Anyone reasonably good at business dealings?

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1000Knives
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04 Feb 2012, 9:15 am

I've realized probably one big exception to my sorta dodgy social skills is in the area of business dealings. Not quite like, working in an office, as that still "feels" sketchy to me, as I've worked in one, and yeah. But as far as selling something I know about and "believe in" a little bit, I'm not bad, I think. As a kid, I always made the most money at tag sales. Also, one time in high school, I got the grand idea since the schools had to stop selling soda in my state, to take over their business. So I'd bring a backpack with ice packs and full of cans of soda, and sell each can for a dollar a piece, and I'd make 12-20 bucks a day doing that, I went on a streak of about 2-3 weeks before getting in trouble for it. So, I kinda think I have a bit of a natural entrepreneur spirit, I guess. Like for me, with the selling soda at the school thing, the business was a great "mask" and I could talk to a lot more people than I normally would have, too, which I liked.

So yeah, my question is, is anyone here sorta like that? Somewhat good at business dealing? I mean not Bill Gates or Steve Jobs good, but reasonably OK, if not somewhat better than most of your peers? For me, it seemed like one of the easiest social skills to learn. I'm just wondering if anyone is sorta the same as me, sorta crappy/so-so social skills everywhere else, but somehow able to conduct business dealings/transactions pretty well, and able to do price haggling and stuff like that. Maybe it's the concreteness of business transactions that makes it easiest for me, I don't know. But yeah, anyone else at all like this?



emtyeye
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04 Feb 2012, 9:39 am

Yes. Price haggling - no. But I have had in past and do now have a small business.
I am not good at making the money I really need from it. But I like the independence and the structured social interaction. And I am very friendly mostly, and love to pass on useful information, and my customers like that.



dianthus
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04 Feb 2012, 9:42 am

Yes. I work as a sales rep. I do very well at it because the interactions are basically scripted. I'm not literally following a script, but I mean there's a specific goal and purpose to each conversation. I know what I'm going to talk to the person about. I don't do any haggling, I basically just present information, ask questions and make recommendations. I like it because I can talk to a lot of different people without having to grasp for things to talk about, and the conversations are short.

The downside to it, is that people try to get personal with me, and that makes me really uncomfortable. When the conversation turns to small talk, I falter. Some people ask me really personal questions. Men ask me out and sometimes make really outrageous sexual comments. At times things can get very, very awkward.



Rascal77s
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04 Feb 2012, 9:45 am

I was in what you could call sales for a almost 20 years and I did pretty well as an independent contractor. But it was in a new area of finance/technology and I was valued more for my out of the box solutions than my sales skills. The environment I was in was oddly full of AsPD people, no joke. In a way they're easier to deal with; you know that they are trying to screw you over and the goal is to make money without getting screwed over, no guessing involved. But it was also very tiring mentally and I started getting sick all the time and started losing my hair. I had to get out of a business I should have never been in from the start. Now I'm working on a degree to be an animal behaviorist, which is something I've loved since childhood. Better late than never I guess. Tried working in an office a long time ago and ended up with depression and anxiety. Co-workers are not something that I can deal with.

I'll tell you this though. When I was a kid in 3rd or 4th grade I did multiple trick or treat rounds on halloween and ended up with 2 pillow cases full of candy. I didn't eat them, I waited till all of the other kids were out of candy and having sugar withdraws then I sold them my candy on the play ground :lol: It's amazing that I'm not a drug dealer today.



kestrel
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04 Feb 2012, 9:53 am

Not necessarily price haggling, but cost estimation, project management, payroll management, inventory management, and having nervous breakdowns..... yeah, I'm good at that stuff.



Joe90
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04 Feb 2012, 10:13 am

I am no good at all at this sort of thing. In fact, I'm so no good at it that it's rather embarrassing.

Once somebody asked me something like, ''if you had XYZ, how much would you sell it for?'' and they were expecting my answer to be anywhere between, say, £40 and £70, and I said, ''uhh....£550??'' And they were like, ''£550?! !''

Heh heh.... :oops:


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ChrisP
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04 Feb 2012, 11:42 am

My Aspie dad worked for the UK Civil Service. I remember him saying after retiring:
'on reflection, maybe my career might have been more successful if I hadn't felt the need to brighten up dull business meetings'.

An example of his style emerged in a survey from the Personnel Dept, which included the question:
'Give the number of workers in your Dept broken down by age and sex',
to which he replied
'One person has had a breakdown in recent months, but we are unaware of whether the cause was age or sex'.



Rascal77s
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04 Feb 2012, 12:17 pm

ChrisP wrote:
My Aspie dad worked for the UK Civil Service. I remember him saying after retiring:
'on reflection, maybe my career might have been more successful if I hadn't felt the need to brighten up dull business meetings'.

An example of his style emerged in a survey from the Personnel Dept, which included the question:
'Give the number of workers in your Dept broken down by age and sex',
to which he replied
'One person has had a breakdown in recent months, but we are unaware of whether the cause was age or sex'.


LMAO sounds like something I would say. When I did my evaluation for AS there was a lot of paper work. One of the standard questions is "sex?" to which I replied "occasionally". I think many aspies have a natural talent for being smartass.



kx250rider
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04 Feb 2012, 12:53 pm

I'm very poor at negotiating prices for buying things (like at swapmeets or garage sales). If I see something I want, I ask the price, and either buy it or not. Maybe if the price is what I reasonably think is WAY too high, I'll politely say something like "I'd sure like that old TV, but I can only pay (xx). I'm not saying I think it is or isn't worth your asking price, but I'll come by again later, and if you might consider selling it for less if nobody else buys, I'm still interested".

But as far as running a business, I'm OK at it. I have a decent sense of costs and profits, and can "see a spread sheet" in my head when I think of whether or not to plant 100 new trees in our avocado ranch, or whether or not to hire an outside contractor to do something, or if it's a better choice to hire hands and do it ourselves.

Charles



NicoleG
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04 Feb 2012, 12:58 pm

dianthus wrote:
Yes. I work as a sales rep. I do very well at it because the interactions are basically scripted.


I'm an office manager at a plumbing company, and I have to manage subordinates, a team of plumbers, and of course angry customers. I've worked many years in various customer service positions, and as a office assistant prior to my current job. I still say that a good 90% of my interactions in these capacities are scripted in my mind. There are rules regarding what you can and cannot talk about, which also depends on the environment. There are knowledge bases required for answering questions. It sometimes feels strange to say I'm an office manager because I feel like I'm faking so much of it, yet it seems that being able to understand and follow the rules of what I'm supposed to be doing is what apparently makes me good at my job.

I also hate my job with a passion, but haven't gotten the nerve to find something else more suitable to my happiness versus my checkbook.



Matt62
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04 Feb 2012, 2:15 pm

Having been in retail for well over 25 years, I'm reasonably good. I cannot sell though. If I do not believe in a product, I will not reccomend it.
Do good in everything else, except get bothered by this favorite NT question: "How are you?"
Yes, know its a greeting, but I feel compelled to answer it truthfully. Which confuses them no end. I try to keep it short like "Been worse.." these days. Kind of neutral. They will make up their own minds on it.

Sincerely,
Matthew