What A Homeless Woman Knows About Success That Most Business Owners Don’t

As I stood in line at Mas Tacos Por Favor, a homeless lady on the outskirts of the parking lot asked people headed towards the line if they had a couple bucks to spare.

This isn’t a rare scene in Nashville or any metropolitan area, but this lady knew a secret to success that many businesses miss.

Not only was the location a high-traffic area and one where people were often waiting in line and then waiting for their order (right now, Mas Tacos doesn’t allow indoor dining…and dining is a strong term for mas tacos) but Mas Tacos doesn’t accept credit cards.

In a time when many restaurants/coffee shops etc., have gone cashless and don’t even accept it as a form of payment, Mas Tacos requires it. 

Her secret to success that many business owners miss is to go where the money’s at!

To make a sale, you have to do two things, get someone to want your product or service and get someone to pay for it.

Obstacle one is hard enough to overcome, so you might as well stack the deck in your favor by completely side-stepping obstacle number two. Go to where people who CAN afford what your selling congregate.

Starbucks does this.

Their coffee shops are primarily located in middle to upper-class areas with above-average population density. In fact, a study done by NYC Data Science Academy found that the average Starbucks store is located in an area that’s 23% more affluent than the national average and has a 500% higher population density.

So people not only have a higher ability to afford their products, but there are 5x as many potential buyers.

As a real estate broker, I did 30-35 transactions in my first year, depending on how you count deals that were split with other agents. This made me one of the top agents in my office if you measured by transaction quantity. But in reality, all these deals netted me roughly $40,000 because my average transaction size was so small.

I was 22 years young and brand new to the business, so most of my clients were first-time buyers looking at buying condos that cost $80,000-$150,000. After all the fees and the brokerage’s split, I might get a check for $1,000 to $1,500 when a transaction closed.

I compared this to other agents who did about a transaction a month, but their average home price was in the $500,000 - $700,000 range.

This meant they were making $7,000 - $10,000 per transaction. So with a lot less work, in fact, many were part-time, they could clear six-figures. Not too shabby.

Again, they went to where the money was at.

While speaking to a group years ago about Marketing To The Affluent, one attendee asked me how I knew who was affluent.

In the real estate industry, you went to where the big homes were. It was fairly obvious.

And it still true and can be used by many.

On top of that, there are now many online ad-targeting options where you can choose who sees your ads based upon income.

If you sell B2B, again, there are many online tools that’ll give you the estimated revenue for different businesses. This could be free resources like LinkedIn or subscription resources like D&B Hoovers.

If a company has 25 employees, they are probably dealing with larger revenues than a solo-entrepreneur. Same for 100, 1,000 or 10,000 employees.

At some point, the entire sales process changes based upon company size, but that’s a different issue, and you need to find your sweet spot.

Think about who you’re selling to and if you could sell to people with a better ability to buy.

Not only will your sales process many times be easier, but you may find you can raise your prices just because you’re selling to people who are less price sensitive.

Learn from Starbucks, a rookie real estate agent, and a homeless woman to make your business more successful!