How things are different nowadays

I’ve been in business for myself almost all my adult life. I’ve done a lot of different things. I remember as a young kid fresh out of high school I was trying to figure out what do I want to do with the rest my life. Is that really a fair question to ask a 18-year-old kid? How would he really know with such a limited amount of life experience? Even the very small experience that he does have is unrealistic because he’s never been in the real world. I can remember thinking that I had everything all figured out and I actually did within the safe walls of my high school but when that ran its course, it became very obvious to me that the world didn’t operate the same way. The same rules did not apply. I can remember as I was looking for a job and filling out applications that nobody cared how much I could bench press or that I might have been a good football player. They really only wanted to know was my qualifications and did I happen to have any previous experience in that particular field or have I graduated from college with a degree. Since the answer was no to both of these questions, I thought that I would go into business for myself.

I can remember going to the local mall in order to kill some time and get some lunch and I happened to notice that almost everyone who walked by was wearing some type of apparel such as a custom T-shirt or hat. Some people even had jackets with custom screen printing and embroidery on the left chest area, as well as the back. I can remember thinking to myself, I don’t know the first thing about that, but I think I could sell it. So the next thing I did was get some business cards printed up and started going door-to-door asking people if the next time they happen to be in the market to purchase any screen printing or embroidery, if I could just have a chance to give them a quote. Most of them actually used these items, but they didn’t actually need anything right this minute. They said that they want a business card and would give me a call when they eventually needed more. Most of the time I never heard from them again. They would put my card somewhere in the middle of the stack and forget that it was ever even there. I also remember the challenge of trying to get to the guy that actually has the authority to make a decision. That is not normally given to the receptionist. You could have the best sales presentation and she could be ready to buy whatever it is you’re selling, but if she doesn’t have the authority to write a check and sign it then you just wasted your time.

These days it’s so much easier. Instead of knocking on doors trying to find someone who needs what I’m selling they find us by getting on a major search engine and putting in a relevant search terms such as T-shirt printing Columbus Ohio or screen printing Columbus Ohio. The most important aspect of finding new customers is trying to seek out and find someone that needs whatever it is you’re selling right now. The Internet changed all that old school method of cold calling. Now people find us. What a great time it is to be an entrepreneur in the digital age.

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