Grateful.
Many of my clients have become good friends of mine. It brings alot of joy to my grind when I can talk on a more personal level with them. You know, topics about how crazy balancing life can get, the joys of raising a family, the different events happening around the world and much surprisingly the conversation that comes up nearly all the time is how we grew up (especially if they’re immigrants). A lot of the things I say start to feel like a formality (e.g. ‘if there are any problems please call me,’ ‘please refer my services to your friends) but there are a lot of times I appreciate the customer’s humility and the times I am genuine with them. A lot of these priceless interactions motivates me to be grateful for my business.
One of the best pieces of advice I got about running a business was to exceed expectations about what the customer is expecting out of you. Getting paid honestly is one thing but thinking about how I can give the most value in my services is another thing. If the customer asks for something, I always put in the effort to explain in detail how and why I will render the service in a certain way and even put in a bit more time and love into making it appealing. For example, most my customers are ones who just moved into their new house so I would help them move furniture, do handyman jobs such as hang pictures, etc. Besides services, there are other aspects of your business you can’t put a price on. Such as punctuality (be on time or least let them know you are going to be late), honesty (your human, you don’t know something be honest about it), and patients (sporadic among tradespeople). Personally, I want to run a business that is small because it will have depth rather than width with its customer base, making it easier to work my services and give as much value as possible. Working full-time with depth-based customers will be a dream come true for my well-being and wealth-being (I just made up a word!)
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The saying which I follow from the Bhagavad Gita goes, don’t be motivated by the fruits of your actions and don’t long for inaction. It’s a lesson that I am still trying to cultivate my life with, and it is one which I love. When work feels like a god given duty, I feel much better about doing it. In the bigger picture, I am rendering a service which is giving back positively. Whether it’s making someone’s house more of a home, helping a store create a better presence or helping a factory owner manufacture and create more value for his clients, when life is viewed in such a giving (grateful) and positive way primarily in the form of running a business, it brings a lot of good feels in your life. Don’t get me wrong, money is essential, but I instead see it as something that needs to be honestly earned as a side effect of giving value.
To conclude, life is not black and white; it’s not a straight line and society is very incorrect about the way it works. It’s changing at a rapid pace with a lot of today’s culture questioning and fighting back about what is right and what is wrong. I believe that happiness comes from a place of faith and comes from solving problems. Be a beacon of light which can light up someone’s life for the better.
Be Humble. Hustle Hard. And Feel The Love!!
Zeus The Sparky
