The Love / Hate Factor in Client / Vendor Relationships
“I love my current service provider. We’ve been together for years now and I just can’t bear the thought of leaving him behind.”
“My vendor is someone I trust with my life… They know my business inside and out and no one else will.”
Sound familiar? If it does, read on.
The love relationship between the client and vendor.
I’m not talking about romantic love here, I’m talking about devotion and the desire to stay with someone because of the comfort level you’ve built up with them. Many people also stay with vendors when they trust them and they are heard.
In 9 times out of 10, this is a perfect situation and most of you are probably experiencing this. You’ve built up your working relationship to the point where trust exists, familiarity exists and that love and devotion is happening. However, in that 1 case (sometimes more than just 1/10 cases) it goes sour … sometimes, without you even realizing it.
Here’s why these love relationships can sometimes be detrimental to your business growth.
When a service provider works with a client for awhile, they build up that comfort AND the exclusivity to tell you what they think you should do in their business or guide you through the next phase. Sometimes, that vendor’s knowledge and skill set is limited. When the guiding process and a limited skill set meet, fear sinks in. Particularly, when another vendor or service provider pops up on the scene.
The comfortable, caring, loving vendor you have then has fear. When this fear exists, good judgement is no longer made for YOU and your business. Instead, they may act out on their “lack mindset” and guide you in ways that are NOT the best for you and your business. They may tell you that one path is the right way and the other way is wrong… And you bet they’ll have a ton of fear-based reasons why it is so.
How to tell if you’re in this love/hate kind of relationship.
Ask yourself a simple question: when I bring up other vendors or service providers to my comfy vendor, the one I’ve had for awhile, does he or she look to hear the opinions of others or are they always finding fault in the newcomers? If so, there’s a good chance you’re dealing with a fear-based vendor. Someone who knows they lack the skillset yet doesn’t want to lose the source of income.
If they are instead willing and open to hearing new ideas, then you know they are working for your best interests and not just a paycheck. You also want to be sure that you are working with someone who stays current, trendy and knows a lot about the subject matter on hand.
Hopefully this helps you get out of relationships that may not be in your best interest and move into ones that are! Remember, comment and tell me your opinions or share your stories.
Technorati Tags: Erin Blaskie, client, vendor, relationships, love, hate, lack mindset, fear, scarcity, business
How to: “Google”
The latest craze sweeping across the Internet!
You may have heard of Google from your friends on the interwebs (slang for Internet / the World Wide Web). Google is a reasonably popular search engine used by at least one hundred people per day. [Citation needed.]
We hope that this tutorial helps ease your frustrations with using Google’s popular search functionality.
Step One: Visiting Google
First, open your Internet browser (ie: Opera, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Netscape or any other browser used to access the Internet).
Then, in the address bar (the box located near the very top) you want to type in http://www.google.com.
We’ve included a screenshot to show you where to type the URL in.

Step Two: Typing Your Search Term Into Google
In the blank box located around the center of your screen, you’ll want to enter the search term (aka what you are looking for) into the search box.
You can do this by following the screenshot below. For this example, we’re searching for “Lukas Bott”.

Step Three: Pressing Enter
This step is fairly simple compared to the other two. After typing in your search term, press the Enter button on your keyboard OR you can press Google Search.
Don’t worry about the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. That is reserved for advanced users only.

Step Four: Congratulations!
After pressing enter, you will be presented with all of your search items! From here, you can navigate to the sites that Google deemed most relevant to your search criteria.
I hope this tutorial has been helpful for you. Now that you have mastered Google, why not try and find this post in Google (hint: type in Erin Blaskie)!
Technorati Tags: Erin Blaskie, Lukas Bott, Google, tutorial, how-to, how to, Internet, Interwebs, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer, business tips

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