Work from home:

In my early days, alone, in a new company, I joined the growing ranks of entrepreneurs who work from home. Working from home had become the new buzzword for the wealthy baby boomer generation disillusioned with the corporate world and was forced by younger competition for our work to sacrifice our families and limit the time to enjoy the fruits of our labor having to work long hours in the globalization of the economy. The reality is that with the advent of email, mobile phones, and then of course the explosion of the internet around the world, business people were and had to be accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. week.

What we realized in the early and mid-1990s is that we want more quality of life without giving up on quantity. I mean, we didn’t want to go below our current income. Working from home seems to be the answer. And it is, once you understand how to make it work. I discovered that I am a sociable person. I need to socialize and communicate face to face with people. I quickly discovered that working from home was a challenge for me locked in the basement office. I soon found myself wandering around our big house frequently during the day looking for human contact, which ended up being our family dog, Tyson. A large black and red haired purebred German shepherd that was smart as a whip. Smart enough to know that he was disrupting his sleep and eating schedule all day and at 7:00 pm to greet us at the door for a walk. Clearly, he needed to do something.

I left the office and drove around my city. This was my first lesson, I can’t get sales stuck in the basement office. As I was driving, I began to notice businesses that I wanted to approach, growing businesses that were demonstrated with new construction, and I also started talking to people face-to-face who were also in town and started networking. That day I did not sell anything, but then I learned that Prospecting and Sales are two different functions.

Working from home just got a lot better. Now I started planning my day in prospecting, which included phone calls and personal visits around town. I started “Running for Mayor” when a colleague once told me that I was doing what any good prospector should do who wants to have continued success with Sales. You need to get out of your home office job and, like your mayor, shake hands, kiss the babies, buy the lunches, and make sure everyone knows you in your city and particularly in business.