I had lunch today with an associate, while I was waiting on him to arrive, I struck up a conversation with the waitress. She was telling me of her struggles with money, then later told me about having digital cable, dvr, and on demand. I could not help but use this as a teaching moment.
I asked why she was having problems with money. First she blamed the economy, I said but your working right? She said yes. Well is business down here, she followed. It looks quite full to me, I replied. Well people aren’t tipping as well, she said. Are you going the extra mile to receive that extra tip, I replied. She quickly said yes and then listed off a bunch of reasons why she is the victim of low tips. I told her the problem was her thinking. You need to change your thinking from revenue out to revenue in. You said you were struggling for money…If you want to change that then look at it this way. If think money comes in instead of going out, would you still have the digital cable with all the bells and whistles? That is money going out, not coming in. Would that money be best used going somewhere else, for 3 months, 6 months, or a year. You know you can get some TV for free and now most television stations have 2nd and 3rd digital channels you can watch for free. So would $300, $600, or $1200 help you out. Of course, she said. Well that is the difference between revenue in and revenue out.
I don’t know if this helped her. She may have been trying to give me the sob story to get a better tip. As it turned out my associate paid today so I hope he tipped her. I would like to think that the advise was more valuable and a $7.00 tip.
Jon
