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110 • The 100 Greatest Ideas for Building the Business of Your Dreams

Idea 64 - Getyour attitude right

Face it, if you are going to open your art gallery in Bond Street, you will need a lot

of capital and an encyclopaedic knowledge of the international art market. Even

then, your lack of experience in the retail business will almost certainly be your, very

expensive, downfall. We are not talking mega-corporations here, rather

If you use high- starting off with one shop in a less than centrally located area of town or

pressure selling village. Most dreamers have to make it happen with very little capital.

technique, you And that seems to be the first clue; this is a long-term plan and a long-

wlll at best sell term commitment. Think ten years to the end of the project, and a first

one thing to business plan of, say, three years. If your actions are dictated by short-

eocn person term considerations you may get over the teething problems quite well,

who comes but struggle with the follow up. It is much better to know the next step in

into the shop. advance and concentrate on that.

But they will not Some people say that knowing the exit strategy after the ten-year plan

come back. is important, others that such a plan will become clearer as time passes.

The only thing unanimously called a mistake in this regard was to have

huge riches as the end game. The rewards may be huge, there is always a chance,

but your first objective is to earn enough for the lifestyle you dream of.

Then ask yourself, 'Do I passionately want to do it?' The attribute that ties

together all the successful people doing this is that there are strong positive reasons

for turning their passion into a business as well as the negative reasons concerned

with getting out of the rat race. You are going to have to sell things, it's not like

working in a chemist shop; it's about getting to know your customers and helping

them to buy. If you use high-pressure selling technique, you will at best sell one

thing to each person who conies into the shop. But they will not come back. So the

thing that sells for you is your knowledge and, dare I say it, love for the product.

They buy because they trust you when you say, 'This is good, and has a good prov-

enance.' That is how you will build up the essential customer relationships that