So I get laid off from my job at a local pedorthic shoe store last year. It was a franchise and I understand there were several stores lost last year. Too bad. Maybe corporate should have taken more of an interest when it came to training their franchisees for the job. Or lent a hand instead of usless advice. But that’s my bias and another blog. Anyway, so I decide to open my own store, on the WEB. Wow, this could be the best thing I’ve done in a long time. I can work from home and be there for my kids. I;m thinking, everybody has shoes, they just need an arch support for them. My little ezWalker custom arch support inside their shoes is just what they need to make them feel more comfortable. Who wouldn’t want that?
So I open in Feb. and I wait. No orders. I wait some more. No orders. So finally I decide I need to market this business. Duh! We’ll at this time, seeing as how I’d had no orders, I had no money to market with. So how am I going to market with no money? I have a mouth and it costs the same to feed it weather it’s working for me or not. So I decide to use it and embark upon the face to face, mouth to mouth networking scene. I start attending Rainmaker meetings, and Women Inspire meetings, and Affiliated Women International meetings. MeetUp groups. I attended a Chamber meeting and also a U3 meeting. I never knew there were so many networking groups. Oh did I mention I’m also trying to include social networking on the Internet. Granted I’m not as good at writing on social network sites as I am simply running off my mouth at a networking meeting, but I’m giving it my best shot.
I get lucky and one by one the orders start to come in. Still because I have a big mouth, and not that my web site is doing much for me, the orders trickle in. Then all of a sudden I get call. Somebody gave this guy one of mybusiness cards and so he called me due to the great reccommendation the other guy gave him.
So I consulted with this guy (who happened to have been in an accident 60 years ago and got his left heel cut off.) I saw that he protected the injured foot quite a bit. I went to work altering the shoes he had on his feet that day. I crafted a little pedorthic device designed to raise and cushion his reconstructed heel. He commented, “I wish I’d found you 60 years ago.”
He tells a friend, I go to his house to help him. He says his feet have never felt to comfortable.
I’m networking, and this gal asks me if I can help her dad who has Parkinson’s disease? I say sure, and the next day I get a call from this gal’s dad. I go to his house to help him. I casted him for an ezWalker and got him a pair of shoes through my web store. They came the next day and he loves them. He comes tomorrow to pick up his ezWalker custom arch support. I can’t wait to see him and get him walking better than he has in a long time.
I have found myself doing mostly house calls. I have gone to offices, homes, meetings, and even casted someone in the parking lot of a restruant. LOL She was a friend. I thought I’d be working from home and taking orders off the Internet through www.walkezstore.com. Ya Right! If I intend to make this business a success, I must be willing to go and do what is necessary for that dream to come true. What ever it takes. We just need to learn to watch for the clues that life will give us. They are there, we must open out minds and hearts to the possibility of doing something different that we planned.
This just proves, a wise person does not plan how things will be, because they probably won’t turn out like you think. A wise person listens and follows. I remember reading a book in high school that basically taught me this lesson but I didn’t realize at the time how true it was. The book was John Steinbeck’s of Mice and Men. At the time it seemed silly. Now it seems very relavant. I have known for some time now, that all plans are subject to change without notice, and this is just one more way of the universe saying, “see, I’ve been trying to tell you.”
So when you get the desire to start something and you think you have it all planned out, think again. Don’t get me wrong, plans are good. Plans give is goals and goals give us motivation. But remember, you aren’t really the one in charge, there is something bigger than you calling the shots. Go with the flow. Take what you can get. Do the right thing and listen. Because fighting against the current is not an option if you want success. See you can create everything, spontaineously successfull. Just follow your clues.
So go out there and be successful. Let life lead you in the right direction. Listen to what comes your way and don’t ever say, “That’s not a part of the plan.” It’s all a part of the plan, you just don’t know it yet.
