I heard an interesting comment today from a person who was interested in selling their property. While usually this is something that you would hire say a real estate agent to do she was specifically saying that she doesn’t want to use one because she sees how much money they make. She further emphasized how nowadays most people use the Internet to find a listing by themselves anyways and so she felt weird potentially giving someone so much money if people happen to be searching themselves for the property.

It’s kind of interesting as like in this case it had nothing to do on whether or not the service provided is a good value or if it produces the desired results that you are looking for. In that sense the reason to not do business is more personal I guess you can say. This makes me wonder that in certain business on whether or not it is better to not advertise how profitable or successful your business is for example so that you don’t automatically get placed into this negative category.

I suppose this is because the common perception is that a person who makes a lot of money must be in someway unethical or that automatically they must be taking advantage of you. Is that really a fair thing to say? I would say ultimately it should come down to value and whether or not you think the product or service you would be getting is worth the money.

Today I was talking to a person who was saying they needed some business wear clothing as they need more variety for more occasions. The person was then told if they are on a budget then there are a lot of large second hand stores where you can find stuff for dirt cheap and are just as good. However, this came with a lot of resistance with the notion that buying the item second hand to be used for professional business purposes seems wrong.

I suppose I can understand why as many would have the feeling that if you have to resort to buying second hand that it somehow devalues your status. At the same time, a point was brought up that when it comes to things like this it’s not like anyone can really tell. So in that sense does it make more sense to buy second hand to save money assuming the item works just as well as if you bought a new one?

Funny enough I think when it comes to furniture most people don’t care as much about any kind of status symbol. Example, if the business bought a used boardroom table or a chair for like one third the price of a new one they would probably do it in a flash. I think too most people would brag about what a good deal they got. If it works to your needs and is up to standards then why not?

Today I was looking at a company that was gloating that they were growing so big as apparently they acquired thousand of members in a short amount of time. I was then talking to another person about this as we were curious how legitimate it was. While the people themselves seemed real, the thing was a large portion of these “members” were simply inactive such as signing up just as a trial to see what they were like. Regardless of that, the business is definitely milking it for all it is worth.

What can you say? It’s almost like using sex appeal where it helps to sell regardless of how obvious the marketing tactics are. I suppose quantities does matter in these cases. While like in the above example people in the know will probably rip that number apart to show how it’s not as significant as they would like you to believe, at the end of the day it is an effective marketing tool with the majority of onlookers.

Would you ever pretend to be poor if you really weren’t? That was an interesting question that I heard today. Surprisingly a lot of people said yes as they prefer not to draw all the attention that having a lot of money usually attracts. The funny thing too was that some said by pretending to be poor you can often get better deals as people don’t feel that they can get a lot of money out of you to up-sell you on various things. So instead they simply present with you the bare-bone necessities on many things.

That is kind of funny I thought as I think it would be the opposite where if many people think that you have a lot of money they will go out of their way to try and give you better deals in hopes that you will keep returning to them with more odds that you will make big purchases with them. I suppose it comes down to what your local community is like. For example, I’m sure in a more populated area everyone will try to appease what appears to be a wealthier person versus a more rural area, so to speak.

Today I was hearing this guy trying to pitch his design services to all these people in a casual way such as doing some small talk and then showing his portfolio. His work did seem impressive which got some people interested. Now for whatever reason he then started to talk about his philosophical beliefs in lie and some of them were pretty extreme. Because of that, everyone started to seem less interested in ever working with him professionally.

Is it a better idea in cases like these to simply keep any personal life details or beliefs away so people can just focus on what skill or service you are offering? I guess one could argue that sharing their beliefs has attracted them business as well as it can be something that a person relates with and therefore will be more comfortable in doing business with you. Overall, it’s more neutral just to focus on what you offering and how it helps them.