How I Became the most Valued Person at School
When I went to the special school for Dyslexic kids I was .bullied at first, simply because I was the only kid there whose education was paid for by the state, all the other kids were .paid for by their parents.
But within a few years I was the most valued kid at the school, by pupils and teachers !
Do you want to know the secret of how I did that ?
Yes ?
Well let me tell you then.
The first thing is that I was always of an entrepreneurial turn of mind.
Even before going away to boarding school I had any number of little money-making projects to supplement my pocket money.
My mother tells me that at age 8 I had a business selling damson fruit from the front gate !
The second thing was that I realised that most of my fellow pupils had a lot of spare money, and when I say a lot I mean a LOT – like “my dad owns a couple of oil wells” – that much !
And the third thing was the greatest “Ah-Ha” moment of my life.
It was like this…
Because I was at a boarding school I had a fair bit of time on my hands.
I quickly realised that I could quite easily make money, washing some of the teachers cars, cleaning shoes for teachers and pupils.
But that is making use of MY spare time, which is limited, and therefore caps my income.
I noticed that in the senior school there were a couple of pupils who had a “done for you” homework service…. Interesting…
Now being dyslexic I was probably the last person you would want to outsource your homework to !! But I quickly realised that I could outsource that task to other pupils in the school, I didn’t have to do it all myself !!
(Can you see the light bulb coming on there ?!)
And I could make a good margin in a high value/high price niche market.
To cut a long story short as a result of outsourcing I managed to start up several businesses at school.
– an after hours canteen/tuck shop
– a chip (French fry) shop
– a pirate television station
– a done for you homework service
– a bed making and shoe shine service
– a car wash service
and the best thing of all was the fact that I outsourced most of this to other pupils.
And that was how I became the most valued person at school.
I realised there was a market that had specific needs and had money.
I then found a way to supply the service that met the demand cost-effectively, even though I personally didn’t have the skill or the time.
Sometimes the best way to make money is to be the middle person that connects people with the money and the need, with those that need the money and have the time and skill.
St Trinians had nothing on me !
With the proceeds from my various enterprises I managed to buy a new computer and my first VHS Camcorder !! , and the rest as they say is history…..
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Outsourcing for You
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There are several different types of outsourcing that I use today in my business, one of the most common is micro outsourcing.
I created a video showing you some of the micro-outsourcing websites that I use most often.
Click here to go to the video 🙂
Hope you enjoy the video, if you find this video useful please do comment on the page.
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Overcoming Phobias
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Believe it or not 10 years ago one of my big phobias was public speaking.
I was so shy that if I was at a workshop I wouldn’t dare to put up my hand in case somebody handed me the microphone!!!
I conquered my fear of public speaking by facing it head on.
I actually remember the day I was attending a big multi speaker Internet marketing seminar with around 300 or 400 people.
I was watching the speakers speak from stage, I pointed to one of the speakers and said to Dave “I’m going to do that.”
Over the next two years I had a kind of Tunnel Vision and learnt all I could about public speaking.
I went on courses, booked myself in to speak at some small workshops with 4 – 5 people, then workshops with 10 to 15 people.
Then one day I was in a hotel out at Heathrow Airport and the next day I was booked in to speak at my first Internet marketing event.
This was an event run by Steve Foley at the Renaissance hotel at Heathrow, there were only about 20 or 30 people in the room, but boy why was I nervous.
I’ve come a long way since then and am now quite happy speaking in front of 100 of 200 people at a time!! In fact I now look forward to my speaking events, I enjoy them !!
However you can always learn more and improve, so tonight I’m attending a toastmasters meet up in Hove for the first time. I’m a little bit nervous because I don’t really know what to expect.
I’ll keep you updated and let you know how it goes…
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Useful Tools
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What’s my ip – find out what your ip address is
SEO Quake – SEO Toolbar
Grammarly – online Grammar Checker
All the best,
Sarah Staar
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Find out more about Sarah Staar’s products
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