How to Avoid Selling Stale Doughnuts

I am about to assign you some homework.

This exercise is going to take you approximately ten minutes, but could earn you up to $10,000 in additional monthly profits!

Interested?

It’s insanely simple, but it requires you to disconnect your vision from that of a business owner. You will have to, and for only ten minutes, view your business through the eyes of the customer or everyday passersby.

Do you think you can invest the time to double or even triple your monthly income?

Now the action step! I want you to venture out through the front door of your business. Even if you work from home, I want you to start walking toward the entrance of your house. Next, safely walk forward approximately thirty paces and stop.

Now turn around and examine your surroundings.

What do you see? Remember, you are no longer the owner, manager or resident. You are a potential customer who is performing a detailed inspection before they choose to do business with you.

Oh yea! You’ll need a pen and paper at this point, because I want you to jot down everything about your home or storefront that you suspect could be seen as unprofessional, lackluster or in need of repair. Landscaping, paint, crooked shutters, weeds growing up through the cracks in the concrete, faded parking space markings, broken glass, trash, write it all down.

I will exclaim that this might feel like a swift kick in the gut, but your newly penned to-do list is going to change the way people view your business. Everything they see as they drive past on a lazy Sunday afternoon can be defined as marketing. Unfortunately, marketing your business from the outside in is one of the commonly missed facets of making money.

As instinctive human beings, we are ingrained with the innate ability to form first impressions based on initial perceptions. If it looks cheap from the outside, we could care less what is on the inside. You could fill a doughnut with the richest most delightfully sweet cream, but if that outer layer is stale and crusty, not a single person will ever experience its wealth of flavor.

Perform this exercise once a month to avoid selling stale doughnuts.

P.S. Today is my dad’s birthday! Happy birthday dad! I love you man ~Andy “The Marketing Guy”