Thinking About Steve

Lately I have been reading a lot of blogs saying members have been here 1 month, 2 months, even 3 months and are not earning yet. They are asking Why? Some other blogs stating the benefits of helping others. One blog in particular, by big daddy Fred, on live to give, stuck in my mind.

Stick with me I am trying to make a point.

All of this got me thinking about a dear friend of mine, and his approach to business. When I met Steve he was working for a man who owned a hardware store. It wasn't much of a store, and stocked very little hardware. Steve was happy working there, and we became instant friends.After working there a few years, the old man decided to retire and Steve was able to work out a deal to take ownership of the store.

Each week after new management, I started noticing new stock on the shelves. Even though he was making very little income, and still covering debt from the previous owner, he always put a little back to add something new to the store. I was an electrical contractor at the time, and he started stocking some of the electrical hardware I needed.

Every week he would ask me questions like what is this used for, why would someone use this for, and so on.About this time Steve found out that I sold pocket knives, hunting knives,and cutlery. He decided we should work out a deal to bring that product into the store. And again the questions, what makes this knife better than this one, why would I buy this knife? I worked with Steve off and on for about 10 years, and watched him knock down walls and expand the store to the store you wanted to go into to find everything.

Steve was always reading every label, product catalogs that everyone throws away, and always the questions.Everyday his advice to me was, do not sell, learn enough about every product to help them know what to buy. I have watched him give enough information, and just walk away. For the next week or so several customers would walk in looking for info on that product, and they would buy.

That sounds a lot like the advice Kyle and Jay give on building your Business here at WA. Does it work?

We lost Steve a short while back, and the store went under new management. I could not work with the new management. She wanted me to supply $2.00 knives that she could sell for $100.00. She only stocked high profit items, an tried to hard sell every customer. She had little or no knowledge of the products and could not help the customers.

Week by Week the shelves became empty, and in less than 1 year she was forced to sell the store to cover her debt. For the first time in over 50 years the doors were closed.

Steve would have loved it here at WA, and applying his helping others way of approaching business, he would have done well here.

To quote Big Daddy Fred " Live To Give"

If you still want to know how long success will take. It took Steve about 15 years to become very successful.You have everything you need here to do it in a lot less time.