Author Archives: Barbara Eldridge

Sales is NOT an Evil Word

How are you at selling or is selling a concept that you tend to shy away from? You are not alone, but resistance to it shows up in how consistently your business grows.

Perhaps you find marketing tactics more fun, you know postcards, email newsletters, brochures, social networking, but sales tactics are essential to every business and can be learned. In fact sales is a function of marketing and requires a process and tactics.

When you walk into a department store, their sales people are assigned to a particular department so they can answer your specific questions about colors, or … Read More

How Do You Spell Success?

What it takes to be an Entrepreneur of the Year:

The willingness to stand alone

The confidence to challenge the conventional

The commitment to a vision

The passion for being on top

An ability to believe what we want is possible.

The Mind Masters Entrepreneur of the Year person had a good year! I have observed him willing to push himself into uncharted waters during tough times. Working on his vision for the future and transforming his business to grow has been his biggest challenge, but he has never let up and is always willing to learn. While handling clients, … Read More

2011 Breakthrough Business Summit

Increase Profit and Advance Your Business Success

As an entrepreneur and small business owner you have a unique opportunity in this market climate to take advantage of fewer competitors and your ability to be flexible. This is a great time to reinvent yourself, grow, expand and build a strong foundation for the future.

“This is the BEST time ever for your business!”

Join other small business owners on January 10, 2011, 9:30am to 3:00pm, at the Mission Valley Resort & Conference Center, 875 Hotel Circle South in San Diego and learn to take your business to the next level with … Read More

Success Essentials

If goal setting is essential to success, then time control and organized activity is the other hand of achievement. Several week ago at the end of one of our weekly Mind Masters meetings the topic of what activities were necessary to guarantee success came up. I commented, that fifty percent of the time members were spending in their daily schedules had absolutely nothing to do with the achievement of their goals.

What are the high priority, high pay off activities in your business? Do you have a formula that you track to produce consistent results? In order to generate income, … Read More

Have You Found the “Silver Bullet”?

How many books, e-books, programs, workshops etc. have you bought into lately looking for that “silver bullet” for success? The “silver bullet” of success means different things to different people. During time of economic change I have found business owners questioning what success really means to them. It was not too long ago that many thought go back and getting a “job” was that silver bullet. Funny how things change.

Success is very personal, and it is up to each of us to discover it for ourselves. It requires a vast reserve of inner strength which is based on your … Read More

Are You Listening?

There was a saying I learned many years ago about the sales process that said “selling ain’t telling, it’s asking questions”. I think we can all agree that we don’t want to be told about a product or service, but respond well when someone spends the time to really understand what we want and why it is important to us. The key here is good listening skills. Do you understand the difference talking, telling and communicating? Effective, Successful, result-oriented, persuasive communication is far different from the day to day version – it takes Knowledge, thought, planning and execution.

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Delegation and Growth

I had a meeting with one of my members who was sharing his frustration about the way his vision for the business just wasn’t happening. He kept getting bogged down in things that didn’t allow him time to work on creating the vision. He came to realize that although he had job descriptions, he had not fully delegated all of the work to the people he had hired.

Small business owners often ignore the need for an organizational chart. This is a mistake, because when you detail all of the roles and/or positions necessary to profitably manage the business and … Read More

Closing Time

   Small business owners often find sales the most difficult part of being in business. In fact I have found they don’t want to be categorized as “sales” people. Often during Mind Masters meetings I suggest they reframe how they see the process.

   Selling in today’s environment requires an inquisitive mindset. So the consultative sales process is a way to gather as much information as possible about a prospect and then be able to prescribe one’s product or service solution to the prospect’s problem/issue. If this process is followed carefully, the close (asking for the “order”) will follow easily also keeping … Read More

The Power of Ideas 3

How many times has someone let you know there was a misspelled word on your flyer, brochure or web site? Those mistakes affect how professional you are perceived you to be. Again, when Mind Masters members’ have an expertise, they willing share it so their fellow members can gain some insight. Since small business owners do it all, Laurie’s editing tips were the perfect information we all could use.

Quick Proofreading Tips

Let’s face it: spell-check isn’t enough. Word processing software just isn’t smart enough to distinguish between “to,” “two,” and “too”; only a human brain can do that. The … Read More

Meet Our Members

Upcoming event information:

Interview with Kathy Cazin and Linda Harris Online – Details will be sent upon registration

Date: 15 July 2010, Thursday 02:00 PM

Kathy Cazin of Accountkeepers of San Diego helps clients set up an accounting system that is custom tailored to their needs.

Kathy and her staff help make it work for clients because they are QuickBooks experts who specialize in setting up home and business financial records for keeping track of where the money is being spent. Their instructions are explained at a level that’s easily understood by everyone, beginners to advanced. Soon a “word person” … Read More