Make Money, Not Excuses
“You can make money or you can make excuses, but you can’t make both.”
These words were written recently in a blog by Karl Bessey, co-founder of a Texas-based finanical education and wealth creation company called Wealth Masters International.
I have been in this industry for more than a couple of years now, and I couldn’t agree with this more.
As I have said on this blog before, 97% of all home-based business owners fail. I take this to mean that 97% of all people who start a home-based business do not make enough money, and most probably spend more money than they make.
What that also tells me is that 97% of these people MAKE EXCUSES.
I have heard a lot of excuses in this business, some rather unique. But most center on the theme of NO MONEY, NO TIME, NO SUPPORT. OK, OK, and OK.
So what? You want to know how many of the 3% of people who make money in this industry had NO MONEY when they first started? Probably 95% of them.
You want to know how many of these people had time issues? Most of them.
You want to know how many had little to no support, and had to find their own way? Probably ALL of them.
That’s right, guys. It’s time to lay down the excuses and start making money.
Don’t let ANYTHING get in your way.
I am changing my mindset on this issue of EXCUSES.
Here are my new edicts:
- You have money problems? So does everybody. You will find the money if you really want it.
- You have time issues? Too bad. Stay up later or get up earlier.
- Your sponsor leave the company? So what, it happens all the time. Find the support you need elsewhere.
- Your spouse giving you crap about spending money? Work it out. Make money.
- You have too many expenses? Life getting in the way? That’s life — work it out (Rosemary and I have 2 kids in college, 1 going next year, and 1 more the year after… make it work anyway you can).
I know this may sound hard ass to many, but I’ve found in building my business with Carbon Copy PRO and WMI that it’s the only way you’ll make money.
No Excuses, Make Money. $$$
Great advice from someone who has “made it” in the Direct Sales industry. Karl Bessey is someone I really have come to respect. His story is compelling…. coal miner turned entrepreneur. So when he speaks, I listen.
And on this one, he is right on the money!
To your prosperity,
Bob
October 24, 2008, Cresskill, NJWhat business am I involved in?
MLM Success: Make the Effort to Attend a Live Event
I’ve heard it stated that those people who attend their MLM or direct sales company’s live events have a significantly higher chance at succeeding than those that don’t attend.
Why would this be true?
I just returned from the Second Live Marketing Event in Dallas, Texas sponsored by Carbon Copy PRO Marketing. I’ve already reviewed the event in a recent post, but today I’d like to get more into the mindset of attending live events.
What do you get at a Live Event that you can’t get sitting behind your computer?
- Informational trainings and company updates
- The ability to put faces to names of those you have become familiar with in your company
- The chance to form friendships and brainstorm with people in your company
- Many times there will be promotional discounts on company materials
- Time away from the drudgery of every day life and, usually a renewed drive to work your business.
These are all great advantages to attending a live event, but I’m not sure they can explain why people who attend these events go on to success at higher rates than those that do not.
I believe that it is not the attendance at the Live Event per se that subsequently drives a person’s success in their business, but rather something far more basic.
I believe it has more to do with a person’s mindset and drive.
This is a person who understands the importance of self improvement, education, and training in building their business empire.
This is a person who understands that no man (or woman) is an island, that we need to work with others to really make our business thrive.
This is a person who does not hesitate to spend money to advance their business.
For all the above reasons, I believe it is not the attendance at the live event that makes the difference between successful and unsuccessful home business owners.
It is the intent and willingness, the mindset if you will, of the person to take their business to the next level by attending an event that really matters.
The event might be fantastic, with exceptional training and full of “golden nuggets” of information to take home, like the Carbon Copy PRO Marketing Event I just attended.
Or the live event might be lacking in substance, a little boring even….. it matters little.
What truly matters is the EFFORT you took to attend.
This is what distinguishes those that succeed and those that don’t in the MLM and Direct Sales business arena.
Carbon Copy PRO Marketing Event — New Strategies, Inspiration, and a New Porsche
Wow! I just got back from a live training event and here are the details….
That’s all I can say. I have been in the Network Marketing industry for quite a few years now, and I have never been to company live events that actually TEACH people HOW TO MARKET. Until now.
Carbon Copy PRO’s Second Live Marketing Event in Dallas was held on Saturday and it was an amazing mix of new strategies, tips, and great discounts on coaching from experts in the world of marketing.
And they even gave away a new Porsche!
Here’s a glimpse at the schedule of events (non-inclusive):
- M.J. Durkin of Sales Judo Academy started things off with terrific tips on how to prospect, build your list, and secrets of leaving great voice mails. Many nuggets here, folks.
- Jimmy Davis and Dennis Karganilla of MLM Goldmine, the masters of Web 2.0 provided their own gold nuggets for the audience with their tips on making MySpace and YouTube work.
- Howie Schwartz of Conversation Domination continued the Web 2.0 theme and showed everyone how he routinely ranks on the first page of Google using Web 2.0 methodologies.
- Cherie Yvette, the Urban Cowgirl, unveiled for the first time her new Pay Per Click software that will revolutionize the way everyone optimizes their PPC campaigns. Amazing stuff at an amazing price.
- Natalie Stahl of Platinum 7 Consulting presented her Weekly Action Plan, providing consultants with a formal plan that will turbo charge their online businesses. Natalie also outlined the outsourcing services available exclusively for Carbon Copy PRO members.
- Kep Herriage and Karl Bessey, co-founders of Wealth Masters International, provided an overview of WMI’s unbelievable financial education and wealth creation products available to Carbon Copy PRO members. Given the current financial climate, these products and strategies couldn’t be more important.
My point is two fold, here:
- If you are a member of Carbon Copy PRO or Wealth Masters International, you missed something HUGE here. You missed a chance to pick the brains of some of the absolute experts in online marketing, providing THE MOST CUTTING EDGE STRATEGIES.
- If you are a member of other network marketing opportunities, think very strongly about attending a live event. Statistics show that new members of an opportunity that attend a live event within the first few months of joining have a much higher chance of success than those that do not attend a live event.
Oh yea, I almost forgot. The leaders at Carbon Copy gave away a prize for the person who sold the most Business in a Box product since it’s introduction a few months ago. The winner got…. well, you can see it. Again, WOW. Lucky guy!
Glad to be back, guys. And ready to roll.
To your success!
Bob Clarke
October 19, 2008, Cresskill, NJ
MLM Success: No Experience Necessary?
If you spend any time on Google or the other search engines, you’ve undoubtedly seen ads for home businesses where it is boldly stated…..
NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED!!!
Well, I guess it is true that you need not have any prior experience in sales, marketing, or business ownership to START your home business. But SUCCEEDING as a home business?
Well, that’s another story.
I consider myself a fairly smart guy. Ph.D. in physiology at the age of 26, postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School, Associate Professor at Cornell University Medical College.
But when it came time to start a home business with my wife, Rosemary…… I was MYSTIFIED.
I mean, this was a whole new world!
I had never sold anything, never marketed online or offline…. but I was told that there was NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY to start a home business, so I dove right in.
What did I find? What everyone other network marketing newbie finds…
Confusion, Frustration, and Bewilderment.
Listen up guys… NO matter what anyone tells you….
THERE IS A LEARNING CURVE when you start anything new…. including Network Marketing.
How big is this learning curve? That depends.
- It depends on how much time you’re willing to spend learning your new craft.
- It depends on your level of experience when you start your business. Obviously, the more experience you’ve had, the farther up on the learning curve you will be.
- It depends on the business opportunity and how much in-house training they offer, and the quality of that training.
The last one was the reason we chose our current business, because they offered online training and education above and beyond anything we had seen (or have seen since) in the industry (the business is Carbon Copy PRO, and this isn’t a plug, just the truth).
But it still took TIME.
No getting around it… it just does.
Are you willing to invest in YOU, to get the training and experience you need, and be patient for the results?
I hear so many stories of people quitting their home business opportunity just before they are ready to reap the profits of their hard work. They become inpatient and disillusioned.
YOU CAN BE A SUCCESS IN NETWORK MARKETING.
IT MAY JUST TAKE A WHILE.
To your patience and dedication,
Dr. Bob Clarke
October 6, 2008; Cresskill, NJ
MLM Success Secrets: Can I Make Fast Money?
The quick answer to this question is: NOT USUALLY.
You’d be surprised how many people I talk with who really want to start a home business, or so they think. But when I really start asking the tough questions about their motives for wanting to be a home business owner, things often get a little dicey.
My first 3 questions are always the same:
- Do you have any prior sales/marketing/home business experience?
- How much capital are you willing to spend to get your business started and positioned in the compensation plan?
- What is your monthly income goal and how quickly are you looking to attain this goal?
By the time I get to the 3rd question, you can just see the eyes starting to glaze over. It’s about this time that they realize that a home business is going to mean HARD WORK and some MONEY to get it going and maintain it until a profit is seen.
It’s also at this point that I lose alot of prospects, but that’s okay with me. I’d rather find out now than to invest a lot of time in training and mentoring, just to have them drift away from disillusionment.
In the next few blog posts I will examine each of these factors in more detail, but in general, here’s the truth in making money with a home-based business:
- You’ll make money faster if you’ve had prior experience in sales and marketing, or if you’ve owned a business before.
- You’ll make money faster if you buy into the opportunity at a higher level in the compensation plan (consider this your capital investment).
- You’ll make money faster if you have a marketing budget that will allow you to get the word out. In general, the more you can spend in marketing, the more extensively your product will be in front of people, and the more sales you will make.
We’ll discuss these more in future posts, and how you can shorten your learning curve if you are lacking the experience that will put you in the winners circle.
To your prosperity!
Dr. Bob Clarke
October 4, 2008; Cresskill, NJ
Why is the MLM Failure Rate So High?
It’s generally accepted that approximately 97% of all MLM home business owners will spend more money than they make. This results in nothing more than a fairly expensive hobby, and ultimately results in MLM failure.
Why?
I posed this question to several of my colleagues in the home business industry and, to my surprise, there was an overwhelming similarity to their responses.
The NUMBER ONE reason that most experts gave for the high MLM failure rate?
UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS. People getting into the business for the wrong reasons, and expecting unrealistic results.
Who is to blame for these unrealistic expectations. I believe the fault lies with both the new business owner and the network marketing industry.
Many people start a home business NOT to build a long term source of income but to make money quickly. They need money to pay bills, to pay off debt, or for some unforeseen emergency.
They read the HYPE on the internet, or get caught up in the excitement of a presentation, and sign on the dotted line.
Next thing they know, they find out they have to spend more money to purchase more products or to get higher into the compensation plan to make the kind of income they need.
They soon find out that there are a whole set of skills they need to be truly successful, including sales, copywriting, and marketing skills that take most people years to acquire.
And they get frustrated.
What they really want is quick money, a lot of money is as little time as possible.
They did not sign up for the long term plan.
But that is what a home business really is. It’s NOT a get rich scheme, it’s a get rich slow scenario.
And we in the Network Marketing and MLM industry are also to blame. Because of the HYPE.
We set people up for their unrealistic expectations based on our “hypey” ads, our misleading sales pages, and our broken promises of full and complete training.
That’s the bad news.
The good news? There ARE companies out there that deliver what they promise in terms of training and support. There ARE companies that cut the learning curve down dramatically with their systems.
But even so, it still is going to take the inexperienced marketer some TIME to acquire the necessary skills to succeed in their home business.
That is why I make sure that all of my prospects UNDERSTAND UP FRONT that they will need to work at their business, to treat it like a business and not like a hobby, and to learn skills they may not have at the moment.
I make sure my prospects understand, REALLY UNDERSTAND our company compensation plan, so that they are not blindsided by any additional funds needed to get their business off the ground.
Do less people sign up with me because of this. UNDOUBTEDLY.
Does it bother me? NOT A BIT.
Why? Because the ones who don’t sign up are the ones who would drop out within 6 months anyway. They are not really looking for a home business. They are looking for extra cash. And most times they don’t really want to work all that hard to get it.
What am I left with? A team of serious entrepreneurs who understand that it takes time to attain success and that sometimes money has to be spent in order to generate more significant earnings later on.
And these people are HARD WORKERS. They are not looking for a free lunch.
They are my kind of people!
To Your Success!
Dr. Bob Clarke
September 30, 2008; Cresskill, NJ
Looking to Start a Home Based Business? Watch the Hype!
Enough is enough.
The HYPE in the network marketing industry is OUT OF CONTROL. The unsubstantiated income claims, the guarantees that can’t be met, the promises that can’t be kept. Enough already!
My wife Rosemary and I are network marketers, and up until recently pretty proud of this fact. But we are embarassed by the current state of online marketing. It seems that:
HYPE IS IN, INTEGRITY IS OUT.
Just today, I clicked on a website link for a friend of mine, one who I respect quite a bit. And up at the top of her site, I see these words…
“I guarantee that you’ll make $5000 your first week, or I’ll give you a free Flip camera!!!”
First of all, the claim is ridiculous. Unless you are an experienced network marketer with tons of marketing experience, or you are bringing a huge downline into a business opportunity with you, there is no way this will happen.
So what if it doesn’t and you call her on her promise? So she spends $125 bucks, gets you your FLIP camera, and pockets the remaining commission money she received when you signed on.
I call these types of claims misleading at best, unethical at worst. AND THEY ARE EVERYWHERE.
So what to do?
Well, I was lucky. I joined my current business opportunity on the advice of a very good business associate, someone who I trust and respect. And it turned out his advice was 100% correct.
But for the people who go into this blind, who have to place their trust in people making outrageous claims on the internet, I feel sorry for you.
How the hell are you supposed to trust people you don’t know?
It’s no wonder there is an atmosphere of mistrust, skepticism, and cynicism on the Internet these days.
It’s well placed and justified.
My wife Rosemary and I are doing well enough in our businesses that we don’t have to rely on hype.
We don’t need to exaggerate and we don’t need to mislead people to join us.
We market with integrity and we believe that we have to EARN people’s trust before they will join us.
It’s the way that resonates most with us, even if it takes us longer to make our millions than others.
At least we can sleep at night.
To your success!
Bob
Cresskill, NJ; September 15, 2008
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