I recently read a blog talking about how we spend our money is a reflection of who we are.  As I was reading that, I had the following thought, “In our lives, we spend far more than money…including time, passion, talents, relationships.”  When I think about these things, I refer to them as “Personal Assets”.  The question I now have to ask myself is not, how am I spending my money, but rather, how am I spending my capital.

Let’s say I am trying to make a key sale to client.  There are several assets that come into play in this sale:

1. Relational Assets – Do I have a friendship with the customer?  What do I know about him/her personally?  Have I earned some good will by having great customer service in the past?

2. Time Assets – I only have so much time in the day, is the sale worth the amount of time that is going to be spent to make the sale?  Could my time be better used elsewhere?  How much preparation needs to be done, and is that prep time worth the personal sacrifices that need to be made?

3. Money – How much is the sale going to cost me or my company financially?  Are we going to have to discount to be competitive? More importantly, will not making the sale this time create less of an opportunity to make a sale in the future?

There is a cost to everything that we do in business.  The sum of those costs is the total Capital needed to achieve that goal.  Using 20 hours of time,  missing your son’s t-ball game, and spending $10,000 is a bad use of capital to achieve a $200 sale.  On the other hand, investing the time might be worth it to make the sale if it will great a relationship that will last for a long time with many reoccurring purchases.

Hold you Capital closely, it is finite and when it is gone, you can’t get it back.

Perhaps the most valuable asset you have it your Integrity!