One of the memories that I have of my dad was the sayings he would use to get his point across. My favorite was that the lucky rabbit’s foot wasn’t lucky for the rabbit. He would use that saying on me when I was depending upon luck more than my own initiative to accomplish something. While my dad passed many years ago the memories of him and his sayings live on and I’ve used a number of the same saying on my daughter who will give a heavy sigh and roll her eyes as I talk to her. I’m sure the same holds true for my employees only they wait until they are walking out of my office before they roll their eyes.
While in business it is sometimes better to be lucky than good, it is not a good practice to only depend upon luck. Instead, a business should take a proactive approach to seeking out new opportunities and preparing itself to take
advantage of opportunities when they occur. Thus the saying luck is when preparation meets opportunity. The question becomes how should a business prepare and how does a business know an opportunity exists.
Businesses should begin by determining their target customer. This can be done by looking at the services that a business offers and isolating those types of customers that could use several if not all of their services. One the customer has been determined it becomes easy to put yourself in the customers shoes and ask the questions that the customer will be asking. Do you have the answers to those questions? If not, this is the bases of your preparation. Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it. Knowing an opportunity is even easier because once you know your customer all you really need to do is to recognize that someone meets your target criteria, if they do, there is your opportunity.
While very simplistic, I can assure you that it works. My business has survived the cyclical nature of the real estate market for fifty years by using the same approach. The way we reach our target customer has
changed over the years but the remainder of the process is the same.
