Do you sometimes feel discouraged?

“If I had permitted my failures–or what seemed to me
at the time a lack of success–to discourage me, I cannot see
any way in which I would ever have made progress.”
–Calvin Coolidge (30th US President)

Are there days that you just don’t feel like working your business?  You really want the rewards that come with financial and lifestyle freedom, and you are tired of trading time for dollars at your day job that you hate.  But you just don’t FEEL like doing the work that you know is necessary to move your business forward.

Most of the people you know are broke and unhappy.  The few people that you have spoken with are pretty negative about your business and the people that you have sponsored aren’t doing anything.

You’ve been reading and listening to personal development books and CDs.  You’ve plugged into your company and upline events.  You see other people being successful, and you don’t understand why it comes so easy for them and it’s so hard for you.  You are doing all the “right” things, and still your business is just not growing fast enough.  Sometimes you think about quitting.

You are not alone.

Here are five tips to help you get back up when you feel down:

1. Are you clear about your bigger “why” for being in business?  Everyone in this profession experiences doubt and discouragement from time to time.  The key is to have a big enough “why” for building your business, so no matter what happens, you have the motivation and determination to persevere when things aren’t going the way you want them to.  Chapter 4 in The Music of Your Heart will help you identify the “why” that makes you cry.
2. Are you CONSISTENTLY doing DUPLICABLE activities over TIME? You must be prepared to CONSISTENTLY work your business over TIME.  Financial rewards may come quickly for a handful of people in our profession.  For the vast majority, it will take 2-5 years of consistently working your business (not start/stop start/stop), provided that you are doing the right activities and have the right mindset.
   
   In chapter 4 of my book, I offer tools to help you with mindset. In Network Marketing, the right activities include those that are effective and DUPLICABLE. If you are doing things that others cannot duplicate, you will limit your business growth to what YOU can do, not what your team can do. DUPLICATION is what will produce massive growth over time in a Network Marketing business.
3. Are your expectations realistic about how long it takes for a business to be profitable? If you started a franchise, typically you would have to borrow $50,000-$500,000 to get started, and you would not expect any return on your investment for at least a couple of years.  With a network marketing business, your up-front investment is much lower (usually no more than $500 to get started), and you can start generating a profit much sooner than two years out.  Still, you need to be prepared to work a lot at the beginning with very little financial rewards at the start.  Unless you are independently wealthy, have a rich relative or a large savings account that can support you for a while, you will need to work another job while you are building your business on the side.
4. Are you meeting enough new people each week and giving priority to building those relationships over time? In most cases, I find that people who are feeling discouraged are not meeting enough people.  In this business, you need to have a lot of people in your pipeline.  It’s a numbers game.  In Network Marketing, your “resources” are people.  When your resources are low, you will probably feel discouraged. It’s important to get out and meet people. You can do this through social networking, in person, over the phone, via email, or however you prefer to meet people. Make an effort to meet at least 10 new people a week. It’s easier to call people when you have lots of people to call. People do business with people they know, like, trust, AND remember. Once you’ve met someone, be sure you stay in touch in a way that builds trust and helps you be remembered in a positive way. I like to send a personal heartfelt greeting card with NO pitch in it…just a “nice to meet you” or to congratulate them on an achievement.  Give to give, not to get. Listen for THEIR needs by getting to know more about them.  Be more interested than interesting! If you have something to offer (a product, service or business opportunity) that fits a need they have, you will know when the time is right to share it.  Put the relationship first before you share what you have to offer.
5. Is the N word (no) shutting you down? Finally, remember SWSWSW-N—Some Will, Some Won’t, So What…NEXT!   Don’t take NO personally.  If you currently have challenges with this, I highly recommend that you read a book called Go for No, by Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz.