HOW DO YOU MEASURE YOUR COMPANY'S SUCCESS?

Your business is running, you sleep a couple of hours a night, you work 60 hours a week, you carry photos of your family to remember their faces. Is your company a success? How can you tell? Here’s a few simple ways to gauge whether or not you are on the right path.

1. Profit - If there is money left after you pay your monthly operating expenses and debt, then things are looking good.

2. Get More Customers - Your customer list should be constantly growing, and it will if you are effectively reaching your target market.

3. Please your Customers - The strength of your business is directly tied to your ability to understand and satisfy the needs of your customers.

4. Happy Employees - Quality employees are rewarded for their hard work, and if they know they are appreciated, they will go the extra distance. Their face greets customers, you should do everything you can to keep that face smiling.

5. Are you Happy?? - Every now and then, take a reality check. Are you satisfied with your business ownership?

6. Most importantly, in my opinion, is ethical behavior and social responsibility. These qualities can bring your business some significant benefits relating to the other 5 items in this list. Lack of ethical actions and social conscience can damage your reputation, and profits could fall as a result.

In your business, how people judge your character is critical to sustainable success because it is the basis of trust and credibility. Abe Lincoln was known to describe character as the tree and reputation as the shadow. Your character is what you really are; your reputation is how people see you. So, your reputation depends on whether people think your intentions and actions are honorable and ethical, and your character is defined by your actual honorable actions.

WHY BUY OR USE LOCALLY OWNED?

There are many well-documented benefits to our communities and to each of us to choosing local, independently owned businesses. We realize it is not always possible to buy or use what you need locally and so merely ask you to Think Local FIRST!
 

Top Ten reasons to Think Local - Buy Local - Use Local

1. Buy & Use Local -- Support yourself: Several studies have shown that when you buy or use services from an independent, locally owned business, rather than a nationally owned businesses, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers and farms -- continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community. These include case studies showing that locally-owned businesses generate a premium in enhanced economic impact to the community and our tax base.
2. Support community groups: Non-profit organizations receive an average 250% more support from smaller business owners than they do from large businesses.
3. Keep our community unique: Where we shop, where we eat and have fun -- all of it makes our community home. Our one-of-a-kind businesses are an integral part of the distinctive character of this place.
4. Reduce environmental impact: Locally owned businesses can make more local purchases requiring less transportation and generally set up shop in town or city centers as opposed to developing on the fringe. This generally means contributing less to sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution.
5. Create more good jobs: Small local businesses are the largest employer nationally and in our community, provide the most jobs to residents.
6. Get better service: Local businesses often hire people with a better understanding of the products and services they are selling and take more time to get to know customers.
7. Invest in community: Local businesses are owned by people who live in this community, are less likely to leave, and are more invested in the community’s future.
8. Put your taxes to good use: Local businesses in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services as compared to nationally owned stores entering the community.
9. Buy what you want, not what someone wants you to buy: A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.  A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based not on a national sales plan but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.
10. Encourage local prosperity: A growing body of economic research shows that in an increasingly homogenized world, entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character.

A VIEW OF YOUR FUTURE...WHAT, OH WHAT WILL IT HOLD...?

© 2014 - Reprinted with permission from Shining Lotus Metaphysical Bookstore Newsletter October 2014

by Mario C. Veo

So, do you want the ‘good news’ first or the bad ones…? (they are really just sides of the same coin). OK, here it is – “Stuff happens, and things are going to change… whether you participate or not!”

How is this ‘good news’? Well, IF you have enough fortitude, then you can join this grange and direct it to manifesting your Dreams and Desires… and the bad news… well, it doesn’t get done unless YOU do it! Does this sound too simplistic for you? Then consider the implications – Life is about Movement, about Action, about achieving Growth… but all of it is useless and empty unless they bring you Joy, Fulfillment, Greater Rewards… and the downside is that if you are just coasting along, meekly accepting your vanilla life, caught and fascinated by the minutia of Life… then that is what you deserve!

Too harsh for you…? OK, then consider this; how many Incarnations do you have to waste until you wake up and realize that you are worth a lot more than what your life is bringing you… how many times do you have to lower your expectations just so you would not lose your precious ‘security blanket’. How often have you accepted less than you’ve desired because after all, such Is Life…?

To all this I say Hogwash… Drivel… Pure Unadulterated Cow-Patty in a Milkshake… (yes, I know, I’m being very polite in choosing my words).

Do you not know that ALL-absolutely EVERYTHING – is available to you, and the ONLY reason you are not getting it is that (a) you don’t believe you can… or (b) someone told you that you don’t deserve it (got religion you sinner?)… or even, God help you, you forgot that the True One Creator is a Loving Being whose only wish is to Create – abundantly… oh, and yes, did you forget that all of this was for YOU…!

So, here’s the Law; you can only be as Happy as you believe you deserve to be… (nope, this is not just for ‘good guys’, or for those that have been ‘Initiated in one of those Righteous Secret Societies’… nor do you need to know the secret hand-shake, or have accomplished 12 Herculean Labors… and, interestingly enough, you most certainly DO NOT need to have achieved a ‘special level of Purity’ (hey, that will take care of a few zealots…).

Life is shaped by your Beliefs… about yourself, and the Society you’ve chosen to live in.

So then, here’s my Question – What is your Will… what do you Choose… and Why… (or not)? Remember, as you take your final breath in this Incarnation, it really doesn’t look too good if you blame others for your plain vanilla existence… it’s just soooo yesterday!)

I am dedicating this month’s classes to the Self and its discovery, to unveiling our Gifts, Powers and Abilities… and equally on clearing and releasing the Unwanted. I invite all of you who are curious or ready for this Journey of Self-Discovery and Empowerment to join us… all others… well, just sit back and enjoy your ice-cream – after all it IS the most favored flavor…

Mario C. Veo is a teacher of Spiritual Science and a Healing Arts Practitioner. He teaches classes and individuals on Personal Transformation and the Expansion of Consciousness. Mario is available for personal guidance and consultations on Tuesday afternoons at the Shining Lotus Bookstore.