More than 600 people get started in a home business every single day. Close to 95% of them quit within the first 2-3 months.
Why is this? At least part of the reason is that once all the excitement and hype surrounding getting started dies down, they are left with the cold hard work it takes to build a business.
Often they have bought the myths perpetuated by the home business industry and that are part of popular culture. Very early they begin to discover the “real realities” the hard way!
It’s time to “clear the air” and discuss some of the misconceptions which have crept into the Work From Home movement. These myths lead home business owners to make some serious mistakes, especially for those involved as network marketing distributors.
As you read my words, keep a mental checklist of which of these you have consciously or unconsciously bought into.
MYTH 1: Your website (or your company’s website) will bring you business. It will sell customers on your product or service. It will recruit business partners to join your team.
REALITY: There is no substitute for a well-conceived website. But the best website in the entire world is useless unless you have a way to drive people to it. And then, once they’re on your site, you must have a way to establish a relationship with them.
The site must make it worth their while to stay. If all you’re doing trying to sell them something, you’ve already lost, regardless of how wonderful the site is from a technical and web design standpoint.
MYTH 2: It takes money to make money. The larger the financial investment you make in your business the more success you’ll have.
REALITY: There are countless, very successful home business entrepreneurs who have built their business on a shoe string. The money you have or don’t have simply dictates your marketing strategies.
There are PLENTY of free advertising sources and PLENTY of very inexpensive things you can do to establish both your online and offline presence.
MYTH 3: Your best customers and potential business partners are your family and friends — your “warm market”. They know you and care about you, so they’ll be excited about helping you.
REALITY: Precisely because they know you they are often they last to believe in you. They are often the first to poop on your dreams.
Your familial relationships and friendships do not necessarily translate into an obligation to become your customer or to join your business. If they want to join you later after they see your success, this is an entirely different matter.
MYTH 4: If you have a strong enough “Why” it will pull you through any challenges or rough times you face in your your business. Just focus on and visualize where you’re going, what your dreams are, and the lifestyle you want to be living.
REALITY: I would never in a million years suggest that the power of intention and a compelling “Why” is not important. The power of the human mind to attract to itself it’s deepest desires is one of the most profound human capacities we humans possess.
Nevertheless, equal to the importance of the “Why” is the “HOW”! I can’t tell you how many people become part of a home business opportunity and have very strong whys, but quickly lose their way because clear hows are lacking — “How do I actually build a business that will take me to my dreams?”
MYTH 5: Your organization’s training system will help everyone who is serious to succeed. If they don’t “get it” the first time through, simply have them go through the training modules again, and then again, if necessary. Get on more training calls. Recruit them to attend more company or organization training events. Tell them to listen to your training audios over and over until it “sticks”.
REALITY: Everyone learns differently. When someone is “not getting” it, it’s a problem with the training system, not the person. Repetition, and re-repetition is not always the best answer.
Better is to find out how the individual in question learns best; how they process information; what makes them “tick” intellectually.
Once you have this information you at the same time know how to reach them with your training. Research has shown that we all have at least 8 different intelligences, 8 ways we learn, understand, process information, and know what we know in our lives.
MYTH 6: There is no selling involved in this business. We don’t sell, we share. We share information about our products and services and we share information about our business opportunity.
REALITY: If you’re not selling you’re not in business! What makes a business a business is an exchange of products and services for monetary gain. Without sales no money is made, and there will be no survival of the business without significant subsidy from some place.
The aversion we have to selling comes from the fact that we don’t like being sold to! We’ve all had the experience of being in a store or having a tele-marketer on the phone whose sales method is badgering us in an attempt to break down our resistance until they finally make the sale. They don’t care about us. All they’re after is the “close”.
However this is NOT what I’m talking about when I talk about selling. The key to effective sales in today’s world is developing the Art of Persuasion.
MYTH 7: You must be the most excited and most serious one in your organization about the business. When you are the most excited and most serious, it will be contagious and other members of your team will “catch it” and get inspired.
REALITY: What inspires is genuine leadership, not hype. What inspires others is humility and a willingness to serve, not bragging about success and how seriously you’re taking your business.
In some ways this is a footnote on myth 5 and it’s “reality”. We are all inspired in different ways. What inspires one person is a total turn off for another. Get to know your people and do whatever it takes to touch them deeply. And remember, true and lasting inspiration comes from inside.
MYTH 8: You can get rich quick if you just find the right home business opportunity. Just keep looking and trying things until you find the opportunity that will bring you instant wealth.
REALITY: Get rich quick does not exist unless you win the lottery, hit it big in Las Vegas, or rob a bank. But “get rich for sure” will happen when you focus on the right things as you work your business day in and day out, and when you give it time to mature.
Get rich for sure can happen in a home business more quickly and more dramatically than in any other kind of business given the power of leverage.
In a home business you have at least four points of leverage: time, money, other people, and your own creativity.
Leverage simply allows you to get more done, in a shorter period of time, with less effort than if you had no leverage. If you do it right, you can compress 10 years of business building into 2-3 years at the most.
MYTH 9: Anyone can do this business because it’s “turn key”, simple, and step-by-step. All you need to do is follow the proven system and duplicate the system by training others in your organization to follow the proven system and you’re guaranteed success.
REALITY: At first glace this myth doesn’t look like a myth, but a reality. However, is it really true? Can anyone can be successful as a home business entrepreneur?
It’s important to understand that it takes an entrepreneurial spirit to be successful in a home business. If someone has a employee mindset — having to be told what to do at every turn, fear of risking decisions on their own, having to have a clear blueprint for every aspect of their their business, they’ll never make it.
Now I would be the first affirm that we were all born with the entrepreneurial spirit! The problem is that years of working for someone else (being told what to do, not taking risks, etc.) tends to squash it, but the entrepreneurial spirit can be awakened and nurtured.
I also would affirm the importance of duplicating a proven system, as long as the “proven system” has really proven itself! I’m not a bit interested in having my team duplicate outmoded marketing strategies, wasting money on advertising that produces few lasting results, going deeply into debt, and any other methods of building a business that may have worked in the last century but do not today.
I’ve been in business for myself for over 20 years now and have worked a number of business during that time. It’s been a fantastic and amazing journey.
It has changed me in more ways than I can express. It’s given me great joy, and at times, great sorrow. But I wouldn’t change it for the world. Deciding to become a home business entrepreneur is the best decision I’ve ever made in my life!
David Lazear, author, trainer and business coach, provides a wide range of training resources and services for home business entrepreneurs, coaches, and trainers. Find out how to turbo-charge any training, mentoring, or coaching you provide @ Home Business Smarts.
