Some of you may know that we have a cottage at Goose Rocks Beach. We’re up there most weekends and we don’t rent it out because I don’t like people touching my stuff. We have lots of guests visit and occasionally, we’ll let a friend or relative use it without us being there. We don’t charge them anything, but we usually wind up getting a nice thank you.

So, last week, we let a friend use it. Let’s call them HeyYou. So, HeyYou went up on Tuesday. Elaine called on Tuesday to make sure they found everything, needed anything, etc. HeyYou was happy. Elaine called on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to ask for a favor. HeyYou didn’t answer, nor return any of Elaine’s voice mail messages. Elaine complained to me.

At 8:56 Saturday morning, I called HeyYou and left this message on voicemail. HeyYou, Elaine’s been calling you, but you haven’t called back. I hope everything’s OK. If I don’t hear from you in 5 minutes, I’m gonna call the Kennebunkport Police Dept and ask them to come check on you and I left our HOME NUMBER.

At 9:02, I called the police department and they said that they’d get someone down there shortly.

At 9:21, HeyYou called ELAINE’S CELL # saying that they had stayed only one night, then continued on. When Elaine asked how come they hadn’t returned her calls, HeyYou replied that they hadn’t gotten Elaine’s message, nor their mother’s message, nor their cousins message.

I called the police department. Thanked them and told them that we’d heard from the culprits.

This kind of stuff happens every day in business. Now, I’m not saying that HeyYou, your prospects or your customers are bad people. I AM saying that they don’t always tell you the WHOLE truth, that they don’t always have the same priorities as you, and that you can waste a lot of time wondering what’s going on.

Now, in this particular case, I don’t care about the truth, but

Do you think it was a coincidence that HeyYou called 26 minutes after my message?

Do you think that it’s relevant that HeyYou called Elaine’s cell rather than the number that I left?

Do you think that HeyYou’s story would stand up if I called their mother and cousin?

Doesn’t matter. They’ll never be invited again.

If you’d like to discuss application to the professional world, let me know.

On Wednesday, I received this message through my Facebook account.

“hi rick…..i am reaching out to you in total desperation in not knowing the best way to handle a very difficult situation. any chance you could give me a couple of minutes time in a phone conversation???? it is regarding a mass exodus of customers who are switching to another ….”

On Friday, I received this message through my LinkedIn account.

Subject: Help! Hey you around today? I need to be smacked around a little!

So, why doesn’t this story belong on my other blog?

This is only two examples of thousands of business owners that are stuck. Some know that they’re stuck. Some don’t know that they’re stuck and some deny that they’re stuck. Think about these questions.

Do you have debt and do you wish that you didn’t?

Do you think that there’s a ‘code of ethics’ in your industry and that your competitors wouldn’t like to put you out of business? Do you get pissed off when one of your competitors doesn’t play by your rules?

Do you have a revenue goal this year, with benchmarks, an action plan to reach it and are you on target?

Do you know what your org chart will look like in 2015? Do you know what your role in your company will be?

Have you had a million dollar year? What’s your net? $250K? $100K? $30K?

I had a one hour conversation with a new client and grew commissions from $800/week to $2,400/week. One conversation ! Are you making $40K/year? Would you like to make $120K/year?

I have a client that says I took him from $30,000/year to $30,000/month in three months. I have a client that did $600K the year before we started. They did $1.3 million the first year and $2.8 the second year.

This blog will be for and about business owners that don’t want to be victims. That are tired of pretending. That will stop talking and do whatever it takes to get be whatever they can imagine.

Welcome aboard! Please share this with your friends that own businesses.