12 Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

You usually read tips of what you CAN do to help you grow your business.  Well I’m putting a different spin on things today. I’m going to share things NOT to do in your business, the top 12 mistakes that cause people to fail in their home businesses.  And hopefully, you will read with an open heart and learn from them:)

Each one of these mistakes are very common and most home business owners make at least one of them if not several. Once the mistakes are acknowledged, they can be easily reversed.  However, these mistakes, if not caught early on, can lead to the failure of your business and some discouragement.  And we want the majority of your days as a work at home mom to be happy and encouraging!  You will have bad days too, but avoiding these mistakes will help you eliminate quite a few of them!

Mistake #1:  Waiting for your enroller (sponsor)  to call you and offer help
In this business it is crucial to make sure that you are connected to your enroller.  But don’t wait for them to call you!  Your enroller is most likely leading a large team of people and focusing on the team members that are “in the game”.  The proper course of action is to contact your enroller anytime YOU need help.  Your enroller does not know you are struggling unless you let them know.   They are not mind readers.  Call them, Instant Message them, Facebook them, let them know you are serious and “in the game” and that you have questions or need mentoring.   ALWAYS remember that your enroller wants to hear from you!!  That is what this business is all about!

Mistake #2:  Not being prepared for Dream Stealers
Without a doubt you will come across people, usually friends and loved ones, who might try to steal your dreams.  They may tell you, “You can’t do one of those things, that work at home stuff doesn’t work.”  These people are called Dream Stealers. And most of them feel they are just trying to protect you.  Unfortunately most people are pre-programmed to believe that working a 40 hour a week job for 40 years is the only option and that a home based business is not going to work. And we know that’s not true, that’s why we’re here.  We are among the elite 3% that know there is a better way and are willing to go for it!!  As for those dream stealers, there is a simple fix:  Don’t let them!  No one can steal YOUR dreams unless YOU let them!  And they will come around when you show them the money!

Mistake #3:  Not completing your training An all too common mistake is when someone is just so excited to get into working their new business they skip the training steps.  This is a short and easy mistake to explain and avoid.  Simply, do your training, don’t skip any steps.  They are there because they are ALL very important to your success.  Remember, when you need help, contact your enroller.   They are there to help however, if you don’t let them know you need help, they can’t help.

Mistake #4: Spending too much time on “busy work” Starting a new home business is VERY
exciting!  There are a lot of things that you can do.  You can get your home office all set up, you can load up on office supplies.  You can spend hours designing marketing supplies. You can take time to write out a business plan.  You can spend weeks reading, training, listening to calls and watching videos online.  All of these things are very exciting and will certainly benefit your business in the long run.  However, your first goal is to make back your initial investment and get to the point where you are earning enough income to cover your overhead.  So it’s important to do just the basic necessities and then jump right into working your business.  Sometimes in the beginning people are afraid to get out and start talking to people.  It is new for them and it puts them outside their comfort zone.  This is normal and about 70% of people experience these feelings and that perfectly ok.  I know I did.  The mistake is made when these people “hide behind” the busy work mentioned above.  That keeps them from having to face their fears.  The way to avoid this mistake is know from the beginning that 15% of your time should be focused on the “busy work” and 85% on actively marketing and prospecting.

Mistake #5: Having unrealistic expectations with income Most home business owners are looking to be a part of a legitimate business and not a “get rich quick scheme.”  For most of us this statement should be true.  However, the mistake happens when people think, “Sure, I want a legitimate business, I don’t want a get rich quick scheme but I do want to make money real fast.”  Well, there is a problem with this and don’t worry if this is you because about 90% of people feel this way.  There is an easy fix though.  We have to remember the first part, we want a real, legitimate business and those don’t create tons of money overnight. Most new businesses are in business for 1-3 years before they even make a profit.  Fortunately for us it doesn’t take nearly that long.  In this industry, it’s usually only 1-3 months maximum to start making a profit.  Of course that is up to each individual person, how driven and committed they are.  And it is very possible to make hundreds even thousands your first month, many of us have.  I encourage you to strive for your financial goals from the start, however I advise you to have realistic expectations.  “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”  But if you still feel like things are moving too slow, get with your enroller and they can advise you on how to get things moving quicker so you can start building those monthly residual checks we all love!

Mistake #6: Having unrealistic expectations with advertising and results It takes time for advertising to work.  In most cases you won’t get tons and tons of replies from doing 1 or 2 forms of advertising only 1 or 2 times.  Those familiar with the advertising industry will tell you that it’s about repetition. Doing the advertising again and again is what creates true success.  They say that it takes a person three times of looking at something to actually SEE it.  Think of the work you do each day with advertising and marketing as planting seeds in your garden.  This has to be done in order to see the flowers.  It also takes some time for the seeds to start to grow.  The seeds are working and starting to grow under the soil, but you can’t see it yet even though it’s working or they’re growing.  Then, after several weeks you start to see a little bit of green poke out of the soil.  You can actually now see some results of your planting seeds although still only very small results.  And, if you are patient, before long, you will see beautiful colorful flowers!  A big thing that will help here is for you to work your way up to having five forms of advertising or marketing going on at the very same time each and every week. This can take months to accomplish but make it your goal.  Those who master this have very successful businesses!   If you feel you are not getting anywhere with your advertising, get with your enroller and revamp what you currently have going on. That’s what they are there for and they can help!

Mistake #7: Not setting a schedule This step is so simple but SO many new home business owners don’t follow it.  You really need to set a schedule for yourself.  For example:  I work Monday – Friday from 8-5.  Create a schedule that works best for you and try your very best to stick to it.  This is your own business, so now and then it’s okay to make some changes to your schedule.  Life happens and other things come up, but if you miss some of your set hours try to make them up somewhere else in the week.  I do this.  If something interferes with my M-F schedule, I make the time up on Saturday or Sunday. Also, and this is important, treat your business just like a part time job outside the home.  If you stopped showing up to your part time job outside the home, were late every day, were not reliable or didn’t put in 100% of your effort, you’d stop getting checks, because you’d get fired.  With your home business, no one will fire you, however, you will stop getting checks or worse not even start getting any. You wouldn’t do those things with a job outside the home so don’t do it to a job inside the home.  TREAT YOUR BUSINESS WITH AS MUCH RESPECT, IF NOT MORE, THAN YOU WOULD TREAT A JOB WORKING FOR SOMEONE ELSE!  I promise that if you don’t value and respect your business, soon enough you will find yourself working outside the home.  And everyday when you go to that job, you will think to yourself, “Man!  I wish I didn’t have to work this job!”  Well, you don’t, but NOW is the time to make sure you never have to go and get another job again.  Work your business, set a schedule, make a commitment and give 100%!

Mistake #8:  Not setting goals or having an action plan

You need to set goals for yourself so you can always know where you are and where you want to go.  Your goals can be when you want to get to a certain promotion level or income level or how many pieces of business you wish to sign up per month, how many forms of advertising you want going on each and every week, how many full conversations you want to have with prospects each day.  Set goals, define where you want to go, and hold yourself accountable.  It isn’t always whether or not you reach your goals, but sometimes it’s just looking and asking yourself did you do everything possible this week to help you reach your goals.

Mistake #9: Failing to participate in your team’s training calls

A simple and easy to explain mistake.  Most companies with successful teams have MANY training calls available to you each week and they are a HUGE part of your ongoing training to master your business.  You will learn ways to market and advertise, how to talk to prospects, close them and overcome objections. You will learn about your products/services. You will even hear from other successful leaders as they share with you exactly what they did to reach their level of success.  So the fix here, attend these calls!  If you are part time you should be listening to at least two calls per week and if you are full time you should be listening to 3-4 calls per week.  If your team doesn’t have training calls, suggest they start them!

Mistake#10:  Getting emotionally attached to your prospects
What this means is you talk to a prospect today, let’s call her Mary…and you and Mary have an awesome conversation, you really hit it off and you talk on a friendly level with her and she tells you at the end that she is very excited and will be ready to start on Friday and asks you to call her back at 1:00 on Friday to help her get started.  Then you call her on Friday at 1:00 and she doesn’t answer the phone.  That’s not a good feeling, I know.  It got me down a lot in my business when I was new.  And who knows why Mary didn’t answer the phone, she may have just told you that because she couldn’t tell you no, or maybe her husband talked her out of it or maybe she just got scared, who knows.  The best way to avoid this is to always focus forward and not backwards.  It’s great that you had a nice conversation with Mary last week but don’t focus on that.  Only focus on talking to new people, focusing forward.  If you call Mary back on Friday and she answers, that’s great!!  But if she doesn’t (which happens sometimes) don’t allow yourself to get upset, just bless and release and keep pressing forward.

Mistake #11: Going into management mode
A new home business owner will enroll a team member or two or three and they go into complete management mode.  A lot of new team leaders fall into this trap.  They focus too heavily on training and leading their team members and discontinue looking for new people.  This will kill your business and completely put a halt on earning new checks.  You need to continue working on personal production.  Not only will it help you earn more checks and find great leaders but it is a great example for your team.  If you’re adding business, your team will follow you.  To build a successful team, it is so important to lead by example!!!  This business is a numbers game.  To find the leaders you need to new levels and beyond, you will need to add the quantity to get the quality.  Your first three or four team members will most likely NOT be the leaders that will help you promote to the next level.  Trust me on that.  You will need to add many more than that.  Also, there is a power in numbers.  The more people you have on your team that are also looking for new team members, the more your check will grow!!!  Obviously 30 team members can add more business than just you all by yourself.  So, if you’re looking to reach the top level and a six figure income with your company, you need to understand that volume equals results.

Mistake #12: Quitting before the blessing
The most amazing part of your home business is when you can really start to see amazing things happening in your business.  You start to see growth on your team and real significant growth in your paychecks.  This is something that takes time to start to see, it doesn’t happen right away.  Building a successful home business takes time.  However, if you work your business consistently and with a strong desire to achieve greatness, you WILL reach your financial goals. When you do, your dreams become reality and it is an amazing blessing.  The problem lies when a person quits the business before the blessing.  All too many times we have heard people say, “Its going too slow”, “Things are not happening”, “It’s not going to work for me.”  The thing is, it is going to work.  It works for EVERY single person who stays and works their business.  Building a home business is a lot like being on a diet and exercise plan.  It takes a lot of daily effort and dedication.  A week or two can go by and you may not see the results JUST yet.  Would you quit your diet and stop exercising just because you don’t see results right away? No!  You keep going because you KNOW it WILL work if you keep working hard at it.  Same thing with building a home business!  Easy fix here, do not let quitting be an option for you!  If you are a part of a great company, it will happen for you!  The only difference between you and the successful leaders in your company is that they have been here longer and that’s it!

So there you have it, the 12 mistakes that cause women to fail in their home businesses.  Are you making any or many of them??  If so, no worries, a lot of us did in the beginning of our business.  You can correct the mistakes and start moving forward in the direct of great success from home!!  I TRULY wish that for all of you!  My home business has changed my life!  You ALL deserve that same amount of success and beyond!! See you tomorrow!