Do your daily actions bring you success or failure?

It's not what you do once in a blue moon that makes the biggest difference. It is the deliberate actions you take each and every day that do that.

• Would you expect to open a shop and have people banging on your door the day you opened to buy your goods, or would you expect to do a little marketing, sampling and testing first? And how long would you expect to do that?
• Would you give up the marketing, sampling and testing after your first few customers finally made it through your door? Or would you carry on, and keep trying new things until such time you might have to open a second store and maybe a third to cope with demand?
• Would you keep trying to offer the best ingredients, the best prices, the best quality, the right packaging or would you slack off and say - well I don't have to try so hard now.

There is a little coffee shop in a place called Maylands, Western Australia called Sherbet. They opened their shop on what was quite a run down street at the time of opening, but the remaining shops on the strip were being renovated, so they could see potential. What they have created is nothing short of a sublime experience. Specialising in cakes, cup cakes, and awesome coffee. Their sandwiches are wrapped in grease proof paper and tied with twine. And sometimes you just can't get a seat. Now I am not a cake eater, but I do know their cakes are fresh - and I can tell that by the number of people who are eating them and taking them away in nicely presented boxes. What makes Sherbet outstanding amongst a myriad of other coffee shops, apart from their gorgeous looking cakes is the consistency of service, food and coffee. They could do the odd thing a little better, but hey couldn't everyone! For example, I emailed them asking if they did gift cards, notably coffee cards. I wanted to purchase one as a gift for my partner - he loves Sherbet's coffee. They didn't reply and he didn't get the gift, I had to get him something else. Given the website hadn't been up very long, maybe the glitch wasn't the fact they didn't do gift cards - maybe it was because the email didn't get sent through. I've had that happen a few times myself. And one day when they are not so busy I'll ask them in person.

You can translate those earlier questions into anything and everything else

• Websites - you can't just build one and hope someone finds it, you have to provide relevant content day after day
• Social networking as a marketing tool - do you use facebook and Twitter to market your products and services. Do you SPA* everyone who comes anywhere near you or do you offer them a different reason for your friendship - do you provide helpful information, relevant content. Do you engage in conversations with your friends and followers? How often? Once in a blue moon or is it part of your daily marketing strategy?
• Diets and weight loss - you can't be good the day before weigh in and hope you dropped a couple of pounds
• Exercise - you can't go to the gym once and expect to be fit, just as you can't expect to have a single shower and expect to remain clean for the rest of your life.

When you know what your long term goal is (build a website, open a shop, lose 30 kilos, run the London Marathon) then your day to day actions are much easier to work out.

With many thoughts

Elle