(Do you have the right personality type to successfully run your own business? )

It takes an entrepreneurial fire in your belly to (http://www.microsoft.com/india/smallbusiness/-start a business) and make it succeed. Not everyone has it.

How do you know if you have what it takes to start a business? There's really no way to know for sure. But I do find things in common among the emotional and family fabric of people ready to consider an entrepreneurial venture.

You don't have to fit all seven of these categories to be a good candidate for entrepreneurship. But it probably wouldn't hurt. In general, the more you have in common with these characteristics, the closer you probably are to being ready to try going out on your own.

1. You come from a line of people who couldn't work for someone else. I don't mean that in a negative way. People who are successful at establishing their own business tend to have had parents who worked for themselves. It's usually easier to get a job with a company than to start your own business; people who strike out on their own often have the direct example of a parent to look to.

2.You're a lousy employee. No need to sugar-coat this one. People who start their own businesses tend to have been fired from or quit more than one job. I'm not saying you were laid off for lack of work or moved from one job to a better-paying one. You were asked to leave, or you quit before they could fire you. Think of it as the marketplace telling you that the only person who can effectively motivate and manage you is yourself.

3.You see more than one definition of "job security." I am truly envious of the few people I know who have stayed with one employer for 25 or 30 years. They look very secure. But how many people do you know who are able to stay with one company for that long? In a rapidly changing economy, job security can be frighteningly fleeting.

4. You've gone as far as you can go, or you're not going anywhere at all. Sometimes the motivation to start a new venture comes from having reached the top of the pile where you are, looking around, and saying, "(http://www.microsoft.com/india/smallbusiness/howtoguides.mspx-What's next)?" Early success can be wonderful, but early retirement can sometimes drive energetic and motivated people totally crazy.

5. You've done the market research already. Don't even talk to me about your great business idea if you haven't put the time into figuring out if there's a market for your product or service. As the people behind any number of failed Internet ventures will tell you, "cool" doesn't necessarily translate into "profitable." Don't bother building it if you haven't figured out whether there's a good chance the customers will come.

6. You've got the support of your family. (http://www.microsoft.com/india/smallbusiness/partners.mspx-Starting a business) is stressful under the best of circumstances. Trying to do it without the support of your spouse or other significant family members or friends would probably be unbearable.

7. You know you cannot do it alone. You might excel at promoting a business. Maybe you love running the financial end of the enterprise. You could be someone who starts a business because you have unique creative or technical know-how to create a product.

Any of the above is possible, but it's unlikely that you are going to excel at all of these tasks — or at all of the tasks involved in running any business. Forget all that doing it alone stuff. You are going to need some help sometime.

The willingness to get that help — having employees, partners or consultants for those areas in which you are not an expert — is one indicator of likely future success. "No successful entrepreneur has ever succeeded alone," development consultant Ernesto Sirolli writes in "Ripples From the Zambezi." "The person who is most capable of enlisting the support of others is the most likely to succeed."

Whenever someone needs to sell a car, it can be a very stressful experience. It can be difficult to know how to go about trying to sell your car and the whole process can seem quite overwhelming. Advertising your car is the most crucial first step in selling any car. Without advertising, no one will even know that your car is even for sale. When advertising your car, two of the most common places to turn are the Autotrader magazine or by online car advertising.

By advertising your car in Autotrader, you will get an advertisement that will run for two weeks. This advertisement includes one small photo of the car as well as two hundred characters of text. There are many regional editions of the Autotrader and the owner of the car can choose which region they would like their advertisement to run in. Advertising in the Autotrader is fairly expensive though.

Although there are many advantages to advertising your car in the Autotrader, there are some disadvantages. The first being that you have limited circulation and a limited shelf life; you also only have two hundred characters to describe the car. This is not a lot and will cause you to have to cram as much information as you can into a very small space. Also, because you only get one picture, you need to make sure that you capture the total essence of your car in that one photo. This is most often impossible to do.

For these reasons, many people prefer to advertise their car online. There are many advantages to advertising your car this way. One of the biggest advantages in advertising your car online is that it’s significantly cheaper than advertising in print. This is because bandwidth and disk space are much cheaper than paper, ink, and magazine distribution. This makes for big savings that can be passed on to the seller.

The other advantage to advertising your car online is that there can be much more information included in the advertisement. Also when advertising your car online, you are usually allowed more than one picture in your advertisement. This can make a true portrayal of your car and can interest more buyers.  Also, on many sites you can advertise your car until sold for far less than you can advertise it for two weeks in a car magazine.

Advertising your car online allows for many more potential buyers to look at your ad. Because it’s online, anybody with an Internet connection will have access to the advertisement. This will mean that not only are more people looking at the ad but there will be potential for many more bids among interested buyers. This could mean getting a much better price for your car.

Another advantage to advertising your car online is that your ad will be up and running much more quickly than submitting it to a print magazine. The turnaround time between submitting an ad and seeing it run is generally much shorter. This means that it will be available for the public to view much more quickly as well. This could help get your car sold more quickly.

"And they are making sales. Ari, if the numbers game leads to sales, why should I change? Deep down, the old numbers game just feels wrong somehow... can you give me some insights so I can unlock myself from having to follow everyone else’s path?"

Interestingly enough, I had just gotten off the phone that morning with Harold Cameron and Ann Thurman, who have both been using the Unlock The Game Mastery Program. They shared with me how the idea of the numbers game has taken on a whole new meaning since they started using their new Mindset.

And they gave me actual, specific before-and-after numbers detailing the changes in their selling results. But they aren’t numbers in the way you think -- "more calls equal more sales."

In a minute, I'll let them tell you about their experiences in their own words, but first I want to say a little more about the mystique of the old "numbers game" and why most people who sell still think it’s the only way to go.

The whole idea of the old numbers game is that if you spend enough time "dialing for dollars" you're bound to make the occasional sale.

Then, when you do make a sale, you believe even more that the number of calls you make is the secret of success -- the more you call, the more sales you'll make. Everybody assumes that because the old numbers game works once in a while, it's the way to go.

In fact, almost every sales manager in corporate America uses the numbers game to measure their salespeople's success.

So if you're a sales manager or work for a sales manager, this article may come as a real shock.

The wakeup call here is that it isn't about how many sales you're making with the numbers game, but how many you're losing. Think about it.

When you're operating out of the old numbers game paradigm, how many leads do you burn through with every call you make? And how much time do you spend chasing and following up with prospects who will probably never buy?

From the Unlock The Game perspective, the old numbers game creates a dialing "rat race." You're trapped, making huge numbers of calls to reach that tiny percentage of prospects who will buy from you.

Well, here's what Ann and Harold have to say about the numbers game. And though they're in very different business environments, they've had similar experiences since they adopted the Mastery Program

Ann's Story

Ann Thurman recruits real estate agents for a residential real estate firm in the Seattle area. She had been dialing literally hundreds of prospects a day -- the essence of the old numbers game: "I was making 200 to 300 calls a day. It was taking 6 or 7 hours, and I was lucky to get 10 seconds of my script in before agents would hang up on me."

She said that in the first month that she began applying the Mindset, her call volume dropped by 80 percent. "But I was having actual dialogues with 50 to 60 people a day -- real conversations that would last several minutes," she said.

"And I didn't have one hang-up in my first 100 calls. Now I get very few hang-ups, and they aren't rude -- a lot of the time, people ask me to call them back. And when I do, we usually a conversation."

Ann said she used to set one appointment every 2 weeks. When she began using the Mindset, that increased to about 4 appointments a week, and she signed 2 agents in less than 3 weeks. She has also had more people call her back after initial conversations because they decided they wanted to talk about making a change.

"So I'm doing fewer calls, but my results are better," she said. "I'm finding that the Mindset language like 'That's not a problem' is really important because it lets the other person feel I’m not trying to control the conversation."

She concluded, "The Unlock The Game approach is definitely a more rational use of my time. The old approach is to pursue everyone because everyone's a potential buyer. So if you do this many calls, this many appointments, this many bookings, it'll turn into this many sales.

"And when it came to chasing and following up, I used to really try to pressure people. Now, if I know we aren't a good fit, I don't have to pursue them. I know when to walk away without feeling guilty. The old way was the 'quick kill' method versus the Mindset way of building a long-term relationship."

Harold's Story

Harold Cameron sells printing services for a long-established family-owned printing business in Pennsylvania. He told me, "My challenge is that most companies I call already have a printer they're very loyal to."

He said that since working with the Mastery Program, he too has been making fewer calls, but more quality calls. His ratio of being asked to send quotes has improved, too: "Before, out of every 100 calls, I probably would end up actually talking seriously to 20 people, and of those 2 or 3 would ask for quotes.

"Now, out of every 100 calls, I'm talking seriously with 60 to 70 people, and being asked for maybe 10 or 12 quotes."

The Mindset has also helped Harold to eliminate the old numbers game problem of "burning through leads."

For example, the vice president of a major computer manufacturer not only returned his call but also referred him to the person responsible for overseeing the corporation's print services.

So the Mindset is helping Harold to create long-term relationships.

Numbers Game vs. the New Mindset

Here are some of the ways that the Unlock The Game Mindset solves the problems caused by the old numbers game:

Old Numbers Game Vs New Selling Mindset

1. "Burning through calls" involves huge investments of time and energy to achieve a few "successes."

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When you focus on quality rather than quantity, every call is a chance to learn your prospect’s truth. So your calls are more thoughtful and efficient.

2. Numbers-game scripts "talk at" prospects and lead to rejection in all but a tiny percentage of calls.

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Starting calls with a focused problem statement makes it easy to create two-way dialogue.

3. Prospects know that they’re just a phone number to you and that you’re not interested in engaging them on a human level.

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Your attentiveness to your prospects’ concerns makes a real human connection possible.

4. The only goal is to move the sale forward, or to get a quick no so you can move on to the next call.

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The goal is to learn the truth and explore there’s a fit between your solution and your prospect’s problem or concern.

5. The numbers game can leave you feeling dissatisfied, frustrated, and rejected.

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When you’ve learned the truth, whether the answer is a yes or a no, rejection is impossible.

The mystique of the old numbers game is that you're bound to "hit" once in a while. But people who sell the old way never ask themselves how many opportunities they've lost in a day because they haven't gotten to the truth with their prospects.

If you're feeling guilty that you should be playing the old numbers game because your colleagues are making sales from it, consider this: All you’re seeing from them is how many sales they are making -- not how many sales they’re losing.

And consider that by refocusing your attention on the quality of each call versus the quantity of calls, you can experience new sales success you may never have thought possible.

And that’s where the opportunity lies for you.

The Mastery Program helps you find these opportunities by teaching you:

* Language that creates trust and truthful conversations

* How to eliminate pitches and other traditional "sales tactics"

* Ways to diffuse sales pressure and continue conversations

The Unlock The Game Mastery Program shows you how to debunk many other outdated sales myths that you may be unaware of -- but are losing you sales.