Reflection Paper
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Speakers.docxSpeaker: Ralph Smothers
How to Sell and Expand in a Small Town
From the lecturer, they are so many ways in which one can expand and sell in small town. According to Ralph Smother the main challenges that faces most small business in lack of funds. But that does not limit one from growing his/her business. Rather it acts as step towards realization of the potentiality the business can generate at long run. The following are the key points outlined from the speaker. According to Ralph, adding new products and services is main thing every business should use. Despite it sound simple, but the strategy enables them to evade challenges. It is required for busied to figure the type of product and service the customer want. This will enable them to know how much they will be willing to pay for them. From the Ralph experience, he says to achieve such milestone; it requires accomplishing and conducting market research committing any resource to the product expansions. The customer they are willing to buy and services idea which involve potential prices. This will enable one to sell and expand in small town.
Secondly, selling more products and service to the existing customer. In small town the population is limited therefore; if you have your customer it is worthy to provide services that will attract them. Holding customers through the kind of service is an added advantage to expand and sell your products. It is not easy since, there are many challenges which are also involved when come to establishing business in small town.
Lastly, Ralph talks about expanding into new territories. The idea of selling products and service to new customer. Within the town it’s advised to locate new geographic areas. This goes in hand to target new customer markets to ensure the products get attracted to the customer.
There are a number of important points that I have been able to pick from listening to Donnie Johnson as well as other speakers from Marathon. To begin with, the speakers have reaffirmed that nothing in this world comes easy, not without putting some effort. Besides, according to Donnie Johnson, it is important to show effort right from the start, something which I completely agree to. I have always been a firm believer of two basic principles. First, a journey of a thousand begins with one step and secondly, one should always have the end in mind when getting into something. These two principles in addition to Donnie Johnson’s sentiments echo the significance of consistency when applying effort. That is, whether working hard in your studies, starting a business or searching for your dream job, it is necessary to show consistent effort as one cannot realize expected results by simply applying a one-time effort. Therefore, in pursuing our academic, business or career goals, it is important that we know what we want and begin applying the right effort right from the start if we ever hope to realize our goals.
Effort alone does not exclusively determine or guarantee success. To be successful in your career, business or academics, one needs to be well-rounded. That is, one needs to have the right set of interpersonal skills. This means that one should aim at inculcating good communication skills with a good personality to boost. Good inter-personal skills will then enhance one’s networking skills. I believe in what has always been said; that an individual is only as worth as his network. This shows the importance of having a good network if one hopes to grow in his/her career or business. Thus, the people you meet, interact with and establish relationships with build your social capital. And in my opinion, your social capital is really your net worth as it is from your social capital that one will get information on career tips, mentoring, job offers and business opportunities.
Speaker: Nikki Gillig
Based on the narration given by Nikki Gillig regarding her carrier life, the fate of life usually changes, and this is influenced by the people to interact with or the environment as well as the places where we do visits. According to her, she never had a dream of having her own business. According to her, she believed all this changed due to God and fate. Previously working as pharmacists, she never had a nagging feeling of doing it since she believed that it was not what she was meant to do.
In this case, it is evident that Nikki never had a passion in what she was doing by then. The kind of people who surrounded her influenced the person she was. Success in career, family, and profession all depends on people surrounding us. Being surrounded by wrong people means a failure to any step of life being made. Nikki's dream changed because of people whom she interacted with.
Previously she never had a dream of owning a business, nevertheless, this changed on one day when she and her husband visited a winery in Michigan. She got attracted to the kind of activities which were taking place in this winery. This was the turning point and she had a desire of owning her own winery. Achieving this dream was not easy but it became realistic because of her husband who was supportive of her ideas. Based on this success, it is clear that through our person, the willpower, and prayers; everything being plan can come to reality.
Success involves learning the ins and outs of what is being desired to be pursued. It is also important to form a great relationship with what we are doing through loving it, dedicating your life to your passion and dedicating time to make it better. This is based on how Nikki took her time to learn how to make wine and the ins and outs of owning such a firm. Through forming a great relationship with the winery, she managed to achieve what she never even dreamt of at her tender age.
