Money is in the Database
If you are truly running a better business, and I hope that you are, then both your income today and your income in the future are coming from people who are already documented in your database. Your ability to keep track of those people is one of the clearest leading indicators of your future income. At a minimum, you should be recording a personā€™s first and last name, email address, mailing address, and cell phone number. You do not need dozens of fields or complicated tagging systems. If you have that basic information for everyone you know, consider yourself incredibly well positioned. Here is the reality. Roughly six percent of your database will transact year over year. Your job is not to guess who that six percent will be. Your job is to know who they are when the time comes. If you cannot identify them, track them, and stay connected to them, your income will always feel unpredictable, even when opportunity is sitting right in front of you. Now, let me be very clear. It does not matter how you track these people. Some professionals use a notebook and a pen. That works, until it is time to send holiday cards or communicate at scale. Others use a simple spreadsheet. Some use a sophisticated CRM with automation and workflows. The tool itself is not the determining factor. What matters is the behavior around the tool. Consistency, accuracy, and discipline will always outperform complexity. A simple system that you actually use will beat an advanced system that you avoid. Your behavior determines your success ratio, not the software. When you track people properly, you can communicate intentionally. You can plan ahead. You can stay relevant without being intrusive. And most importantly, you can understand why someone may transact in the future, not just when. If you do not have this foundational concept absolutely nailed, everything else in your business becomes harder than it needs to be. Because at the end of the day, all of your money comes from your database, and the people you know today, and the people you will meet tomorrow.