Nobody here is under stress, are you? WRONG!  

We know that stress affects everyone every minute of everyday. Stress affects our eating habits, moods, how we live, and more.

When does stress stop? When does stress go away?

By our wisdom we know it never stops and never goes away. It becomes our own choice of how we deal with life and the everyday factors. I am not by any means diminishing anyone’s stress at all. I am just talking about the everyday “stuff”.

Our society is built on wanting things yesterday. This mentality has placed a tremendous amount of stress on us. Also, our gas prices have increased dramatically, food prices are on the rise and the price of living in general are on the rise.

I recently spoke with a small business owner that express their concerns about the current economy. At the beginning of every sentence they said “they were scared”. That phrase kept playing over and over in my mind. I wanted to comfort them, but did not know how.

The Scared List:
1. People not buying
2. Craft shows falling through
3. Hike in overhead expenses
4. Hike in the cost of ingredients that they use to make their product

Our list can go on and on.  I am not here to talk about ways to decrease stress.  There is a lot of info on that already, but I do want to talk about how it affects our buying customers. 

How does the stress affect your buying tendencies?
I will  try to relate this concept to myself.   I have a saving “mentality”.  I stick to buying only the necessities and if I buy anything that does not constitute a necessity then it takes me about a week to make sure I truly need it.  If I finally get to the point where I know I need the product then the price of the product won’t effect my buying decision because I have put the product in my necessity catagory .  I think a customer like me you just need to throw out the window. =)  Just joking.  Actually if you can sell to a customer like me then you can sell to anyone. 

A customer like me you need to play on their emotions more.  You need to place in them the reason “why” they need it.  You need to show them that your product is just as or even more important than water. 

Let us take a quick peek at how society deals with stress. 

In today’s society we have an overload of stimuli.  We have busy families, tons of email to go through, phones, bills, mail, etc, etc and more etc.  

Don’t you get fed up with the day to day “stuff”?  How do you deal with things? 

I deal with things by staying away from the phone, no TV ( I do watch DVDs without advertisements), I am outside with the kids a lot, I do not work on the weekends. 

We have a “stress filter”.  This filter determines what stress is allowed into  our lives.  Your business has to cut through all the white noise and through the “stress filter”. 

1. The stress filter drives the way customers behave, make decisions and goes shopping

2.  Your product or ad needs to speak directly to your customers emotional level by speaking directly to their stress and your desire to make their life easier

 Stress can potentially stand in between you and your marketing success, so we have to go directly to what the customer wants.

The customer wants:

1. Their lives made easier

2.  Simple solutions for complicated and uncomplicated problems

3.  Acknowledgement of their stress

4. They want recognized and appreciated for everything they do

Now you may be wondering how to apply the “emotional card” to your products.  Think of these following questions when you look at your own products that you want to promote.

1. Does your product save the customer time

2. Is  your sales copy (message) easy to understand. 

3. Is your sales copy clear about the benefits

4. Does your products replace something that is not working

5. Do you have social proof ~  Show that your product does work from the account of other customers

6. Fun/smart

7. Does the product make the customer happy, relaxed, satisfied or excited

P.S. Feel free to comment about the article.  I would enjoy hearing from you.

I had a wonderful visit with Michele from Hall’s Candles in Bellefonte. She showed me her work area and candle shop. A very nice candle and gift shop to visit if you are ever in the Bellefonte, PA area.
We were looking at her molds and the consistency of them. I am telling you what. I do not know how some of you candle and soap makers demold when your molds are made of rubber and a harder silicone. It made my hands ache looking at the molds.
I know there are other mold makers that have a nice flexible silicone molds and that is great when you get nice flexible molds. I couldn’t imagine using anything else, but nice, friendly, flexible silicone molds.
~Here are benefits of flexible silicone molds~
1. Happier hands
2. Saves on time
3. Needs only one person to demold
4. Does not damage (all the time~ 80-90% success rate) the final product when trying to demold
5. Saves energy and frustration

P.S. Leave any comments you may have about your mold troubles.

 I read an insert off of a forum today that was very interesting.
Here it is.
According to Zig Zigler there are 5 basic reasons people will not buy from you.

“No need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.”

“No Need” ~ Zig reminds the reader that most of us buy more than what we need. How many pairs of shoes do you need? Do you need a T.V? How many do you own? Do you need an Xbox, Wii, Playstation, DVD player?

“No Money” ~ However, most of the time, not having enough money really means, not desiring the product. Chances are if you have more than one product line, you may receive a different response to different products.

Here is a story to illustrate the point.

Mrs. Funderburk was his potential client. He was selling cookware at the time and this involved a cooking demonstration, having spent time in the kitchen cooking he saw plainly that Mrs. Funderburk did not have much in the way of cookware and would benefit from his product. However she just kept saying “no money, too expensive, can’t afford it.” But somebody brought up fine china and when Mrs. Funderburk asked him if he sold china and he said yes she wanted to see it. He left her home with an order for fine china that was a much greater dollar amount than an order for cookware would have been. Zig concludes that it is important to know if a client truly cannot spend money or simply does not want a particular product you are showing them.

“I don’t have any money for that cookware because I don’t want the set of cookware. I’ve got money for that set of china because I want that set of china.” Is his example of her probable rationalization?

Mr. Ziegler says “People are going to buy, in most cases, what they really want - not necessarily what they need. It is your opportunity and responsibility to sell the legitimate benefits of your goods and services in a legitimate manner so your prospect will want to buy from you, again and again.”

The fifth reason the prospect does not buy is the most significant.

“No Trust” ~ According to a study conducted by the New York Sales and Marketing Club, 71% of the people who buy from you do so because they like you, trust you and respect you. You’ve got to establish trust and respect with your prospects if you expect to be a sales professional.

I did not write the content myself, but the subject was any eye opener to me. I do not know why I can not put myself sometimes into the customers shoes when it pretains to my business.

If you are like me and cannot put yourself into their shoes, just start asking your customers questions. I think they would enjoy giving you feedback and it shows them how important they are to you.

P.S. I would love to hear any comments

Busy! Busy! Busy! I have been a mad woman in my basement creating candles to feast your eyes on. It has been so much fun.
I am a bit nervous showing you the clip of how I put together my wax, pouring wax into the molds and putting them together. Actually the process is not bad.The bad part is me hosting the video. Bare with me while I show you what I do.
I won’t be doing the extensive scenting stirring, exact temperature measurement and weighing measurement that you may do. My objective is to show you how I design these candles and tarts while using the molds.
Before I post the video I want to show you what I will be making in the video.  I am going to put together the blackberry and raspberry tart cup.

Following are the top five deductions that small business owners fail to take on their tax returns:

1. Automobile expenses - if you use your car for business, you can deduct a portion of your car expenses. You can either keep track of and deduct your (business related) actual expenses, or you can keep track of your business miles and use the standard mileage rate (48.5 cents per mile in 2007).

2. Startup expenses - business expenses incurred before you actually start the business used to have to be depreciated over 5 years. Starting after October 22, 2004, you can now deduct up to $5,000 of startup expenses in the first year of business. Startup expenses over $5,000 still have to be depreciated (over 15 years). Startup expenses include advertising, hiring employees, purchasing equipment, supplies and more.

3. Education expenses - you can deduct the cost of classes, seminars and other education costs if they are related to your current business.

4. Travel - when you travel for business, you can deduct the cost of the airfare, taxis, hotel, meals, and other travel related expenses. If part of your trip is for personal reasons, you may need to prorate part of the expenses. Also, if you bring your family along, only your own expenses are deductible.

5. Home office expense - many people choose not to take this deduction because it is considered a red flag. If you have a legitimate home office, then you should not miss out on this deduction just because someone says it could be a red flag (being self employed is a red flag, but you wouldn’t not go into business because someone says you’re more likely to get audited as a small business owner, would you?). Home office expenses include mortgage interest, real estate taxes, home owners insurance, utilities, and security alarm. You can only deduct the portion that represents your home office, but this can be a substantial deduction for many home based business owners.