business through the eyes of a child

My children are both grown up adults now, which is weird, but when they were very young they would often accompany me to breakfast meetings and coaching sessions before I dropped them off at daycare or school.

Sitting at a table next to me they listened to me conducting many sales meetings and coaching sessions and we always talked after about what was going on. They learned when business was good by the frequency of bank deposits I made and eventually pieced together what a service business was all about:

1. Find someone you like to spend time with.
2. Pay attention to what they are stressed about.
3. When you find a problem they have, think up a way to solve it using your skills and the things you've learned.
4. Make a "pitch" by offering to solve the problem in exchange for a certain amount of money.
5. Make a promise of what you are going to do and by what day and time.
6. Do the thing you said were you going to do by that date and time.
7. Make sure the person is happy with what you gave them.
8. When they are, send them an invoice.
9. When the check comes in the mail, go to the bank machine and deposit it.
10. Go to the bank machine, take some money out and go have some fun somewhere and something fancy to eat.
11. Repeat steps 1 through 10 as necessary.

In explaining how a service business worked to my young children, it actually helped me simplify my own thinking. It's actually pretty simple.