The single most important thing you can do for you and your business

Have you ever thought what’s the most important thing you can do for yourself?

I’ve thought about it many times and I got the answer.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to help others

This is not only good for you but also for your business. It’s not so difficult to see why.

I’m going to show you how you can improve your life by helping others and how it will have a strong positive impact on your business.

1. Helping friends makes you feel good

This morning I got an email from a friend. She had a problem a couple days and she was very worried about it. So, she called me just to vent and ask for an opinion.

I was working when the phone rang. Certainly it wasn’t the best moment to interrupt my work for more than one hour.

In addition, I hate talking on the phone. I know it might sound weird. I just don’t like it. I can’t multitask while chatting on the phone. I have tried many times. I always end up giving up whatever I am doing to focus on the other person. It wouldn’t be polite at all to ignore her and go on with my own activity.

Despite all, I picked the phone and listened to my friend while she explained everything in detail. I gave her my opinion and did my best to cheer her up.

It wasn’t in my hand to solve her problem. But I could listen to her, comfort her and support her. That’s exactly what I did.

Today I got an email from my friend just to say thank you. What I did meant a lot to her.

And I feel good. Very good. I love that feeling so much that I want to go beyond.

 

2. Helping strangers makes you feel great

Some people might say that helping friends is easy. This is what friendship is for.

True.

Now, to make it a little bit more difficult, try to help strangers. I am not talking about charity or sending money to Third World countries. O

f course that’s important too. If you are not doing it already you should start now.

But I am talking about helping people around you. The old lady who can hardly carry the groceries. The woman getting soaked under the pouring rain while you are dry under your umbrella. There are many occasions to help others every day. All you need is to open your eyes and see them.

Few days ago, one of my contacts on Twitter re-tweeted this from one of her followers:

“Anybody can help me find fmbl templates for a Facebook page?”

I didn’t know the guy who originally tweeted this. I don’t follow him and he doesn’t follow me.  However I felt I could help him and it wouldn’t cost me any effort.

I simply told him fmbl is not used anymore on Facebook, which m

akes useless to look for those templates. I also suggested him to look for some info about iFrames to create that Facebook page. He tweeted me back to say thank you. I had saved him a lot of time.

Finally, I sent him a link to a blog full of resources where they explain step by step very easily how to create a Facebook page.

I helped him without expecting anything in return.

 

3. Helping people will open doors for you

That guy on Twitter is not the only one I’ve helped without expecting anything in return.

That’s something I do whenever I have the chance and my own responsibilites allow me to do it.

To my surprise, many times my actions get rewarded and they open doors for me.

A couple months ago I read a post on a blog where the blogger explained his new project and how it was stuck due to technical difficulties. He had given me free advice about SEO before on another forum, so I thought it would be nice to help him to set up his autoresponder.

It took me only 30 minutes to solve a problem that was a pain in the ass for him.

Three days after that, I got an email from this guy offering me a freelance job. He needed to build a new site. He was going to look for a freelancer on Odesk but, since he already knew me and the way I work, he offered me the job instead.

See? I didn’t expect anything in return but my actions opened a door for me.

 

4. Helping others is indispensable to build a business online

One of the cornerstones of any business is to satisfy people’s needs. If your product or service doesn’t satisfy a need or a want, your chances of succeeding are very remote.

Basically, what you do is to help people. In this case you get paid for that help. It’s not completely philanthropic, but it still counts. Although, if you are an ethic entrepreneur you should genuinely care for your customers. Regardless the money.

This doesn’t mean you have to give away your products for free. It means that you should care for your customers the same way when you get paid and when there’s no money involved.

Some business people don’t care at all for their clients. That’s not my philosophy and I think those people are underestimating their customers. You can smell from a mile who is genuine and who is not.

I’m not saying that you have to become your customer’s best friend.  I’m just saying that you have to be sure that your customers are satisfied with your product and you have done everything in your hand to exceed expectations and over-deliver.

This will not prevent some people from complaining. There’s one kind of customer who always, always complains. No matter how good you are or how much love you put on your service. They are never satisfied.

Don’t worry too much because, fortunately, those are a minority. You’ve done your best and it will create a long and trustworthy relationship with the majority of your clients.

 

Share your thoughts

Tell us what you think about it. As a customer, do you think it’s important how the people who sell you products or services care about satisfying your needs?

 

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Image: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net