That may or may not be the question.

Sometimes little things occur in a working day, nasty tasting little negatives that we often take to heart without realising or acknowledging that we have been personally upset about the thing that has happened, we need to adjust and feel that hurt and then move on, why must we move on? because if we don't, we will stand still and standing still is quite simply very boring and negative.

A day in Jacque's Head!

With all my experience and knowledge I should always know better Right?

Wrong! I get it wrong and I suffer as we all do when something that was good goes bad.

You may recall in the last article "A day out on the road with Jacque" I called on a nice couple that owned a shop on the wrong side of town and I agreed to leave a Sale or Return spinner full of cards for them to sell, this was because business was not going so well for them and I wanted to try and help them, I thought the cards may attract people through the door, and help them get more sales as cards often do.

So I went back to the shop this month to see how the sales were going and to count up what had sold, I was greeted somewhat frostily yet I dismissed this as nothing and set about counting the card sales.

When I told the customer how many cards had sold and how much they must pay she became huffy, then muttered something about having no cash available and moaned some more about B@##* bank charges when having to use a cheque but finally wrote out a cheque for me.

This did not surprise me much as in my experience the first collection of money is always received rather grumpily, yet I normally bring the customer round by reminding them that "hey don't forget you have actually had this money ", so off I go with my cheque.

Sometime later that day that same customer rings up to complain that 'they do not agree that they have sold the amount of cards'!

Warning bells begin to ring in my head, so I ask what they are trying to achieve by this and am told I must go back to the shop to recount etc., Which I refuse to do (the card sales were so poor that in all honesty it was not worth the time and effort to get involved in arguing over a measly £10.00)

Needless to say, myself and the customer fell out, I informed the customer I would be collecting my card spinner the next day and at this point I had every intention of giving the cheque back and put the whole thing to bed so I could move on. Yet I changed my mind when I was told that the cheque had been canceled, costing her around £12.00 in bank charges.

The amount the disagreement was over was £13.00! yet the customer was happy to pay their bank £12.00 bank charges, I ask you how pathetic is that!

So we part company the next day, I collect my spinner and cards, the customer looses an easy income.

A couple of other things happened over the last month, one customer that had not paid for their card order since March finally paid up, I had actually given up all hope, after many reminders and even my agent chasing for payment had failed.

Another customer whom we did a very large order for has also failed to pay.

So you can understand that while I am not particularly bothered by all this consciously, I think I am tough and none of these things can get to me, however over the last few weeks I have felt rather detached - bored even, I found myself tidying up all my crafty bits and this morning I actually realised I had packed everything away.

The thought of making any appointments was boring me to tears, thinking what's the point they probably won't pay anyway, I'd became more and more negative and feeling very much like there is no point to do anything at all!

So there I was Tuesday morning sulking, every thought in my head was negative everyone is a bastard and there's not a good person out their anywhere except me. I can' t be bothered to do anything, then I think what will I do all day. Nothing! So then I sigh with Boredom, the day stretches before me like an eternity.

So I think 'Aha, you're upset with these people, Oh, your feelings have been hurt, now I don't want to do anything and frankly I'm even boring the pants off myself'.

Then I think 'Hang on a minute, I like what I do, I enjoy trying to help people, and I hate being bored, am I going to let this thing do this to me - No way mate!

I get up and tell myself to stop being such a wuss and to stop feeling sorry for myself and to get to bloody work and go back out there and start selling some cards and "Up yours" to all the people that take the Michael, for every bad person there are ten good ones out there, you just need to find them.

So then I think, if this happens to me, being as tough as I am with all the years of selling experience I have had, then of course it must happen to all of you at some point and maybe by sharing this with you it will help you through a difficult day, week or even a month.

So here I am back at work, chasing my agents, making cards and getting new orders, with the feeling, it is so much easier being positive than feeling negative, and that, I'm sure is the answer!

Happy selling everyone. Jacque