By Jim Connolly
In business, confidence is massively important! I’m not talking here about our self-confidence; but rather the level of confidence that other people have in us, our business and our services.
I would like to ask you a question!
When someone asks you; “how’s business?” – what kind of answers do you tend to give them?
If you want people to buy from you, recommend you or invest in you; it’s vitally important that you always speak in positive terms about your business! If there’s nothing positive to say about your CURRENT business position, then tell people all about your exciting plans for the future!
What a ‘positive’ answer does
Whenever you speak about your business in a confident, positive way, it causes people to feel confident about you and your situation. This is really important, because your future success will always be in direct proportion to the number of people that ‘feel’ confident or positive about; you, your abilities, your business and it’s products or services.
If you think about it, the current economic situation is a great example of this. The direction the stock markets take is always determined by the ‘confidence’ of those, who invest in stocks and shares. If they feel positive about some news or a rumour – they act positively and the market grows. If they lack confidence in something they act negatively and the market shrinks.
What a ‘negative’ answer does
Whenever you speak in negative terms about your business, you cause people to lose confidence in you. This is one of the most commercially damaging things anyone can do to their business!
I have lost track of the number of small business owners I have spoken with over the years, who ALWAYS find something negative to say about their business, no matter how well things are going for them! What they seem unaware of, is that these negative comments about their business can spread like a virus.
Soon, their suppliers, competitors and potential clients start speaking negatively about them and BOOM – they can actually ‘talk themselves out of business!’
For example, there are countless companies who have gone broke, PURELY BECAUSE a false rumour suggested they were in financial trouble. Very quickly, people’s confidence in the company starts to dip; so they stop using them, (fearing they will lose their money.) Suppliers stop providing credit to them and all of a sudden, that company REALLY does have a financial problem! That’s how important it is to generate confidence in you and your business!
Especially in today’s erratic economy, make sure the seeds YOU plant in the marketplace are 100% positive. Make YOUR business the one that people feel positive about and want to buy from, recommend or invest in. Talk only about what you want and not what you fear.
Great post. I think this is probably something a lot of people overlook. Your outlook on your own business can have a huge impact on your overall success. Hey Jim, I gotta say, you look like one stern dude! Nice blog btw, keep it up!
Thanks for the comment,
Stern? That’s what 20 years of sparing with heavyweights does for ya!
Glad you enjoyed the blog.
We Never answer anything lower than GREAT!
If it was anything else why would we want, let alone chose to be involved?
Who would want to talk to us?
As for seeds, we plant all year round regardless of the rainfall.
Hello Linda,
It’s refreshing to read such progressive comments!
Thanks for some great ideas – and for sharing them with us.
Jim,
Your advice being positive is very welcome especially these days.
“doom and gloom” conversations about how crap the Irish and world economies can be fun in a masochistic way, but they don’t actually help.
We all need to keep pushing on and making all of those little steps that make business successful and fun!
Thanks for your great Blog