As someone who has been a leader in the direct sales industry for five years now, I’ve seen people come and go from the business (often daily). While I was never a great salesperson and I wasn’t the top leader in the company, I always considered myself to be a pretty good judge of who would be successful and who wouldn’t be.
“Why do you want to join?” I would ask. The responses were pretty typical. “I need extra money for the holidays”. “I want to pay for my children’s preschool program”. “I need to get out of the house a bit more”. “I want something that I can call my own”. “I just want some more ‘fun-money’”.
Sometimes, I would talk with someone who would start to cry. “I am pregnant and don’t want to put my child into daycare”. “We are having a hard time paying our house payment”. “I need the extra money to buy clothes for the kids”. While it isn’t rocket science by any means, desperation was usually the best prediction of success.
I joined my first home business while I was trying to get pregnant with my first child. I would be considered the classic “dabbler”. I was really just testing the waters.
Suddenly, I got pregnant. As my belly grew, so did my business. I was starting to get frantic. My husband worked shift-work and I worked odd hours too. I could not find any daycares that would be willing to work with our schedules. It was “full-time” or nothing.
Suddenly my daughter was born. I took my business to the next level during my maternity leave. While I was fortunate to leave her for the first time in the care of her grandmother, I feel felt the desperation first-time moms feel when they put their children in daycare for the first time.
I was employed as an investigator for our state’s child protection unit. While I loved my job pre-motherhood, it changed dramatically after my “mother bear” genes kicked in. Suddenly, I took everything to heart. I wanted to strangle the abusers. I couldn’t fathom a parent harming a child. My sympathy ran dry and I was determined to devote whatever little bit of empathy I had left to my own children.
I am quite convinced the combination of being a new mom desperate to stay home with my child and the fact that I literally hated going to work everyday motivated me to take my business to the next level. While I am not saying that there is not a place for “dabblers” in the direct sales world, my experience tells me that desperation is the best predictor of success.
So, how badly do you want your home business to work? How desperate are you?