There is a saying in the Home Based Business world (or at least a saying among my Home Based Business friends), and that is, “The great thing about the Home Based Business Industry is that anyone can do it. The worst thing about the Home Based Business Industry…….. is that anyone can do it.
For the most part, starting a Home Based Business is fairly simple. Find a sponsor, sign up, and you are pretty much off and running. But the thing that most people don’t consider is what they shouldn’t be doing in regards to prospecting, training, and running your business in general.
Don’t feel like you have to talk to everyone you come in contact with and try to sell your opportunity.
Once people start a Home Based Business, they are incorrectly trained to go out, make a list of friends and family and call them constantly about joining the business. They are also taught to always be looking for an opportunity to bring up the business opportunity in conversations. Even if they are standing in line at the grocery store, find a way to start talking to the person behind you and look for a way to bring up the business. This outdated method is still taught today, and you will see tons of information telling you it’s an outdated method, but no one really explains why. Well don’t fret, I’m here to explain why.
The reason it doesn’t work is because people are so inundated with advertising and sales pitches today, that we shut people or advertisements down in the blink of an eye these days. It’s almost like it’s human instinct now. I mean think about it for a second. How often do you fast forward through commercials on TV now that we have the ability to do so? How fast did you sign up for the do-not-call list as soon as it came out? We as a society hate being sold to. Even if it is something we might need, the minute someone tries to “sell” us something we most likely shut down and block them out. When you drive do you even notice the billboards anymore, or are they just a part of the landscape that doesn’t even enter your mind?
So if it doesn’t work why are you taught this way? Well, it’s a really simple answer. Because it’s the easiest thing to teach and it’s easy to teach it to others. Home Based Businesses leaders teach this to their marketers because, quite frankly, they don’t know how to teach any other way. They give you a script, tell you to make a list of people you know, and give you a shot in the arm with an enthusiastic “Go get’em partner!”, and they hope that the numbers will work in your favor (here is a little secret, that rarely turns out well for the new marketer). And, when they are not getting any results, they tell the new marketer to try harder. Yeah, that’s helpful, try harder, keep calling the people that won’t even pick up the phone anymore when they see your number on caller ID, there is a good plan.
They think it’s to difficult to teach new people a different way, a better way of marketing their opportunity. So they give you some watered down, out of date system that will leave you frustrated and broke. Well there is a better way, there is a more effective way, and I will talk more about that in the next section.
Do not sponsor everyone that wants to get involved!!!
Huh???
Yeah, you read that right. I mean you could sponsor everyone that wants to start a business. In fact if you love to be annoyed, bothered 24/7, frustrated, defeated and depressed, by all means have at it. Remember this line from earlier?
“The great thing about the Home Based Business Industry is that anyone can do it. The worst thing about the Home Based Business Industry…….. is that anyone can do it.
Let’s get down to brass tacks. Not everyone is meant to start, own and run a business. Plain and simple. Might not be a nice thing to say, but it is a true thing to say. A Home Based Business owner, or any business owner for that matter has to have a certain type of desire and mindset. Now I’m not saying they have to be smarter than the average bear, not the case at all, but they do have to have a specific mindset. They have to understand that there is work involved, and that growing a business takes time and energy, and it takes dedication. You can’t just expect to succeed by taking the easy route.
That being said, you as a Team Leader have the responsibility, I will even say an obligation, to yourself and to the person / people you sponsor, to make sure that they “get it”, and understand what it takes to become successful in this competitive industry. You have to make sure that they understand that, even though you are there to always help them and work as a team, that they will eventually have to work independently after they are trained. Now I’m not saying train them for 5 hours and send them out on their own, no no no, that is what the old school teachers do. I’m saying that you work together as a team, get the person trained, help them until they are comfortable, but this has to happen within reason. It shouldn’t take 5 years. I would say it should only take a month or two of regular training and close teamwork. Let me tell you something. There is nothing worse than a person that calls you 24 times a day with dumb questions, complaints, and whines constantly. This will drain you emotionally, physically and just destroy your morale. You will be miserable and in turn the person you sponsored will be miserable and broke too. Believe me, I went through it, and I promised myself that I would never go through that again. I would rather have three reps. on my team, that get the business model, have the attitude to succeed, and can work as a team as well as independently, and not be constantly dependent and need to have their hand held every step of the way, than to have 100 people that are just gonna drain me emotionally. IT”S JUST NOT WORTH IT!
So when talking to others and they show interest in becoming a business partner of yours, make sure they have the qualities it takes to run, own and grow a business. It’s not hard to figure out if they “get it” or not. Most people can figure out if a person has “it” or not. And if they don’t have the qualities, then just politely tell them that this might not be the best option for them and move on. It amazes me how many Home Based Business owners are so afraid to say no to people. If you are so worried about sponsoring people that you will sponsor a person who will make you miserable, I might suggest that you look into another type of work, because you will have a long painful road ahead of you.
Do not educate yourself constantly.
So we have discussed how many companies train you the easy, watered down, ineffective way. They teach a system that is easily duplicatable to everyone, but is hardly effective for anyone. Now, it’s not the companies fault mind you, they have to find the easiest way to get people started, but again for the person that “gets it” this will not be enough, because, well, you want to succeed, and the people that don’t “get it” won’t go past the basic training the company provides, and they will fail and quit because they won’t understand what we are about to discuss. But again, you won’t have to worry about people on your team quitting because, as we figured out earlier, you only sponsor people with the right qualifications, RIGHT?:)
You need to constantly add tools to your business tool box. There are some great programs out there to help you take you business to another level. It amazes me how new Home Based Business owners will invest in starting a new business and then not invest in their business education. Does a doctor graduate medical school and never educates themselves any further? Does a real estate agent consistently study the real estate market and it’s trends? Well the Home Based Business owner has to do the same thing. They need to plug in and study what the leaders of the industry are doing. They need to keep up on the trends and they need to invest in their education. I personally require my new business partners to purchase some of my favorite educational tools because I know it will help them in the long run, and if they don’t, they will not become a part of my team. I mean if you are not willing to invest in your education and training, how much success do you think you will have? Not much.
Be impatient.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and your Home Based Business won’t be either. It is not a “get rich overnight” thing, nothing is. People that tell you that are lying to you, plain and simple, and they do not have your best interest in mind. It takes time to build and grow a business, and you need to be ready to put the work in. How long does it take? Well there are so many factors it varies person to person, but on average I will say 1-2 years to really start making a substantial income. Is that to long for you? Well then you are not made for this business. Any professional knows that this is the general rule of thumb for any business in any industry. If you don’t have the patience to wait that long, you might want to just work for someone and and not start your own business. You also need to sustain yourself while you are building. As i mentioned earlier, if you are going to invest into starting a business you need to also invest in your education. Now I’m not talking about thousands of dollars in educational tools and trainings but there does have to be some money invested nonetheless, but the money that is invested into your education will pay you back 100 times the cost in the long run. You also need working capital for advertising, marketing and the general running of your business, again, no different that any other type of business, but remember these costs are significantly lower that most types of business, but they are things you need to be aware of if you want to own a successful Home Based Business.