I was talking to a business owner of a salon today and he was saying how his business was so strange for the past two weeks. Basically, when it was an extremely sunny day he assumed that all of the customers would start coming in. However, it ended up being one of the slowest days for him. When it was raining cats and dogs it was a completely different story as while he expected it to be dead a swarm of people came in.

My initial thoughts was that during the sunny days his clientele felt that there was so many other things to do whereas in a rainy day a lot of people just want to get tasks done. I think it is mainly food vendors that would get less business in a very rainy day as I would be surprised if there would be a lot of people that would still go to say a hot dog stand when the weather is bad.

I suppose a decision you make too financially is do you invest tons of money in a research company to try and predict say when people are going to come or do you simply learn from experience?

This seems like a perfectly regular thing when it comes to items like the lottery where people pay money for the chance to win more. But today I was told about this game show of some sort where they present people some kind of skill testing question and whoever answers it correctly wins. Apparently the way it works is that it is almost like a radio contest where people phone in. In this scenario the people that phone in have to pay money for a potential chance to answer the question as people are randomly selected. There is a high chance you won’t even get selected to answer the question.

These aren’t like simple math questions too from what I was told. I’m not really sure why this type of setup up seems unadmirable as when you think about it every other type of lottery or game where you can win money has kind of the same principle where it is mostly about luck. The best thing I can think of is that the sense of control in choosing the result doesn’t seem as fair I guess while have a double obstacle to winning.

Otherwise it’s almost like trying to play a scratch and win where you have to pay money to line up and only one person or so will get the chance to even scratch the card for a small chance to win. I suppose this type of business setup relies heavily on impulse too where people assume the question is so easy and so they pull the trigger. I’ll be surprised if this type of setup lasts for awhile.

So it’s pretty much tax time around here as a lot of people are already trying to figure out how they will be submitting their taxes. Most people use some kind of tax software nowadays I’d say. One interesting observation I had was that some stores actually increased the price of the products because of the demand while others decreased it.

Basically there are two train of thoughts. The first one is since people are going to buy it you can make more profit in selling the items during these peak times. The second thought is that you want to attract the majority of the customers and therefore you make your price lower in an effort to do so. I personally think the best strategy is to go with the lower route.

Speaking from a consumer point of view, if I ever buy something because I need it and I know that the company sells it for more than it should be I would be apprehensive about buying from them in the future. As well, I think this is one of those situations where you should use it more as an opportunity to make some profit while attracting more people. If you are really good you will find ways to offer other products that this demographic would be interested in buying as well.

It’s better for the long term I think. The only time I can see that it is better to raise the price is if the item is extremely rare such as a collector’s item. But for general products and services it’s a good opportunity for everyone to remember your business.

For the past few weeks it could have definitely been helpful if I had an extra set of hands to get certain things done. Of course the easiest way is to simply hire some part time help but I am one to always try and find ways that you can make the solution sustainable where you are not reliant on one source to help you out. Not only that, but since that costs money obviously you will need to introduce a new stream of income to fill that in. The other solution is to just not do as much and therefore that will relief the load on you.

I always try to think of any people that could help me do tasks that would not trouble them too much. Example, instead of having to travel to a store to get some kind of stationary I would try to organize it where if a friend or family member who worked right next to one and I knew they always passed by the area they could help me grab the item instead. I am usually enthusiastic about helping others in a similar scenario too.

Another thing I have been doing is to exchange services with other people. Example, while I may have the right resources to quickly handle web related tasks another person might have the resources and capabilities to do printing and courier tasks. Therefore, I can simply pass off those tasks and vice versa where the both of us can have more free time afterwards.

While people do this all the time in a traditional business to business setting it can be a very frugal way to save money too as a long as everyone keeps it to a minimum where it is more of a mutual benefit as opposed to a situation where you are entirely reliant on the other. In those cases it would be better just to pay each other to avoid potential hassle. But for the sake of saving money it can work out very well.

So I am going to meet a person next week to discuss about a potential business relationship and I knew right off the bat that this was a sole proprietor type of operation. The interesting thing was in virtually all of the correspondents the person appeared to be insistent in trying to make his business sound semi large. For example, in all of the communications there would be emphasizes on the office building and how it is located in the downtown core, there will be secretaries and assistants to guide me, etc.

Really, I already knew ahead of time that this was like a virtual office setup where people simply pay to say use the location for a mailing address while occasionally using the space. To me I personally wouldn’t care too much if the person flat out just said they are their own boss and run their business mainly at home. I would think nowadays it can be more impressive where you are able to sustain a viable business at the comfort of your own home.

Shouldn’t it all be about the numbers at the end anyways when it comes to a business? Example, one guy that makes a million a year in his living room versus a guy that makes fifty thousand while have a traditional office can be more impressive in terms of your image perception. To me that shows that the person knows how to be resourceful and can think out of the box.