Success And the Need for a Business Strategy

My name is Dr Graham Clingbine and over the years I have been involved with various home income opportunities including Cabouchon, Telecom Plus and the Shopping Genie. I have built successful teams and helped others along the way to earn a regular income. There is nothing more exciting than receiving commission cheques in the mail and watching the envelope dropping through your letterbox or seeing the ”payment in” appearing on your bank statement. Excitement increases when payments arrive from overseas sources as well as your own country. This article is designed to help you build an income…so we have called it Success…..and the need for a business strategy.

People often start a home-based business full of enthusiasm and motivation. It seems that only a minority remain involved for the long term and make money. So let’s look at some of the issues around this.

People often start with the hope that they will do well. Hope is not enough. To be successful you need a business plan… a flexible strategy to set out what you intend to do, how you are going to do it, and by when. In some businesses you have to take into account outgoings such as rent, stock purchase, staff salaries, advertising or marketing, and delivery costs. Many home based businesses in network marketing or multi-level marketing do not include these outgoings but a business strategy is still essential to be successful.

It is often said that ”if you fail to plan then you plan to fail” and I think this is very true. When new people join my team where possible I like to meet them in person and build up a personal rapport. Part of this includes finding out what they expect to get out of their new business… everyone has different expectations and therefore will take different times to achieve their dreams, ambitions or goals. So setting realistic targets is a good way to start a new business and your mentor or sponsor can help you with this. I would suggest that separate SHORT, MEDIUM and LONG term goals should be set…and as mentioned they should be REALISTIC… I also believe they should be set down in writing in a notebook or planner and should not be floating around in your head. By writing down your goals you are making a visible commitment to achieving them and you can see as you go along if you are achieving your targets or falling short. You could review your set plans and achievements at intervals such as 6 months, 3 years and 8 years down the line.

For many home businesses a very important strategy is to use the concept of ”referrals”. One of the first things to do on starting a home business is to write in a folder a ”contact list”. Think of everybody you know. Do not pre-judge people. Some people you know may not be very good in business or may not be interested, but you don’t know who they know. So you start by writing down your contact list. Ask yourself the question ”who do I know”? Think of friends, family, neighbours, work colleagues, any clubs you may attend such as sports clubs or social clubs… who do you meet at Church, Synagogue or Mosque?… who do you send Christmas cards to? What about local shopkeepers, postman, doctor, dentist, builder, plumber. Let’s say you produce a list of 100 names. That’s a good start, you have 100 people to talk to and it cost you nothing. What happens if you phone a friend and he/she is not interested? Do not keep pestering them, maybe they may change their mind and join you in six months. What you can do is ask them ”who do you know?”

This is about getting referrals. Say your friend does not want your service or to join your business… ask for 5 names and phone numbers of people your friend knows who might be interested, they might even phone them on your behalf just to introduce you so when you phone it will not be a cold call. Some friends may give you zero referrals, another might give you 10. Let’s say you on average got 5 referrals from each friend on your contact list. So if you started with 100 names on this list and each one gave you 5 referrals… if you work out how many people that gives you to talk to it is… LOTS! Your expanded list will keep you very busy.

What about phone technique? When you phone someone to talk about a new service do not launch straight in. If you start by ”do you want to join my new business” or ”would you like my new money-saving offer” you will get a quick ”no” as people are very wary and defensive. Your phone conversation to a friend, let’s call her Ann, could go rather like this… ”Hi John, this is Ann, we haven’t spoken for a long time. How are you? How is the family? How is your job going? Great, listen, I know you have a long time experience of business and you deal with businesses in your job, I would really value your opinion on something I have just started. Your help would be much appreciated. It is too difficult to explain it on the phone, but can we arrange a time when you are free for a coffee and a chat and I will show you what I am doing and you can let me know what you think about it. Next Thursday at mine at 7 pm. Excellent. I will make sure the TV is off and it is quiet so we can concentrate. See you soon.” People love to help other people, pay them a compliment about their skill or knowledge and ask for help. Offer them a disclaimer, as in ”it may or may not be for you but do give me your advice”.

Once you get started on your business, two factors come into play. The initial euphoria may have worn off and you may have had some rejections of your services or business. This is where many soon give in and often throw away a potential fortune. It is all about you maintaining your MOTIVATION and your PERSISTENCE…..you probably all know the Kentucky Fried Chicken story of Colonel Sanders being rejected time after time regarding his new recipe and how he kept on going……and KFC is just about everywhere today.

Take a look at the top entrepreneurs, let’s say Richard Branson. Think about his different qualities. Write them down on paper and for each one either put the quality under the heading of SKILL or ATTITUDE. When you have finished add up both sides. You will probably find you have made many more entries on the attributes in the ATTITUDE column than the SKILL column. Attitude is no doubt more important than skill in business. If you believe you will be unsuccessful, you are right, if you believe you will be successful, you are also right. Don’t forget it’s also all about taking ACTION… if you do nothing then how do you expect to do well?….some people complain their business is slow and when you ask them how many people they have spoken to about it the answer is often ”none” or ”one last month” and ”it was my best friend and she said no and I asked her another 20 times and she said maybe next week, but I didn’t ask anybody else”. Some people spoke to 10 people last month, some spoke to 10 people last week, but some people speak to 10 people every day of the week.

Getting and dealing with rejection is part of the process of being successful in business. A ”no” should not be taken personally. I always teach my team the SW rule… Some Will, Some Wont, So What? NEXT! You may get 10 ”no’s” before you get a ”yes”. This can be part of the fun and every rejection brings you nearer to the next positive outcome.

I have done a video on You Tube dealing with Objections and my sponsor Zak and myself discuss rejection and why people may be worried about joining a networking business on another video. I have even put together 5 training videos referred to as Seminar 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 and you can see these and other topics on my You Tube Channel. I would strongly recommend you to visit my You Tube Channel and watch the videos, and of course ask your friends to do the same. We are gaining friends and subscribers all the time and you are welcome to join. We have also recently activated a Twitter account and you can follow us on there.