Sammy, a bicycle technician, is struggling with booze hangover on a Tuesday morning when early-rising customers have arrived and anxiously waiting for their turn.
The customers are a mix of parents and children who keep asking him to start fixing their bicycles.
“Be calm, young boy,” he browbeats the impatient soul that ends up smiling wanly. But the other customer, a man in his mid-40s, is struggling to remain calm. His mind is wrapped around the early morning ride, which is physical fitness regime, and reporting to work a few hours from now.
Instead of dusting himself up and picking up his spanners to start the work, the technician (fundi, in Kiswahili) is quarrelling a few people idling at his shed.
Sammy immerses himself in this harangue for about 10 minutes, staggering and struggling to keep his eyes open.
This annoys some of the impatient customers and they leave in a huff, cursing and swearing never to return. Without a doubt they will spread the word, by word of mouth and on social media, that the two-wheeler wizard is losing it.
How many are missing low-hanging fruit in ready money looking for them and hurting their chances through behaviour hiccups?
How can one be ready for the money looking for them throughout the day and night?
A few tips could help you to grow earnings as an artisan, technician, or an executive sitting at a corner office.
Be sober: There is no business in the world that will pay anyone who is working half a wake. Just like drivers have been warned not to drink and drive, never report to work intoxicated with alcohol or drugs. It makes a lot of sense to entertain self knowing when to report to work and ‘mean business’ when potential customers trickle or form a beeline to your shop, shed, or office.
Be ready: Sammy stands out in having the latest tools and understands the business of fixing all types of bikes. Some have very thin toolboxes and keep waving work away.
Apart from the latest tools, study the trends and know what is new and what is ending. This way, potential customers will pay attention while existing customers will be loyal without brandishing loyalty cards and keep selling your services to the rest.
It keeps eluding people but reading and reading right materials will scale you up the ladder since you will be speaking the right industry language. Without a doubt, your comments alone will be sweet to the ears of your customers while your are fixing their cars, laptops, handcarts, bicycles or mending a tyre.
You are ready for your job when you keep educating self. Like Cal Newport says in his book, So Good They Can’t Ignore You, passion alone is not enough; put in the hours, tactics, and commitment.
Report and start early: The world is increasingly moving away from the clocking practice or the 8-to-5 jobs. Workers and employers are counting input and productivity, not when you report to your desk and log in. However, whatever you do, find enough time for it to do and redo for a fine finish.
Hurried works will be seen in ruggedness, roughness, and tastessness that deny a business the much-needed sales and repeat purchase, which is the growth engine.
Never think you are working for “this stranger” only once in your life; she could be new in your location, and may be the client who will keep your business buzzing, roaring, and soaring.
Be consistent: One of the businesses that is known for repeating stuff over and over again is the mass media. A news item will be repeated many times, buy since different people will interact with it at different times, it remains news and useful to an individual. Better, the media houses are injecting new angles to stories by including expert voices and more views.
They play same music every day, but bet on their consistent programming and more versatile presenters to inform, educate and entertain round the clock. Those who do it well become conglomerates, others leave the scene having failed the consistency test.
Be consistent in reporting time, closing time quality, and communication even if you are starting as a one-man show.
Practise to be perfect: Aim at being the best and solve problems that keep giving the world painful headaches needing solutions. People won’t buy from you because you have the good or promise a service; they want the nagging problem solved. Always master your trade, profession, service, and items you sell. In case you come across a not-so-familiar challenge, ask the customer for more time to study the ‘tumour’ or, in case of life business like medicine, refer the patient for more specialist care.
Communicate well: Remember, communication goes beyond talking. Attitude, words, posture, attention, and tone
mean a lot.
A customer reads the first impression like a good book that grips a reader from the first word, sentence or paragraph. Ensure the potential customer reads you like a good book. Grab them so early that they won’t think about moving to the next shop.
Money is looking for a warm embrace and soothing words; it’s looking for love. Don’t spend time looking for money, it is already looking for you. It is your business to welcome the dollar, the yen, the rupee, the shilling, the franc, the dinar, the euro, the kwacha – name it.
