have bought it. They won’t like how they look in it – mind you,

nothing would be good enough for someone with these issues - and then they would be likely to blame the

person who sold it to them for leading them into purchasing the garment. So I would always endeavour to

make the customer answer her own questions, and I recommend that you do the same.

Salespeople are often criticised for saying ‘yes, that looks great on you’, even if they are telling what they

honestly believe to be the truth to the customer. Everyone expects a salesperson to say those words to them

because they think that the salesperson is only interested in making the sale, not in giving their honest

opinion. So you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t in this situation. Just remember that an

opinion is only an opinion, and you could actually point this out to the customer so that she realises that your

opinion is only one of many viewpoints that people could have about a particular garment on her. The words

that could be used in this situation are ‘well, I think it looks great but what really matters is how you feel

about it, not what I think about it’. This way of saying the same thing is far more likely to be accepted by the

customer than the previous example of the way that most salespeople speak. It will show the customer that

you are genuinely concerned that the item is right for them, not that you are only concerned in making the

sale. You are far more likely to make the sale if you do things this way, I guarantee you.

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Take time for 12 things

1 Take time to Work - it is the price of success

2 Take time to Think - it is the source of power

3 Take time to Play - it is the secret of youth

4 Take time to Read - it is the foundation of knowledge

5 Take time to Worship - it is the highway of reverence and washes

the dust of earth from our eyes

6 Take time to Help and Enjoy Friends -

it is the source of happiness

7 Take time to Love -

it is the one sacrament of life

8 Take time to Dream -

it hitches the soul to the stars

9 Take time to Laugh -

it is the singing that helps with life’s loads

10 Take time for Beauty -

it is everywhere in nature

11 Take time for Health - it is the true wealth and treasure of life

12 Take time to Plan - it is the secret of being able to have time

to take for the first eleven things

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Mobile Phones, Messagebanks and Answering Machines

When a customer or consignee calls you their inquiry is sometimes made after shop hours. If you need to let

an answering machine or messagebank take your calls then it is imperative that you call the customer or

consignee back straight away as soon as you hear their message in order not to lose their interest. The less

time between when they leave you a message and when you return their call, the less chance that they will

go elsewhere. If you do not check your messages regularly and return calls you will lose valuable

opportunities to build your business, either through gaining new customers that will purchase stock or

consignees that have stock that would sell very quickly for you.

In returning calls be aware that if you leave a message on an answering service or with a child who answers

the phone your message may not get through to your customer. It has been found that on many occasions the

message was either forgotten, not written down, written down and lost, or wiped off the answer service by

somebody else. The only time that you can be 100% sure that your customer or consignee knows that you

have called is when you speak to them personally.

Various Ideas for How to run your Business

There are many ways to set up your business. It doesn’t have to be women’s clothing and accessories only.

You can specialise in wedding and evening attire for either women only or both men and women; men’s

clothing and accessories; children’s clothing and accessories; and clothes and accessories that suit teenagers.

Then within your shop you can add things to attract people to your business as well.

A good idea for helping your shop to get more customers is to look for a venue that is close to the stairs that

enter a railway station. Then when people get on or off the train they must pass your shop on their way

through. If you have space large enough you could set up a coffee stand and some tables and chairs at the

front of the shop as well, and if this were to be the case you would do well to make sure that the items you

sell appeal to both sexes. Items such as books appeal to both men and women, so you may like to sell

second-hand books rather than clothes should an opportunity like this become available.

If you want to keep your overheads to a minimum at the start you can look at alternative ways to sell your

stock besides opening a shop or setting up a market stall. You could try having weekend sales with end-of-

run new stock sold from a church or community hall. If you were to do this you would need to firstly

register a business name, get an ABN number, and then phone the various fashion wholesalers to find

companies that would sell you the end-of-run stock that is new but perhaps no longer the latest in fashion.

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You should be able to purchase these items for less than the normal wholesale cost and when getting ready

to sell them mark them at a discounted retail price in order that they sell quickly. As long as you have

somewhere to store the goods you can gather together enough stock to fill a church or community hall for a

weekend sale. This might mean paying out $10,000 or more to purchase enough stock, so be prepared to

invest a large amount of money over a period of time prior to running the sale. I would caution you against

running this sale during the school holidays or the end of the financial year, for obvious reasons.

Your next step would be to do five or six local letterbox drops all within a short space of each other to about

20,000 local homes, making sure an editorial is placed in your local paper telling people all the details ie:

location, times, the advantages to the customer of being there etc. Also, place a classified ad into the public

notices section of your local paper to announce the weekend sale. On the first morning of the sale make sure

that you have signs up on poles at intersections where people will see them whilst driving past – a box in the

middle of the median strip usually attracts attention. If all possible circumstances are favourable, ie: right

time of year, easy location to get to, plenty of parking, good prices etc, you should be able to at least double

your investment and make as much profit as what it has cost you to run. You should also have a few items

left over for your next sale.

Then there is the possibility of running your business as a weekly garage sale. If you decide to do this then

you could also incorporate second-hand pieces of furniture and electrical goods. You will be able to pick

these up by driving past the council ‘clean-up weeks’ in various areas around the city you live in and simply

getting out of your car and taking them – they will cost you nothing. This is a fantastic way to make money

if your pride doesn’t get in the way of being seen collecting them. I know of one fellow who made his entire

living out of picking up the items that people threw out at clean-up week and then selling them either at the

markets or at his home from a garage sale. Not only did he make a living, but quite a substantial one at that!

You may also like to try operating your business over the Internet. All you need for this is a computer,

Internet access and a digital camera. If you log on to www.ebay.com.au and register a username with them,

you can place listings for the various items you have to sell. You can sell the items individually or as a

package. So if you were specialising in children’s clothing you could hunt around for the kinds of kids

clothes that you know will sell (such as Pumpkin Patch, Oshkosh B’Gosh, etc) and put together a package.

You will have no trouble selling these items then, especially if you take a photo of the items and upload it to

your listing. The fee to sell through eBay amounts to around 6% of the sale price of your goods, and this fee

is very minimal in comparison to running a shop. Plus, the purchaser will pay the postage costs involved in

getting the items delivered to them, so you only have to invest your time. Starting your business this way is

great because you can keep a regular job while you build your new business, therefore ensuring that you still

have a regular income while you save enough money to do more.

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If you would like to specialise you could try selling only top quality leather handbags and belts, or leather

jackets and clothes. Or, if you would prefer, perhaps your inclination is towards that vintage look in clothing

that could also be combined with a photographic studio so that people can dress up in period costume and

have their photo taken in sepia print. You can guarantee that you will make more money doing this than

selling clothes, because the cost of a photograph can be twice that of a vintage garment. If you do decide to

set up your business this way you probably won’t need to keep purchasing new clothes all the time because

your customer base is only using the items you have in stock to have their photograph taken in. Thus each

garment makes you ten times the amount it would have if it were sold only once.

Another idea for running your business is to hire out men’s formal wear. Most men don’t wear suits and

tuxedos very often, but when they do it is usually for a special occasion like a wedding. You will find that

male customers will generally not quibble over the price to hire the suit and are happy to pay that little bit

more as well. If you combine this with taking the suits to them to try on you will have a most profitable

business indeed. Also, by taking the garments to the home of the person who is hiring them it reduces the

risk that the items will not be returned.

If you really want to commit to a business in this industry you could go to the extent of purchasing one of

the large bins that you may have seen that are usually used as clothing donation bins for the various charities

around the city. You will need to put some kind of sticker on it naming it as a private bin, but apart from this

there are no other restrictions placed on having one. You can place the clothing bin on-site at petrol/service

stations, in parking lots and outside supermarkets and pay a nominal fee to the owner of the land for hiring

the space that the bins sit on over the course of 12 months. You will find that your bags of clothes cost you

around 40 cents per kilo if you own your own bins. And, you can also start a rag business yourself with the

clothing that is too worn to be sold – sell this stock to businesses such as cleaning businesses, restaurants

and factories. They are always in need of rags for the work that needs to be done in their business.

If you would like to commence running your business as a market-based stall you will need to be prepared

to get up as early as 2am in order to pack your car, drive to the location of the particular market that you

would like to work from and sit in line with everyone else that wants to hold a stall at the markets that day.

Most times you won’t be let in until 7am and then you will be given a number, but unless you are a regular

you will need to wait to be allocated a spot from which to set up your stall. Try to get the same spot each

week so that the people who go to the markets regularly will know where to find you. There is a book that is

sold in the newsagents called the Markets and Fairs Book and it sells for around $4. This will give you a list

of all the various markets and fairs that are held throughout Australia and who to contact for each one in

order to book a position on the day. Most will charge around $50 or $60 for a position on the day.

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If you are inclined towards a lifestyle that includes plenty of swimming and surfing, then perhaps you would

like to specialise in top quality pre-loved surf-wear and beach attire, mixed with second-hand surfboards and

snorkeling gear. A shop specialising in this range of clothing and sports items would do well if it were run

from an area like Cronulla, Coogee, Dee Why, Bondi, Manly or any of those suburbs along the beach. As far

as I know there are no other pre-loved clothing shops specialising in surf-wear, so you could do quite well.

The only set-back to this specialised area of the clothing and used items industry is that you won’t sell much

during the winter months, so you should combine your stock with something that sells during winter.

If you would like to specialise in clothing from the era of the sixties and seventies, there is demand for this

type of clothing if you are able to set your shop up from areas such as Paddington or Newtown. Ultimately,

you have to sell what you enjoy selling or you won’t be able to promote it comfortably, and if the Austin

Powers ‘shagadelic’ image is what appeals to you then you will have the confidence to talk to your

customers about your garments when they enter your shop.

Maybe specialising in baby goods is for you. You could incorporate clothing; bassinets; prams and strollers;

high chairs; toys; kids tables and chairs; rugs and throw-overs; furniture for the baby’s bedroom; crockery

and cutlery; bottles etc. There are lots of mothers out there who would like to sell their items on consign-

ment, so you could do a roaring trade in this specialised area. I know of a lady who set up a business like

this in Sutherland and it took off so quickly she could hardly cope with the demand. Her shop was only open

from 10am to 3pm Tuesday to Saturday, and yet she still made plenty of money. When people know you are

there they will fit in with the hours that you are open, and, if you think about it, mothers are able to get to the

shop during these hours so it is not unreasonable to ask the to visit when the shop is open.

If you would like to cater to ladies who are size 14 and over you could do exceptionally well if you provide

stylish quality items. For some strange reason the fashion industry tends to think that slim women are the

only women considered attractive. Yet I can guarantee that there are many men out there who disagree with

this philosophy. I tend to think that the reason for the current attitude in the fashion industry towards

slimness is that most of the designers are gay and that emancipated women remind them of adolescent boys,

but that might just be my cynicism coming through. Anyway, if you can cater to fuller figured women with

fashions that help them make their best features look great, you will make very good money. If your shop

gets a reputation for catering to this market, people will come from miles around just to buy from you.

Or, you could try selling antique christening gowns, or even hiring them out. I have many more ideas for

you, and if you would like to arrange for a mentoring session with me I can help to channel you in the

direction that is best suited to your likes and dislikes. Please feel free to call me on 0404-000-077 if I can be

of assistance to you in getting started in your new business. I am available to tutor you on either a weekly,

fortnightly or monthly basis, and as you go along you will need me less and less.

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Making Money from Selling Merchandise through Garage Sales .

It’s not hard to work out how to run a garage sale, yet knowing what to do and how to go about it can mean

the difference between making $150 or $1500. If you have attended a garage sale before you will know that

most of what is sold is considered ‘junk’ that a lot of people no longer use or want, so they hold a garage

sale to get rid of it and free up the space in their home that needs to be released from the clutter.

Is it hard to hold a profitable garage sale? Not in the least! All it really takes is some of your time, and an

awareness of a few merchandising tactics. But to be really profitable you must know and apply these tactics,

and exercise careful planning.

As I mentioned in the previous section, you can go around to the local ‘clean-up’ weeks and collect items

that you could sell for a profit through your own weekly garage sales. As with anything you sell, make no

judgements of your own as to whether or not the item will sell, apart from the condition it is in, because

what appeals to you may not appeal to somebody else, and vice versa. At these clean-up weeks you will

often find items that are in very good condition and sometimes even new – it’s just that the previous owners

didn’t have the nous to run their own garage sale, which is to your benefit that they didn’t.

When thinking of how to set up your own, take a few weeks to browse through the garage sales that are

being held in your local area so that you can see for yourself what other people are doing and selling. Also,

go to the local markets and swap-meets. Your purpose will be to see not only what the sellers are doing, but

also what the buyers are doing, and how the merchandise is displayed. You’ll also want to notice how the

sellers handle customer browsing, and the prices they charge for the merchandise offered.

As for selling pre-loved clothing, you can also take other items for sale on consignment from people who

would like to sell their unwanted items but aren’t prepared to go to the bother of running their own garage

sale. Or, you can offer to purchase ‘whole lots’ from those people who can’t be bothered, and then on-sell

them through your own sales. Once again, as with clothing given to you to sell on consignment, just place an

ad in the paper telling people that you are looking for items to sell on consignment through your own garage

sales, and they will bring the items to you.

When advertising your garage sale don’t be afraid to place your ad in the same section where the other

garage sale ads are. Never worry about competing against other sales because people who go to garage sales

go to each and every one that they can find, or only to those that are within a three to five kilometre radius of

where they live.

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Run a small classified ad in your local newspaper for the week before your sale runs and announce that you

have something for everyone. Such an ad might read:

BIG GARAGE SALE!

Hundreds of interesting items

Through Saturday, July 16th

Your address

Getting ideas for your ads is simple. Just examine all the ads that deal with garage sales. From these pick the

ones you like and apply the same ideas to your own. Always remember that in order to increase your profits

in any business, you must increase rather than decrease your advertising. When it all comes down to it you’ll

find that the greatest single reason for a garage sale failing to turn a profit is the lack of promotion and

advertising used to publicise it.

You should also have an old-fashioned sandwich board type sign to place in front of your home. These

boards can also be placed in strategic positions along the road leading past your sale. However, before you

do this, check with the council. Another way to attract attention is using signs placed on power poles. These

should be placed on poles that are about 150 metres apart from each other. Once again, you should check

with the council to see that this is permitted. Bulletin boards are also a valuable advertising medium. Make

up a poster or circular that can be placed on these boards.

Your signs have to be very effective, but remember to keep them simple. Don’t try to cut corners on your

signs. Signs announcing and pointing the way to your garage sale should be placed at each intersection

within a two-kilometre radius of your sale location. If it takes 50 signs, then make 50 signs. The important

thing is to let people know that you’re holding a garage sale.

Signs can be made simply by cutting and using the sides of cardboard boxes, and writing on them with a

heavy felt tip marking pen. Make it easy for your signs to be seen, and for people to read what’s on them.

About all you really need is great big block letters reading ‘GARAGE SALE’, with the street address, and

an arrow pointing in that direction. Don’t expect that people are going to stop and read a lot of ‘stuff’ that

you have written on your sign when they are driving by; you just want them to see your sign and proceed in

the direction necessary to reach the location of the sale. They’ll be moving by your sign too fast to see or

read anything else you may have written.

The ads you place, the bulletin board you post, and the signs you put up will bring many people to your

garage sale location. A lot of people will drive by slowly and just look, but most will stop to browse around.

But you will still have to contend with the huge number of people who drive by without stopping. So, let’s

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talk about the ways of drawing people into your sale, and the merchandising gimmicks that will result in the

maximum number of sales for you.

You must call attention to your sales. Don’t be shy, bashful or self-conscious about letting everybody for

miles around know that you’re having a sale. Some operators rent miniature blimps that they fly above the

sale. Often they have a sign written on the side of it inviting people to the sale. You need to create an

atmosphere of fun. Place streamers around your sales site and use whatever you think will enhance the

overall flavour of your sale. Also, setting your sale up close to the road will stop people from driving right

past and not stopping – if they can’t see the sale they often won’t stop to look. But keep a watchful eye –

when you are set up that close to the road it is easy for someone to grab something and run.

To guarantee success at your garage sale you need to have the widest and largest selection of items. Take

care in displaying and labeling your products. Also, at many garage sales some of the items, particularly the

clothing, are dirty. Notice this when you visit other people’s garage sales, and then take it upon yourself to

make sure every item – absolutely everything you show – is clean and sparkling bright. A bar of soap, a

bucket of water and a few old rags will do wonders for tools, garden equipment and bicycles. The same goes

for furniture polish on old furniture, and run through the washing machine all washable items.

It is advisable to determine a price for each item before you set it out for display. Then mark that price on a

price tag, and attach to each item. Your prices should also always be rounded off to more or less even

numbers such as: 0.25, 0.50, $1.00, $1.50, $2.00, and so on. In other words, don’t ask for 0.35, 0.95 or $1.98

or any of that sort of pricing. Almost needless to say, you should always mark everything up by 100% or

more. In other words, if you have acquired a particular item for $5.00, set the price of $10.00 or more on it.

It’s also a good idea to mark up your asking price from the bottom-line price you’re willing to accept.

Basically, the price marked on the price tag at most garage sales is taken as the starting price from which the

buyer and seller negotiate. Most garage sale promoters price their cheaper items at the bottom line price they

will accept, and don’t deviate from those prices as shown on the price tag. Then on the more expensive

items - $15.00 and over – they mark up their asking prices by 20 to 40 percent and use that margin for

negotiating with the customer.

Further to previous advice on selling, here are a few more ‘inside’ secrets that will give you an edge: Always

radiate an attitude of friendliness, regardless of the circumstances or your first impression of the potential

buyer. Always say hello in a voice loud enough to be heard. Speak to everyone stopping at or dropping by

your sale location. Be helpful, but allow the people to browse on their own until they come to you for help.

When you’re ‘keeping an eye on your merchandise’, be as unobtrusive as possible; no one likes to feel they

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are being watched too closely. Whenever a customer appears to have made a selection and asks you what

you’ll take for it, or what kind of deal you’ll make for it, be ready to enter into ‘friendly negotiations’.

Before you open, of course, you will have done your homework and know the value of each item of

merchandise you have for sale. Don’t ever take a customer’s ‘claimed’ value of the item. By the same token,

don’t listen to a seller when you’re buying items for sale if they claim that they’re offering you an antique or

priceless treasure. Sometimes (rarely enough) you’ll be able to pick up fantastic treasures for virtually

nothing; so if you know your merchandise you’ll not let a bargain pass you by. Have all potentially valuable

items appraised by authentic dealers. These people are listed in the Yellow Pages of the telephone book.

Some of the ‘extras’ that contribute to the success of garage sales include:

• Plenty of change, because without proper change you’ll lose a great many sales

• A tape measure, because you’ll find people often want to know the exact dimensions of something

(especially furniture) in order to fit it into a certain space they have in mind

• Long extension cord and electrical outlet, because your customers will want to plug-in and try out the

mixer, vacuum cleaners, power tools or other electrical appliances.

We’ll skip back for a moment to drawing in those ‘cruisers’ who aren’t quite sure they want to park their

cars and come browse; Look for some kind of interesting or unusual item to call attention to your sale.

Anything that is out of the ordinary will surely attract people like bees to a honey pot.

Wherever your imagination takes you, you have to be different and distinctive, or you’ll get lost in the

hundreds of garage sales going on all around you. If you’ll take the time to employ a bit of imagination and

set your sales up with the kind of flair we’ve been talking about, you’ll not just draw the crowds, you’ll end

up being the one holding the most profits.

As you think of beginning this garage sale business, remember this: It’s almost a compulsion of many

women to go shopping in search of interesting and sometimes rare and valuable items. This fact alone will

keep you as busy as you’ll ever want to be – staging and holding garage sales. The market is so vast, and the

appetite so varied, that anything from a clay flower-pot to a used diary of somebody’s long-forgotten grand-

mother will sell, and sell fast at garage sales. Put it all together, use a little imagination, and you’ll succeed

in a very interesting, challenging endeavour!

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Questions and Exercises

What is often the first point of contact with a consignee?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… When taking phone-calls, what are the six points to consider in the way you handle the call? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

In sales, which is more important – listening or talking – and why?’

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. What are the five most common causes of lost sales?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………… What could you do to give your shop the best advantage regarding presentation? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

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What book would assist you if you would like to start your business by holding a stall at the Markets? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… What do you need to do to attract a crowd to a garage sale? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Exercises 1. Decide on what area within the pre-loved items business you would like to specialise in, and then work

out from there which suburb in your city would best suit the market of purchasers for your items.

2. If you are going to set up an internet based business, purchase a digital camera and scanner if you don’t

already have one.

3. Have either a stamp printed with the terms and conditions of your business embedded in it, or have

customised receipts designed with your terms of business clearly stated on them and a space for the

consignee to sign in agreement with your terms and conditions.

4. Arrange with your local dry-cleaner a deal where you get a discount because you will be bringing plenty

of business to them.

5. Purchase your coat hangars and items such as your tagging gun and sizing tags for separating your stock

into sizes.

6. Purchase one or two mannequins if you are going to run your business from a shop.

7. Organise to see a lighting specialist in order to purchase the best lighting for your shop (see next chapter

– full spectrum lighting).

8. If you would like to run a garage sale, organise your flyers and posters and have them delivered in your

local area announcing the day and date of your sale.

9. Organise your ad for your local paper as well, and make sure that all items for sale at the garage sale are

clearly marked with their prices and are displayed well.

10. Clean any used items that need to be cleaned ready for presentation at your garage sale.

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Chapter Eight – the Early Stages

What are your Motivations to be in Business?

Firstly, let’s look at what is driving you to go into business. Is it that you would like a few extra dollars to

help support yourself and your family? Is it that this is a project for you to establish a business, get it up-and-

running and then sell it off to someone who will pay you for doing all the initial hard work? Or do you

intend to establish it and keep it, placing somebody else in the business to manage it for you? The answer to

these questions will set the course that you should follow - from before you even begin gathering together

your stock.

If your motivations stem from the need for a few extra dollars to help support yourself and your family and

you are not driven to be in business from the need to be the main income earner, then you will approach

things very differently to the other motivating reasons. There will be no need to be as strict with yourself

over how you run the business, as you will not be driving the business to produce the kind of returns that

someone who needs to support themselves and their family with the money made from the business does. If

the business is more of a hobby to you, you will probably only work between school hours and only a few

days a week as compared to having the shop open full time, including Thursday nights and weekends.

If your motivations stem from the need to be the main income earner then you will approach things very

differently. You will need to work many more hours each day that your shop is open, and you may even get

to the point where you put someone else in place to run the shop and serve the customers so that you can

then go out and purchase the stock. If your aim is to have mostly shop-stock you will need time to find good

quality pre-loved items – they need to be searched for. You will also need time to sell stock that isn’t

moving by taking it to the markets and on-selling it to people who haven’t seen it before. Part of the reason

why stock sometimes won’t sell in your shop is that your regular customer base has seen it too often and for

too long, so you need to take it to a place where it hasn’t been seen before.

If your motivations stem from wanting to establish a business and then sell it, you will need to set it up so

that you are not the business – ie: a business won’t sell if the purchaser thinks that by taking you out of the

equation they won’t have a business. When you are the person doing both the buying and selling of the stock

then the customers relate to you, and by taking you away the purchaser may not have the same rapport with

the customers that you did. Therefore, the customers may not decide to continue shopping there. Purchasers

know this, so unless you can set your business up so that when it is time to sell the customers have a

relationship with someone who works for you (and that person goes with the sale of the business) your

business will be difficult to sell.

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The Establishment Period

Now that you have begun your fashion business there are a few things that you need to be aware of at the

beginning. Your business will build gradually over a few weeks, and whilever following these guidelines

there will be a constant flow of new customers that will respond to your various forms of marketing and the

position you set yourself up in. It would be wise to take heed of the advice contained here to avoid losing

any customers that you neglect or handle badly. If this happens, not only will they not become regular

customers but also they will spread the word of their dissatisfaction, turning away potential new customers

from which you could have achieved more sales. So if you find that the number of customers in your shop

has slowed down you will nearly always find that it is due to your own contributing actions or behaviours.

There are a couple of exceptions to the above statement though. If your business has commenced during any

of the school holiday periods then there will be a lull in the amount of inquiries and customers, which will

affect the amount of stock you have and sell. Also, if there is a long period of rainy weather there will also

be a lull, as much of the marketing that you will do and the emotions of the customer rely on good weather.

Just think about it for a minute – you’re a young mum who has children under school age and the weather

happens to be dismal. Would you be making a trip out of the house with the kids and all the wet-weather

gear on, or would you wait until the weather cleared up? Quite a lot would choose to stay at home.

So be patient during your first few weeks in business. Your business will build if positioned well and the

customers are given good service. My aim is to give you the training and support you need to become

successful in your new business. Try not to let your emotions carry you away just because perhaps some-

body who knows nothing about the retail industry tells you that things should be moving faster than they

may be. There are many, many factors that are beyond your control that contribute to the speed at which

your business builds. One thing I can say, and that is that it definitely will build if you are willing to learn,

take all the right action and seek advice whenever you need it or study this training manual again if you have

to. Here are a few basic tips to help you understand the nature of the business and your responsibilities in

your new role as business builder. Congratulations on taking your first step towards career independence!

During the build-up period of your business you will experience days where nobody comes into your shop,

or if they do they don’t purchase anything. This can be very disheartening at the start, but do not let it get

you down. In the event where several people have entered your shop on a particular day but nobody has

made a purchase don’t let this affect how you serve other customers for the rest of the day. Continue to give

happy, attentive service. Also, do not negate the value to your business of those people who did not

purchase - all visits from customers should be treated as potential sales, whether they purchase each time

they are in your shop or not.

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Statistics

Keep track of how many people walk through the door of your business or past the front of your stall and

then also keep a record of how many of those people actually bought something from your range of stock. It

is not important how many people are coming through the door or past your stall, but rather how many

people actually make a purchase. From this information you will be able to gain feedback regarding your

sales ability and the quality of your stock. Sometimes the reason people do not purchase is that the stock is

not what they want or does not come in their size, and sometimes it is your lack of selling ability. But this

information cannot be ascertained in one day or one week – it needs to be studied over a month. So keep

daily tabs on how many come through the door, how many make a purchase, how many you spoke to, how

many liked the stock and what they had to say about it. You will have days where each of the mere five

people who walk through the door purchase something, and there will be days when none of the high

number of twenty-five people who walk in make a purchase at all.

Statistics are the signposts of business and should be kept on a graph that is pinned to a wall where you (not

your customers) can see them. They include the figures relating to stock control, buying and selling, sales

fluctuations and so on. You can use statistics to find out the weaknesses in your business, and some software

programs provide statistics programs for you to fill in. The main statistic you should be concerned about is

how much profit you are making. Other necessary data for a fashion retailer include percentages of overhead

costs, relation of small sales to big-ticket sales and percentage of dead stock.

It is important to know when you are losing. A vital statistic is the break-even figure, below which you will

be losing money. When this happens you must try to avoid panic, but if bad figures persist then cut overhead

and buying to the lowest. You must take action when your figures demand that you take action, otherwise

your creditors will take action instead.

Always remember that there will be boom times and bad, so in boom times set aside half your profits into a

reserve account so that you have something to back you up when times are bad.

Exercises

1. Write up a list of things that you could do when times are quiet in your business. This could include

washing and ironing of shop-stock, repairs and alterations, window dressing etc.

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2. Draft up the forms you will use to record information regarding your sales, and plan your statistics

graphs.

3. Keep daily records of how you were feeling when working, what the weather was like outside, what

major events were occurring in the city on the day, and whether it was school holidays. All of these

outside influences will show up in your statistics.

4. Set daily sales goals to aim for. If you have a daily amount of sales you would like to reach and you keep

focussed on that amount, you will subconsciously act in a way that helps to bring about that result.

Questions What factors that are within your control will determine the length of time that it will take to build your

customer base?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………… What could you be doing on quiet days to help keep the shop interesting? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………… What process could you go through to help determine what your daily sales target should be? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

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Chapter Nine – Making Your Business Profitable

Asking for and Managing your Money

You may ask ‘How much do I charge for a particular garment or item?’ The answer to that is dependent

upon not only the type of garment or item but also how good your negotiation skills are and what the

customer agrees to pay. The item is worth whatever you are able to charge, and that is dependent upon your

ability to negotiate and your choice of people to negotiate with, as well as what the current market rate is.

You can choose to be flexible with some people if you feel that it will land you a sale, or you can set your

prices solid. The choice is up to you. Personally, I would set my prices and as much as possible stick to

them, because as it is the garments are already discounted. The price for the item will depend on the type of

item, it’s age and the period of fashion that it came from. You may choose to run your business as either

exclusively Designer Label with garments and accessories less than 12 months old, or you can run a high-

turnover business that charges less for the items and relies on many sales at lower prices. In this case you do

not have to have the latest fashion garments, however, you should still aim to have high quality items that

have been worn perhaps only a few times.

Generally, you should be able to charge around 40% of the new price if the garments are less than 12

months old, but you are sometimes able to ask for more money if the item has not been worn and is

particularly exclusive. What enables you to charge a better price is your skill in presenting the item, as well

as asking for the money. This skill is one you should learn for any product or service that you sell or

provide. Feeling good about charging is a vital part of being financially successful. If you cannot look your

customer in the eye and say ‘that’ll be $80 thanks Mrs Jones’ at the point of sale, you are already behind the

eight ball. Not being able to ask for the amount of money that the item is worth is a sign that you need to

work upon your self-esteem and your attitude towards money.

Money has had a bad rap from the media and the Church, and the general population of society has been

taught that it is not OK to charge. Spiritual law says that ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’, and that

‘the meek will inherit the earth’. However, some teachers of spiritual laws have been implied that charging

for your services is not spiritual and have also implied that it is better to wait until you die before you

experience wealth and abundance. Well, I ask you this – are you waiting to die before you would like to

share in all of life’s experiences? I know that I am not.

Making a profit has been given the image that the only way a person can achieve this is in a dishonourable

or dishonest way or through the exploitation of others somehow. Generally, those who do manage to make a

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profit and go on to create a wealth of abundance for themselves (through their own efforts) are sneered at,

and it is assumed that the wealth was created illegally or criminally somehow. Jealousy and laziness are

often behind the comments made by those who do nothing about creating their own abundance.

It is totally possible to earn very good money in your new pre-loved fashion business, and if you follow

these guidelines you will go on to become very successful, not only in this business but also in any other

venture you try as well. If your money is managed well it will allow you to gather together as many of life’s

experiences as you can. This could include travel, education, entertainment, investments or just the simple

enjoyment of being independent in both your finances and your career, and being able to contribute to the

needs of the family in a financial way.

If you have difficulty charging it is usually not because you are running a second-hand clothing business, but

rather because you have not developed your own identity and value. In order to overcome this, practice not

doing anything for anyone without charging for it. Do it for one month, and if you can’t do it for a month, do

it for a week. All sorts of objections within yourself will come up, like ‘am I worth it?’ ‘Why would anyone

want to pay me to do this for them?’ and ‘Why should I be paid so well?’ The next time someone asks you

to do something for them that you would normally go ahead and do and then feel resentful of, tell them that

there is a charge for your help now. If they look horrified or try to make you feel guilty for putting a price on

your effort, tell them that you are working on raising your prosperity consciousness and they just have to go

along with it or they can find someone else to help them out. You have to become comfortable with charging

or you are not going to raise yourself to the next level in your own development.

Once you have overcome the fear of charging for your products and services, you will then need to address

the issue of setting financial goals for the week and distributing the income once it is made.

Budgeting for Business and Personal Needs

How does a Small Business Owner prepare their Budget?

When you are a paid employee you are on a ‘fixed income’. Under these circumstances you would approach

your personal budgeting from the angle of ‘I know that I will earn so much money this week, how am I

going to distribute it?’ A small business owner’s budget is prepared from a completely different angle. You

must ask yourself ‘If these are my proposed expenses, then how much income do I need to generate via my

sales so that I may meet my expenses?’

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In this section I have included a Budget Planning Form to help you determine your personal overhead

expenses and your projected business expenses. Complete step one to determine your total monthly personal

overheads. Complete step two to determine your projected business overheads. In step three combine the

totals to determine the minimum weekly sales volume necessary to ascertain your break-even point. Review

example A for a copy of a complete budget planning form.

EXAMPLE ‘A’

Sunshine and Roses – Pre-loved clothing store Store Owner: Jan Kelly

BUDGET PLANNING FORM

STEP 1 Weekly Living Expenses STEP 2 Projected Business Exp.

Rent or Mortgage Payment div. by 4.3 245 Business Savings 100

Insurance: Medical 7 Materials/ Purchases 120

: House and Contents 3 Telephone/Mobile 20

Savings 40 Insurances/Superannuation 30

Food/Clothing 90 Printing/Stationary 70

Household Items 10 Car/Business Loan n/a

Gas, Electricity, Water div. by 4.3 35 Advertising: Papers 40

Telephone 12 Deliveries 20

Education/Entertainment 25 Editorials 20

Personal Loans/Credit Cards 61 Taxation/Accountant 120

Doctors, Dentists, Prescriptions 5 Wages: Shop Help -

Holidays and Gifts 5 Own drawings -

Miscellaneous 10 Shop: Equipment -

Other - Rent 200

Other - Miscellaneous -

Total Personal Expenses $548 Total Projected Business Expenses $740

STEP 3

Total Personal and Projected Business Expenses $1,288

Minimum Sales Volume Required $1,300

How to Work with your Budget

Use your Budget Planning Form to establish how much you need to earn each week. Once this is done place

the estimates alongside the appropriate section of your weekly budget under ALLOTTED. Set your weekly

goal, and write it at the top of your form next to GOAL. You can then forward plan for up to three months

ahead, forecasting and allowing for monthly, quarterly and yearly bills.

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Deposit all of your earnings for the week into your Business Account. Write this amount next to BUSINESS

EARNINGS DEPOSITED. Then in the BALANCE column of the BUSINESS EXPENSES half of the form

move downwards, deducting the allotted amount for each section from the sub-total directly above it. When

you arrive at the section marked WAGES write the amount you have drawn for your own wages on the

LIVING EXPENSES form under DEPOSITED. Go through the same process for this form also.

Whenever you draw a cheque or make a payment for one of the sections listed, write down the amount paid

under DRAWN. Then record the Cheque No. in the appropriately marked column, and record the date that

the cheque was presented in the column marked SPENT. Most times you will actually spend the amount

either paying your bill by cheque or by drawing and spending the cash amount drawn. However, there will

be times when you draw the cash out but you don’t end up spending the full amount, at which point you

would carry the outstanding balance forward to the following week.

Whenever you do not draw on the amount allotted to a particular bill, write the amount allotted under

SAVED, and carry it forward to the next week. You will find that this column builds up over a period of

time until it is time to pay the allocated bill. At this point, write your cheque, filling out the details in the

first three columns and deducting the amount from the forwarded column, remembering that you will also be

adding that particular week’s allotted contribution as well.

There will be times when you need to pay a bill before the amount saved covers the amount required. At this

point your FORWARDED column will go into a negative balance on paper, but you bank account will stay

in credit because of the money saved towards other sections on your list. It is important that you work with

your budget sheets rather than your bank balance though, as they will give you structure to your saving and

spending. Your budget sheets also allow you to know that you can only reward yourself for earnings over

and beyond your regular commitments. You will probably find however, that once you begin to see results

using this system you would rather contribute more towards your savings and investments than waste your

money by spending it unproductively.

There will be times when you earn a lot more than the goal you have set yourself for the week’s takings.

When this happens my suggestion is this:

• Determine the effect that your increase will have on the amount of tax you need to pay and set an

appropriate amount aside for the taxman.

• Put half of what is left over into a savings account.

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• Take the remaining amount and do something that you have always wanted to do, or buy something you

have always wanted to buy. This is ‘motivation money’; it is your personal reward for being productive.

Take a weekend away with that special someone in your life, buy yourself the latest CD that you like or

spoil the children. This reward money will motivate you to continue your high level of performance.

SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF PROSPERITY

1. Always KEEP A MINIMUM OF 10% of what you earn.

2. CONTROL YOUR EXPENDITURE.

Expend a MAXIMUM OF 90% of what you earn.

3. MULTIPLY YOUR WEALTH.

Put your assets to WORK.

4. Invest in a HOME.

5. ENSURE a future INCOME STREAM.

6. PROTECT YOUR WEALTH from erosion.

7. BE INVOLVED & MONITOR your PROGRESS.

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BUDGET PLANNING FORM

STEP 1 Living Expenses

Rent or Mortgage Payment divided by 4.3

Insurance: Medical

: House and Contents

Savings

Food / Clothing

Household Items

Gas, Electricity, Water divided by 4.3

Telephone

Education / Entertainment

Personal Loans / Credit Cards

Doctors, Dentists, Prescriptions

Holidays and Gifts

Miscellaneous

Other

Other

Total Living Expenses $

STEP 2 Projected Business Expenses

Business Savings

Materials / Purchases

Telephone / Mobile / Pager

Insurances / Superannuation

Printing / Stationery

Car / Business Loan

Advertising: Papers

Deliveries

Editorials

Taxation / Accountant

Wages: Shop Help

Own Drawings

Shop: Equipment

Rent

Miscellaneous

Total Projected Business Expenses $

STEP 3

Total Living and Projected Business Expenses $

Minimum Sales Volume Required $

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Insurance

If you are operating your business in Australia as a Pty Ltd business and are employing others, you must

have by law your own Workers Compensation Insurance. If you are working directors of that Pty Ltd

company then you are not required to have Workers Compensation Insurance. If you are not a Pty Ltd

operation and are just trading under a business name then you are also not required to have Workers

Compensation Insurance. However, if you do begin to have others working for you then you will need to

take out this Insurance in order to cover those working for you. Other countries have other rules.

If you happen to fall into one of the above categories where you are not able to take out Workers

Compensation for yourself, then to protect yourself from accident or injury it is advised that you take out

Income Protection or Sickness and Accident Insurance. You won’t be able to get Workers Compensation

Insurance for yourself, so you need some sort of backup to cover you just in case you have an accident either

in your car on the way to the shop or while actually there, and then can’t work to support yourself.

Questions and Exercises

What other important step in preparation must you do each week? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. How much time should you set aside each week for planning and sorting out your finances? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

What percentage of your income should you set aside for the running costs of your business?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

How could you reduce the running costs of your business? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

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How could you increase the profit of your business? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

What attitudes would be good to develop within yourself to help you make your business profitable and why

should you go to the trouble of doing this?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….………………

If you have never been in business for yourself before and you have difficulty charging the right price for

your products and services, what could you do to help overcome this?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Exercises 1. Work out the running costs of your proposed venture so that you can estimate how much money in

sales you need to generate each week.

2. Go over the daily sales targets from the previous chapter’s exercises to reinforce what you have to

reach in sales volumes.

3. Whenever you do reach your sales targets or go beyond your sales targets, set aside half of your

profit for the lean times.

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Chapter Ten – Good Public Relations Skills

Gaining your Customer's Trust and Confidence This business requires certain skills that you must either have or develop, and they are the skills of

diplomacy, consideration, trustworthiness, and relaxed and fluent communication. There are some vital

strategies that you can use to help put your customers at ease. They are:

1) Greet your customer with a warm hello when they first walk into your shop or approach your stall. Smile

and look into their eyes, and remember, don’t be shy – it will make your customer feel uncomfortable.

2) Allow them to spend a few minutes walking around, but be available should they require you to assist

them. Be open to getting to know your customer a little and allow them to approach you so that you can

begin to develop your relationship with them. This will help to put them at ease with being in your shop.

If you walk over and commence discussing their purchasing needs without offering some warmth and

friendliness they are not going to feel very comfortable around you. A good way to do this is when the

customer walks in look for something to comment on about the clothes that she may be wearing that day.

Fashion is what has brought you together and is a good starting point in your discussions together. You

may find that this opens up a whole discussion on shops that sell pre-loved clothing and how your

customer loves to spend the day bargain shopping at stores like yours. If you look for and ask about

things to discuss that do not mean that you are delving too far into your customer’s privacy, then they are

going to take a liking to you and to being in your store almost straight away.

3) Always be considerate of the fact that if you speak another language and you happen to have customers

in your shop while there is someone with you who speaks your own language, it is best not to talk in that

language while in the presence of other customers. It may make them feel that you are talking about

them behind their back. Speak in English if you have customers in your shop.

4) If you are a smoker never, ever smoke in your shop. It doesn’t matter whether your customers smoke or

not because you should try to impress them each time they visit with the wonderful atmosphere in your

shop. This includes impressing their olfactory (sense of smell) senses as well. Your shop will have a

greater impact and make a more lasting impression if they can smell essential oils burning rather than the

cigarettes that you have been smoking while business has been quiet. Your shop should have a lovely

perfumed smell all day long, which should impress the customer as soon as they walk in the door. You

would not believe how many people have lost sales due to the customer not liking the smell that hit them

when they entered the shop.

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5) Make friends with the customer’s child. However, this can be very difficult to do when kids pull clothes

off racks and shoes out of boxes, so try to be tolerant. Perhaps set up a play-corner somewhere so that

mothers can try on garments in peace, which will assist you to make a sale as well.

If you follow these few simple rules you will have much greater success in having a comfortable atmosphere

in your shop.

Becoming a Good Conversationalist

Since making your customer comfortable with you is dependent upon conversation, here are a few thoughts

which will help toward making you a better conversationalist, which you will be rewarded for in your

earnings. You already know this information intuitively, but why not review it anyway?

The definition of conversation is ‘an interchange of thoughts by spoken words’. Two people need to be

involved in order to have a conversation. The best way I could describe it is to say it is like a game of tennis

– one person hits the ball over the net to the other so that they may hit it back. Conversation is not a

monologue. It is an exchange of ideas. Give the other person the opportunity to talk too.

When the other person is given the opportunity to talk, be a good listener. Merely keeping quiet is no

indication that you are listening. Look at the one speaking and show a definite interest in what is said, and

‘hear’ what they are saying. Don’t let your mind wander off somewhere else.

If you are able to listen right to the end of the remark that your customer is making you are showing good

conversation skills. Do not interrupt another when he or she is speaking – let them finish what they are say-

ing. This is a sure way of creating a feeling that you do not care about the other person or what they have to

say. It will definitely make your customer feel uncomfortable. Also, refrain from arguments. To tell a

customer that they are wrong (even when you think that they are) is no way to keep them as a customer.

Besides, on some issues who is to say who is right and who is wrong? Some issues are very much based on

the viewpoint of the person seeing them, and sometimes there are no definite right or wrong answers to

things. In cases where you must, there are ways of correcting the impression of the customer without even

intimating that they might be wrong. This calls upon your resourcefulness.

During the conversation ask questions. It is always complimentary to a speaker to have his or her listener

ask them questions regarding the subject of their conversation. It shows them that you are interested in what

they have to say. However, it is important that you never gossip. It is always a temptation to pass on some

bit of 'juicy' news about someone or something else, or even your own life. Don't do it! Gossip doesn't

belong in your business. In fact, it doesn't belong anywhere and it's just as harmful to the gossiper as it is to

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the person being talked about. You have a limited amount of time to impress your customer, so don't waste it

on gossip. And finally, eliminate gloom from your conversation. We all have so many troubles of our own

that it's refreshing to talk to one who confines his or her remarks to cheerful, constructive topics.

Using Your Voice

When you meet a person for the first time, on what characteristics are your impressions formed? In

answering this question you might consciously think of many things such as age, size, dress and so forth.

This, of course, would not be totally correct. Yes, through your powers of observation you noticed all of

these things, but your impressions (whether they are good or bad) were based upon the person's eyes and

their voice.

If the person had cold, unfriendly eyes and an uninteresting voice, regardless of how well versed they may

be on the work that they were doing or the topic that they were discussing, they would not get very far. Well,

at least not as far as making the customer comfortable enough to continue to shop with you and to sell them

other products or service as well.

There is no need to take up space here in discussing the eyes and how to develop friendly ones, because as

soon as you follow the suggestions given regarding the voice you will automatically develop the type of

eyes belonging to a magnetic personality.

Developing a Magnetic Voice

In radio, one's personality is built almost entirely around the voice. Our likes and dislikes for the characters

we hear are based far more on the impression the voice makes than no the words we hear. This being true,

it's easy to understand how important the voice is to people in business for themselves. A friendly,

confidence-inspiring voice will prove to be one of their greatest assets.

As much as we might envy the one with a pleasant musical voice, it will be good to know that such a voice

is not difficult to acquire. A few rules are given here, and if you will follow them you will discover, to your

pleasure, that you are developing the type of voice that will impress others and inspire confidence. Since it's

true that a sales person in business first sells himself or herself, you will find that the right type of voice will

aid you in making the right first impression.

RULE 1: Become voice conscious. This doesn't mean that you should become self-conscious with regards

to your voice, but know you will constantly be taking steps toward improving your voice, and that it is

daily becoming better. Be discerning in respect to the voices of others. Study them. If you like a voice then

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ascertain why so that you will learn what you might do to improve yours. If you do not care for a voice, also

discover why, then you will have learned some of the conditions you must avoid insofar as your own voice

is concerned.

RULE 2: A voice of warmth is always pleasing to the ear - and one with such a voice invariably makes

greater progress in an initial meeting with someone than the one with a cold or harsh voice. Our vocal cords

determine the timbre of the voice; our heart reflects the quality. A heart of love will give warmth to the

voice. A heart filled with hatred, envy, suspicion, anger, and so forth, will be evident though a cold

unpleasant voice. To have affection with those that you come into contact with would add to your

personality. This affection will also give a quality of warmth to your voice.

Approach your customer with genuine friendliness - whether you have ever seen her before or not. That

affection will be noticeable in your voice. This is one change you can make right now; the results are

immediate, and the change will reflect to your credit in the number of customers that you have.

RULE 3: Develop a musical voice. Just as singing is musical, so too can a speaking voice be musical.

A monotonous voice is not only unpleasant to hear, but it is tiring as well. It's easy to follow a well-

modulated voice because the emphasis carries the meaning as well as the words. But with a monotonous

voice one must consciously follow every word in order not to lose the trend of thought. Needless to say, a

monotonous voice is also very boring.

Practice reading aloud. While doing so give proper emphasis and shading to every word. A noticeable

improvement will be made in a remarkably short time. While reading aloud, be careful of your articulation.

Do not slur your words by chopping off letters and syllables. 'Give me' should not be pronounced 'gimme';

'Don't you' should not be pronounced 'doncha'; nor is 'pudding' pronounced 'puddin'. Such careless

pronunciation results from faulty speech habits. However, you will quickly lose this tendency as you

practice reading aloud. You can make outstanding improvement in your voice by reading aloud to your

partner. Try to obtain books of mutual interest and perhaps take turns in reading chapters to each other,

putting all the expression you can into every word you read.

It is next to impossible to concentrate on any one means of self-improvement without having it benefit you

in many ways other than the original objective. For example the exercises here recommended would not

only make a vast improvement in your voice, but will also be reflected in you face. Your features will light

up with a new radiance as you give life to the thoughts you are expressing. There is never a 'deadpan'

expression on the face of the person with a well-modulated voice.

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Here is another thought regarding the voice and manner of speaking. Do not talk too fast or too slow; the

former is hard to understand, and the latter is too boring to follow.

How to Improve Your Memory

If you wish to recall a fact and it does not come into consciousness what do you say? "I have forgotten."

That is the customary remark. You now understand what such a statement will do. It is exactly the same as

telling your subconscious mind to do nothing at all. You have forgotten, and that's all there is to it. The next

time you wish to recall a fact, say; "It will come to me," or some such positive thought. With such a mental

instruction your subconscious mind will delve into your storehouse of knowledge and presently you will

find the thought coming into your consciousness.

As we grow older, our interests increase and frequently, through not having shown sufficient attention at the

time of hearing a fact it will escape us. As we have such experiences, we begin to feel our memory is

slipping and a 'bad memory consciousness' is created. The memory becomes poor because we have literally

instructed the subconscious mind to make it poor. It is extremely easy to correct this condition. To hold to

the thought, 'I have a good memory', will prove a revelation to us. We will develop a good memory.

Have you ever feared a fading memory? If so, you may now rest easy with the knowledge that our memories

do not fade. We might misplace portions of memory, but that which we do bring into consciousness is as

vivid as when first recorded.

It is interesting to know that the subconscious mind never forgets. It retains everything from birth through to

our departure from this plane of existence. We misplace facts in our conscious mind, but they are always

with us subconsciously. It is like having something in your home that cannot be found. You know you have

it - but can't locate where it was put. You also know that if you had been orderly and put everything in its

place, you would not have experienced any difficulty finding the missing item.

As we gain good memory consciousness, order is established in our mental storehouse with the result that

your subconscious mind will always be quick in supplying your conscious mind with the facts when they are

needed.

Most people will say: 'I remember faces, but quickly forget names.' There is a good reason for this. When

you're introduced to a person, you see his or her face during the entire conversation, but you hear his or her

name only once and then, perhaps, not too clearly.

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The next time you are introduced to anyone, register his or her name on your mind. Acknowledge the

introduction by mentioning their name, and during the conversation mention the name every opportunity

you have. This will help to fix it in your mind. If the mane is an unusual one, when introduced, comment on

it and ask its owner how the name is spelt. All such acts on your part will help you to remember it.

A number of books have been written and a few tapes and CD's have been produced on the subject of

memory, and you will find many of them interesting and helpful. However, if you will hold to the thought 'I

have a Good Memory' you will be astonished to find how greatly improved it will become.

Communication Your first impression to a new customer is likely to be judged on your communication skills. One person

judges another within minutes of their first meeting. It is then that they decide whether they like the person

or not and this could effect their decision as to whether they would like to meet that person again or not.

You will have to work on your presentation skills in order to develop a rapport with your customer.

You will need to develop skills of diplomacy, consideration, trustworthiness and relaxed and fluent

communication. First impressions count, so create a good first impression. Smile, be warm and friendly.

Greet the customer with a warm HELLO. SMILE and look into your customer’s eyes. Don’t be shy – that

makes the customer uncomfortable.

Ask how the customer is feeling – SAY – ‘How are you feeling today, Mrs. Jones?’ Compliment your

customer – SAY – ‘You look nice today, Mrs. Jones’.

People love to talk about themselves

The art of a good conversation can be achieved by the exchange of ideas, developing good listening skills

and not interrupting or arguing. Always ask questions and never gossip. Eliminate gloom from your

conversation and be positive.

Think before you speak, listen carefully, be interested in what your customer has to say. Ask questions, but

don’t get too personal. Talk to customers about GENERAL TOPICS.

Think of examples of what you would say to your customer to begin to create a good relationship with them.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……

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Always be courteous – Ask ‘ How can I help you today, Mrs Jones?’

Become more knowledgeable about general topics going on in the world. Read newspapers – Ask ‘What do

you think about ….?’

Make friends with children

Some customers will want you to become their friend, not just the person who sells them clothes, and will

look forward to visiting you regularly.

Who do you think will most likely want to become friends with you?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……

Be careful though, because if you spend too much time socialising or having a coffee with your customers

they will soon lean on the friendship in some way. Despite the fact that they have made the trip to see you in

your shop, always keep a professional distance so that you don’t have a problem asking them to pay you for

items that they would like to purchase. Don’t place yourself in a position where they can take advantage of

you. Keep everything balanced. Also, don’t allow socialising time to cut into sales opportunities. While you

are chatting with one of your regular customers you may miss out on the opportunity to make a sale to

someone new to your shop and begin to create a relationship with them as well.

Avoid closed conversations - questions that are answered with a definite yes or no. Keep to an open

conversation. For example, a question such as 'Did you have a good weekend, Mr Jones?' would be better

said as 'What did you do over the weekend, Mrs Jones?' This question can only be answered with a brief

outline of what Mrs Jones did, and if it wasn't a good weekend for her she can't say 'no' to the prior question.

Q. What questions would be good to ask your customers (being aware that questions that begin with the

word 'What, Where or Who' are better than questions that begin with the word 'Did').

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…… ………………………………………………………………………………………………….……….………

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Try to keep all comments fairly positive, and keep a bright outlook on life. Try to make your conversation

light, be descriptive, be agreeable, and be friendly and approachable. Keep control of the direction of the

conversation yourself. All this takes is practice.

Remember that it’s not what you say – it’s how you say it.

Sometimes speech comes across as aggressive, blunt or rude (even if you don’t mean it). So how would you

try to change the way your communication comes across? Say, for example, how would you turn a situation

around if the customer were asking you to lower your price on a garment, or give an expensive garment free

of charge to them if they were purchasing a large order?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…… ………………………………………………………………………………………………….……….……… ………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………

Do not give short or curt/sharp answers or be sarcastic. In the previous question there would be a better way

to handle a situation than simply saying 'no, I don't give items away.' What do you think that would be?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……

For your customer nothing is too difficult, too much trouble or effort (for the right price, of course!)

Humour your customer - If your customer makes a joke and laughs, smile at it or laugh with them, even if

you don’t understand or think it is funny (unless the joke was nasty and at someone else’s expense). Ignore

other people’s prejudices. Think of how you want to be treated – then treat others the same.

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Pieces in a Puzzle Even after reading all of this and becoming fairly good at the suggestions in this chapter there will still be

times when just everything seems to go wrong for you with a particular customer. Even though you have all

good intentions, you must remember this: just as they are looking for the right place to shop, so too are you

looking for the right customers to serve.

There will be personality clashes, there will be misunderstandings, there will be times when you have an off-

day and you don’t handle yourself as well as you know you can, and there will be times when the customer

is just simply unreasonable. You don’t have to keep every customer who shops with you, remember: you

have a choice too. Like pieces in a puzzle, if the shapes aren’t right don’t try to make them fit. Just aim to

make your products and service amenable to the most number of people that is reasonable possible, and if

that doesn’t happen to be all then don’t beat yourself up about it. After all, you are only human and it isn’t

always something that is within your control as to why things on the day don’t work out.

Stride forward with a firm steady step, knowing with a deep, certain inner knowing that you will reach every goal that you set

yourself, that you will achieve every aim.

Eileen Caddy

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Chapter Eleven – General Hints on Presentation

Washing

Sometimes the items that come in on consignment need to be washed, and always the items you purchase

from charity stores or rag traders should be washed. Sort loads into similar colours, checking the pockets for

items that need to be removed; and read the labels for special instructions - it is best not to take chances. If

the washing instructions say “Dry Clean only” - don’t wash it. If doing a dark load use cold water in case the

colours run.

Hand washing should be done with warm water and mild detergent. Once you have washed the garment you

then need to dry it out in the ‘spin only’ cycle in the washing machine to get as much water out as possible.

Jumpers must be laid out flat to dry, and it is a good idea to find a similar coloured towel to lay them on in

case the colour runs.

Drying

When reading the instructions on the label on how to wash a garment, look for how to dry the garment as

well. The same rules for washing also apply to drying - if in doubt, don’t take a risk putting clothes into the

dryer if you feel that they may shrink or tear ie: lace, wools and silks.

The absolute best way to dry clothes is in the sun - they come up smelling fresh and wonderful, but

sometimes you have no choice as to what to do in wet weather. When hanging clothes on the line make sure

that the pegs grip the garment well so that it does not fly away in the wind.

When forced to use a dryer, always clean the lint filter before each load and leave it clean. The filter is

usually located on the inside of the door but can also be at the back of the barrel within the dryer itself. Lift

the filter out and pick off all the fluff, using a long-handled brush if need be to clear the air vent as well.

While the dryer is running it is a good idea to turn on the fan or to open a window in order to avoid fogging

up the windows.

Ironing

Before commencing, check that the iron has plenty of water in it - a full iron is so much easier to use. Make

sure there are enough hangars, and check the temperature of the iron - cool for silks (and no Fabulon) and

warm to hot for linens and cottons, especially business shirts.

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Remember to do up the second button from the top on collared shirts so that they stay on the hangar and

don’t crush. When ironing, make sure there is only one crease down the arms of business shirts and the leg

fronts of trousers - no double creases!

Fabulon will make the job much easier and more professional, but be careful not to spray the product onto

wooden floors or tiles if you have them in your shop, as it makes them very slippery. This could result in

your customer having a fall, for which you could be held liable.

When ironing/pressing woolens always cover with a damp cloth (hankie or t-towel) and then iron.

When cleaning the iron (non-Teflon only) use a proper iron cleaner, or scrub the face of the iron with Jif or

Gumption and a plastic scourer. Be sure to wash off these products well before you commence ironing

again, as they will stain - especially white shirts - nothing worse.

Candle Wax can be removed from clothing or linen by ironing with plenty of brown paper. The heat of the

iron melts the wax and the paper absorbs it.

Before you leave…..

The time you take to check how the shop looks before you leave is the most important part – it is the thing

that will set your business apart from the rest. Your aim should be to adopt the customers eyes as they will

be looking into your shop at night and will sometimes be ready to walk in at the same time you do the next

morning. What do they see? You only have one chance to create a good impression.

Start at one end of the shop and check.

Also, check that ALL windows and doors locked. This is a precaution you should take so that you don’t

have a break-in overnight.

Does the shop look and smell good (spray as you go)? Are bins empty, and is everything in its place?

Have you left anything behind – ie: your shopping for tonight’s meal?

At the window turn around to see – would YOU like to walk in to this shop? What do they see first? Is it a

good impression?

If you need to set an alarm make sure you have all your belongings ready to rush out the door.

Lock the front door (always deadlocking), and CHECK IT! Phew!!

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Window Cleaning

Making Cloudy Glass Perfectly Clear

Washing glass can be one of the easiest of chores and often one of the most time-consuming. If the area is

small, as with a tabletop or a mirror, cleaning is a simple matter of spraying on a standard window cleaning

fluid and wiping it off with a lint-free cloth or newspaper. Or, sponging it down with dishwashing liquid in

hot water and drying it with a t-towel. Even a delicate crystal chandelier can be easily cleaned with a spray

of Windex. This will spare you the tedium of dismantling and washing the fixture crystal by fragile crystal.

Washing the windows can appear to be a formidable task but once you know what you are doing it’s a cinch.

With the right tool - the squeegee - the job is not all that difficult. A squeegee has a rubber blade fixed to a

metal holder. The blade has a knife-sharp edge, which is what makes it so effective. Like most tools, a

squeegee should be properly looked after. It needs to be washed, rinsed and wiped dry to stay most effective.

Squeegees come in various lengths. Choose one wide enough to cover 60 - 70% of the window, so that only

two vertical strokes are necessary to pass over the entire surface. On very large windows the squeegee is

used to make a series of continuous S-strokes, from one side to the other, without lifting the blade from the

glass. Dry the blade before starting the next series, and make sure that each stroke overlaps the previous one.

Corners and edges missed by the squeegee are cleaned with a chamois or a soft lint-free cloth, such as an old

cotton T-shirt or cotton knit underwear. Discarded newspaper dipped in warm water does an excellent job of

polishing glass once it has been washed. A chamois can be used not only for wet cleaning windows and

mirrors, but also for dry cleaning silver. After use, the chamois should be washed out, rinsed and kept moist

by placing in an airtight container - an old coffee or pickle jar would serve the purpose.

Many sorts of cleaning liquid can be used. All the traditional grease-cutting agents - methylated spirits,

baking powder, vinegar, borax, even baby powder - are effective when mixed with water. Ammonia also

makes a good cleaner, but remember that it is both caustic and poisonous and should be handled

accordingly. Use a solution of 1 part ammonia to 10 parts water. To make the squeegee glide more easily,

add 1/2 teaspoon of dishwashing detergent.

One of the toughest jobs is removing specks of rust, usually deposited on the glass by rain filtering through

old metal shutters. Oven cleaner, sprayed on a very fine steel-wool pad and rubbed on the glass, will remove

these particles. Paint spatters, a more common problem, must be scraped off with a razor blade or wallpaper-

trimming knife.

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Washing the outside of upper-storey windows is customarily done by leaning out of the window or using an

extension ladder. A less hazardous alternative is to work from the ground, using a squeegee or sponge on the

end of a special pole available from hardware shops. To wash a skylight, you must usually climb on the roof.

Although some skylights are glass, many are made of acrylic, which is softer than glass. Before you wash a

skylight, dust off loose dirt; it could scratch an acrylic surface during cleaning. Then sponge on the cleaner

and wipe it dry with a chamois.

Getting Windows Clean with a Rubber Squeegee Cleaning small windows - Sponge on just enough cleaning liquid to wet the entire window, then pull the

squeegee straight down over half of the window. To clean the other half of the window, slightly angle the

blade of the squeegee as you descend, so that the excess cleaning liquid is forced into the lower corner.

Then, using a chamois or lint-free cloth, wipe off the edges of the glass and remove any drips from the

windowsill.

A clean sweep for large windows - After sponging cleaning liquid onto the glass, move the squeegee across

the window in a continuous side-to-side motion. Begin by placing the squeegee against the upper edges of

the window, with the blade vertical. Pull it towards the opposite edge, and reverse direction by pivoting the

squeegee. Without lifting the blade from the glass, continue sweeping back and forth, from edge to edge,

until you reach the bottom of the window. Then turn the blade so that it is horizontal, to carry the liquid

down to the window's lower edge. Wipe off all the edges and the sill with a chamois or a lint-free cloth.

A Quick way to clean a Crystal Chandelier

Spraying dirt off Glass Crystals - Move whatever is beneath the chandelier out from under the chandelier,

and spread a plastic sheet over the floor. Turn off the electricity to the chandelier at the light switch and

allow the bulbs to cool; then tighten the bulbs in their sockets. Working from a stepladder placed to the side

of the fixture, spray a chandelier cleaner onto the glass pendants until the liquid begins to drip. Allow the

chandelier to dry before removing the plastic sheet and switching it on again.

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Questions and Exercises

What should you always do with clothes that you have purchased from rag-traders or charity stores?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

In the process of making them more presentable, what should you check for?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

What should you make sure of before leaving your shop each afternoon or evening?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. How would you clean a window or a crystal chandelier? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Exercises 1. Iron any of your stock that needs ironing so that your shop always has the best presentation possible.

2. Make sure that all shirts and coats are facing the same way on the racks in your shop.

3. Fresh flowers in a vase at the edge of your sales counter will always appeal to your customer.

4. If you have the capital available, try to find a glass counter for your shop. You can display jewellery and

hair clips in a glass presentation counter.

5. Make sure the mirrors in the shop and in the change-rooms are always fingerprint and streak free.

6. Have an area set aside for children to sit at while their mums are perusing your shop. It may mean the

difference between making a sale and not making a sale. The money needed to do this is very minimal

and will prove to be a good investment.

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Chapter Twelve – The Mindset of a

Businessperson

Goal Setting, Responsibility and Self-Acceptance Now that you have learned what to do and how to do it, let us look at some of the fundamentals of being

self-employed. Obviously you are choosing to do this because either your situation has forced you to look at

self-employment as an option or you are genuinely ready to step out of working for other people and into

working for yourself. Should you decide to continue along this path you’d need to develop what I call ‘The

Mindset of a Businessperson’. It will require you to regularly set goals and put the action steps into place in

order to achieve those goals. It will require you to become responsible, and it will require you to be fully

accepting of yourself and all your limitations. So we will start with setting goals.

If a person does not set goals for him or herself when they begin their new business it is very easy to become

bored if the work is done with no purpose in mind. The money that can be earned when given the right

conditions in business is very good and is easily squandered if you don’t set goals and work within a budget.

There are many people in life who feel that they are on a treadmill by going to work, earning good money,

spending nearly all of it within a couple of days, and starting the process again. This cycle can be broken by

learning how to prepare and keep to a budget, and by putting aside a percentage of the previous week’s

earnings for the purpose of saving and investing. However, this can only be done once you are making good

sales figures on a consistent basis. In order to budget you need to have a regular steady income so that you

can budget.

Also, if a person begins to feel that there is no purpose to what they are doing he or she can fall into a rut

and then start to feel trapped. This is where your real troubles begin, so in order not to get to this point it is

very important to have a plan and stick to it. A person can be trapped in any situation in life, from an

unhappy marriage to an unfulfilling career. If you don't develop the skills to remain competent and

independent you can become trapped anywhere. If you don't become free within yourself then your life will

become a reflection of any weaknesses that need to be addressed within you.

Taking responsibility when situations arise that could be handled better is a skill that must be learned. If a

person allows life to take advantage of them too often it begins to corrode their self-esteem, and they will

lose trust in themselves. If you are someone who has done a lot of personal development work you will have

a healthy self-esteem and a strong character. You need to combine this with the ability to see beyond what a

person says and into what their real motivations are. You must be able to look anyone you meet in the eye

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and see through any lies that they might tell you that are intended to manipulate you. Or, you must be clever

enough to recognise any line of questioning that is designed to destabilise you, such as a degrading comment

from the customer about the quality of the stock you are selling. You will then be able to put a stop to what

is going on and remain in control. If you can do this you stay in a position where you can detach from

reacting to the infringement attempted on you by others.

It can also be said that much can be attributed to the person himself or herself when circumstances in life

seem to victimise them. Often in life people create their own downfall and then cry victim so as not to take

responsibility for what they have created around them. When a person has a lot of covert hostility underlying

their lives they often set up situations that confirm their viewpoint that the world is against them. When the

actual event takes place that sees them becoming a victim there has often been several steps along the way

leading up to this situation. Usually, the victim provoked or invited in either a very subtle or a very obvious

way the need for the victimisation or control to occur. No matter who you are you should be prepared to

accept responsibility for whatever happens to you in life, no matter what line of work you do. Life only ever

mirrors back to you different aspects of yourself and if you keep getting the same lesson then there is

something at the very core of your being that may need to be changed, released or healed.

When we are dealing with other people we should also remember that they too bring the whole of their lives

and experiences with them into present time. We are not just dealing with who is there in front of our face

but all the events and circumstances that they have experienced along the way if these issues have not been

resolved, and the resulting thoughts that surround their memories of those experiences. So you are actually

dealing with the tip of the iceberg when you face them, and one should always be prepared for the

unexpected. If you avoid or back away from confrontation as much as possible then much of the unexpected

can be dealt with.

Once you begin to take responsibility for you own life, one of the things you can do to put yourself in the

best position to handle your dealings with people around you - customers and staff included - is to question

the real motivations behind what they are saying to you. When you recognise that either a customer or a staff

member is not telling the truth take a mental note of that and look out for it again. It means that you may

have to look beyond ‘face value’ with that person. People will always reveal who they really are in a very

short period of time through their actions rather than their words, so it is up to you to be on the alert so as

not to get shafted by people who cannot be trusted. Always be aware that the people that you serve or work

for you may not have your best interests in mind.

When it comes to competing to win your customer's approval there are two areas that could possibly come

under the heading competition in the fashion industry. One is how comfortable you make the customer feel

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and what level of service you give. And the other is the quality of the goods you sell. The former has been

looked at in detail in other chapters, but we will generalise on what competition actually is here in this one.

Competition, in fields where the result is based on opinion rather than who won the race or who had the

highest score, is an idea that is promoted by others whose best interest it is to have you strive for their ideals.

How well you click with the customer is based on their perception of you (over which you have little

control, apart from practicing good human relation skills) and should not be something that comes under the

heading ‘competition’. This is as opposed to what standard of goods you have, as high quality or poor

quality stock is totally under your control.

If you present the very best you that you can be and you are happy with that, then you no longer have to

‘compete’ in the category of personality. It is only ever you and your conscience that you have to live with,

so you should never make another persons’ opinion of you matter more than your own. Granted, you should

always present yourself and your skills the best way possible, but it doesn’t mean turning yourself inside out

just to please someone.

When you become comfortable with yourself and you are enjoyable to be around, this is what will make the

customer feel comfortable around you as well. No matter what your personality is like there will always be

those customers who will click with you and those who won't, even if you are a little shy or quiet. The

number of people who feel comfortable with a less outgoing person is no greater than the number of people

who like someone who is an extrovert. They just belong to a different market, or rather, a different group.

However, if you are going to become a successful salesperson you will have to develop a certain level of

confidence. You will need to overcome your own fear of talking to people that you haven’t met before.

Always remember this when serving a new customer: a person will continue to shop with you due to a

whole combination of reasons anyway. The number one reason for their choice will be whether or not they

like the kind of stock you hold and whether they feel they can trust you. Then, they may take an instant

liking to you because of the way you smiled when they came in. How well spoken you are, how friendly you

are when you serve them, and the levels of your communication skills will all influence their decision.

Practice speaking clear, well-pronounced English so that when you speak to your new customer either on the

phone or face-to-face you make a good first impression.

On another level, everything on this earth is made up of and exudes energy. Scientists have long since

realised that all matter is made up of energy, and it is the combination and amount of this energy that

solidifies an object and makes it appear real. As humans we exude energy, and the amount of energy we

exude depends on how much we have worked upon and concentrated on improving ourselves. People can

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feel this energy on a subconscious level, and if you have a lot of this Life Force coming from you then you

are going to be very pleasing to be around. This energy has often been referred to as a ‘glow’ ie: a person

who exudes this energy is said to glow or beam. Becoming aware of your energy levels and achieving this

glow is simply a matter of working upon oneself in every way possible. It begins from fitness to health and

relaxation, from emotional development to Spirituality, and from intellectual development to assertiveness.

It creates a complete package, one that steps way, way beyond the confines of competition. In speaking of

personal development I also want to talk about intention. Intentions can be subliminally felt even though

they are not always obvious. If your motivations are to satisfy your own needs rather than the needs of the

person you are serving they will feel that on an inner level, so it is important that you check where your

intentions lie from time to time. Make sure that you are not purely after the sale. Make sure you are seeking

to help the customer get what they want, and if that happens to be nothing that you are able to provide, don’t

try to sell them something they don’t want.

Very few people recognise that it takes a complete package to be able to cash-in on the money that can be

made in business. Once you exude the energy I just spoke of people from everywhere will want to visit your

shop just to bathe in the feeling that they get from being around you. You can guarantee that others will feel

this higher energy level - they won't quite be able to pinpoint what it is, but they will know that you feel

good to be around. They will also feel that you are calm and balanced, and this will make them feel safe

around you. This is very comforting for people, especially when they are meeting you for the first time.

Service is an area that can face competition, so always make sure that the level of service that you provide is

of a high standard. Make sure you understand what they want through asking plenty of the right questions

and then do your best to show them what they are after. Perhaps make suggestions by using your creativity

to combine different garments with each other to produce a look that the customer may not have thought of.

You will still find that you come under criticism from some of your customers, however, you will be doing

everything that you possibly can to make sure that they are happy. It is called being ethical.

Summarising

So in summing up, if you would like to achieve the best that you can be in each of the areas that, combined,

will contribute to becoming successful in your business (and you agree with the ideas contained here) then

start to take action. Implement something from each of the chapters each day, and gradually over a period of

time you will see that things will fall into place for you. If this is your first attempt at being in business then

the practical strategies that you will learn from the experiences that you will have will give you a foundation

of knowledge that will help you in the future, either by continuing with this business or by going on to other

self-employment opportunities.

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If you do make a success of this business and you would like to expand then please speak to me about the

workshop for business owners who would like to run a chain of shops. Once you have some experience with

running your own shop you will be in a better position to understand how to run more than one and have

others working for you. Or, you may wish to have a team of ladies selling your merchandise through party-

plan. Either way I can help you stay on track.

So, I wish you all the best with your new business, and if you need help please feel free to call and book a

consultation with me whenever you feel overwhelmed or lost. When I am not teaching workshops I am

available for consultations one-on-one and will give you the support and training you need.

Bye for now.

Nicole Kelly

Email: [email protected]

Mobile: 612-404-000-077

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If you have purchased any of the previous training manuals then you qualify to enrol in the practical training that I give to those who would like to run a hands-on business in the cleaning industry. This

training runs over three days where you will receive live on-the-job supervised experience in client's homes, and by doing the training you will gain the confidence needed to do the work and quote the

jobs. Don't miss out - if you have never worked in the cleaning industry before there is far more to it than you realise, so before you go out and lose work due to inexperience and lack of knowledge you should do some practical training with me. If you are currently working for a cleaning agency this is the

training that you may not be getting from them. Training is held at Sutherland in Sydney's south. Fee for three days is $300ea and is subject to minimum numbers of six on the day. Please wear comfortable clothes and closed-in shoes. Phone to book on 0404-000-077.

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5. Budgeting for Beginners Do you have difficulty keeping up with the bills? Are your spending habits getting out of control? Has

either your personal or business life been negatively affected by your lack of understanding in this area? Then you need to learn the information contained in this manual in order to get a handle on

managing your finances. You will learn to systematically write down a week-by-week plan for the next eighteen months that will see you out of debt and with savings in the bank, as well as being able to pay for your regular living and business expenses. This system is easy-to-follow, and once you see it

working your own enthusiasm will keep you on track. Fee for training manual only AUD$29. Training manual can be purchased with a tape set for an extra AUD$20. These tapes will walk you through the process of working out your budget step-by-step.

6. Invoking Prosperity and Abundance This training manual compliments the above one in that without having the feeling that you deserve

success in the area of finance you will find that you sabotage any gains made from your efforts to manage your finances. So here we look at the psychology of creating prosperity and abundance. We

address belief systems and self-talk and look at how you could possibly be blocking your own growth. Watch the money begin to roll in once you understand how to change your limiting patterns. Fee for training manual only AUD$29. Training manual can be purchased with a tape set for an extra AUD$20.

These tapes will help to shift your emotional blockages when listened to on a regular basis. 7. Developing Assertiveness in Business Do you find it difficult to ask for what you want? Or perhaps saying 'no' is your dilemma. Would you

like to learn how to set your boundaries and get what you want without the use of negative emotion? This workshop shows you how. Although this topic is covered briefly in each of the workshops that deal

with setting up a particular business, we actually go through a step-by-step process here on how to

develop assertiveness using drills that we practice on the day. Women will find this workshop very empowering, especially in today's patriarchal society where the social conditioning teaches women to be carers and nurturers rather than to speak up for what they deserve and want. This skill is a must if you are to succeed in business. Fee for training manual only AUD$29. Training manual can be

purchased with a tape set for an extra AUD$20. These tapes will help you recognise how, when and why you aren't able to be assertive, and will guide you as to how to change the current way you approach situations.

8. Marketing your Business

Is business slow? Are there not enough customers through the doors? Does your phone ring often enough? If you want to make sure that you don't waste money marketing your business the wrong

way then this is the manual for you. Learn how to market your business cheaply and effectively using the techniques that have helped others go from rags to riches in less than three years. Student support is available so that a new strategy plan as well as your own personalised marketing tools designed to promote your particular business the most cost efficient and result producing way is achieved. Fee for

training manual only AUD$29. Training manual can be purchased with a tape set for an extra AUD$20. These tapes will remind you of what you should be doing to keep your business name in the mind of the customer base you are targeting.

These are just a few of the training manuals and workshops that I have written and

developed. Whenever you attend a workshop the training manual is included in the fee for the workshop, but it may also be purchased separately if you are unable to

attend the workshop of your choice.

Customer support is provided at a monthly fee to purchasers of my training manuals,

and may be accessed by writing to me at [email protected] .

I wish you all the best in your endeavours.

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INSPIRATION

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measures.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant,

gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you NOT TO BE?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.

There is nothing enlightening about shrinking

so that others won’t feel insecure around you.

We are born to make manifest the Glory of God

that is within us.

It’s not within only some of us,

it’s in everyone!

And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously

give other people the permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear

Our presence automatically liberates others!

MARY-ANNE WILLIAMSON

FROM HER BOOK ‘A RETURN TO LOVE’