What Shape Is Your Safety Net?

One thing all new business owners and entrepreneurs have in common is the fear of the unknown. Despite all their resolve, all their research and skills, that first year in business for themselves is a leap of faith.

So it makes sense to have a safety net, be it a financial reserve that will cover essential outgoings for a year or a series of signed contracts that guarantee business income for the first few months.

When a new team member joins a network marketing organisation, they too are encouraged to have a safety net - usually expressed as "Start part-time". Team leaders are aware that many new recruits to their team will not have the skills or the personal resilience to cope easily with the hard work required to build their own business. Learning those skills whilst under pressure to replace a lost income is a prime cause for newcomers to quit the business building and go back to a 'real job'.

Eventually though, those fledgling business builders will feel the pressure of juggling two 'jobs'. At that point, all sorts of excuses are created to justify slowing down their efforts. Chief amongst those is the need for a pseudo-safety net, be it social (friends and family aren't supportive enough), financial (not enough money to build the business properly) or chronological (need a 48 hour day to do this properly).

We need to be aware of this tendency, in ourselves as well as within our team. A pseudo-safety net is nothing more than a ball and chain shackle, slowing us down and wearing us out. Real safety nets are there to cushion our unexpected descent before allowing us to get back on that tightrope.

We should make sure that we have our own social, financial and chronological safety nets, so that our team members can look, learn and copy.

Social - block out "us time" and "me time", then don't allow your business building efforts to impact on that valuable area.

Financial - tithe for profit and tithe for the future. Tithe your retail profits to cover business building expenses, and put all your bonus payments - that's the income you get from your company as you qualify up the payment plan - in a savings account.

Chronological - get organised, block out business time and stick to it. Don't allow anything else to impede your productivity during that essential worktime. Treat your timekeeping as though your employer was watching you.

Don't let your safety net be the wrong shape - make sure it's there to catch you, not hold you back or imprison you in your comfort zone.

When the Student is Ready, The Teacher Will Appear

Somehow, by following links in one of my RSS feeds, I ended up reading Derek Sivers' blog. Within minutes, I'd added his feed, and was speed reading some of his book reviews. Derek was the brains behind CDBaby and has a wonderfully creative way of building businesses. Any musos and/or code geeks out there definitely need to look at this website of his. I really wish I'd come up with the name Thoughts Limited for an organisation ...

Over and over again, just as I reach a point where I say to myself, "I'm ready to learn, but I don't know where to start", the Universe gives me a very large clue as to what to do next. Does this ever happen to you, and if so, do you recognise it for what it is, or do you only realise after the event?

Gratitude Journals and a 90 day plan

I stumbled across the 30 days of gratitude site today, whilst looking for a motivational quote. I'm very glad I did (no sarcasm intended).

It turns out there's been a lot of research done on the positive effects of gratitude on both physical and psychological wellbeing. Increased optimism and enthusiasm, better sleep quality and lower levels of depression or stress were all noted. Active gratefulness appears to help people achieve their goals as well.

To be actively grateful, you need to document that gratitude. There are a lot of lovely suggestions on various gratitude sites about investing in a special book, but, let's face it, not everybody has the time or money to nip down to Journals 'R Us for the superb £50 pressed flower covered notebook and scented pen. Not only that, but the emphasis on the tools detracts from the core message.

Don't bother with the leather-bound journal, the fountain pen and the dedicated timeslot. If you focus on that, your gratitude journal will last as long as that teenage "Dear Diary" Christmas gift - and be as unsullied.

Open up your office software, create a new document or spreadsheet and go for it. Follow these instructions on how to write powerful "gratitudes" and set yourself a target of 6 gratitudes per day. If you've got a smartphone/iPhone/Android, you could use that instead.

Finally, here's a suggestion. Why not keep a 90 day gratitude journal alongside your 90 day plan? By actively focussing on your psychological development, you can help support the development of your business at the same time. Not only that, you have a permanent record of the improvements in your life to refer to in the future. 

Kleeneze Success - The Confidence Builder

I work at my Kleeneze business part-time, as do almost all new distributors. I fit it around a busy life which includes a 45 minute each-way commute and a full-time IT job in a corporate head office.

Anybody who has ever worked in a corporate head office department will have experienced that wonderful mix of office politics that flourishes in environments endowed with rigid rule-following, ever-tightening budgets and complacent staff waiting for their final-salary pension pots.

I hate office politics. Traditionally, I'm the sort of character that takes the kicking from people both clambering up and sliding down the greasy pole. I can't cope well with a passive, pessimistic reaction to office politics; it actually makes me physically ill, with psychosomatic symptoms ranging from mild hair loss to eczema and other allergic reactions. But, as anybody who has ever tried it will tell you, standing up for yourself against master office politicians will scar you even more permanently.

Prior to joining Kleeneze, I'd experienced enough office politics in both this company and my two previous jobs to convince me that I just wasn't cut out for a 9 - 5 corporate life. Unfortunately, I still had to deal with the playground tactics around me and it wasn't going well.

Today, I got side-swiped, yet again, by masters of the craft. Normally, that would be enough for the allergic reactions to start showing up over the weekend. Not this time.

With the confidence built up over the past few weeks with Kleeneze, I took a different approach. I side-stepped the potential political quagmire, politely drawing a line at the edge of the quicksand, and walked away from the fray.

You know what? It feels wonderful. I'll be at home at 6pm tonight and my real job starts then - collecting catalogues, bagging up orders and filling in my tracking sheets. I already have enough orders collected in this week to know I've achieved my 10% bonus for the second period running.

The day job just gave me a reminder about why I'm doing Kleeneze and I'm so grateful to the political idiots in my department for doing so! Who says negatives can't inspire you?

Little Successes Pave The Way

"If you have a plan, anything can happen" - Michael Khatkar.

Last night, I drove round my Kleeneze round, delivering orders.

Today, I looked at my Kleeneze account. Because I pay in ALL the money I receive for orders in the early weeks of each period, as I receive it, I'm now in the wonderful position where this week's orders are pure retail profit. My sales aids are the only things that I need to pay for; my account is in credit and this week's orders will be paid for when last week's retail is put into the Kleeneze account.

Now, this method of operation won't work for everybody. For people like me, paid monthly, where the month's pay tends to run out in the third week, it's wonderful to know that I have the ability to rely on my retail profit if and when I need it.

Best of all, it means I have the money available to focus on lead generation so that I can build my team.

I promised myself that I would use my retail profits to build my business. My Kleeneze bonuses will go towards building a better lifestyle. Today, I have the evidence that building my business is sustainable from my retail efforts and I'm delighted.

Reasons for Business Failure Part 2: Cashflow

We're all aware that the Credit Crunch drastically limited the sources of finance for small businesses. The media is full of stories about how SMEs (small/medium sized enterprises) are not getting access to loans to help their cashflow or to fund further growth. Accountancy organisations such as the UK's ICAEW give firm advice about small businesses having to provide good reasons for needing capital injections.

That's just one more reason why business owners need to be realistic about their survival costs before they start a business. All businesses need startup capital, to cover the initial outlay on property rental, vehicles, tools, overheads, stock, office equipment and stationery, fuel costs, etc. The new business owner also needs to ensure that their personal overheads, such as mortgage/rent/loans, household expenses, personal vehicle & fuel costs, are also covered.

Traditionally, business advisers suggest that most small businesses take up to three years before they are fully profitable. That's three years where, every time you take money out of the business for personal use, you delay the point where your business "breaks even" and moves towards profitability. The more net profit you can invest in your business in the early years, the earlier your business will break even.

If you need an income of £2000 ($3000 or 3000 euros) per month to survive on before you start your own business, ask yourself how you will fund that income in the first 3 years of running your own business. If you can't fund that income out of savings, where is the £72000 coming from? From redundancy payments? From family? From another income in the household?

Or would it be better for you to build your business part-time, in parallel with an existing job? Can you do that with your current skill set? If you can, how will you get customers? How will they pay you? Will you need to take time off your existing job to visit prospective customers, or can you sustain business growth outside of your existing workday?

All of these questions need answers before you build up your own business. It's part of making sure you're not a business failure statistic in 6 - 18 months time.