Saturday, November 25, 2017

Your Home Business Card Reading Space

Fancy is not the name of the game here. When you are first starting out your home business, it is not necessary to spend tons of money to offer the ultimate experience to your clients, so if you have been waiting to get started until you have the money, have the room, or can fulfill your "mind image" of what your business will be, it's time to stop waiting. As your business grows, you can invest some of the money to make the changes you want to make, but that won't happen unless you get a move on.

So, opening up a home business as a Wee Folk Toracles Card Reader... what do you actually need? A table, two chairs, and a light to see by. Chances are, you already have a table and, if you don't have a table, you may have a coffee table in your living room area that sits in front of your couch. The bottom line is, you need a flat surface, a place for you and your client to sit, and decent enough overhead light or lamp to see your Wee Folk Toracles cards. That's it.

Though it would be wonderful to have a kind of "magical" place to do your card readings, you don't need that to get started. If you have taken the time to hone your skills reading the Wee Folk Toracles through the "Become a Skilled Card Reader" ecourse and/or video series, are warm and welcoming, and are "present", your client won't care about their surroundings... they'll be focused on the reading. After all, they came to you for insight, not a lesson in home decorating.

Let me share a quick story with you to illustrate how important your client's feelings about your space can either make or break your business.

Once in awhile, I like to get out and do some card readings elsewhere. My husband told me about a new metaphysical shop that had opened up about 40 minutes from where we live, so we took a drive one day to check it out. The outside of the building was unique in its shape, creating instant curiosity, and it had a good sized parking lot. My first thought was that the owner had chosen a great place to set up. We parked and went inside.

Instead of walking directly into the "store" area, we found ourselves in a curved hallway having no idea how to enter. There were no signs saying "enter here" or any indication that there was anything beyond where we stood. Apparently, something alerted the people inside that we were there because we heard a weak voice tell us to "open the door and come in".

Upon entering, we could see a display of varied types of incense and sage ahead of us and, turning left, we entered a small room that had crystals of every variety and shape on the counter space, and other small items hanging or lying about. It was colorful, but not yet "aesthetically pleasing", though you could tell a lot of work had gone into setting it up to get the place open.

At the opposite end of this small, oblong room was another very small room and we could see the owner lying in a reclining chair with a child's playpen next to her. The room she was in was only large enough to fit the chair and playpen. The child was 18 months old and clearly unhappy to be cooped up in that small space. When I went to speak with the owner, she did not rise to greet us, but continued lying in her recliner so I was actually speaking to her as she looked at me upside down.

Another woman came to greet us as well and she began speaking at a rate of 500 miles per hour about classes they were offering and a mini metaphysical fair coming up in just a few weeks. I pulled out my Wee Folk Toracles cards when they asked what I did. The owner took them from me, opened up the small bag they were in, barely glanced at the cards and began to exclaim over the crocheted bag. She was still talking to me from the recliner. Did I make the bag? Would I be willing to make more that she could sell in her store? Could I sell her a few decks of the cards for wholesale? I made no promises. She put the cards back into the bag and handed them back. The child was now fussing quite loudly and the sound echoed.

The entire time I was there - about 30 minutes - it was easy to see that these two women were not at all interested in me as they didn't really hear what I said. This was obvious when the woman giving me a tour of the rest of the building asked me four separate times what I did. In the meantime, the child was screaming and fussing due to being cooped up in that tiny room and could be heard throughout the building.

Needless to say, when I left the building, I had already decided against reading there. The women were not interested in creating any kind of rapport which was made obvious when they "looked through me" instead of at me as I spoke and gave sales pitch after sales pitch instead of listening to determine whether or not they should offer something specific to me.

Such a shame. Curiosity about the building alone could bring in many customers, but the people inside had no idea how to make the people who came feel welcome. It was not a place that I wanted to stay. In fact, escape was first and foremost in my mind.

The point here is that it doesn't matter how small or how large the space is where you set up your business. It doesn't matter how fancy your space is. What matters is how your client feels upon entering and how they feel while they are there with you that will determine if they will ever come back or whether they will recommend you to their friends and family.

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