335 – December 1
“The owner of a second-hand car knows how hard it is to drive a bargain.”—Unknown
There is a guiding principle to smart shopping that has nothing to do with searching out the lowest price. While looking for bargains is certainly a good idea—why pay a higher price if you can avoid it?—too many people will buy anything if it’s a bargain. They end up with closets and houses full of mismatched objects they got a great deal on, but that they don’t really like or look good in. Smart shoppers buy quality rather than quantity, and buy things that they love.
Debbie Leaper, president of StylePoints, offers personalized color and wardrobe consultations at her studio in Toluca Lake, California, and has a wonderful sense of style. She maintains that a good wardrobe can actually help your bottom line by increasing your income. In her newsletter, she cites Dr. Albert Mehrabian’s statistics: When someone meets you for the first time, 55 percent of what they think about you is determined without you even saying a word. Their opinions begin the moment they first see you and are based on your appearance and your body language. In the first seven seconds of meeting you, your audience makes ten rapid-fire decisions about you, including what you do for a living, how trustworthy you are, how much money you make, and how successful you are.
Debbie lists these things to avoid when shopping for clothes:
- Impulse purchases of fad clothing that will soon be out of style.
- Unusual or trendy colors that coordinate with nothing else in your wardrobe.
- Colors that look good on your friends—but not on you.
- Fabric that is shiny, itchy, or cheap.
- A “can’t resist” markdown that will fit when you lose five pounds.
- An outfit that looks swell on the mannequin—whose body type bears no relation to yours.
She then suggests that buying more expensive clothing may actually be cheaper for you in the long run. Debbie gives a formula for calculating the “cost per wearing:” Take the cost of the item and divide that by the number of times you expect to wear it: For example, a pair of dark wool gabardine pants that costs $150 could be worn once a week for nine months or thirty-six times annually. If they last three years, each of the 108 times it is worn costs $1.39. Not such a bad deal, when compared to $50 bargain trousers made from cheap synthetic fabric. This so-called “bargain” will be worn approximately six times before the fabric starts to lose its shape, develops a sheen, or starts to pull. The cost per wearing in this case is $8.33—not such a bargain, after all. Try buying fewer items, but more expensive, quality ones. The few pieces you have you will treasure, and you’ll feel “like a million” wearing them.
Today’s Affirmation:
“I am gorgeous! I am beautiful! I am divine!”
A while back, I made a guest appearance with host Jaime Kalman on AE Movational Chat on ActorsE at http://bit.ly/vFKR5c. We had a ball talking about life, money, goals, obstacles and successes!
Jaime is a Coach, too, and we met at my usual networking stomping grounds – WRS www.WorthwhileReferralSources.com. We hit is off immediately, and of course I followed up with a Gold Call 🙂 It’s a perfect example of what WRS founder and owner Nancy Sardella talks about – you can get a lot of business opportunities from people in your same profession. There’s no competition – there’s room for everyone to make money, do good, and have fun!
