No tags yet.
The top 10 Excuses Entrepreneurs Make to Avoid Taking Risks in Their Home-Based Businesses
Are you frustrated about what your next move in your life should be? Have you felt overwhelmed with making a decision that gives optimal productivity? Is your life stuck in a holding pattern because of lack of courage to make a huge decision? Do you lack the confidence to move your life and your business toward success but do not know if the next decision is the right one? In my 20 years of being an entrepreneur, I have learned that it takes an incredibly tough individual to build and run a company successfully. When you are the head honcho or the person in charge, you may find it easy to convince yourself that playing it safe is the responsible thing to do. Diving into the deep end can be the last thing that you want to do or even end up doing. The interesting thing about being a successful entrepreneur is that you need to take risks if you do not want to be looked at as an average business owner and just scrape by—particularly in today’s economy.
As an entrepreneur you understand risk, it is once you are progressing that your instinctive ability changes. The reality of it all is that if you are a “risk avoider” you also become an “opportunity misser”. And I see Network Marketers being the largest group of entrepreneurs missing many of an opportunity because they have not settled into their newly found position as a business owner to continue to take risk. If you spend time hoping that sales will get better, you will recruit more individuals, your prospects will say “yes” every time, or conditions will improve is the loser’s way of doing business. As an entrepreneur, Network Marketer or otherwise, you must know that things will NEVER be perfect, but it is imperative that you MUST take immediate, focused action—accept the risks that will come and simply make things happen without excuse. Take a look at some of the most common reasons you may be avoiding taking risk and the excuses that seem to follow. Here are the 10 most common risk avoidance justifications that may be keeping you from success: Excuse # 1: “The timing isn’t right.” Names sit on lists in boxes or on hard drives as their creators wait for the right conditions: the sun shining, more free time, better economic conditions, money for a big lunch, the list goes on and on. The right time is always right now. Procrastination the biggest time wasting thief of them all gives entrepreneurs the impression that tomorrow is a better day, someday is a better day. What you do not realize is that you will remain less successful continuing to hope that tomorrow’s conditions will be just a little bit better for advancing your goals. Not only that entrepreneurs fail to solve problems or correct mistakes because, in their minds, the timing isn’t right. But when you’re strangle holding your business, a mistake like not following-up right away can be even more costly than not leveraging a chance for advancement. Excuse # 2: “I tried that once, and it didn’t work.” I have heard those words so many times I just want to scream. Those words are most often uttered in reference to Network Marketing. Perhaps you’ve experienced the same thing. You put a marker on where you are to move forward with complete unbias, you begin to prospect and even sign people in your business and approach them differently, but barely notice an increase in your sales, theirs or even their participation in developing their businesses. Or, maybe you decided to work with a particular individual(s) on your team and you purchased every book, CD, webinar to not only help you learn more them as well to what seemed like no avail. Your one-time marketing efforts and attempts resulted in failure has convinced you not to try again. Yes, it can be expensive to build and grow a business. One of the areas funny enough for Network Marketing entrepreneurs and even some traditional entrepreneurs that seemed to be the last on their agendas to address is Marketing. It’s hard to accurately predict how prospects will respond, but without proactive long-term and consistent marketing strategies, businesses will inevitably die. Avoiding investing in marketing—or even cutting back on it—because one your initial efforts didn’t produce the desired results is a risk you can’t afford to take.
Excuse # 3: “If I just had XYZ gadget.…” If I just had a better sponsor, If I had a faster computer, If I had the level of education, If I knew as many people, If I had better technology skills, If I were taller, yada yada yada then my team could be more productive and I would be successful.” “If I just had the knowledge that he or she has and had the charisma, I would be the top income earner.” Many “If I just had…”s involve education of technology, marketing, etc. Remember, though, you can spend your whole life waiting on the next thing you should do—and often, that thing isn’t as necessary as you thought. I have often asked my team if the internet goes down or they did not have the tools to run their businesses as they always did what would they do? I give them insight on the notion if they found themselves on a deserted island with no grocery stores, would they just let themselves starve or would they figure out a way to survive? With that insight their response is of course I would figure out a way to survive. The same goes for your business, if you do not have leads, talk to others, if you do not know how to use the internet, get training, the bottom line is figure it out and make no excuses. Simply Survive. Do not forget that the path to success is through massive, focused action, not accessories. Just take a look at the endless number of success stories that have been told where there was nothing more than ink and paper, a rotary phone and plain determination. Though tools, technology and accessories are helpful, they do not guarantee any level of success. Do you want to know what does—it is effort. Effort that creates momentum guarantees success—it is a MUST that you hit that nail. Hitting that nail over and over and over and over and over again, more often than your competitor gets it done. Excuse # 4: “I’m still working on the plan.” I hear so many people telling me that they just want to move to the next level and that differs from individual to individual as to what that level looks like. These same individuals plan and prepare. They define and develop. Backup plans, contingencies, redundancies, how can a person fail will all those “ies”. The thing that planners, and developers and list checkers do not make room for is execution. Plans are wonderful, necessary and required to head toward success, but without you taking what’s on those beautiful charts, graphs and accurately written paragraphs and doing the work all of those well-meaning plans are in vain. This I often call the paralysis by analysis syndrome. The most perfect plan may give you the illusion of preventing failure, but truthfully it is holding you back from succeeding. if it is never executed. I have mentioned to individuals that you can read the Bible and quote every scripture ever written but if you do not do what the Bible tells you to do then, you can figure that one out yourself. Just like Christianity is a verb, so is Building a business. Do not get me wrong, planning is great, but for many entrepreneurs, they avoid risk by serial planning. This is how Network Marketers miss talking to that next big person, reaching that next level, etc. Excuse # 5: “It’s a good idea, but circumstances have changed.” This is the case of life happening. When I talk to Network Marketers and they tell me that I cannot talk to anyone today, I do not have time to be on that training call, whatever it is, I chalk this up as the case of moving the target. When someone makes excuses as to why they are not able to focus on what their initial goals were they are moving the target. They are changing the objective, goal or focus of their business, thus delaying planned execution. This is just someone changing their plans every time uncertainty creeps in or motivation fades that prevents them from moving forward. The problem becomes when the target is moved you stop and have to start all over. One can find themselves in this hole where they spend an insurmountable amount of time making excuses and NEVER accomplishing anything. Excuse # 6: “I’ll get to it eventually.” Procrastination is the biggest thief of entrepreneurs and it stems from fears that individuals have. Many Network Marketers find themselves relentlessly dedicated to a task that leads to nothing. For instance if you have to make phone calls and you do endless research on the individual or practice scripts a thousand times. On the surface, this level of dedication sounds admirable. But, in reality, this is someone procrastinating to put off the moment of truth. The fear of being rejected, fear of stuttering, fear of whatever, is nothing but a form of risk avoidance, stop lying to yourself and saying that you’ll “get to it eventually.” When you immerse yourself in busywork to avoid the true priorities and what is productive work for your business, you will eventually find that time is running out for the longevity of your business and you may not even have time to address the issues when you want to. Excuse # 7: “I’m playing a defensive game.” Although Network Marketing has the lowest risk for business owners, it still becomes difficult for individuals to take financial risks. Cutting costs or attempting to be resourceful may not be the best use of time nor money. In fact the thing that needs to be done is for Network Marketers to invest their resources in hiring experts in the area of marketing, lead generation, website design, systems, etc. I have never known a business to achieve success through pinching pennies. Know that financial responsibility is definitely a large part of the growth and sustainability of a business. The real truth is that you can save your way to mediocrity, but not success. So again, stop lying to yourself. You are not playing any game if you never come off defense. How can you ever win without picking up the ball and running, despite the obstacles. Excuse # 8: “Nothing’s broken; why fix it?” It is easy to take a risk when you are facing problems. You tell yourself how much worse could it be, “I might as well take the risk”. But when you have a thriving and growing organization, all of your team members are recruiting, attending events, reaching new levels, will you take a risk then? That type of hesitation and thinking believe it or not could damage your business also. You can be left behind and become irrelevant with the “if it’s not broke don’t fix it” attitude. When you have a customer or a team member they may not leave or stop working because of the product or company it could be because you have become irrelevant and stale. Remember, risks need to be taken when business is good and bad if you want to stay cutting edge and competitive. Excuse # 9: “…crickets chirping, dust falling, grass growing.…” That’s the sound of silence and what you hear when you make the decision to kill a project by not addressing it over time. This could be due in part to lack of motivation, fear driven, risk avoidance and ends of being lack of follow-up and follow-through. It could be fear of accountability and not meeting expectations or you may just not want to do the work. In any case you simply sit back and just do not address projects to drive them forward toward productivity or closing them out. What you do not realize is that you look really, really bad because people recognize a big game talker and someone who NEVER delivers. I have said it time and time again your mind is the first thing that a business owner must get in right alignment, because if it is not that can and will be the demise of your success. Excuse # 10: “But I don’t avoid risk!” You may have overcome your fear of risk and what I would say is Kudos to you. You may be at a point where you can proceed without paralysis by analysis, but you might have progress paralysis. If you have individuals on your team who are hindering action or inaction this can be a problem. When a team member is counterproductive and it goes unaddressed you miss out on growth opportunities for you and them. By addressing these issues you delve deep into your business’s inner workings. You may have a team member who is stuck in the comfort zone of same ole’ same ole’ pitches, you may have a perfectionist on your team who is in a holding pattern. You may not even realize that you have been so laser focused on leading your business that the inner workings and the details have escaped you. If this is the case then you have avoided creating an atmosphere where you trust them to be as bold and efficient as you are. What is probably more like the truth is that you have seen risk avoidance behaviors amongst your team and ignored them—which is a form of risk avoidance in and of itself.
You need to realize that if you spend time avoiding risk you have created a false world which you reside. The only thing that you’ve accomplished is the inevitable failure of your business by dwelling in the momentary comfort from rationalizing your inactivity. Wishing and hoping change will occur, results in defeat every time. Success comes only through the constant hitting of that nail. Remember that as a leader, a business owner, an entrepreneur you are the example. Your excitement during times of opportunity to execute, improve and deliver results is the beacon of light that helps to guide all who follow. So stop avoiding—and start doing.
You can have PURPOSE DIRECTED SUCCESS in your business today!
Did This Article Help You? Did it add value to what you are doing? If so, I would greatly appreciate if you commented below. Email: wharper@cwilliamharper.com
Grab hold of your FREE copy of "8 Powerful Steps to Successful Prospecting" and begin to learn how to get those individuals in your business and growing and SUBSCRIBE to Receive updates and FREE information to your email box on a weekly basis to help you further develop your business.
For more information or one-on-one coaching find out more here. If you found this valuable Click the LIKE button and share us with others. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Youtube, and Google+!
C. William Harper is a professional Network Marketer dedicated to helping individuals get purpose, be directed and obtain success from their MLM businesses. To find out more about William’s Network Marketing coaching and training information resource center, and how he grows his business daily, Click Here!
