hello my name is Gary Shotton and I’m here in a town called Branson, Missouri I’ve been in a little quality time with my wife and I wanted to record this in the midst of that time as you mouse might already know we have many discussions with developing nations in what we call peer mentoring groups and primarily at this point are in East Africa and we asked her try to answer questions when they have difficulties and so this is a response to one of those questions the quote the subject is inflation how do you deal with inflation and the problem was presented that the dollar is in the American dollar is kind of affecting the rest of the world and their con going Congo francs I think they call them are being affected and the people are not willing are not excited about paying more money for the products that they’re buying and their shops the the Christian businesses especially in the area of making soap is hesitant to raise their prices so let me try to take a shot at this for everybody listening I’m gonna have four key points that I hope they’re helpful to you well first of all you have to recognize that you have a calling to be in business or you shouldn’t be in business and so if you’re called to be in business and you’re doing business you’ve got to recognize that there’s cycles and seasons in every single business inflation is a cycle in season that’s going to happen every so many years or a change in the currency is going to happen there’s going to be some kind of a disaster some kind of situations present itself and so this is an opportunity for you to watch your words to begin with now these people were not being negative when they’re talking but I’m just cautioning you that is you have the cycle and season of business hit you you’re gonna have to watch that you’re not saying things like wow and here it comes again oh no we’re gonna fail oh this is horrible how are we ever make it oh boy if we don’t make it we’re gone all go bankrupt don’t use those words it’s an opportunity to say you know with God’s help we’re gonna get through this it’s a cycle we’re gonna get on the other side we’re gonna be better off for it you’re you’re gonna have to know that these are things trouble is not always a bad thing trouble brings out the best in us and so watch your words number two I’ve kind of covered that but there is this such thing as a business cycle there’s natural cycles in the earth right now it’s a little chilly right now because we’re in the coming up winter season there’s no snow on the ground but there could be and you know the the birds of the air and the animals they they didn’t freak out of not having any business or any income or any product to eat in the middle of the winter because they recognize the cycles and so there’s a natural cycle and we’ve got to recognize that that’s a part of everything and you know there’s something about the cycle of things it has a way of clearing out people businesses things that are not supposed to be there just in that case itself there’s some businesses that have sprung up and those people really are affecting you and you shouldn’t be competing with them because they’re not knowing how to do good business and it’s going to give you a great time in this cycling season to prove yourself to God to prove God is alive and allow Him to make up the difference you know we have sometimes what we call lip service to God now’s the time we’re past lip service we’re talking about really believing God for answers in this so I’m not being short or cute when I say let’s just believe god I’m going to give some tips now now let’s talk about just doing better business that’s number three there’s a lot of things we’ve got to do better on in fact in my business we’re always talking continually improvement and in your case do you really understand your accounting and your financial statements do you understand that the income minus the expenses is your profit and loss are you doing good bit books do you understand the concept of job costing that’s where you take a particular product that you’re making like like a cake or a pie or or you’re a tailor making making coats or clothes that you’re costing each part and you’re making sure that you’re making a fair profit based on the kind of amount of materials you’re putting in and the amount of labor that’s called Jos job costing and you are you learning to be able to be a salesperson are you going to be able to tell people what’s unique about your particular product or service you see people don’t just come up to you and and and buy based on the product all the time you’re gonna have to become a better salesperson and that leads us right into point number four not becoming just an order-taker i’ve been fortunate to have traveled to many parts of the world and especially in the developing nations and one thing I’ve observed is it seems that people just think they can just open up a business and just buy some Goods and start reselling them well it’s more to it than that you’re gonna have to become in many cases a very very good salesperson you know you’re you could be what I call an order taker and this is what I watch I think I see lines of people selling vegetables and they’re just standing there and that all the tomatoes are the same and all the potatoes are the same and you’re there just taking an order well first of all what makes you different what why are you there and and you can’t just take an order it’s so amazing that even in these countries it seems that some people are almost interrupted to take the order well you need to take on some skills that are that others don’t have those skills are maybe telling your story telling how and why you’re in business telling about your product in detail telling why your products better let’s take this soap okay that’s the product that we’re talking about in East Africa well there’s other people that have put added water to their soap and it’s not as good as soap so you’re gonna have to demonstrate and show and be a salesperson and make sure that they know how that you can be distinguished from the other soap suppliers you know that’s part of the business ownership that’s part of the selling that’s going to be critical to make your product stand out different you know there’s there’s the issues of trust you know when you come to a customer and the customer comes to you why wouldn’t you ask their name why wouldn’t you ask them what’s important to them what what ask them some questions not just put out your product to push it in their face but ask them what they’re looking for and be honest with them if what you have isn’t what they’re looking for don’t you must tell them I don’t have that and maybe even point them to where they can get that but they’ll gain some trust some trust in you some trust and your your the integrity you have to be aboveboard in what you’re doing and that trust will go a long ways people do business with people they trust and they don’t necessarily pay double pay way extra but in reality they’ll come around other people and come to you when they trust you I saw that you know had a friend of ours had an air conditioning a supply part supply and a man walked in and after he left my my friend said well that had the business it was in the Kampala Uganda and his name was Stephen and the owner of the shop said well that guy came back he walked this man his customer came back to Stephens shop walking by a bunch of other customers other vendors and came in and bought a little fan and some other things and by the way Stephen did a pretty good job because he upsell while he was there he suggested well you know maybe you need some tape to go with it with this maybe you need some extra things and the man was appreciative he actually said well you know I want these set him aside he went away came back and bought some more stuff and after he left it was real interesting that that he even actually gave him a discount now I’m not always recommending that but that but he gave him a discount if he bought some more there’s nothing wrong with that be a good salesperson be a good business person this is not just taking orders well one thing you’re probably going to have to do though is prices go up the one of the most important things you’re going to have to do is you’re gonna have to be sure that you are raising prices at the right level that that you don’t totally scare away with your customer but if you don’t do that you’re going to end up broke and that’s what catches the the people down the street they they don’t know their prices they don’t know their numbers they don’t know what a fair price ought to be and after a while they’re out of business because they didn’t increase their price I’m having to do that now with my customers I’ve had some tariff issues that helped us that hurt us and hurt us I have to raise my prices I have to tell my customers this is what I have to do to stay in business well I hope you learned from this I hope it’s a help to you inflation yeah that’s what we try to cover here but it’s a bigger issue than flay ssin it’s an issue of really understanding how business works and how you can excel and succeed in the business world in any part of the cycle thanks for being a part of IBBTalks, Inspiring Better Business, share these with others help us be a part of sharing the word on this and we hope to be of help to you thank you