time. In a job, you may spend much of your time on urgent details.
It’s different in your own business.
In this chapter, we will stand above the details for an overall
look at the essential functions of any business. Up to this point,
you have been learning the skills required to construct a winning
mind-set about money and business. This chapter provides you
with the broad perspective about a business. The next three show
you how to apply what you have learned to excel at negotiation
and selling.What Does a Business Do?
The simplest explanation of a business is this: You need only three
things to be in business: a customer, a price, and a product or ser-
vice you can deliver. If you lack any of these three items, you are out
of business until you can make up the lack.
Any business can be thought of as dealing with four essential
functions. As a business owner, your task is to constantly maximize
the productivity of each of these functions.- Finding prospective customers
- Presenting your product or service, so prospects buy
- Producing your product or service, delivering it and collect-
ing payment - Follow-up
These four elements are present in every business model. By
breaking down your business into these four components, you can
make improvements and pinpoint problems.FINDING PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMERS
To find customers, focus is crucial. Don’t waste money advertising
to the general public if only a small segment is interested in what
you are offering. An informative Web site is very useful. Purchase
a small amount of print advertising to refer people to the site. A
Web site offers lots of space to tell about your products and ser-
vices; you could never afford this amount of space in the print me-
dia. Spread the word about your business in ways different from
those of your competitors. Write a magazine article about your
business. Ask your local paper to do a story about you. Become a
public speaker and create an interesting speech about some as-
pect of your business.180 Overall Business Model