Market with Integrity — Think With Your Heart and Not With Your Wallet
It’s Christmas Eve, and in the spirit of Christmas, a short blog post about the spirit in which you conduct your business.
Welcome to Day 24 of the “30 Tips in 30Days” Holiday Blog special. If you’ve missed any of the previous posts, or to see the entire series to date, click on the Business and Marketing Tips Category on the right sidebar.
I am flat broke and close to losing my house if I cannot come up with the mortgage soon. So please help me, I am a little old lady and I don’t want to loose my house, my husband and I have worked so hard for all our lives.
These sad words came across my desk last night in an application to join my main business opportunity. As I read it, my heart skipped a beat and I felt a heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Why?
Because I knew the tone of the conversation I was going to have with her.
People ask me all the time why we have an application process in my home business opportunity — this is exactly one of the reasons. Before this poor woman gets too far in the process, or gets too caught up in the excitement of making big money online, she needed some guidance… and fast!
What kind of guidance?
She needed to be told that starting a home business was a long term commitment, not one that yields big results in the first week or month. It is a PROCESS by which you gradually learn the skills necessary to really excel in this industry. It is a PROCESS where you learn by your mistakes, what works and what doesn’t work.
And it’s also a process that can be accelerated with cash. Not many people want to acknowledge this fact, because everyone wants to promote the low cost aspect of getting into network marketing. And it’s definitely true — you CAN make it big in network marketing with very little cash upfront. I have seen examples of it in my own company.
But if you need results faster then you pretty much MUST have more money to put into your new business up front. This is especially true if you have no prior experience in marketing or business.
These are the types of things this lady needed to hear before going any further — to save her critical time and money she is most definitely going to need in the short term.
Could I have convinced her to join my opportunity? Probably.
Could I have motivated her to throw whatever money she has at her new home business and get started right away? You bet.
But there are times in life when you have to think about what’s right for all involved, just not with yourself.
I knew that if this woman was not told what she needed to hear, and she joined, one thing would be for certain.
I would NOT have been able to sleep at night.
Because in this case, a home business opportunity is probably NOT what she needs. If she is in dire danger of losing her home and needs money fast, mine is not the opportunity she needs.
Sometimes saying NO is the best feeling in the world. Even if it means costing you a new consultant.
I wish this woman well. And if her situation changes, I’ll be glad to re-interview her.
But for tonight, I will be getting a good night sleep.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone…. from our home to yours.
To your prosperity and peace,
Bob
I have a new blog. Check it out!
30 Tips in 30 Days: Day 1 — Setting up your New Business
This is Day 1 of the 30 Marketing and Business Tips Holiday Series…
First, some general housekeeping:
- You can receive each tip directed daily to your inbox by Subscribing to this blog.
- If you miss a post, don’t worry. All tips will be archived in the Category “Business and Marketing Tips.”
- Feel free to comment and add to each blog post.
So, let’s get started….
Day 1: Setting Up Your New Business
You’ve decided to start a network marketing home business. You’ve chosen your company, paid your money and opened the doors of your new, sparkling, home business.
What now?
Well, in terms of setting up your home office for maximum efficiency, there are a few things you’ll want to do:
- Set up your home office. You will need an area of your home or apartment that is dedicated to your business. Ideally, it will be a physically separate area so as to minimize distractions around the house. Even if you have a one room studio apartment, try to figure out a way, using book shelves or whatever, that you can physically distinguish your home office from the rest of the house.
- I recommend to my team members that they should invest in a good, unlimited long distance phone plan. You will be calling prospects, discussing your opportunity. You’ll also most likely be attending training calls weekly. You’ll save money in the long run if you shop around now and find an inexpensive long distance carrier.
- While we’re talking about phones, let’s discuss voice mail messages. Ideally, you want to have a dedicated phone line just for your business. But if this is not possible (and for many new home based business owners it is not a practical expense), then be sure that you’ve recorded a professional sounding voice mail message that will handle calls when you are not available. The last thing you want is to have a prospect call you and hear your kids and 2 dogs singing their favorite song as your voice message. Again, professionalism is what you are trying to project in every aspect of your business. After all, this is your business and NOT your hobby.
- If you will be doing a lot of online marketing, or if your company provides most of their training information on it’s website (which I hope they do), then you’ll want to upgrade to a high speed Internet Service Provider. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to follow a webinar or watch an online video using a dial up internet connection.
- You may or may not want to invest in business cards at this time. It will depend on how you will be marketing your products. If you will be doing a lot of face-to-face marketing, than you’ll definitely want to invest in your company’s business cards with your name and contact information. If your company doesn’t offer business cards as a service, there are a multitude of businesses that advertise their services fairly cheaply on the Internet.
- Establish a separate bank checking account and credit card for your business. Do yourself a favor. As much as is humanly possible, separate your business from your personal finances. Do not use your personal credit card to purchase items for your business. And whatever you do, never purchase personal items using funds in a business checking account or using a business credit card. It will come back to haunt you come tax time.
- Keep meticulous records, again for tax time. You can purchase software such as Quick Books to organize your business records, but when you are first starting it is really just as easy to open up an Excel spreadsheet and carefully record your business income and expenditures. You’ll be really glad you did when you visit your accountant.
- Do yourself a favor. If you have a funky email address like hotlady7000@hotmail.com or something equally as unprofessional, get yourself a gmail account with a professionally sounding prefix. Nothing says “amateur” like an unprofessional email address.
- If you have some extra cash, you many want to invest in a Blackberry or a similar phone that can receive email. I purchased one recently and have the phone set up so that, when I get a business lead online, the phone will chime and I will be able to contact that prospect almost immediately. It’s a great resource and your prospects will be impressed, as well.
What other business start up tips can YOU think of? Help me add to this list!
Day 1 is a wrap. Stay tuned tomorrow for Day 2…
To your massive success in business and life,
Bob
December 1, 2008; Cresskill, NJDon’t forget to subscribe to the blog!
An Early Christmas Gift For My Loyal Readers
It’s Thanksgiving already, and before we know it Christmas will be upon us.
I’ve decided that in the spirit of the season, I would provide all my loyal readers a plethora of my best business and marketing tips I’ve accumulated over the years.
I am calling it my “30 Tips in 30 Days.”
It’s my version of the 12 days of Christmas, marketing style.
Starting Monday, and every day thereafter until the end of the year, I will be posting one of my top business or marketing tips. I will be holding nothing back. You will know what I know.
And it won’t cost you a cent.
Be sure you don’t miss a single day. Subscribe now, send it to your email, and enjoy.
To your massive success,
Bob
November 29, 2008; Cresskill, NJ-
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