Support for your home based business

One of the issues that people face when they start up their own home-based business is the reaction of their friends and family. These are the people that we expect to be the most supportive, these are the people that we know and trust. They are the ones that know and trust us. It's going to be simple, we waft the business idea in front of them and they fall over themselves to buy your product or join you in your endeavour to become financially and time free.

But what really happens?

So you approach lets call them Bob. You speak to them and tell them a bit about the business you have joined. Usually you avoid using the scripts - these are friends, they want the best for you and you don't want to use these super sales techniques.

Then you get their reaction. Those who are being polite will give you the look. The look is characteristic, they do not look at you head on, their nose doesn't point in your direction it's just off to one side and the head is tilted slightly back, but their eyes through slightly closed lids look at you with a profound sadness or disbelief. Now if you are new you do not know what this means but you do experience a sense of disquiet as they look at you. This disquiet is that you really do not know what they think. Do they need more information or do they think that you have jumped off the deep end.

Those that are not polite are a bit more direct, and will either laugh at you or tell you that you have lost your reason, joined a cult, build pyramids etc.! This is a good thing - at least you know without a doubt where you stand.

Neither of these two reactions or many others that you may come across are very supportive. But these are your friends, your family, they want the best for you and no doubt do not wish to see you hurt. Now this is not the reaction you sought or indeed want. These reactions are based on fear, ignorance for you but also the fear that you will suck them to their doom in your business.

Real support comes from those rare, and I mean rocking horse droppings rare, people that will sit you down and ask questions about your business. They will find out what it is all about, and give you an honest opinion good or bad. They will not judge until they have heard you out, this does not mean that they are not motivated by the same feelings of fear that the others are. But these people trust your judgement and will be there for you either way. These are the people that will either join you sooner or later depending on your level of success or the quality of the product or service.

The sorry point of this is that on the whole your immediate friends and family are generally speaking not going to be supportive of you. Even your wives and mothers. The people that you will get the most effective and continuous support from are your colleagues in the business you have joined. They will have gone through this and have the experience and fortitude to push through. Now the people on the outside will view this as a threat. You will be turning away from their advice, and as you do so will become successful.

Kind regards
St.John

An Unpleasant Experience. A learning experience.

I have been thinking about putting this particular experience on here for a few weeks now. I was reluctant as at the time it was a very difficult experience for me, but it does form part of my journey and growth in my business. One of the main reasons for this blog is to share my experiences. It is not meant to be a pity fest! I am not looking for {hugs} in the comments, or commiseration or anything like that. This happened years ago. I'm still in business and I have gained promotion since this.

Jim Rohn in his audio Building your Network Marketing Business, states that there are only nine or ten nasty horrible people in the world. He then goes on to say that they move around a lot and occasionally you will come across one. I guess this could be one of those experiences. I would guess that what he means is that normal people like you and I can have a bad day, we get stressed, frustrated, tired even, and when someone comes along out of the blue with something that is trivial it can trigger a release of all that pent up tension. In other words you get both barrels!.

So this is what happened. I had shown my business to a family friend, and they had become customers and like a good Network Marketer I'd asked for referrals. They gave me two and I respectfully asked my new customer to contact these people and expect my call. I even asked when they would be able to do this and would they have done this by the same time the following week.

Now all you experienced people stop it! I know I should have asked this person to do it there and then. What can I say? I was in the first few months of doing this business, I was excited that I'd signed a customer and I didn't want to impose!

I waited the full week, and then a day or so more. This was my first experience with a referral, the first time I had contacted someone I didn't know. I dialled the first number. I was shaking a bit and pacing up and down the room.

There was no answer. The anti-climax hit me like a truck!

I dialled the second number.

It connected. "Hello is this name? My name is St.John I was at name's house the other day talking about saving money. Did name call you to let you know I'd be phoning?"

"No, but I have been busy. Name probably called when I was out."

Me, "Oh!" I was flustered at this point and I do not recall what I said next but it must have been right because the referral made an appointment with me. I was overjoyed, did a little dance and tried the first number again.

This one did not go so well. I do think that if I had got through on the first attempt with this referral I would not have made the second phone call. I called this other person. I do not remember the exact conversation, it started off as the one above but when this person said no to my question if they had been contacted by my customer things got ugly. This person began to rant down the phone at me stating that they were not interested and would never do anything like that, or words to that effect. It was the sort of reaction that you would expect if someone came up to you and asked you to drown a box of cute puppies or kittens. If I was flustered on the previous call this floored me. I did have the awareness to apologise for disturbing them before hanging up. I felt emotionally shredded.

If any of you have read Rhinoceros Success by Scott Alexander (a truly witty entertaining read that contains a lot of decent instruction along with it) this was one hell of a torpedo! It was one of those instances where I wanted to "Turn the TV on and my mind off," - Eric Worre but I had this appointment and that kept me going.

I also did the right thing by contacting my sponsor and talked over the experience. This kept me going, but I would be lying if I said that this did not effect me to this day. There is always the chance of being in contact with someone at the wrong moment or one of those people that are not very sociable. However I have more experience now and would not be as blown away as I was on that occasion. If you dear reader experience something like this then talk to your sponsor. Ninety nine percent of people are going to be polite even if they say no. But do not be frightened to make sure that the person that has given you the referral has contacted those they are referring and make sure they have the option to decline your call.

Kind regards
St.John